Alaska 2011 - early summer

Alaska Trip

We went to Alaska for two weeks in May last week. We fly from San Francisco to Anchorage with one stop at Portland, Oregon. At around 3PM we landed at Anchorage airport. We rented a car outside airport. Then we started on our Alaska trip with great excitement. We did not stay at anchorage we immediately started to drive towards Seward, AK

When we first plan Alaska trip, our first preferences is cruise form Seattle. After lot of considerations we decided to fly to anchorage and then drive around in rental car. Basic Activities we planned day ferry to Glaciers viewing, Glacier Landing, Dogsled, Gold panning, trip to Arctic Ocean, Rafting, river float trips, Arctic tundra, Denali Wilderness trip and fishing. We drove at our own pace. With plenty of sun light in summer months, we did not bother about timings, when we will reach our destination places in each day. 

we drove one loop from anchorage to anchorage, trip as follows anchorage to Seward (2 nights at Seward), Seward to Denali (1-night at Anchorage and 2 nights at Denali), Denali to Arctic Ocean ( 2 nights at Wiseman), Arctic to Valdez( 1 night at Fairbanks, 2 nights at Valdez), Valdez to Homer (2 nights at cooper landing) and finally cooper landing to Anchorage ( 1 night at Anchorage).

Anchorage to Seward:

we drove to Seward very leisurely with plenty of stops almost at very major vista points. On the way we drove via panoramic views of Chugach and Kenai mountains, Chugach State park, North Shore of Turnagain Arm, we took a break at Beluga view point on Seward.

Seward ( 2 nights):

Seward is a very bike friendly community. A paved bike path runs from the downtown business district through the harbor and along the highway to mile 4.5. Bikes are available for rent and there are even guided bike tours of the area.

We walked on paved trail for couple of miles from Seward downtown starting from old Iditarod national historic trail mile 0 and it starts at Alaska Sea Life Center parking lot. we did not take Kenai Fjords National park cruise instead we planned to take cruise to Prince William sound glaciers cruise from Valdez. we visited Exit Glaciers in Kenai Fjords National park and we hiked till glacier view. Harding ice-field hike is closed due to high snow/ice on hike path.

Alaska Wildlife Conversation center:Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Alaska's wildlife through public education. AWCC takes in injured and orphaned animals year-round and provides spacious enclosures and quality animal care. Animals that cannot be released into the wild are given a permanent home at the center. it is 1 or 1 1/2 hours drive from anchorage near portage.

Anchorage ( 1 night):

we went to anchorage after visiting AWCC, we spent 4-5 hours in downtown. the one of the big cities in Alaska. we spent 1-2 hours in anchorage weekend market in downtown. we went to Thai restaurant in downtown. After staying in anchorage for a night early morning we drive to Healy, it is 4-5 hours.

Denali (2 nights):

After Talkeetna, we spotted couple of moose waiting for clean roads to cross the roads. we stopped couple of times to give way moose time to cross the road. we were told moose are very shy animal and most of the times it hides inside the bushes they won;t live on open tundra. we drove through Denali state park and it is really awesome scenic road.

we reached Denali National park main gate by afternoon. private cars are not allowed inside the park. only way to go to inside park is though park shuttles/tour buses. Shuttle bus service is available from all hotel near gate( Denali princess wilderness, Denali bluff..) but contact them for exact information. we took Denali wilderness tour to go inside national park and trip is around 8 hours round trip. we could not get enough time to go in shuttle and do at one hike inside park. we spotted couple of moose, caribou, bear and many Dall sheep. We are lucky to see clean Mt McKinley mount. Most of the river is frozen in Denali NP in last week of May.

Next day, we did 11-mile trip on Denali river and 11-mile white water Rafting on Nenana river. we completed rafting by 4 in the evening. then we went to Denali national park visitor center and watched short minute movie on Denali national park. after watching movie we drove inside the park, as far as private cars are allowed. it is really worth for us driving the same road. we spotted two caribou in one place, 2 moose in two different places many animals even though we did not drive much inside the park, at most 10 miles .

we slept early this day, we know next 2 days will be very hectic drives. we woke up early and by 6AM we are on driving on road. we need to drive to Fairbanks and rent a another car to drive on Haul Road to arctic circle. while driving to Fairbanks we spotted couple of moose and foxes on road side. we reached Fairbanks by 8:30. we went to goNorth, Fairbanks branch office to rent a new vehicle. we rented van it is replaced with Big tires and mounted special glasses to accommodate haul road driving.

Arctic Circle(Wiseman 2 nights):

We parked our small car at gonorth office then by 9AM we started our journey to Arctic Circle, very excited to feel the midnight sun, Arctic Ocean and arctic tundra. By the time we hit on haul road, it is pouring heavy rain, in rain itself we crossed Yukon River, followed Trans-Alaska pipe line till the begging of the pipe line. I enjoyed Dalton Highway Drive; we stopped at Finger Mountain for Lunch break. We stopped and did a small hike; we did not complete the hike as it very windy, cold and raining.

By the time we hit the Arctic Circle landmark rain almost stopped. We stopped at Arctic Circle geographic landmark rest place. We took many photos with Arctic Circle Sign board. There are four summer, fall, winter and spring sign boards, with day light information on each season. We there won’t be sunset in Arctic Circle in summer for couple of weeks, around 2 months and similarly, why there will not be sun rise in winter period. We met one Canadian couple, one old Sweden couple and a person who came from LA. 

From Arctic Circle, we drove to Wiseman, AK. On the way we stopped at Coldfoot to fill up the gas tank. We went to Gates of Arctic visitor center to get the information for Dalton highway, Gates of Arctic national park. Then we went to Arctic Gateway, Wiseman for night halt. We are really enjoyed our cute cabin stay at Wiseman for the next two days. We checked in to the cabin and we went for a walk inside the village. We liked Wiseman a lot, it is very beautiful small village, a river is flowing in the middle of the village, surrounded circularly by hills with one side Gates of Arctic Mountains. All trees are leaf less; we see a tip of leaf with shiny green color.

Next day we had breakfast, we were ready for our long drive to dead horse, from there to Arctic Ocean trip through Prudhoe Bay oil fields and we have to come back to Wiseman on the same night. It is very hectic. I don’t recommend anyone to drive back on the same day to wise man/Coldfoot if anyone plans in future. Instead plan to stay at dead horse for a night. We drove around 9 hours to reach Deadhorse with plenty of stops for photos. We just missed a small avalanche in Brooks Range. Brooks Range has astonishing peaks, great views very often bears and Da ll sheep can be spotted, we spotted many Dall Sheep on nearby mountains. After Brooks Range, we drove to Gates of arctic view points to see how the national park landscape looks like. By May last week, still there is plenty of snow on all mountains. It was around an hour detour we took from Dalton highway. But, it was totally worth driving to see scenic mountains.

We drove couple of hours in open arctic Tundra; it was our first Arctic Tundra experience. We saw many Musk Ox and Caribou in natural habitat while going to Deadhorse. By the time we reached Deadhorse, US north most place accessible by road. We drove last 70 miles with very less visibility at most 50 foots, and we drove more than two hours. We saw many swans and geese. We reached Deadhorse by 4 PM.

We took Arctic Ocean trip organized by Prudhoe Bay oil field, BP. Prudhoe bay is fully of private lands owned by BP. Our Bus guide has explained very well about the oil fields and their work, how gas is been to sent through pipe line till Valdez, from there eventually shipped to lower 48 US states. We saw frozen Arctic Ocean, finally. After 2 hours rest we started back to Wiseman. We drove again 70 miles in thick fog and without a break for 6 hours, by the time we arrived Wiseman, it around 1PM. For the first time we exited to see midnight sun on return journey.

We had sound sleep till next morning. We fresh-up, and had pan cakes and omelets for breakfast. While having breakfast we had chat with Swedish couple and Arctic gateway B&B Owner, Berni/Uta, we learned a lot about their life style in summer as well as in winter, Gold rush/mining and Arctic tundra in Sweden. We surprised to see all greens are full green in just one day. We have learnt trees grow very fast in summer in Arctic Circle.

Fairbanks (1 nights)

We went back to gonorth branch to return van and take our first rented enterprise vehicle back. We stayed the night in Fairbanks. We did nothing for the rest of day, we did laundry and took rest, watched a movie in room.

Then we headed back to Fairbanks, first we stopped at Coldfoot to fill up gas tank. We also stopped again at Arctic Circle sign on our return drive. We stopped at El Dorado Gold mining for gold panning. First couple of minutes we have not seen any gold dust/tiny pieces. Once started seeing few gold dust excitement starts till we finish and end up only gold in pan. It really fun activity we thoroughly enjoyed gold panning as it is our first panning experience.

Valdez (2 nights)

Next day we had very good breakfast in Dennis, filled full tank and headed towards Santa Claus House in North Pole. We spent some time in and around the house. Then we started driving to Valdez. We planned to see few Wrangell- St Elias National Park view points and reach Valdez by evening. We stopped ant many vista points to see Wrangell St Elias Mountains from Gulkhana to Copper center to Kenny Lake to Chitina. We spotted moose in these roads.

We drove to Valdez from Chitina , it is around two hours detour from Richardson highway junction. We stopped at Thompson pass, it really beautiful covered with 90% snow. We did not stop at any viewpoint till Valdez, we checked in to the hotel and enquired about next day Stan Stephens Glacier Cruise to prince William sound.

Next morning we after breakfast we drove to Worthington glacier. We did small hike till glacier, it is worth the hike. It is second drivable glacier we have seen. Then we headed back to Valdez to catch our glacier cruise, in the middle we stopped at Thompson pass for few photos and at falls on the way to Valdez.

Stan Stephens Glacier cruise is first trip for us to stay in ocean/sea for more than 3 hours. Trip is about 7-8 hours on ocean. We are little disappointed as cruise is not went all the way to glacier as from 3 miles from glaciers is filled with ice bergs. It is very difficult to cruise though thick ice bergs. We saw many humpback whales, sea lions, sea otters and star bird. After cruise we had dinner in Chinese restaurant and walked in Valdez downtown for some time before we went to hotel to sleep.

Gridwood

We got up by so relax, had breakfast, after checkout we headed to Girdwood through copper center, Glennallen, Chickaloon, palmer and anchorage. Look for another big road side glacier Matanuska glacier before Chickaloon. The glacier view is very hard to miss if travelling on the highway 1, especially driving from palmer. With few stops and lunch break we reached Girdwood by 2PM. We spent some time at Alyeska resort, at Girdwood.

In Girdwood, we took a chopper trip to glacier landing and dogsled tour. We had quick chopper drive to Girdwood ice field about 5 minutes fly. We enjoyed glacier landing and played a lot with snow on ice field. After some time, we are introduced to Mushing dogs and we were learnt about Alaska state sport Iditarod Dog sled trail, Iditarod competition and Dogsled dog’s life style, finally we did around 5 miles dogsled team, we had feel of how to dogsled. Man it is not as easy as it seems to be. We drove to Kenai, for night halt.

Kenai Peninsula (Kenai 2 nights):

Initially we planned to go Homer today, as we need to postpone Spencer Glacier Railroad trip from portage from one of the earlier days, due weather. We needed to go back to portage to catch Spencer Glacier train. Instead we could have canceled train trip and gone to Homer to fishing. Today our only activity is Spencer Glacier trail. It is around 3 miles round trip. But, we enjoyed a lot on trail. We saw many moose nuggets on trail and figured there should be few moose nearby within a mile or two. We spotted moose in couple of different places. We enjoyed Railroad trip, its fun. After railroad trip, we drove to hotel in Kenai for night.

Anchorage (1 night)

By today evening we have to return our enterprise rental car. So we headed back anchorage with plenty of stops. We were told by park ranger in previous day Spencer Glacier hike to lookout in between miles 106-110 mile number for Dall Sheep on road side mountain corners. We stopped at cooper landing to check the feasibility of doing fishing, But we unlucky that fishing is not yet started in Kenai peninsula by June first week. We were told fishing starts from Jun 15^th onwards. We give-up fishing and drove to anchorage. After checking in to hotel, we returned car and returned to hotel for good night sleep to catch tomorrow flight back to home.