End of our journey. Seward Day 3 and back to anchorage

Sun July 5th: Visited Marine Life Center at Seward that is home to lots of birds, sea lions, sea otters and seals. It also has a rehabilitation facility and is mostly used for research on migratory patterns of sealife in the Bering Sea.
There is a nice aquarium with a grand underwater view gallery. We got lucky to see puffins and common murres fly underwater to fetch small fish at the bottom.

Shopped at "Once in a blue moose" gift shop. They have a great variety of T-shirts sporting Alaskan wildlife and really funny quotes (similar to Tantra T-shirts back in India). I highly recommend shopping here.

The journey back to Anchorage felt long ... we really did not want to leave the Alaskan beauty behind ... but yet our trip was coming to an end. We had lots of sweet memories with us. With a sense of accomplishment and complete satisfaction we boarded the flight back home to San Francisco early morning (1:45 am) on Monday, July 6th.

Seward Day II: Harding Ice Field Hike

Sat July 4th: Seward invites hikers from all over the world for a famous footrace up Mount Marathon on this day each year. We decided to avoid the traffic and crowd by going to Harding Ice Field(part of Exit Glacier) for a hike. It is quite strenuous especially on a hot day like today. Its a 8.8 mile (round trip) and you should reserve 1 whole day for you to enjoy all the magical scenery on the hike. There is a ranger led hike on every Sat/Sunday (starts at 9 am from the trail head); but incase you miss joining the group at 9; don't worry. There is pretty much 1 straight path and you cannot get lost on the way if you stick to the marked trail.
Locals said today was the hottest day in Seward in past 4 years! Dressing up in 3 layers was not exactly a great idea today :(
On such a hot day drinking water + some form of electrolyte is highly recommended. I lose appetite when I hike up; so we carried minimal food with us (some trail mix bars + fresh fruits and Chitale Bakarwadi :P).

For the most part the trail is not covered. But when it is, there are mosquitoes around. Carry an insect repellent at all times in Alaska during summer. The trail goes right along the side of Exit glacier. You can easily see the crevices formed between 2 plates of ice with a naked eye all along.

Fireweed and lupines are all over and makes it all worth while to walk in the bright sun. Only the last 1.5 miles go through ice. Having nice hiking shoes or the ones that don't slip is the key. We were each carrying a walking stick too which helped especially during this patch.


All the hard work at the end of 4.4 miles is all its worth when all you can see is a gigantic ice field in front of you. No one talks for sometime and you immerse yourself in the divine beauty ...

Seward Day I: Riding a Catamaran

F July 3rd: Drive from Cooper Landing to Seward
Today we were going cruising on the Bering sea with Renown Tours and Travels. Had called and made reservations for a 6 hour cruise (lunch included) for the four of us beforehand; so no room for last minute rush.
This was a wildlife viewing tour with a ranger talking about some history of the natural geographic artifacts, the sealife and the gulf of bering sea.

Its unique water temperature and sun exposure makes it highly conducive for the marine mammals (including whales), fish and birds to multiply during the summer.
We were truly blessed by the sun today and got to see most beautiful Kenai Fjords on one hand proudly boasting the Exit Glacier, the Holgate glacier and many others.

Witnessing glacier calving was something truly unique!
This is a place full of sea birds like common murres, puffins (who can "fly" under water upto 300 FT deep to fetch food). Also saw a surveillance deck (installed by Seward Marine Life Center) to inspect and learn about sea lions' reproduction and migration patterns. There are lots of rookeries around this area.

Russian Falls Trail at Cooper Landing

At < href="http://www.arctic.net/~hutch/">Hutch B&B we went on a 2 mile (one way) walking trail. This one goes along the russian river and ends at russian falls. This was the place to see Salmons going upstream to spawn eggs. These guys are pretty crazy, yeah thats right, crazy! They struggle a lot to go to D place to lay eggs where they themselves were born. On the way, they are programmed such that they go upstream the falls/ravines. Its an easy catch for their predators, the grizzlies! Then all they need to do is stand on the way to catch flying Salmon in their mouth directly ... ooh ... that was easy :)

Valdez to Whittier en route to Cooper Landing

Th July 2nd. Today went on a ferry which carried us from Valdez to Whittier using their marine highway system. The rental car was parked at the base level and ~ 300 passengers had a nice comfortable enclosed and heated seating area as well as viewing decks on the top. This was the first time we spotted sea life in Alaska. Watching a bunch of playful sea otters and dolphins riding on the waves was quite something. Some people also spotted a whale or two at a distance. I could only spot his snout. The same ferry has a nice cafeteria with good quality snacks.
Reached Whittier by 1:30 pm or so and immediately started driving to city of Cooper Landing. Part of the road goes past Portage Glacier.

Though maps shows a short distance of < 2 hours, the road is quite curvaceous and took us around 3 hours to reach Hutch B&B where we were to stay for the night.

BlessingHouse at Valdez

July 1st night: Had planned to stay in Valdez for 1 night alone. Dianna and Ron greeted us at "The BlessingHouse B&B" around 8 pm. Had spacious rooms + common kitchen and living area. Was wonderful decorated. Diana had very interesting things to talk about during our brief 30 mins interaction. Came to know about 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill which affected a ton of marine flora and fauna sadly. Urmila made some real nice hot tea using the tea kettle.

Valdez is a very small place. Mostly used by tourists as a rest stop or as a port to connect them with Prince William Sound or Whittier. Valdez sits in the heart of a valley between Chugach mountain ranges. It was cloudy and slightly windy outside. There were various glaciers and small/big waterfalls from the molten snow/ice as far as the eyes could see. It felt like a dream ...

I would recommend going to Totem Inn for dinner. They had all sorts of fish and other seafood on the menu and we thouroughly enjoyed ourselves :)

Fairbanks to Valdez

July 1st: Driving from Fairbanks to Valdez.

Google Maps says it will take 8 hours 34 mins to drive without stopping. We did this drive in about 9.5 hours. This part of our journey took us on Richardson Highway (marked as Alaska Highway 2 from Fairbanks to Delta Junction and as highway 4 from there to Valdez). It was the first major road ever built in Alaska. Its a true scenic route and worth spending all the time to stop at marked vista points to take real good pictures of snow capped mountain ranges. As you go down south on Highway 2, you will be accompanied by Alaskan Mountain range on your right. Alaskan range boasts the famous Mt. Mc Kinley too (which was mostly in the clouds and partially hidden by other peaks unfortunately).

Note that Delta Junction has very few options for you in terms of food. It is a really small place and we would recommend you have hearty breakfast before you start off and also stop for lunch before Delta Junction. We had a pit stop at that place for lunch + fuel in the car and went straight ahead onto Highway 4. The weather couldn't have been better :) We were blessed by picturesque views of glaciers from Wrangell St. Elias range on our left. Wrangell National Park holds 10 top peaks in the entire USA. As we got closer to Valdez we were greeted by Chugach Mountain Range glaciers too.

Fairbanks

T Jun 30th: Drive from Chena Hot Springs to Fairbanks and stay at Aurora Express B&B.

Our original plan was to drive upto Arctic Circle, but soon after talking to some of the locals on our way, we found out that there is really not that much to see out there. Apparently there is exactly 1 tree and 1 rock with a board hosting 'Congratulations! You just crossed Arctic Circle' sign. So we decided to pass; and instead relax and enjoy our stay at the famous Aurora Express.

This is one of the best places to stay and I would highly recommend this to all of you.

Check out their website here:http://fairbanksalaskabedandbreakfast.com/

Mike and Susan are salt of the earth kind of people! They were one of the best hosts :) I really mean it. Susan, who is a true child at heart has many many interesting stories to tell and keep her guests engaged. She claims that she comes from a 'two headed raven clan!'. She will make you believe anything .. like mosquitoes are nothing but remnants of a very old monster through her story :) She had a dream one night that there was a railway in her backyard; and thats how the story goes. Now Mike and Susan are proud owners of 6 Alskan railway compartments including a caboose (yay!) .

See this for a complete story:http://fairbanksalaskabedandbreakfast.com/press.html

In the evening we went to visit "Large Animal Research Station" at UAF campus which proudly hosts 'musk ox'. See more:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskox. Unfortunately we had missed on all of the tours for the day; so had to be happy viewing the muskoxes from a far off distance. Those guys are BIIIIIG. Also visited "The Georgeson Botanical Garden". Has variety of local + commercial flowers and vegetables.

Next morning, Mike and Susan had preprated full 3 course breakfast including tea/coffee, banana-strawberry french toast, rendeer sausage, quiche, roasted potatoes and juice. Heavenly experience!

Aurora Express was a unique place indeed. Mike and Susan made our stay most memorable in Fairbanks. Should I get the chance to return for more Alaskan adventure, I will definitely stay here once again.

Chena Hot Springs

Mon, Jun 29th: After a hearty breakfast at 9AM, we drove to Chena hot springs through Fairbanks. When we stopped in Fairbanks for lunch, we also walked along the river and went to the new tourist info center where we got quite some information. Just before Chena, we saw a moose with two calves right by the Hwy. Upon reaching the Chena resort, had great dinner at their restaurant. Then, we rented bikes ($3 for 2 hours!) and went riding along two trails. The sun was shining bright at 10 PM and the trails had great views - but a lot of mosquitos, which bit Manasi a lot. The highlight of the trail was a big beaver pond and beavers lay chilling out there. Those guys are great architects of twig dams.

At 10:30PM, we jumped into the hot pool which was the highlight of the day. It was awesome!!! So relaxing... and so exciting to be there in the midnight sun. Slept soundly after that....

Next morning we were scheduled on a Aurora Ice Museum tour. This is the only ice museum that stays cold year long in the entire world.

Showcases lots of very interesting artifacts including a bar, a wedding chapel, 4 commercial hotel rooms with unique themes, a fireplace and an apple martini served in a martini glass (made of ice which eventually melts in your hand). Steve and Heather Brice are the brains behind Aurora Ice museums and have themselves invented tools used worldwide today for making ice sculptures. A must see if you stay in Chena Hot Springs!

Denali National Park

Sat, Jun 27th: Got ready around 10 AM. Since the B&B did not have good B (!), we decided to have a hearty breakfast somewhere on the road. After searching a lot with Sandeep's iPhone, we finally ended up at Village Inn breakfast place. It was somewhat like Denny's but local and had very good food (including reindeer sausage). After the hearty breakfast, we took straight off to Denali National Park on Hwy 1. Stopped at Eklutna lake and Talkeetna village on the way. Eklutna lake was kind of okay, but Talkeetna village did not have much to offer other than flight seeing tours to Mt. McKinley. We did not do that, instead had a natural fruit icecream from an old ice-cream maker and headed to the park. We got a nice view of Mt. McKinley on the road just near Talkeetna (our last view :( as it turned out) .

In the evening we reached our cabin in Denali River Cabins and Cedar Lodge. The cabins were very good and cozy. Later, we went to the Denali village and had really good fish at Salmon Bake restaurant and dozed off to sleep...

Sun, Jun 28th: Day started at 4:30 AM.
We got ready and had breakfast by 6 AM. Our tour bus to Kantishna Roadhouse boarded at 6:10 AM. It takes you all of the unpaved 90 miles inside Denali NP stopping for wildlife and nice views. We got the last seats in the bus and thus had a bouncy day.

Our driver-guide David Poppy was very nice and knowledgable and kept us informed and entertained. He stopped on multiple occasions for various wildlife we saw - moose, caribous, eagles, owls, fox, dall's sheeps and bears. The best view was a grizzly bear playing with its yearling cub for almost 10 non-stop minutes a 100 feet away from the bus! National geographic stuff. Unfortunately, the day was cloudy and chilly so we could not see Mt. McKinley at all... But the looong day at least showed us a lot of wildlife.

Retired tired after having and good bath and some pizza at Lynx's Pizza. Surprisingly, we also saw a Lynx on the Hwy just outside of the park while going to the pizza place.

Alaska - Honeymoon 2009

A tradition of yearly honeymoon sounds a lot of fun - every year around July 4th, we go somewhere, mainly as a birthday gift to my lovely wife Manasi. This year we decided to make it a full week of holiday. After going through a list of destinations, we settled for Alaska since we could go far, but yet stay in the US.

We thought renting a car and driving across Alaska would be more fun than cruise because that way we could explore the inner part of Alaska as well. So before we had a skeleton plan of our trip we spoke to our friends who had already been there - Vaidehi/Kedar and Sameer/Tanuja. They offered us valuable inputs. Thanks guys!

Once the plan was roughly in place, we thought it would be fun to ask a couple to go with us - since that would keep us good company and we could enjoy more. So we asked Sandeep and Urmila who had yet to go on their first honeymoon since they got married only a few months ago. They jumped right in! So all 4 of us divided regions of Alaska for our bookings. Division of labor made research and bookings so easy...

When all the bookings were made and the time of vacation was near, we went and did shopping of good clothes :) . That was really our main preparation. Apart from that, only a few map printouts, confirmations etc.

So the overall plan looked like this:

Fly into Anchorage: Friday 26th night and stay at a B&B in Anchorage.

Sat: 27th and Sun 28th: Stay in Denali National Park; stay at Denali Riverfront Cabins.

Mon 29th: Drive from Denali to Chena Hot Springs and stay at Chena Hot Springs Resort.

T 30th: Drive from Chena Hot Springs to Fairbanks and live in a B&B called Aurora Express.

W 1st: Drive from Fairbanks to Valdez and stay at a B&B (BlessingHouse) in Valdez.

Th 2nd: Take a ferry from Valdez to Whittier (6 hours) and drive from Whittier to Cooper

Landing village. Stay in a B&B there (Hutch B&B).

F 3rd: Drive from Copper Landing to Seward. Take a 'Renown Tours Cruise' around Kenai

Fjords (6 hours) and live at a B&B called Barn Apetite.

Sat 4th: Go for a glacier hike at Harding Ice Field for the entire day and stay overnight at Barn Apetite.

Sun 5th: Drive from Seward to Anchorage and fly back to Sunny California.

So here it goes ...

On Friday Jun 26th, we flew to Anchorage (non-stop Alaska air flight from SFO). To our surprise, it was still light at midnight when we reached there. We already had booked a rental car, so took it and went straight to the hotel (B&B) and slept for a few hours after trying to close the curtains tightly :) .