We took hundreds of photos out of our respective windows, stopping every few minutes to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the mountains and glaciers. We overflew several base camps where climbers were in various stages of preparing to climb Mount Denali. The photo on the left shows four climbers just beginning their hike up the mountain.
We saw many moose on this trip to Alaska, and we saw this mother and calf dart across the road in front of us as we were on our way to Homer along AK-1. This part of AK-1 south of the Seaward turnoff is called the Sterling Highway. At this point on our trip we were still taking photos of every animal we saw. After about 50 photos, however, we finally had enough (about 3 days into our trip).
The spit in Homer is home to many restaurants and other businesses which cater to the local tourist and fishing industries. One celebrity ship that was in port for resupplies was the Time Bandit, well known for its roll in the TV series World's Deadliest Catch.
The next day we drove from Anchorage to the small town of Whittier. We had to time our arrival into Whittier perfectly because just outside of town the road passes through a tunnel that's shared with the Alaskan Railroad. If you're late you may have to wait as much as an hour for the next available opening to drive through the tunnel, and you don't want to miss your cruise!
Our first trip to Alaska was in May-June of 2014. We flew from Tampa, FL to Anchorage, AK on May15 and stayed primarily in the Anchorage area for two weeks before traveling to Seward, AK and boarding a cruise ship for a 7-day cruise through the Inner Passage to Vancouver, BC. We then flew from Vancouver through New York City to Tampa, FL.
This would be a good time to point out that all of the photos in the slideshow at the top of the page and along the left border were taken by us. These are not photos taken from a brochure or from the internet. Yes, these are real photos and accurately depict what we actually experienced - it was awesome! The videos on the right, however, where borrowed from YouTube. We did our best to pick the best, most accurate videos we could find even though some were below our quality standards.
The time-lapse video above-right was made from 45 individual photos taken at one-minute intervals over a 30 minute time period with the camera looking at one spot in the sky. Each photo lasts 2 seconds in the video and adjacent photos were overlapped by one second. The resulting video replayed at 30 frames per second depicts what we saw overhead over a 30 minute period of time in approximately 90 seconds. The music was added after the video was created ( although Norma claims she heard music during this magnificent display).
This photo and the three above it were taken from The Major Marine ship out of Whittier. Although this cruise was primarily a glacier cruise (and we saw lots of glaciers) we also saw some marine life, including whales and sea otters. We did have the optional meal of salmon and prime rib and we were glad we did. It would have been inconvenient for us to bring food with us from Anchorage for lunch and besides, the salmon and prime rib were both tasty. Although we enjoyed the small town of Whittier and would have stayed the night here, we did return to our home base in Anchorage for a change of clothes before returning to Denali.
After 3-4 hours flying time and having flown completely around Mount Denali, we were glad to be back on solid ground. This was by far the most exciting flight we had ever taken on a whim and we were so glad we hadn't missed the opportunity of a lifetime. We then proceeded on to our destination, the Princess Wilderness Lodge, just 40 miles south of Mount Denali.
It was fortunate that we were both pilots, otherwise we would have been alarmed by the views we were getting through the front windshield. Everywhere we looked there were shear cliffs and dead-end canyons, but we respected our pilot's ability and many years of experience flying in Alaska.
After nearly two weeks in Alaska primarily based in and around Anchorage, we're finally ready to go to Seward to board our cruise ship to the inner passage and return to Vancouver. We left our rental car in Anchorage and took the Alaskan Railroad from Anchorage to Seward. This was the most scenic train ride we have ever taken (see photo at left). The bright cloudless sky and calm wind made for a photographer's paradise. We had to time our photos between passing trees as our only challenge.
The following day we took a guided tour on a school-type bus through Denali National Park. We were not particularly thrilled with our tour because although there were hardly any passengers on the bus, they insisted on sitting right behind us and were constantly talking. We did see all of the free-range Alaskan wildlife you would expect to see, including caribou, brown bear and moose. The view of the north side of Mount Denali was not nearly as breathtaking as the views we were used to of the south face.
The red airplane in the photo at the airport and in the video is not the airplane we flew in. Normally tours require a minimum of six passengers, but because it was early in the season, they were pleased to get any takers. Click on the airport photo left-above and our airplane was the small white low-wing Beach Bonanza on the left behind the fuel tank. The pilot put us in the rear of the airplane behind the wing where we had better visibility below, but we were still able to see forward over the wing as well.
After returning to the airport, we had lunch and reluctantly left Homer and returned to our base camp in Anchorage. The next morning we departed early for our 2-hour drive north to the little town of Talkeetna, just south of the Denali National Park.
The first full day in Homer we were scheduled to take an early morning flight-seeing trip across Kachemak Bay to Katmai National Park to over-fly three volcanoes (two active and one inactive) and to land on a remote beach to search for Alaskan wildlife. There was a dense fog over the airport and most of Homer all day, so we had to postpone this trip for one day. We were fortunate to have planned for using the following day for exploring Homer and to return to Anchorage, so this was no inconvenience for us.
After lunch on the spit of fresh Alaskan salmon, we set about exploring some of the shops and tour companies nearby. One of the tour companies was open but had not yet started tours for the new season. The operator was helpful, however, in hooking us up with a private custom boat tour operator who was doing a preseason check run with his boat and some friends. He took us on a three hour cruise across Kachemak Bay to Halibut Cove. On this side of the bay the fog had lifted and we had beautifully clear skies to view the isolated community of Halibut Cove and its surrounding landscape. We also saw several sea otters on the beach and in the water and eagles in the trees. On our trip across the bay we passed several islands that were home to 6-8 Alaskan bird species (above left).
Most of the houses in Halibut Cove were huge, multi-level structures with connecting walkways constructed well above the active high-tide level. The house on the left was halfway completed before construction was stopped due to a divorce.
On our return trip to Anchorage we took a detour on the Glen Highway to have lunch at the Sheep Mountain Lodge. We had a wonderful lunch and view of the Sheep Mountains behind us. The tourist and growing seasons in Alaska are very short. The lodge grows many of their own vegetables in their greenhouse out back and grows rhubarb in a bed in front of the restaurant. We were told that Dall sheep had been spotted earlier in the day nearby, so we drove up the road a couple of miles when we left the lodge. Sure enough we spotted a herd of sheep clearly visible on the mountainside.
Near Girdwood, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center provides an opportunity to view many of Alaska's native wildlife in their natural habitat. The center is instrumental in protecting, rehabilitating and reintroducing many of Alaska's endangered animals. We happened to be there during the Wood Bison's birthing season and actually witnessed the birth of two bison calves. The photo at the left is of a mother bison and her 2-hour old calf taking its first steps.
This eagle was probably fishing, but seemed to be guarding the cove at its entrance.
Although you won't see any more photos of moose on this trip, you will see several photos of eagles. Somehow we never got enough photos of eagles; they just seem so majestic and hard to ignore. This eagle was perched atop a pine tree overlooking the town of Homer, AK.
We spent our last three days on mainland Alaska in Seward. We spent the first and last days exploring the town of Seward (nice aquarium and restaurants). In between, we took another Major Marine Cruise to see primarily Alaskan marine life out of Seward (see YouTube video above about Major Marine and Whittier).
Our first of two stays at the Princess Wilderness Lodge was spectacular. We were the first to stay here for the 2014 season so the lodge was not crowded and we had our choices of when and where (two restaurants to choose from) to eat. We really loved the smaller restaurant and bar called the "20320" (named after the height of Mount Denali). The lodge is 40 miles south of Denali and has excellent views from inside and outside of the lodge. We had clear blue skies all three days we were here. Most people who visit Alaska (70%) don't get to see Denali because of cloud cover. So far we were 3 for 3. On the third day we began our return trip to base camp in Anchorage and the view of Denali was the best yet.
Our favorite scenic drive in Alaska is along AK-1, also called the Seward Highway, along Turnagain Arm from Anchorage south to Girdwood. The road is mostly 2-lanes with frequent passing lanes provided and numerous pullouts for rest stops and scenic views, of which there are many. We had the good fortune to be on this road 6-8 times and each time we stopped at different pullouts to marvel in the tremendous beauty and solitude. Each season of the year provides different opportunities to view mountain landscapes, the rushing waves during the tidal inflows and even the migration of Beluga whales during the summer months.
This completes our novel for the Alaskan Mainland Adventure in 2014. Please go to the "Inside Passage" to see the highlights of the rest of the trip from Seward to Vancouver aboard the Holland America Statendam.
When we arrived in Talkeetna it was such a beautiful day and the visibility was so great we decided to take an unscheduled flightseeing trip around Mount Denali. Our pilot in Homer had recommended that we check out K2 Aviation when we got to Talkeetna.
Homer is a small town on the extreme southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula. The main part of town is located on the side of a hill overlooking the Kachemak Bay, but the interesting part of town is on a "spit" that extends out into the bay. At the end of the spit ("The End of the Road" described by Tom Bodett) there's an inn and restaurant called The Lands End Resort.
We were very lucky and got to see the Northern Lights at their best the first full night we were in Fairbanks. The rest of the week it was either cloudy, raining or snowing. It was quite a display that lasted from about midnight till one o'clock in the morning. We had rented a car and found a good viewing spot outside of town earlier in the day. We were in a secluded parking lot with a few scattered street lights but far enough from Fairbanks that the sky was free from glare.
The next day the fog had lifted so we were able to fly across the bay to fly over two active volcanoes (first two on the left) and one inactive volcano (third on the left). We were flying at about 10-11,000 feet in a Cessna 172 and were within 1/4 mile of the smoking molten lava flow.
On the second day of our trip, we drove south to Denali and stayed two nights at our favorite lodge in Alaska - the Princess Wilderness Lodge near Talkeetna. Of course while we were there we had to partake of "nutties" (pecan cinnamon rolls) at the Roadhouse.
We had to drive through almost whiteout conditions and slushy roads to get to Denali, but the awesome scenery, with the stark contrast between the dark green cedar trees and the bright yellow beech trees, made it worthwhile.
We got one brief peek of Mount Denali as we passed by to the east, but never got a clear view as we had the year before. We saw patches of sunlight on the distant mountains and occasionally over the beech trees (three photos on the left), but never got another view of the Northern Lights. But our mission to see the lights had been accomplished so we considered this trip to be a totally satisfying adventure.
Sometimes a little cloud cover can add a nice perspective to a scenic photograph.
Our second visit to Denali was through a Princess Tour Package which included a round trip train ride in a Princess Scenicar from Anchorage to Talkeetna, transfer to and from the lodge and two nights stay in the Princess Wilderness Lodge. Although we enjoyed this stay at Denali as much as we did the first, we did notice that already there were more and more tourists arriving everyday. We needed reservations for every meal and weren't always able to get into the "20320" restaurant. Also, because we hadn't driven our rental car, we weren't able to get to the "Roadhouse" in Talkeetna for our morning coffee and "nutty." The photo at the left of Mount Denali taken from the train and the next three were taken during this visit to Denali. Mount Denali was actually partially cloud covered on our last day, so officially we were only 5 for 6.
Our second trip to Alaska was in September, 2015. We enjoyed our trip to Alaska in 2014 so much that we thought we should return, this time to Fairbanks in the fall to see the Northern Lights and the fall color. We had researched the Northern Lights so we knew that the best time to see them in Alaska was in mid-September during a New Moon. The thirteen year cycle of the Northern Lights had reached its peak in 2014 so weather permitting, 2015 should also be a good year. The average temperatures this time of year in Fairbanks were highs in the low 50s and lows in the upper 30s. That and the good chance we would see beautiful fall foliage were all the excuses we needed to return to Alaska.
It was a breathtaking view of the cove from the entrance looking west into Katmai National Park.
By the time we were able to land, the wildlife had left the beach but did leave several sets of fresh prints in the sand. We spotted prints from at least one each bear, wolf and fox.
We went for a stroll on the "landing strip" and collected garbage that had washed ashore. We re-boarded our Cessna and after getting clearance from the tower, departed on runway 18 for our return trip to Homer.