Plush hillsides and first glacier views.

This morning we had a leisurely start, since we knew we only had to travel four hours total before arriving at the Haines ferry terminal. We did our laundry while we had breakfast at the Northern Lights cafe next door, then headed towards Haines with some of our still-damp laundry hanging in the windows. I was sad to be leaving the Alaska Highway, expecting the scenery to downgrade, which it did for a time since our view of the mountains was completely blocked by low clouds and rain. But a little while into our trip the clouds separated enough that we could see the mountains and also caught our first views of glaciers! Some of the most striking views on the trip were today, inspiring us to stop for photos so often that we added an extra two hours to our trip to Haines!

The clouds started to lift a bit to make the mountains visible again. We parked our car on the side of the road and walked up a soft, plush hill to get to this view.

This is why I described the aforementioned hill as "plush." It felt like walking on memory foam because of this carpet of delicate and beautiful plant life. I felt guilty walking on it, but Gavin noted that moose and caribou do it all the time. :)

What a lovely view. The mountains are nice, too. :)

Our first view of glaciers - the silver-blue colors between the peaks of the mountains.

Water from glaciers melting is gray in color.

We stopped the car and had lunch here, watching the clouds shift over the glaciers.

 

The "tide" from this glacier water was coming in; the water level rose 5 inches while I stood there!

On the way to Haines we had to cross back into the USA. We stopped at customs, and the officer took a look inside our car. I completely forgot that I had hung two of my bras in the car windows to dry... I can only imagine what the officer thought! No wonder he searched our trunk for drugs! :)

The "tide" from this glacier water was coming in; the water level rose 5 inches while I stood there!

We actually dipped our hands in the water here. It was warmer than we expected for water that came from a glacier melting!

It was raining, and Gavin made me sit on this wet log. :)

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of the entire trip!

We got to Haines about an hour before the ferry was scheduled to depart - perfect timing! While we waited in the lobby, I noticed the vending machine had peanut M&Ms. This was significant because yesterday when we stopped at a gas station in Canada, Gavin was craving peanut M&Ms. We didn't see any for sale, and the attendant told us that M&Ms aren't sold in Canada, just "Smartees," which were a poor substitute as they had no peanuts! I was excited to get Gavin some peanut M&Ms, but when I put my money in, the package stuck in the vending machine! I let out a somewhat melodramatic wail of "Oh no!" and made various attempts to get them to fall. Finally one of the people selling tickets took pity on us and brought out the key to the machine, mentioning that I had amused him with my failed attempts to get the candy out. :)

The four hour ferry ride to Juneau was also gorgeous! We floated through beautiful blue water between mountains with glaciers tumbling down the side. We even got to see some dolphins following the ship for a while!

Our boat to Juneau.

View from the front deck.

Lighthouse.

Once we arrived in Juneau, we drove our rental car to the airport to drop it off at Hertz, and immediately rented another one at Budget right next door. (Hertz was the ONLY car company where we could rent in Fairbanks and drop off in Juneau, but they were also really expensive, so we got rid of the Hertz car as soon as possible!) Then we drove to the Travelodge hotel for our first night in Juneau. Tomorrow, we look forward to seeing our first glacier up close!

 

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Here Moosey Moosey...

This morning we cooked breakfast in our apartment and caught a taxi to the airport to grab our rental car. Once we picked up our Lego red Impala, we headed to the University of Alaska Museum, which had been highly recommended by the railroad tour guide, two taxi drivers and Lonely Planet, plus it was another rainy day, so a good museum day. The museum was filled with both contemporary art and artifacts from the native cultures. It also had huge bones and tusks from mammoths and mastodons and a 36,000 year old bison (called "Blue Babe") that had been preserved in the permafrost. (as I am writing this later, Gavin asked, "Hey, I never saw the frozen bison, did you?" How in the world did he miss seeing a huge BISON - I saw him walk right by it! :) )

Me and a snuggly teddy bear. :)

One of the contemporary art pieces in the Alaska Museum. This one is made from an old outhouse and visitors are encouraged to sit inside it.

After the Alaska museum, we headed to the grocery store to stock up for our impending Alaska Highway road trip. We went back to the apartment for lunch, then drove to the Chena Hot Springs Resort about 60 miles away from Fairbanks on the aptly named Chena Hot Springs Road; it was a paved highway that ended in the archway entry to the resort. On the way to the resort we stopped at a little coffee shop for some chai and coffee, and Gavin snatched a couple mayo and ketchup packets to use on our road trip, but was disappointed they didn't have sugar packets for us to snatch; we didn't want to buy whole packages of sugar and mayonnaise for our two days on the road and have to throw them away, so we had resolved earlier in the day to eat/drink somewhere where we could gnab a couple, because we're classy like that. :)

Chena Hot Springs Resort was a large, peacefully rustic-looking complex with the hot springs at the center. We started out in their outdoor rock pool, a sulfur-scented pool surrounded by large rocks to sit on when we needed a break from the heat of the pool. Behind the rocks, a garden of sunflowers and black eyed susans added even more beauty. There was a fountain/sprinkler in the middle of the pool spraying cool water, and a hose spraying a thick, strong jet of water at the opposite end of the pool. It seemed to be a "rite of passage" of sorts to get across the pool to the large jet; the pool got INCREDIBLY hot going toward the jet, so hot that people were climbing over the rocks rather than walking through the pool to get there. Gavin and I tried a couple of times before finally making it over to the cooler jet - walking quickly through the unbearably hot pocket of water. While we were cooling off under the strong jet, one of the attendants came over and added more cold water; I guess the pool was getting a bit dangerously hot. After going through the hot temperatures back to the cooler part of the pool, I crawled up onto the rock directly under the sprinkler and stood out of the hot water to cool my lobster-red body down.

The rock pool at Chena Hot Springs Resort.

Panorama of the rock pool of Chena Hot Springs Resort.

After cooling off in the indoor pool filled with noisy kids, we showered and headed to the lodge to have dinner. Neither of us were in the mood for a heavy meal, so we had soup and salad. At the end of the meal we nabbed a couple of the available sugar packets to take on our road trip, rationalizing it by saying "They charged me $14 for a SALAD, they can give us a few sugar packets!" :)

After dinner we headed back to Fairbanks, and on the way we FINALLY got to see some wildlife! In one ten-mile stretch, we for spotted a cow moose and her calf with teensy antlers that were walking along the road ditch, completely unconcerned that we stopped right beside them, less than 20 feet away, to take pictures. A little while later, we saw a bull moose with huge antlers drinking from a pond. I opened the window and yelled "Here, moosey moosey" in my opera voice to get it to look at me. It worked, but unfortunately we only had our iPhones and not our good camera... A couple miles later get another cow moose was wandering down the road ditch. The proximity to the road of all these moose explained the abundance of totaled cars we had seen along the road - all with large holes smashed in the windshields. I guess moose are a very real road hazard here! We made it back to our apartment just after dark and searched the skies for our last chance to see aurora borealis, but alas none were to be found, so we went to bed; we have to get up early to start our road trip tomorrow!

 

A beautiful sunset on the way back to Fairbanks.

 

If you look really closely, you can see a big bull moose standing out in the water. Stupid iPhone with no functional zoom... (or stupid us for forgetting the good camera! :) )

 

A cow moose and her calf. :)

 

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The Great Alcan

The sunrise as viewed from our apartment.

Today we got up early to start our trip along the Alaska Highway (also called the Great Alcan), said to be one of the most scenic routes in America. We didn't do the whole thing from Fairbanks to Dawson's Creek; we were just planning to go as far as Haines Junction, then head south to Haines to catch our ferry to Juneau. The first part of the route from Fairbanks to Delta Junction was noted as "relatively unscenic" by Lonely Planet, but I guess the people who wrote Lonely Planet have never driven through Nebraska if they think the below is "unscenic..."

Then"unscenic" part of the Alaska Highway.

 

But the rest of the route was definitely even better - the Alcan goes between two mountain ranges, the Alaska Range and the White Mountains with cloud-wreathed views of both all the way through. The road also borders several lakes and rivers, and of course the ever-present black spruce forests. We stopped several times to take pictures, and also noted the following:

1. Don't be fooled by the signs in Canada denoting "Rest Areas." EVERY SINGLE "rest area" in Canada along this route is an OUTHOUSE. :) When I finally couldn't wait any longer, I had to use it with the door open because it smelled so bad...

Canadian "Rest Area."

2. The instant we crossed the border into Canada, the road went from a lovely, smooth, paved road to a pot hole-ridden, bumpy, part gravel monstrosity. We also went through a 15 mile construction zone behind a pilot car.

3. We maybe saw 10 other vehicles the entire day, which made it easy to stop for pictures and even wander in the middle of the road to get the perfect shot!

4. Out of those 10 vehicles, probably 7 were RVs. :)

5. Gavin insisted on peeing in the wilderness almost every stop we made. To try to guilt trip him out of it, I took pictures. At the end of the day I had 5 pictures of him peeing in various scenic locales. Photos not for public consumption, but check out the awesome stuff below!

Mountains peeking through as we approach...

...then the view suddenly opens up into the mountains!

Black spruce in front of the mountains.

Seriously, this is the prettiest drive ever!

Look at this Caribbean-blue water!

 

We stopped for the night in Haines Junction, where we would turn off the Alaska Highway and head south to Haines. Our day ended at after about ten hours of driving. We stayed at a cute little motel where the main attraction to us in picking it was that it had a laundromat. (it was a novel experience for us to pick a place to stay without Trip Advisor/Lonely Planet/Yelp guiding our way...) We had dinner at the little Northern Lights restaurant next door that was just about to close (it was 9pm), but they kindly stayed open and let us order our dinner. I tried poutine for the first time. It was an Italian style poutine, basically french fries covered in mozzarella cheese and spaghetti sauce. Not the healthiest thing I could choose, but hey, we're on vacation... :)

We ended our rainy, drizzly evening reading books and sipping red wine in bed.

 

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Delightful Day in Denali.

Today we got up early to catch the shuttle back to Denali. We grabbed a lovely breakfast at the Creekside Cafe, including a delicious fresh cinnamon roll the size of my head. We grabbed the Alaska Mountain Hostal shuttle again at 8:20am, and we had our first wildlife sighting - a unfortunate moose lying dead by the side of the road after being hit by a car... (our driver tried to distract us by having us gaze out the other window at the pretty mountains, but her distraction technique didn't work. :) ) We arrived at the Wilderness Access Center around 9am and were ready to shuttle in to the park. We had decided that since we had to be back to the train station at 3pm, we couldn't take a paid bus into the interior of the park. Instead we opted to take the free bus 15 miles into the park and do some hiking around the park entrance.

Ready to hitchhike outside of Carlo Creek Lodge in case we miss the one shuttle... :)

This is a SERIOUS cinnamon roll...

We discovered to our dismay that the free shuttle runs only every two hours, and the next shuttle was not for another hour and a half. If we wanted to get a paid shuttle, we would have to pay full price to the final destination i.e. 60 miles into the park no matter how far into the park we were going. So we wandered on the nearby bike trail to the Visitors Center and back to kill time until the shuttle picked us up.

The shuttle ride was uneventful other than stopping to catch a quick glimpse of a bear. It dropped us off at Savage River loop trail, which followed the glacially-fed Savage River for about a mile, crossed it on a bridge and went back. It was an easy loop with beautiful views of the mountains through the river valley, and it didn't take us very long. It was still another hour and a half before we could catch the bus back, so we decided to walk along the park road and see if we could catch a ride with someone going back. I stuck out my thumb and hitchhiked for the first time in my life - the second car we saw stopped for us, and we got to ride in the back of their pickup (first time doing that since I was a kid!) back to the Park Headquarters, and we even got to stop and see a moose along the way!

Beautiful Denali!

Savage River - not looking all that savage right now.

Walking the Savage River loop trail.

View from Park Road as we tried to hitchhike a ride back to Park Headquarters.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck, just like we used to do on the farm! :)

At Park Headquarters we took the peaceful Rock Creek trail about two miles through the forest, then it joined the Taiga trail, which we followed down to the Wilderness Access Center - a grand total of about 8 miles of hiking/walking today. :) We stopped by the Morino restaurant near the train station for more price-gouging food before catching our train up to Fairbanks.

View from the top of the Rock Creek trail.

The train ride to Fairbanks gradually left the mountains and came into flat permafrost land covered with the only trees that can live on permafrost: the black spruce. We also got a quick glimpse of a moose through the trees. The scenery wasn't nearly as dramatic as the approach to Denali. We arrived in Fairbanks at around 8pm and caught a taxi whose driver was kind enough to take us to a grocery store and wait for us while we shopped for our dinner food, then she drove us to the house we rented outside Fairbanks. We were excited because it was out of town and would hopefully have a good view of the northern lights, but unfortunately it was completely cloudy. We made a late dinner and ended our evening relaxing with a glass of wine.

The Alaska Railroad engine.

 

The Alaska Railroad follows the river up to Fairbanks.

 

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All Aboard the Alaska Railroad

This morning we got up early to catch the train to Denali National Park. Our slightly odd host made us a delicious breakfast of fresh coffee cake, toast and omelets, all the while making strange, offhand comments like "This refrigerator would make a good coffin." He also kept on talking about "the owner" of the B&B, which prompted me to ask how he knew the owner. He replied, "I've been married to him for 25 years..."

Our host dropped us off at the train station, where we picked up our tickets and "Gold Star" pins and boarded the train. The Gold class of the Alaska railroad are seats on the upper level of the train with domed glass ceilings and a private bar. It was another rainy day, so our views of the Alaskan wilderness were once again obscured by fog. Our best view of the eight hour trip was of Hurricane Gulch, the longest bridge on the Alaska Railroad which crosses a gulch that is over 300 feet deep. As we got closer to Denali, the fog lifted a little, enough for us to see the lush, green, cloud-dusted mountains of the Alaska Range, and just enough for us to see Panorama Mountain, which is 1/4 the size of Mount McKinley.

The Gold Star car of the Alaska railroad.

Our view through most of the ride was something like this. :)

A view of the train from the outside platform.

Hurricane Gulch.

Fog and foliage in front of the Alaska Range.

When we arrived at the train station at Denali, almost everybody on the train had a shuttle to their hotel and quickly disappeared, leaving us the only lonely people outside the station. We called our lodge, the Carlo Creek Lodge, to inquire about a shuttle, and they told us to call a shuttle service that would cost $45 PER PERSON to go the 12 miles to Carlo Creek! Luckily I found another shuttle from the Alaska Mountain Hostal that would drop us off near our lodging for only $10 per person, but that shuttle would only pick us up at the Wilderness Access Center. We had to wait a half hour for a bus to take us to the Wilderness Access Center, then another hour for the shuttle to Carlo Creek! (we had assumed we could just take a taxi, but there were no taxis at all in Denali!)

After finally settling in to our cozy little room at Carlo Creek Lodge, we walked over to the Perch to have dinner. It was a cute little restaurant perched (hence "Perch") on the top of a little hill with view of the mountains and forest. It was one of only three restaurants in the Carlo Creek area, and it definitely charged accordingly, i.e. $14 for tortilla chips with cheese dip!!! While we munched on our appetizer, a very grouchy woman sitting behind us reamed the owner/server for her disappointing meal; I felt really bad for him. THe owner of Perch let his dog in toward the end of our meal, and Gavin snuck him a few bits of his hamburger. The dog then proceeded to sit and quietly stare at Gavin for the next half hour, pointing out the guilty party who had fed him. :) The owner came out and showed us the many tricks the dog could do, such as "Go find zombies," shake both right and left paws accordingly and balance bits of sausage one on each eye and on his nose while the owner left the room entirely. Gavin and I felt sorry for him and tried to guess the command to release him and let him eat the sausage. I tried "Okay," but Gavin guessed it correctly as "Go," and the relieved dog was munching his treat as the owner came back in to release him. :) Since we were stuck in the Carlo Creek area for the night, we ended our evening by moving to the cozy couch at Perch for some wine after dinner, browsing through the various Alaska coffee table books, looking at the lovely views we would hopefully see tomorrow during our day at Denali National Park.

View from the train as we approach Denali National Park.

 

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Rain, rain, go away...

After an early 6am departure from Hartford, we arrived in Anchorage just before noon. Our first view of the city through the airport windows showed a lovely, sunny day over a city surrounded by mountains. We caught a taxi from the airport, and our taxi driver perfectly fit the "Alaska Mountain Man" stereotype with his long, wavy, salt and pepper hair, full beard and flannel shirt. All he needed was the Carharts to make the stereotype compete. :) Our driver nicely pointed out one of the bike paths that we could ride through the forests around the city (there are over 100 miles of bike paths in Anchorage!) We decided to spend the rest of the day on the bike paths, after our first order of business - a much needed nap!

We checked in to City Garden B&B. Our room was LOVELY with well over a dozen orchids, mostly in bloom, a little succulent garden and huge ficus tree in the mini solarium beside the bed. It is located on the park strip, which is a long park between 9th and 10th ave that originally was Anchorage's first air strip. Now it is a several blocks long strip of grass housing a soccer field, sand volleyball, tennis courts, a veterans' memorial and more. We decided to take an hour nap to help us adjust to the four hour time difference and be able to stay up later, and also to give us energy to do a bike ride. Unfortunately, an hour later the sunny Anchorage skies had clouded up and it was raining in a steady drizzle; it was not longer the best weather for a bike ride. Instead, we grabbed our umbrellas and walked into the downtown area to have some coffee and a snack at Kaladi Brothers Coffee. The rain showed no sign of letting up, so we passed the time until our dinner reservation by doing a little wandering around 5th and 6th Aves, the main shopping strip of Anchorage, which was filled with kitschy tourist shops selling t shirts, little wooden totems and tons of variations on the famous Alaska Ulu knife. Gavin and I bought some rain gear, since according to the forecast we will have rainy weather for our entire two weeks here...

Having exhausted our short-lived interest in shopping, we went to our dinner restaurant, Simon and Seafort's Saloon and Grill, which had been recommended by both by our bed and breakfast host and our Lonely Planet. We arrived an hour early for our reservation, so we sat in the saloon and had a couple drinks. The view from the restaurant overlooks the water of Knik Arm and supposedly Mount Susitna, Anchorage's active volcano, also called "The Sleeping Lady." The fog was so thick we could barely see the water, much less the volcano. It cleared a bit, and the most we could see was the very base of the volcano.

A panorama of the Simon and Seafort's Saloon. I am holding the highlight of my meal - a lavender cosmo. :)

We moved to the dining room for dinner, and both of us were excited to try fresh, wild-caught Alaska salmon. I ordered sesame crusted salmon, and Gavin ordered curried salmon. Both were specials of the day, and both were highly disappointing. I am definitely spoiled by how nicely Gavin cooks salmon, but both the salmon and vegetables were overcooked in both of our dishes. My sesame crusted salmon had a lot of sugar in the sauce, which completely overpowered the taste of the salmon, and it came with deep fat fried balls of fried rice (deep fat fried fried rice - sounds like a State Fair food...) with reindeer sausage, the only saving grace of which was that now I can say I have tried reindeer meat and put another check on my "animals I have eaten" list.* Gavin's vegetables were a puree of squash and carrots that could have been mistaken for something from a Gerber baby food jar...

After dinner we wandered back to the mall to pick up some waterproof shoes that Gavin had been coveting, especially after walking around with damp feet the entire evening. Then we walked back to our B&B, hand in hand in the rain... :)

*I don't really have an "animals I have eaten" list. But if I did it would include zebra, warthog, kangaroo and more... :)

 

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