The Last Frontier

I booked a tour package with Alaska Tour & Travel, who did a good job for me. They provide a number of excursion options based on number of days, city of arrival, and city of departure, coordinating the bus and train transit, the lodging, and the various tours. I flew into Anchorage, arriving late on Monday night. I had to sleep quickly, with a 7 AM hotel departure on Tuesday to catch the motorcoach south to Seward. As we rode along the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet, our driver pointed out some beluga whales to us. I arrived at the Seward Windsong Lodge around 9:30 or so, first greeted by a sign warning of a brown bear seen on the hotel premises and advising everyone to stay alert – no problem! After dropping off my bags, I caught a lift into the town of Seward, 3.5 miles south. I was booked for a tour of the Alaska SeaLife Center. It was pretty good, but I’d have to say that I have been spoiled by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After touring the SeaLife Center, I explored the town, walking along the shore up towards the harbor.

I had some Alaskan crab for lunch. Rather than catching a lift back to the Lodge, I opted to hike, picking up some groceries on the way, and ever vigilant for Grizz’. It was a pleasant hike, overcast with temperatures in upper 50’s, with not too many flying insects. I saw some huge salmon in the Resurrection River. I spent the evening at the Lodge, enjoying a couple of beers and conversation with locals and other tourists at the Resurrection Roadhouse Lounge. The next morning I was booked for a 6-hour sea cruise of the Kenai Fjords. Unfortunately, the weather and the sea were not particularly abiding; fortunately, our captain exercised wisdom. Because of stormy weather and rough seas, he modified the cruise to a 4-hour tour of Resurrection Bay. Surprisingly, we saw no orcas, but we did see a couple of humpback whales, several seals, and a couple of bald eagles, among the wildlife highlights. Upon returning to port, I had a few extra hours to kill before the 6PM train to Anchorage, so I did some more exploration on foot. The coolest thing that I saw, as I walked along the shore, was several large salmon jumping from the water of Resurrection Bay. After doing a little shopping and having a late lunch, I headed over to the train station.

Traveling by rail in Alaska was great. Huge picture windows, plenty of space to either sit back or to wander, and great views. This is a picture of the Turnagain Arm at sunset (9:50 PM).

I arrived in Anchorage in the 10PM hour, and again, needed to sleep fast to catch my 8:15 train Thursday morning to Denali. The 7-hour trip was pleasant – again, great views, and plenty of space. Some people saw a moose soon after we left the station, but I missed it, and I didn’t see any other wildlife during the trip, nor was it clear enough to see Mt. McKinley. I caught a coach from the station to the Denali Princess Lodge, which was like a self-contained tourist village, overlooking the Nenana River.

After checking in, I had a 6:30 excursion booked: whitewater rafting on the Nenana.

The trip was run by Denali Raft Adventures, and it was a thrill! We did the Canyon run, a 2-hour, 11-mile, Class III and IV run, and our pilot, Mike, did an exceptional job. We were roughly 40 seconds into the ride when I was baptized with a face-full of 39-degree water. I got back to the lodge about 10PM, just as the sun was disappearing, and went to a pizza place for a late dinner.

On Friday, I took the Kantishna Wilderness Trails 13-hour bus excursion through Denali National Park , roughly 95 miles into and back out of the Park, with a lunch break at the Kantishna Roadhouse, just past Wonder Lake. Loads of wildlife – grizzlies, caribou, a wolf, moose, and marmots, etc.

It was mesmerizing to watch, from the safety of the bus, the grizzlies (including sows with cubs) move across the land. A huge highlight was being able to see Mt. McKinley – it is usually the case that the mountain is clouded over, but luck was with us that day (as with most of my days, frankly).

The trip illustrated the positives and negatives of group travel. On the negative side, I would have been very content to stare at Mt. McKinley for an hour, but I don’t think the other tourists would have been as keen to that. On the positive (and they always seem to be more positives), many of the people on the bus were much better than I at spotting wildlife, and there is no way I would have liked to find myself behind the wheel of any vehicle over some of the passes we traversed.

Further to that point, after all the driving I did on my recent roadtrip, it was nice to have someone else watching the road/rail so that I could enjoy the sights without distraction.

I spent the evening at the lodge/village. On Saturday morning, I strolled the grounds of the lodge until it was time to catch the motorcoach to the McKinley Princess Lodge, roughly 105 miles south on State Highway 3, and about 30 miles north of Talkeetna. The main feature of this place was that it is roughly 40 miles east of Mt. McKinley, and the decks of the main lodge were full of people watching for the clouds to clear to reveal the mountain – alas, it didn’t happen during my stay. There were a handful of short nature trails on site also, all of which I strolled on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, I took a horse-drawn wagon ride up in the hills above the lodge – again, no luck seeing Mt. McKinley this day. Part of the excursion included a lesson in panning for gold: I was successful, in that I did get a few flakes of gold, but I have eliminated gold-panning as a next career option. I caught a 4:30 motorcoach to Ted Stevens Anchorage Airport for my flight back to San Francisco. A highlight of the ride to Anchorage was seeing a moose cross our path on the highway.