Our first two started from Juneau which
is the
capital of
the state. Anyone that visits Juneau is
taken to the
only
glacier that is accessible from land,
Mendenhall. A
glacier
is a river of ice which can be one mile
in height
(from top
to below the waterline) and is always
moving
imperceptibly
by either advancing or receding, and
crushing
anything that
lies in its path. It is made up of
snow, some of
which is
over one million years old, that has
compacted to
form the
glacier. A glacier is always blue in
color because
the ice
is so dense, the blue spectrum cannot
penetrate it
and is
reflected. You can always tell a
glacier fed river
by the
color of the water and the everpresent
silt which is
the
rocks that have been ground to a powder
by the sheer
weight
of the ice.
The face of a glacier is always changing
by what is
called
"calving" where huge chunks break off
and fall into
the
sea. The sound is unbelievable. Some
of these
icebergs
are the size of a large building (as
seen in
"Titanic") and
what is on the surface is just 1/3 the
size of the
piece of
ice. The part under the surface is
crystal clear.
On our second trip we took a boat to
Skagway, a small
town
that looks just like it did during the
gold rush. It
is a
must see in my opinion. We took a
helicoptor ride to
a
hanging glacier from here. You are
given moon boots,
which
keep you from slipping on the ice,
before boarding
the
helicoptor. Once on board, everyone has
a headset so
you
can hear the pilot talk about what your
are seeing.
To try to describe the beauty is not
possible. We
saw a
glacier fed stream emptying into a
freshwater river
which
showed the difference in the color of
the water very
dramatically. It was difficult to
believe we were
traveling over 100 mph as it seemed we
were hardly
moving.
We finally landed on the glacier which
is an
experience
I'll not soon forget. It was just five
people, the
helicoptor and the glacier. We had to
be careful of
crevasses as you come upon them without
warning. We
spent
some time listening to the silence and
taking in the
whole
experience. Once again,
scenery....after too short a
time,
we boarded the helicoptor and returned
to Skagway.
The next day we took the White Pass &
Yukon Railway,
which
is a narrow gauge train, that took us
through the
most
important areas of the state in regards
to the gold
rush.
If you read Michener's "Alaska" you'll
remember the
Chillkoot Pass which the miners had to
navigate to
get to
the gold fields. This area has an
almost vertical
rock
face that they had to climb, with
thousands of pounds
of
provisions, four or five times, to get
to the camp.
There
is an area called Dead Horse Gulch where
the pack
animals
just died from exhaustion. It really
made you
appreciate
what they went through just for gold -
most didn't
make it
and had to go home defeated and
broke.
We arrived in Fraser in the Yukon
Territory, Canada
and
boarded our coach which would take us
along the Alcan
Highway to Fairbanks. Riding the highway
is the only
way to
fully appreciate the vastness of the
state. Miles
and
miles of nothing but magnificent
scenery. Not
another
vehicle, not a filling station, nothing.
We would
stop to
eat in towns with populations of 5 and
overnight in
places
with 30 people. This is Alaska. Vast,
desolated,
unpopulated, beautiful.
Along the way we came in contact with
the Alyeska
Pipeline
from Prudehoe Bay. For all the flap
about this
engineering
feat, there has never been a mishap -
not one drop of
oil
spilled and the impact on the wildlife
has been
positive as
they tend to use it for warmth in the
winter months.
It
ain't pretty, but it could have been
much worse.
We say the results of outsiders trying
to settle here
any
buying land from the "stupid" residents
close to
nothing.
What they didn't know is you cannot
build a "normal"
house
on permafrost. Just beneath the surface
of soil is
ice
which never melts and the cold
temperature will cause
a
structure to heave and buckle, rendering
it
uninhabitable.
There are beautiful, large homes, all
warped, just
sitting
there. Guess who were the stupid
ones?
We have been to Denali National Park
twice. Denali
is the
Inuit name for Mount McKinley and it
means "the Great
One".
This is the highest peak on the
continent and were
were
fortunate to see her as she is usually
shrouded in
clouds.
But, when she decides to show herself,
it is
something to
see. The first trip we stayed outside
the park
itself
and went for a walk to a small lake
called Horseshoe
Lake.
We watched a beaver working on its dam
and decided to
walk
to another part of the lake. We looked
up and across
the
water, not 25 yards away was our own
private moose
just
grazing in the water. The two of us
just stood there
and
watched him for the longest time. A
special moment in
our
lives. The park itself is so vast, it
takes over
three
hours to go to the end and no public
vehicles are
allowed -
only their own buses. If you want to see
wildlife,
this is
the place to go. We saw moose, caribou,
bears, dall
sheep,
ptarmagin, beavers, marmots, swans,
loons,etc.(see
Photo
Album). Oh, oh, I almost forget our
riding the rapids
boat
trip - great fun. Another place not to
miss.
On our third trip we stayed overnight in
Talkeetna
the
place from which all climbing expedition
begin and
from
which you can take a flightseeing trip
to see the
mountain.
It was breathtaking! We were also lucky
to stay
inside the
park (where there are only three
privately owned
small
hotels) and we hiked to some magnificent
sites.
We went to Valdez and took a boat from
there through
Prince
William Sound where the Exxon Valdez
spilled its oil.
We
were there just after the cleanup and
didn't see any
oil.
However, we were not near the shoreline
where most of
the
damage is. We did see three different
kinds of
seals,
otters, beaver, eagles (you always see
eagles),
etc.
On our third trip we spent most of our
time in the
Kenai
peninsula which is an area I highly
recommend. There
are
very few tourists and it is so
beautiful. We stayed
in
cabins without plumbing (there was a
very nice
bathhouse)
and we loved it.
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