2013 Alaska

at Denali State Park

This is the trip that almost caused a divorce. We did indeed check on the Alaska weather ahead of time. Average temperatures of upper forties didn't sound so bad, but when we learned that several of the park roads, attractions, and even hotels and restaurants would be closed, Debbie wanted to re-book our FF flights to someplace warmer. I didn't want to, partially because I'm stubborn enough want to go and enjoy Alaska in spite of the closings, and partially because I didn't want to incur change fees totaling $300. Stubbornness and cheapness is a bad combination – just ask Debbie. But my small victory - our decision to go anyway - would be a Pyrrhic one if there was terrible weather, or if we discovered even more things closed down than we anticipated.


The Road to Healy

We flew into Anchorage and crashed at the hotel. Early the next morning I went out for an enjoyable, but slightly scary run on the dark trails.

Later that morning we drove up towards Denali. The highway (there are only a handful of roads in Alaska - you can't get lost) starts out as six lanes of traffic in Anchorage, and eventually gets down to two. The scenery is mostly fantastic, although there are some ugly areas of human development, like the area just north of Wasilla, that gradually diminished completely. Generally the further north we went, the prettier the views. But even Anchorage itself is in a beautiful location.

The Anchorage weather forecast had predicted a mostly cloudy day with some rain. But here it was actually fairly nice. Yes, it was mostly cloudy, but there was also some bits of sunshine, and there was no rain at all. The yellow aspen leaves - still hanging onto the trees here - lit up brightly when the sun did make its appearances.

The further north we went, the more mountains we saw. Naturally we were getting closer to Denali. Denali National Park is adjacent to Denali State Park, as well as other public forestland. Altogether it's vast, and almost completely pristine. We stopped a couple times to stretch our legs and also enjoy the mountain vistas.

Arriving at the park itself around mid-day, we immediately talked to a ranger who provided some excellent advice: drive into, and along the 30 mile park road today, for tomorrow it may be closed due to snow in the forecast. Snow - how can it snow when it's so nice at the moment, I wondered?

Some of the Denali Scenery

Drive in we did. Only buses are allowed on the 90-mile park road in the summer, but in the fall individual drivers may go for the initial third of that, until snow closes the entire thing down. But snow wasn't going to affect us. No way.

It was a great ride into this wonderful park. There are sweeping scenic vistas all along the way. We stopped and did short hikes on the Mountain Vista trail and part of the Savage Alpine trail. We heard somewhere that there is a 30℅ chance of seeing Mt. McKinley, but a 95℅ chance of seeing grizzly bears. We didn't spot the mountain - it's supposedly visible from these trails and areas at times, but not usually. Although there was some sun, there was too many clouds to see that faraway mountain. We didn't spot any bears or other large animals either. Maybe it was the bells we jingled, or the bear spray we carried. And maybe this was all for the best anyway; we certainly didn’t want to get too close. But regardless - what mountain scenery anyway!

Lake Healy from our B&B

Everything close to the park was closed for the season, so we stayed at the Denali Lakeview Inn B&B in Healy, which is about ten miles north of the park. Not much goes on in Healy, but we did enjoy a small brewpub-type place there.

The next day it did indeed snow. This didn't have much effect on us lower-elevation types, but it did further coat the mountain-tops. Mountains, you say? How about a nice little hike up Mount Healy? It's only 4-5 miles round-trip, with a bit of verticality thrown in for good measure. Debbie wasn't entirely on board with this one, but she did go along.

We marched up higher and higher, and the views became more and more spectacular, despite the occasional snow and clouds. We spotted moose tracks, but otherwise no large animals. The already steep ascent managed to become more and more steep as the hike went on. Eventually Debbie decided not to continue on any further.

Made it to the top!

I made the final 20 minute or so climb by myself. The view at the top was indeed stupendous, and well worth the trip. Wandering around up there for a few minutes and enjoying those fabulous views, including the snow clouds rolling in all around, but worried about Debbie, I suddenly had this brilliant idea: call her via cell phone! I know that seems absolutely insane - unless you are under 60 years old or so. Most insane of all: she actually answered!

After the hike, we drove into the park one last time

Healy - North, then South

Something even stranger happened the next day: the snow that had continued all day, continued more during the night. We awoke to bone-chilling cold and about an inch of snow and ice. No problem, we thought; just brush the snow and chip the ice off the car, and get moving.

Heading north, that is. Our plans had been to visit Fairbanks and Chena Hot Springs, and then eventually head back down to Anchorage via the longer eastern route through Glenallen. But note the past tense as in, our plans 'had been...'. The further north we traveled on the Parks Highway, the more snow we encountered. No problem, we thought; our all-wheel drive Subaru Forrester will go through anything.

Snow along the hillside next to the road as we turned back

Except when it doesn't. We seemed to be slip-sliding all over the mostly deserted highway as the unplowed snow became deeper and deeper. I later determined that the poor traction was due to extremely bald tires. A couple thoughts about all this were bouncing around in our heads.

- There was no telling how much more it would snow, how long it would be before we saw a snowplow, or weather things would get better or worse closer to Fairbanks.
- We certainly did know that things were getting progressively worse the further north we went from Healy.
- We recalled from our last trip that Fairbanks proper wasn't really all that scenic. In fact, the word, 'bleak' came to mind. But it would have been nice, we thought, to experience Chena Hot Springs as well as some other areas we hadn't been through.
- We've been through snowstorms before - we live in Cleveland, after all - but we are on vacation, dang-it, and we shouldn't have to risk our lives here.
- Anchorage would be our next destination anyway, and we could easily cancel our Fairbanks plans, while extending the Anchorage portion of the trip.
- There was no talk of divorce at the moment, but if I hadn't agreed to turn around just then...

That did it. We turned around and drove back past Healy and the park, down to Anchorage. The snowstorm subsided, and it was nice down there. Along the way, we stopped to walk around Reflections Lake. Now the sun was out, and the fall foliage, along with the Chugach Mountain scenery, was stunning.

Reflections Lake, north of Anchorage

Anchorage, this time for a few days

Kincaid Park

The next day we had to decide amongst all the things to see and do in the big city. We started with a short hike at Kincaid Park, and followed that up with a longer and more strenuous hike at Flattop Mountain in the Glen Alps area of Chugach State Park. By the way, in case you were wondering about the derivation of that ‘Chugach’ place name, lookyahere: When the Europeans first came to the area, they asked the local Native American Indians what they call the surrounding mountains. The Indians didn't understand at all, but one of them happened to sneeze right at that moment...

Glen Alps Trails

A day later we were once more driving near, and around the Chugach Mountains. We drove southeast from Anchorage on the Seward Highway, along the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. What a spectacular drive that is! Especially at this time of the year, with the fall foliage at its peak.

Our destination was Girdwood, where we hiked the 5-mile Winner Creek Trail. This took us through a temperate rain forest, to a deep river gorge. Did I mention the cold? It was 33F, but with the dampness felt even colder. It was an enjoyable hike, nonetheless. Perhaps we'll be able to feel our fingers again some day.

The Alyeska Ski Resort's tram ride up the side of the mountain was, unfortunately, closed on weekdays. But we'd seen plenty of mountains lately, Chugach and otherwise.

What to do in Anchorage when it's raining? It was for or third day there. We hit the Anchorage museum at Rassmusan Center. There was a combination of art and Alaskan Native American culture and history. It was nifty.


Heavenly Homer

Our Bear!

The drive from Anchorage to Homer took us about five hours, but we made frequent stops. One was for a grizzly bear that crossed the road in front of us. Yes, we finally did see one, and it was fairly close-by. Happily, we were in the car. Later on during the trip we spotted a couple bald eagles, swans, a glacier and some roadkill-porcupines.

Approaching Homer

The rain had been hard at times, but had mostly subsided by the time we got close to Homer. Homer's location is a stunning one; the scenery across the bay is sublime. This is a small fishing town that grew up, and also became 'artsy'. It's also the end of the road. They say that if you take the US highway system northwest through Canada and Alaska as far as it will go, you'd wind up here in Homer. The 'Homer Spit' is a narrow peninsula taking you 5 miles out into Kachemak Bay. And that's it. The End.

On the Homestead Trail

After a windy and overcast day, we had some wonderful weather in Homer. We hiked portions of the Homestead trail, and did some shorter walks around town. The Homestead trail provided some sweeping views of Kachemak bay, as well as some of the mountains to the west. Since we visited the town's winery the previous day, we had to stop in at the Homer Brewery this day. Our dinner was at Cafe Cups, where they served great seafood. Did I mention that Homer is the 'Halibut Capital of the World'?


Stupendous, Sublime, Stunning, Scenic Seward

The three hour drive from Homer to Seward took us six or seven. We were actually making very good progress, and were beginning to wonder what we'd do with the extra time in Seward. The earlier than expected start helped. The newspaper stated that there was a half-marathon in Homer, beginning at 8:30. We showed up, only to learn that check-in was at 8:30, and the race wasn’t until 10. That was far too late as far as I was concerned, so instead I just did a shorter run back to the hotel, giving us the extra time.

Still wondering what to do in Seward, we made a couple stops as we got within an hour of our destination. You guessed it: there was more gorgeous scenery. One of the brief stops turned into a not-so-brief one - an hour-long hike up and back down a mountain on the Carter Lake Trail. We never did find a lake, or figure out what one would be doing at the top of a mountain anyway.

As we approached to within a couple miles of town, we decided to turn off the highway and onto the road to the Exit Glacier. The glacier is within Kenai Fjords National Park, but most of the road isn't. The key word here is 'most'. The National Park was closed due to Congressional Stupidity, but we were able to park and then walk into the park.

We weren't supposed to do this. The signs at the road barrier were clear enough about no pedestrians, and we'd heard on NPR that some national park trespassers were being caught an fined. We figured this was fairly unlikely; who was there to be handing out the fines?

Even so, it was a bit spooky walking the mile and a half on that deserted road. Kind of like being the last people left on the planet. (I'd say I do too much sci-fi, but Debbie brought this up before I did.) At the end of the road, we discovered that there was yet another mile to go - on trails this time - to actually get to the glacier. We'd now been seeing it from several viewpoints along the way. We'd also seen the signposts telling us where the glacier had been in recent years, and how much it's receded. A light misty rain was beginning to fall. The scene - the clouds, the mist, the steep mountain cliffs, and the entire glacial plain and river - was surreal.

Whilst walking up that trail, my fear of being caught slowly subsided, but I began to wonder about a different potential danger: bears. And wouldn’t you know it - we'd forgotten the bear spray.

Looking down on the Exit Glacier plain

There were a few other people about as we got within feet of the glacier (the other last humans on planet earth?), and one lady did talk about encountering a bear on the trail, as well as seeing another down on the glacial plain. We got a close look at the glacier - we couldn't actually touch it because there was a deep chasm between the trail and the ice - and then got moving the hell out of dodge.

After all those miles of walking, we were pretty tired on the way back. But we did make good time; even more so after seeing bear tracks in the mud along the side of the road.

Next to, but not touching Exit Glacier

To summarize this little adventure: long walk, awesome glacier, no bear or park authorities, lots of exhaustion, not quite the end of the world (we did eventually get to Seward, where there was a little more civilization).

During our next day in Seward, it decided to rain all day. About the only thing to do in that case was the Alaska SeaLife Center. It was an aquarium where research is done regarding Alaska sea mammals, birds and fish, but was truly just a bunch of fish.

Our final day in Seward and Alaska would prove to be a long one. The flight home wasn't leaving till 9:45 PM, and it would be a two-hour drive to ANC, so we decided to take a short, easy morning walk and enjoy the nice weather.

The coastal trail would lead from the end of the road south, and we planned to walk a mile and a half to the river crossing and back. Like Homer, Seward is a coastal town (on the other side of the Kenai peninsula) where the road comes to an end. Seward is probably the most scenically stunning place we visited. The mountains shoot sharply right out of the sea all around the little shelf of land where the town sits. It's also the starting point or terminal point of most Alaska cruises; we boarded our ship here 24 years back.

The easy little walk turned out to be mighty tough. Even though the trail was along the coast, there were still plenty of big, Alaska-size hills. And rocks. And mud. But we were rewarded with some great views at the river turn-around. At that point, a bald eagle flew directly over my head while I was crossing the bridge there. We also got a close view of a ptarmigan on the trail.

Some of us were pretty well beat up after this little hike. I think there was an accumulative effect, considering all the other hiking as well.

On the way back to ANC we stopped at the Portage glacier. Too bad we were too tired to walk very far at that point, because it was a beautiful area. We did see more bald eagles and swans along the way.

So it was a great trip, with many memorable hikes, some wildlife sightings, great scenery, all kinds of weather, and not one divorce.

To view Dan's Blog post about his runs in Alaska, click here.