TOK *
A stop at the Tok Visitor Center is a MUST. Of course, you are going to have to find room for the 47 pounds of literature on things to see and do while you are in Alaska. Tok has a large grocery store but wait for better prices in Fairbanks to do major shopping.
Fairbanks * *
There is SO much to do in Fairbanks. See the Milepost for pages and pages of choices.
My favorite was the U of A Large Animal Research Station which has herds of musk ox, reindeer, and caribou. In 1998 there were tours on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The tours are with a graduate student telling you about the animals and the work being done to understand their habitats. At the University's Geophysical Institute on Tuesdays there is a tour of the seismology lab and the Alaska Synthetic Aperture Radar facility. There is also a short film: The Aurora Explained. Check to see if the tour schedule has been changed.
Gold Dredge No. 8 in Fairbanks was second rate when compared to my experiences in Dawson City. But if you had to skip Dawson City, go!
The largest public display of gold in the state is at the UofA's Fairbanks museum.
Alaska Land offers boondocking for something like $12. It also allows you to shop without dealing with downtown parking and traffic. There is a State Park oh the west side of town that is very nice.
Fill up the fuel tank and hit Freddy Meyer and/or Wal-Mart - it is going to be another week or so before you get prices this good again.
OPTIONS North of Fairbanks
North of Fairbanks are trips to Circle (162 miles from Fairbanks), Manley Hot Springs (152 miles) and Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay (487 miles). As I didn't take any of these trips, I can't help you decide if they might be worth the time and miles. See the Milepost.
Delta Junction from Fairbanks This is a 98 mile back track but it gives you an excuse to do the Denali Highway! It does mean you will miss the stretch between Fairbanks and Denali National Park but, in my opinion, this is not a particularly great drive anyway. Take the time to stop at the pull outs along the river which braids its way down the valley and carries a heavy load of glacial silt.
Paxson from Delta Junction You are driving through the eastern Alaskan Range. I took this drive one evening, leaving Delta Junction about 9 p.m. In the twilight which lasted until almost midnight, we saw more moose than I ever saw on this trip, including the archetypical view of a moose-in-a-pond which made my day. We also spotted one of the few wild herds of musk oxen on the other side of the river. Perhaps one of the secrets of seeing wildlife in Alaska is to be where they are when the are out and about in the early morning or late evening. About midnight we pulled off onto the Denali Highway and spent the night boondocking on a pull out looking north to the snow capped Alaskan range. What a beautiful place to wake up, take a walk, coffee cup in hand, and listen to the silence.
Paxson to Cantwell via The Denali Highway * * *
This is a gravel road and 25 MPH is good. Enjoy the Alaska Range to the north. Nearing Cantwell, you have a spectacular view of Mt McKinley, if you are lucky and the clouds aren't covering the mountain. There are boondocking spots all along this road!
Denali National Park * * *
I should have made reservations for Denali - both for a camp site and for a bus tour. I lucked out and there was a cancellation while I was standing in line and we got what I think was the perfect site.
If you get a site at the Savage River campground, take the loop to the left and at the end of the loop are 4 or 5 sites to the right. To the left is low brush and there, in the distance, McKinley! That night I stayed up until about 1 am when it finally got dark. McKinley, at least 25 miles away, was beautiful out of our front windows. And the last hour of so, as the sun set, the alpenglow built until the entire mountain shimmered an orangish pink in the twilight. Magical.
It was still clear and beautiful in the morning. A wonderful gift.
The only bus tour available was the evening bus to Polychrome Pass. I thought we would see more wildlife at that time of day. However, from talking to folks on other tours, wildlife sightings on a Denali bus tour is problematic. The scenery is beautiful but the only major wildlife we saw was a grizzly and two cubs about a mile away, blond dots in the distance. Yes, the grizzly, called the brown bear, comes in a wide range of colors. In Denali they are definately blond.
There is one other campground I would have liked to try. The Taklanika River CG is 29 miles into the park and because cars and RVs are prohibited beyond mile 14, except to go to this campground, you have to make a reservation for a minimum of 3 days. You can hitch a ride on any bus from this campground, as long as there is room.
Note: There are helicopter tours available from this area. I decided not to take one because the flight seeing from Talkeetna is much closer to McKinley and you are able to fly over much more of the mountain, particularly the approaches used by climbers.
Talkeetna * * * *
I fell in love with Talkeetna.
It is a little town. Tiny. With a lot of bush pilots. Pilots who file climbers to the glacier which is the base camp for climbing Mt Mckinley. They also fly tourist like me to McKinley.
The town is about 5 blocks long, 2 or 3 wide. The campground in town ($8) has 8 sites and no hook ups. There is a large fire ring in the middle and that makes a great place for the campers to pull up a chair and chat in the evening. There is a dump and drinking water available at the service station in town, about 3 blocks away. There is another public campground out of town near the boat ramps.
A short walk away from town takes you over a small stream and onto a large sandy flood plain where the Talkeetna and Chulitna Rivers meet. You can take a seat on a tree trunk deposited during the spring breakup to watch the sun set behind Mt McKinley.
In late July there is the Moose Dropping Festival. The hamburger place in town was decorated with brown balloons for this event. The owner said she had searched for MONTHS to find brown balloons! But even undecorated, Talkeetna has a charm of its own. By the way, they don't drop a moose at the festival. Rather, it celebrates those things dropped BY a moose. In August there is the Bluegrass Festival.
There is a Denali National Park ranger station here even though the National Park is miles away. The rangers vet potential McKinley climbers trying to weed out those who do not have the equipment or experience to survive. There is no way, of course, to really protect people against themselves or the violence of the arctic storms which, even in summer, can generate winds on the mountain of more than 100 miles an hour and temperatures of minus 30 and below.
You can see the mountain (clouds permitting) from the front porch and it is only a short walk to the Talkeetna Cemetery where there is a memorial to the 88 people who have died climbing.
You are welcome to visit the center and watch some of the videos about the challenges of Mt McKinley.
Boat trip to see the bears One evening I took a jet boat up the river to Clear Creek. Like most rivers in Alaska, the Talkeetna River is full of glacier flour. The salmon migrate up the rivers to their home creeks which are pure mountain drainage channels without glacier flour. Every spawning creek I have seen as been very shallow and fast running. Salmon eggs need this aerated water to develop. Of course, a fish intent on spawning in a shallow clear stream is a easy target for the bears.
One of the cubs put on a show for us. There was a log about 100 yards away. The cub was behind the log, stood up, looked us over, and finally started to climb up on the log, NEVER taking his eyes off us. His front paws straddled the log but his hind paw kept slipping off. This bear is never going to be a gymnast! Slip sliding on, over and off the log, he finally decided we have been charmed long enough and exited stage right behind the bushes. But this bear knows about encores. About every 3 or 4 steps, he stood up behind the bush and bear ears, eyes, and snout come into view - just checking the audience reaction.
Our guides both carried shotguns loaded with slugs but primarily to provide comfort to the tourist. The bears (except for the cub) ignored us and concentrated on fishing.
McKinley by Air The reason I had come to Talkeetna in the first place was to fly to McKinley. I had read a lot about the mountain. Bush pilots played a central role in the development of Alaska and in Talkeetna they still exist. Their primary business in the Spring is to fly climbers to the 7,000 level on the Kahiltna Glacier, the base camp for the summit bid. In the summer, their business is tourist like me who want to get much closer to this mysterious place. In the early summer the ice is still firm enough on the glaciers to allow the planes to land and let the tourists go walking. But sometime in June, the snow covering begins to melt so that if you could land, you would sink into slush.
Taking a flight seeing trip to McKinley was the one thing I had promised myself I would not miss. I knew that McKinley created its own weather and that I would have to be prepared to wait. I waited for 4 days. Of course it helped that I really enjoyed my extended stay in Talkeetna.
I don't have words to describe the power of the images on this flight. I hope you have a change to experience it for yourself.
Anchorage *
I don't like cities and Anchorage is a city complete with suburbs! However, Anchorage has city things which are real cost savers like Freddy Meyer and Wal-Mart. I even found $1.10 diesel (A Texaco across from Freddy Meyer on Diamond Blvd.) Of course, that was in 1998. No telling what “cheap” diesel is today.
Turnagain Arm * * *
You drive down the Turnagain Arm with 4,000 foot mountain peaks rising from the shoreline. The drive south passes a marsh with extensive boardwalks for bird watching, the Beluga Point Interpretive Site and the Indian Valley mine which is listed on the Register of the National Historic Places. All three spots are well worth a stop.
Bird Creek SP CG * *
About 20 miles SE of Anchorage on Turnagain Arm is Bird Creek SP campground. It is a strip of land between the highway and the water with a paved walking/biking path along the shore. This is a great stopping point which allows you to get to the Portage Glacier the next morning. Walking the path in the twilight looking out over Turnagain Arm is a great way to relax. That is one of the reasons I spent a couple of days here.
PORTAGE GLACIER * * *
Driving along Alaska 1 on the North side of Turnagain is beautiful. Notice the dead trees along the road. The 1964 earthquake lowered the land in the area so that sea water invaded and created these "ghost trees". To the east in the Sound, the crust was raised. At the head of the arm we stopped to take the boat ride to Portage Glacier. I would highly recommend this small, relatively inexpensive side trip. Of course, you have to remember I am fascinated by glaciers and can't get enough.
As a bonus, at the Park's visitor's center, they have ice worms! Most glaciers have ice worms but the Forest Service folks actually go out and round them up for you to pet. Well, maybe I'm stretching it a bit. But they DO have ice worms!
There are two USFS campgrounds on the road to the Glacier. Of course, you would know that if you have your Milepost. (Do you think I should demand a commission from the publishers?)
Whittier:
I couldn't convince myself to stretch my budget enough to take both the boat from Whittier up the Collage "canal" and the trip from Valdez into Prince William Sound. I chose the Valdez trip and would HIGHLY recommend it but I still wonder if I shouldn't have also...... Oh well, you can't do everything. By the way, they are building a road to Whittier, an extension of the road to the Portage Glacier park. I don't know when it will be open but your Milepost will give current information.
Exit Glacier * * * *
The Exit Glacier is one of the few places where one can easily enter the Kenai Fjords National Park. We took a ranger led walk up the braided stream carrying away melt water, with the glacier rising before us. Cold air flowing down the glacier changes the climate here. There is a trail which proceeds upward and finally along the side of the glacier. Standing on the lateral moraine and looking into crevices glowing like turquoise blue neon lights, you can feel the power of these moving slabs.
This glacier is very accessible and allows one to reach out and touch an elemental force of nature.
Seward * * *
The Sea Life Museum: They have 3 aquariums, each with under water viewing. The sea lions and harbor seals were interesting but I kept coming back to the sea birds! I knew they dove for food and seemed to stay under water for some time. But actually watching puffins diving 40 feet and swimming underwater with grace and power made me understand what a phenomena this is. They had another species of bird in the pool too but I can't for the life of me remember which. The puffins captured my attention.
A half day at the museum was the perfect preparation for beginning to appreciate the ocean habitat.
If you get there when it opens or VERY soon thereafter, you can get a ticket for the noon tour of the research facilities - no extra charge - it is just that the number of folks on the tour are limited.
Seward - the tour boat A tour boat took us down Resurrection Bay, touching the Gulf of Alaska, and across the face of the Bear Glacier. This evening tour was the least expensive and was one of the few not sold out. But it was the same route that most of the other tours took. In addition, the tour featured a National Park ranger doing narration.
The animals were the stars of the show. There were the pink star fish clinging to the tidal zones of the shear cliffs, the bird and seal lion rookeries, the bald eagles, and one sea otter. Having spent time in the Seal Life Museum added to my appreciation of the complex habitat we were in.
One of the reasons I took this tour boat was the National Park Ranger narration. However, both on this tour and one I took in Glacier National Park, I found the rangers very knowledgeable about animal life and much less knowledgeable about geology, which is my personal interest.
By the way, the Sea Life Museum was paid for as a part of the Exxon Valdez settlement. Based on what I heard in Seward and Valdez, the influx of Exxon money is the only major lasting consequence of that famous oil spill.
OPTION 6 The Kenai and Homer *
About 40 miles N of Seward, the Sterling Highway heads west and then south to Homer - 138 miles one way. If you are a fisherman, you might plan to spend time fishing for halibut in Homer and for salmon on the famous rivers of the Kenai. I enjoyed Homer and my RV spot on the beach but if I was pressed for time, this 276 mile round trip would be the first I would cut. Few fishermen would agree with me.
On to the third section of descriptions.....