Alaska 2001 Trip Diary
Thursday June 28, 2001
Drove to Talkeetna, saw Mt McKinley numerous times along theway. Flew to Mt. McKinley and surrounding area on 5 seater plane. We circled around mountain tops, flew ridges, and over passes. Landed at Mt. McKinley basecamp at 7,500 feet and visited with the climbers and had drinks and candy bars. At the base camp it was around 50-60° F. It was crystal clear and no wind. We weaved a figure eight around many mountains and flew to nearly 12,000 feet.
After the flight we drove to Petersville Pass, a place we had seen from the airplane. This is an old gold town now abandoned. We goldpanned and ate dinner at an old roadhouse along the road. It had to locals in it (old guys) at the bar talking about good old times. There were dollar bills from many countries stapled to the wood walls and beams. Petersville road took about 1 hour to drive out to the pass. There were great views of the mountains along the way.
After returning to the main highway we drove to our cabin at the entrance of Denali Park.
Friday June 29, 2001
Finished packing for our camping trip. We took the bus in to
Got to Wonder Lake around 2:30 and setup camp. The mosquitos were so bad were had to wear head nets. We went on a short hike to McKinley bar (the old riverbed) but never made it because the bugs were too bad (even with our nets). We prepared dinner and got a 30 minute break from the bugs when a cold wind started blowing off McKinley. It was hard to sleep that night because the mosquitos were so loud and it rained heavily (and we got wet). We debated leaving the campground early like nearly all the other campers but decided to spend the next day at Eilson Visitor Center area.
Saturday June 30, 2001
Got up at 7:00 and went to Eilson on the early morning bus. We hiked towards sunset glacier thinking it was about 4 miles away (we had a topo map). It turned out to be about 6 miles once all the curves were counted so we only made it half way. We had a hot lunch on the trail since we took all our food with us.
We jumped a huge bull mouse on the sandbar. We detoured ½ mile and turned around at 2:30 to return to the visitor center. We made it back in about 2 ½ hours since we found a good way to cross the river. We made dinner at the visitor center since there were no mosquitos at all due to the higher elevation.
We had a close encounter with a grizzly. I was surprised how large these animals are.
We took the late bus to Wonder Lake. We saw 2 moose (one was close). It started to get very cloudy and we could tell rain was coming. Around 11:00 it started to pour. It didn’t stop until about 3:30 AM. We were better prepared for rain this night so we didn’t get any equipment wet. But it was very cold.
Sunday July 1, 2001
Mt. McKinely was out this morning and it was a clear view (with clouds behind it). We packed up camp and got on the 8:30 bus, which went by Reflection Pond. The mosquitos were worse than we had seen before (and there were tiny baby ones now too).
Reflection Pond made it all worthwhile. It was beautiful and I can’t believe Ansel Adams took a famous picture of Wonder Lake and never took one of Reflection Pond. We also went to the North side of Wonder Lake and the mountains were perfect. A finished off nearly an entire roll of film.
On the bus ride out of the park we saw 3 grizzles, ptarmigan, fox, a golden eagle, mountain sheep, and caribu. Mt. McKinley was covered with clouds by 9:30 AM.
We got out of the park and checked into our cabin. We relaxed in the hot tub since our legs were so tired.
Monday July 2, 2001
Long drive to Copper Center (about 7 hours) on the Denali Highway. This was a full day of driving since the road limited speed to about 30 MPH. There were pretty glaciers and nice vistas of valleys and hills. There wasn’t really a place to eat along the highway but that was okay since we had leftover food from our camping trip.
We stayed at the Copper Center Lodge, which was an old historic site. They had an interesting museum with very old maps of the area. Dinner was excellent. We had Copper River Salmon and fresh Halibut. Those fish were both recently caught. For dessert we had homemade blueberry pie.
Tuesday July 3, 2001
We woke up early to drive to Chitna to catch a flight to Kennicott. The flight was about 20 minutes but did have some nice views. The flight was very comfortable and they carried our luggage along.
After checkin at Kennicott Lodge we went on a glacier hike. Our guide was Kevin, who worked for a local adventure company. They provided us with crampons – basically spikes which one attaches to the bottom of boots to allow walking on ice. We walked for about 6 hours on the icy glacier. We say ice caves, ice waterfalls (which we climbed to), huge cracks, mulans (deep holes that are filled with blue water). Kevin told us all about how glaciers work and what they do. But it was different getting this tour from a walk.
We made it back for dinner and crashed. Walking a glaciers is deceptively difficult. It’s like climbing many little hills.
Wednesay July 4, 2001
We went to the Fourth of July parage in McCarthy (Kennicott Lodge provided us transportation in a van). We got there a bit early (parade was at noon) so we looked around a bit at some of the old parts of the town. The parade was an interesting experience since people came out of the hills for the event. It was quite a cultural experience. We had BBQ at the hotel before returning to Kennicott Lodge.
At 2:30 we started a hike to Bonanza Mine – about 3 miles up 4,500 feet of elevation. It took us about 7 ½ hours for the round trip and we were very tired. The mine was great. It was very old and still standing. It is an amazing engineering marvel how they built the trolly cars and got everything up the mountain. We also picked up some raw copper ore from the scrap piles. It is 70% copper. We got back around 10:00 PM and were so tired we skipped dinner. I found out later than many people do the hike over 2 days.
Thursday July 5, 2001
We took an early flight out of Kennicott to Chitna. It was very cloudy and rainy and there was some concern about the bush pilots canceling the flight since they use sight to navigate. We made it out just fine and then drove to Valdez.
It was raining in Valdez so we went to the museum. The museum was surprisingly good and we spent a few hours there. It as cloudy so we couldn’t see the mountains. We ate dinner at Totem Inn and had fresh salmon (which was excellent). We stayed at a place just outside of town with two nice folks – Lou and Laura – who knew a lot about the town.
Friday July 6, 2001
We did the pipeline tour in the morning since we were hoping the weather would improve. After that we went on a half-day cruise aboard the Lu-Lu Belle. This cruise lasted about 6 ½ hours and we went about 45 miles out of port. We saw sea lions, sea otters, puffin, 2 humpbacks, Columbia Glacier tide waters. We couldn’t get all the way back to the glacier, but it was still impressive. There were huge ice bergs and the current was very fast since the tide was going out. We also saw Bligh Reaf where the Valdez Oil Spill occurred in 1998.
We went to dinner again at the Totem with some folks we had met on the tour.
Saturday July 7, 2001
We took a kayak tour of Shoup Glacier with Pangaea Tours. Not only was it very cold and wet, but we didn’t see any animals and weren’t able to spend enough time watching the glacier calve. It was very disappointing – especially considering the money it cost. We had to spend a few hours thawing out.
We ate at Mike’s and had pizza. It was a fun local place that was very popular amount the native Valdez folks.
Sunday July 8, 2001
We borrowed mountain bikes from Lou and Laura and rode Mineral Creek back to the old gold stamping mill. It was about 11 ½ miles round trip. It was raining but we did get some breaks. We missed church since there were fewer masses than we thought. Nick enjoyed going back to the places to gold pan that he had visited previously. We probably could have driven back, but biking was more fun.
Monday July 9, 2001
Left Valdez and the sky was clear. Finally we got to see the mountains clearly and we were disappointed we had missed so much. Thompson Pass was beautiful and we took many pictures of the mountains. The Glenn Highway was in great condition so the entire drive to Hatcher Pass took about 7 hours. We stopped many times to see rivers and take pictures. We were in no particular hurry.
We made it to Hatcher Pass and ate dinner in their skiing lodge. We took a walk after dinner and panned for gold. But we didn’t find anything because the gold was a different type and was fused to the granite. A lot of gold had been taken from that pass and some are still active. But the family that runs the mines doesn’t talk much (so they must be hitting it big time).
Tuesday July 10, 2001
We made a leisurely drive to Seward from Hatcher Pass. We had a big breakfast at the ski lodge before we left and explored the mountain lakes a bit before we went below the tree line.
It took about 5 hours to make the trip to Seward. The Seward Highway was very scenic but the weather was cloudy and rainy. The cloud ceiling was about 3,500 feet so the tall mountains were hidden.
We stopped at Portage Glacier Visitor Center. The glacier has receeded a lot from what Nick remembers. It is no longer visible from the Visitor Center but there were a few big ice bergs right off shore about 50 feet. The only way to see the glacier is from Whittier (climb back over the ridge).
Once we got to Seward we found the Bed & Breakfast. There were Bald Eagles in the trees of this house as it had one of the highest pine trees in the city. We ate at Christo’s and had Halibut. It was almost the best fish I have ever had (it was grilled in garlic butter). The garlic mashed potatoes were heavenly. We then window shopped along the mainstreet of town then along the harbor looking at sailboats and talking with the fishermen.
Wednesday July 11, 2001
We got up late and headed to the Sea Life Center in Seward because it was raining. Around 2:30 we started up Exit Glacier. It was warm enough at the bottom for just a t-shirt and a coat but it quickly grew colder as we climbed in elevation. The entire hike took us about 2 ½ hours to get to the second big knoll overlooking Harding Ice Field. The rain was bad and the temperature dropped to about 32° F. Since the cloud ceiling was about 3,500 feet, we couldn’t see very far at all.
Harding Ice Field was nearly hidden in clouds. But we did take a picture from the spot where Nick’s family picture was taken in 1998. We had hot chocolate with us and were thankful we had something hot. It took about 2 hours to hike back down to the glacier base and we explored around a bit.
We had dinner at the Roadhouse on Exit Glacier road. It was very good and very satisfying since we were cold and hungry.
Thursday July 12, 2001
We left early on a cruise ship with about 70 other people from the docks. It was cloudy, cold, and raining. We saw a few eagles, porposes, sea lions, and numerous humpback whales (about 8 total by the end of the day). We went to Northwest Glacier and watched it calve for about 15 minutes (in silence). We could hear the glacier popping, groaning, and dropping rocks under the ice. The water was calm inside the inlets but we did cross some open water and the swells were 4-8 feet. Many passengers got sea sick. We sat outside watching the waves come and go and the mountains pass by.
We ate at the harbor and the place where we were staying (5th Avenue Lodging) was too big and had no breakfast (plus is was expensive). We didn’t sleep well either. We wish we could have stayed more nights at the other B&B we had stayed at in Seward (Northern Lights B&B). But they were all full the third night when I made reservations.
Friday July 13, 2001
Originally we had planned to drive to Whittier early and take another half-day cruise to see wildlife. But Nick got sick and the weather was cold and rainy. So we changed the tour to be one day later and took our time to drive to Whittier.
There is nothing in Whitter – especially when its raining and cold. We stayed at the local hotel and this was a mistake. Since Nick was sick, we spent most of the day watching TV (while Nick slept). The hotel was far below our standards and there was nothing better available. It would have been fun to hike up the ridge to see Portage Glacier but the weather was not cooperating and Nick was sick. There really weren’t restaurants in Whittier either. Just mostly industrial areas and a harbor. However, the view of the surrounding moutains would have been wonderful.
Saturday July 14, 2001
We got up to a surprise – no clouds in the sky. The boat tour was warm and sunny. We saw many more humpback whales, glaciers, waterfalls, and some beautiful ocean. We thought you could see forever in the inlets (but you could really only see 80 miles in any direction). The cruise boat out of Whittier was better than Seward but there were less animals to see. The cruise was completely full (everyone drove down from Anchorage).