So today we drove from Denali to Anchorage. We stopped at a great place along the way and got some amazing mixed berry pancakes. That was more or less the highlight of the day. It wasn’t a very hard day of driving, under 200 miles. We took the car in to have an oil change at the Toyota dealership here in Anchorage. Found our hotel. Really, easy-peasy.
A view of the mountain from the other side
Freaking WOW!
Travel Knitting: Once again zero. I was doing the driving…
Today we took a 12 hour tour of Denali National Park in which resides Mt. McKinley, the 2nd tallest mountain in the world. Since it is doubtful (at this point in time at least) that I will ever see Everest, this is a pretty big deal for me. And see it we did! The mountain was totally clear for most of the morning. The reason that this is important is that they estimate that only a quarter of people who come to see it get to see any of it. The peaks or the middle, not even the whole thing. We got to see the whole thing from top to bottom and it was amazing. Plus, we saw nearly every animal that the park has to offer, including a dozen grizzly bears, caribou, a big bull moose, a red fox, rock sheep and snowshoe hares. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves on this one.
A Large Male Moose getting ready for mating season.
The tundra landscape of Denali
Another male moose with 2 females already in tow
Mist on the tundra
A group of Dall Sheep very far away on a hill side
A momma grizzly and her cub
A closer shot of that duo
Mama looking for berries.
Believe it or not, this is the cub. Grizzly bears care for their cubs for over 2 years!
A couple of Mountain Sheep Rams
The same guys.
Do I really need to caption this? A wolf, and quite close!
What are you looking at people?!?!?!?
A group of Caribou
Another mama Grizzly and her two cubs
Mt. McKinley
This is normally how obscured the mountain is.
Travel Knitting: Once again, zero.
So, not a lot to write about for today. We slept-in (well, as sleeping-in as my mother can which is about 7am) and checked-out of our hotel. The drive down to Denali is relatively short only a 100+ scenic miles. We then found out where our bus tour leaves tomorrow and went shopping in, what the locals call, the “Glitter Gulch” which is where there are a lot of fancy resorts, a great many of which seem to be run by the cruise ship operators.
Then we hunted down our hotel which is very cool, with the offices being in an old train car. I then left mom and dad at the hotel and I drove down the road to a nice campground and did laundry again (I really hate carrying dirty laundry around!). There I met some folks from Homested, FL who were up here for a few weeks as well as some nice folks from Anchorage who had two little mini doxies that I got to love on for a few minutes (one looked just like Weezy except with slightly longer fur [go figure, she lives in Alaska!]). No pictures today as I was driving or shopping most of the time I was awake! Boring day I know, but you have to have one of those once in a while!
Travel Knitting: Nada
So, I cannot tell you hour by hour what I did today. However, I will tell you that it was a cultural experience on par with visiting Morocco. Ok, I just want to start off by saying that I officially have a crush on the village of Barrow and would love to try to live there for a year or two. Yes, you read that right, I would love to live in Barrow, Alaska the most northern incorporated town in the United States. The sense of community there is absolutely amazing. The pride that the folks take in even their municipal systems is pretty amazing, as well it should be. Living in a permafrosted, isolated place like that causes a lot of innovation in the ways that everyday things are done, like a sewer system or electricity. Or just how they even get stuff to them. Everything is either brought in by plane
A 737 Combi
or shipped up on one large barge that arrives in June. All building materials, cars, gasoline everything is brought up on the barges (there is one for stuff and one for gas and diesel). They endure 65 continuous days without seeing the sun each year and even at the height of summer the temperature hovers in the 40’s.
So, I left Fairbanks on an Alaskan Air flight at about 7:30am. The views out the gate areas were amazing of the mountains in the distance. The flight left early and arrived in Prudoe Bay early. There we took on quite a few more people and the testosterone level in the plane skyrocketed. It was all guys that had had jobs working in the oilfields and on the pipeline. All but the high-up engineers had a little bit of a scruffy look about them, like they were a couple of weeks overdue for a haircut. Admittedly, some of the guys looked like they were a couple of years overdue for their trim. Anyway, talking to one of the guys I found out that a lot of them were nice Midwestern boys working up there for the summer to earn enough money for the rest of the year.
The plane ride from Prudoe bay to Barrow was just a quick 45 minute jump and we were dumped out into the smallest airport that I have ever seen a 737 land at.
One of the ground crew that escorted us on the ground into the building was wearing a native style, fur lined parka, which each woman makes in an individual style, with the fluorescent safety vest over it.
We got into the tour bus which is a school bus not much converted. In fact, I feel as though it could be the same exact bus that I rode to school in 20 years ago! Anyway, our tour guide Ryan started showing us the town. Ryan is a native to Barrow and was a wonderful tour guide. He started off wearing jeans and a t-shirt and, get this, sandals! We went too and fro throughout the town, he showed us sights such as the Will Rogers monument,
The Will Rogers Monument
all the schools and churches in town, the fire department and in general, the whole town. Some of the coolest things that we saw:
The remains of sod houses from the Inupiat Eskimo forefathers.
The white things sticking up out of the ground are whale bones that were used to support the sod houses. These ruins are quite old, estimated to come from between 500 and 900 AD.
A high school football game on their new football field.
The football field is made entirely of astroturf and it is probably 20 yards from the Arctic Sea. When the Barrow Whalers win a game the entire team take a dip in the water!
The Arctic Ocean:
The Arctic Ocean in all it's glory.
And not one but two Snowy Owls on the tundra.
This one was out near Freshwater Lake, which is out towards the airport.
And this ballsy one was right across from the pizza place in the archaeological site with the sod house mounds.
Going to Barrow is by far one of the coolest things that I have done yet travel wise and I so want to go back!
Some cool random photos:
A mountain range that we flew over on the way to Prudoe Bay.
This is what permafrost tundra looks like from the sky.
This is the beginning of the Trans Alaskan Pipeline near Prudoe Bay.
The sign post in downtown Barrow.
One of the skin boats that the natives still use for hunting whales. Seriously.
Downtown Barrow
This is Ryan, our tour guide, taking a dip in the Arctic Ocean.
We had the honor of watching the Olympic Torch being run through Barrow. It was totally a coincidence but a very cool one. I loved the dog running along with him!
This is me out at Point Barrow, well, as close to the point as I could get without a 4-wheeler!
The is a whale skull with the top of the BOMB that they use to kill them still sticking out. Believe it or not, this is the humane way to kill a whale!
Here I am in the famous photo-op site.
The reason that I thought that the 2nd owl was ballsy was that it was sitting a few yards away from this sign which reads, "Welcome to the ancient village of Ukpaigvik 'The place where we hunt snowy owls'".
Barrow from the sky.
A glimpse of the Arctic meeting the tundra
My personal favorite. I am IN the Arctic Ocean!
Travel knitting: A few rows on the lace stole on the flight.
6:30am Awake. I swear that mom is somehow hooked-up to some sort of satellite that the atomic clocks use so that she always wakes up at 6:30am no matter the time zone.
7:00am Trying to pack my purse for the day with various large camera lenses and camera and lace knitting. I know, what a weird combo!
8:00am Get to the dock for the Riverboat Discovery trip up the river.
8:30am Get on the paddleboat along with 17 tour buses worth of folks!
The ants go marching one by one....
8:45am See the home and kennels of Susan Butcher the late four-time Iditarod champion.
Happy Dogs!
The Alaskan sled dog has really no conformation to adhere to, thus they can be any color or shape, the main requirements is that they are tough and can run.
11:00am Go to the “village” that the tour boat has set up. I am constantly being blinded by the sequins on some of the ladies visors. Yes, you so read that correctly, sequined visors. It was like the Golden Girls hit Vegas. Went around in a group of about 300 people while an adorable native Alaskan told us about her culture and showed us various displays about life in Alaska.
12:00pm Get back from the paddle boat tour. Head to the El Dorado gold mine tour.
2:30pm Get on the train to see the gold mining presentation.
3:10pm Start panning for gold.
3:15pm Find gold in my pan.
3:30pm Realize that my entire day has been spent in what could easily be called, “Summer Camp for Retirees”. It included sing-alongs, camp counselors (the tour bus opperators) getting a break from their charges while other counselors (the paddleboat and gold mine folks) entertained them and, I kid you not, snack time.
4:00pm Find and got to Sports Authority for supplies for the trip to Barrow tomorrow. Have to ask where every single thing that I am looking for is as the store is set-up in a way I have never encountered in a Sports Authority before. Obviously winter sports equipment dominates this store in a way I have never seen before.
5:00pm Go to dinner at Silver Gulch Brewery. Yummy.
Here are some random pictures from today.
A Piper Cub on floats taking off from the river.
An Osprey taking off after catching it's breakfast in the water.
A random river shot.
I just thought that this was funny.
Travel Knitting: A couple of rows on the lace stole (again).
7:00am Pacific Time (PT) Up and out of the hotel. We made the decision to get breakfast down the road at Buckshot Betty’s.
9:00am (PT) Breakfast at Buckshot Betty’s after traveling some pretty rough road. We all had Betty’s famous cinnamon buns, “Best Buns on the Highway!”.
The rivers and creeks here are REALLY wide but usually not a lot of water moving through them. I can only imagine what this looks like in the spring!
9:30am (PT) Pass a coyote on the road. It poses for us while we take photos and then chases our car for a little ways. Little beggar!
10:00am (PT) Pass the Canadian customs checkpoint.
10:30am (PT) Stop to take pictures at the “Welcome to Alaska” sign.
You can see the line of cleared forest where the actual border is.
10:45am Alaskan Time (AT) Go through US Border Checkpoint. Actually had a dog sniff the car down. Really wanted to pet it but was reasonably sure that this would not have been taken well by the rather tall and imposing man with the buzz cut holding the leash.
11:00am (AT) Spot a small bear crossing the road. Dad tries to tell us that it was a dog. I think he needs to clean his glasses!
12:00pm (AT) Stop at Tok (rhymes with “joke”) where there is a great gift shop and a visitors center. The shop had wolf, wolverine, bear, bison, and lynx complete hides for sale with their CITES permit numbers attached. Mom takes over driving for a little bit. Even the driving goddess needs a break once in a while. (At this point, I have driven about 1100 miles out of 1388 on the Alaska Highway so far…)
1:00pm (AT) MOOSE!!! Finally! The moose have been teasing me for probably the past 1000 miles as there have been signs and signs warning of them but no moose. This one seemed not at all interested in us even though we were stopped in the middle of the road taking pictures of it.
1:40pm (AT) Stop at Delta Meat and Sausage and get some Buffalo summer sausage to slice up for lunch.
1:55pm (AT) Lunch. It is warm (nearly 70 degrees Fahrenheit) and sunny. WTF?!?!? This is freaking Alaska!! Isn’t it supposed to be cold? I’m sweating and we have the A/C on in the car! Buffalo sausage is really good.
4:00pm (AT) Arrive in Fairbanks. Watch a couple of Chinooks flying to one of the military bases around town.
4:30pm (AT) Get to the hotel after the usual fracas that is traveling anywhere in an area with a population over 1000. The hotel we are staying in, the Alpine Lodge, is really nice, especially after some of the places we stayed at on the road. It looks to be brand new and has all sorts of stuff adorning the lobby including the complete hide of a polar bear.
Travel Knitting: Continuing on the trail of dishcloths. Made yet another one. Need to get a flat rate envelope and mail them all to Sarah, lover of handknit dishcloths along with a postcard.
6:30am Good Morning!
7:00am Family is up and ready to go to breakfast.
The Cabin at the sweet B&B we stayed at.
7:30am Breakfast with our wonderful Swiss B&B hosts.
8:00am Checked out the signpost forest across the road from the gas station that we filled-up the car at.
8:15am On the road again still heading NW.
9:30am Stop at a spot with an easy hike to a pair of waterfalls. Am glad to actually get out of the car and walk for a little bit even if it wasn’t at all a challenging hike. As out of shape as I am that’s really saying something.
Totally worth the walk!
Soundtrack for the morning: Lime and Violet podcasts,
11:30am Stop for lunch at a pretty campsite and rest stop on the edge of Teslin Lake. I walked down to the edge of the lake and looked around for a few minutes.
2:30pm Get to Whitehorse. Try to find a brewery that was advertised as being there. Were unable to thus causing a fracas in the car resulting in me driving the rest of the day. Again.
4:30pm Get to Kluane lake. Amazingly blue water.
5:30pm Arrive in Destruction Bay, Yukon Territory. This is where we are spending the night. Have dinner. Get most if not all of the chill cheese burger on my face and hands. Anyone who has ever watched me eat a sub will understand the totality of the mess that I created. Make waitress chuckle at the mess that I have created of myself. However, manage not to get any on clothes which is a major plus. That, and the food was good!
This is all of Destruction Bay
The Alaska Highway looking back towards where we traveled today.
Da' Bay!
7:00pm Am sitting in the laundromat washing 2 loads of clothes. I hate hauling around dirty clothes and this is as good of a place to do them as any. Especially since I have good internet.
8:00pm Holy crap, I think I just saw a wolf! I took a walk down by the lake and there was a pond caused by the lake being cut off by a gravel bar. I saw an animal by the edge of the water and assumed it was a deer of some sort initially. Finally it heard me since I was completely down-wind from it. It then perked-up it’s ears and really looked at me. The way that it did that suddenly made me realize that it was definitely not a deer or caribou or anything of that nature. I stared at it for a minute before I finally realized that maybe, just maybe, I should take a picture of it. By the time that I got my camera out it had turned to walk away. I got a few snaps of it but it is hard to tell with out trying to zoom in on it a lot (which I don’t really know how to do). However, when I came back to the hotel, I asked the guy at the front desk if there were wolves in the area and his reply was, “Oh yeah, sometimes you’ll see them down by the water”. And no folks, I had not had my scotch for the night yet.
The pond where I saw the animal that I think was a wolf.
Travel Knitting today: 1 complete small dishcloth. This is becoming the trail of dishcloths!!
5:00am Wake up
5:30am Breakfast at the hotel.
6:00am On the road, driving.
11:30am Lunch at A&W. Yummy.
12:00pm On the road, driving, still.
6:00pm Arrived in Watson Lake, Yukon Territory.
6:30pm Found a really kick-ass B&B cottage place to stay called Stampeders. Would totally suggest this place to anyone coming this way.
6:45pm Had a picnic dinner.
7:30pm Booked hotel room for tomorrow night.
8:00pm Drinking scotch sitting outside watching the traffic and blogging. Here’s what I saw today:
What I saw a lot of today, out the front windshield. I know, I know, driving and photographing is bad, but it's not like I was going to turn any time soon...
The Rockies, the early miles...
Isn't she cute?
One sheep that I'm pretty sure that I don't want to shear! Rock Sheep.
Endangered Wood Bison.
Travel Knitting: 2 rows of lace.
7:30 am (Now on Mountain time) Awake, dressed and having eaten a surprisingly good breakfast given the quality of the rest of the hotel.
7:40 am Went to get a Super Big Gulp at the 7-eleven in town. On the fountain for the Mountain Dew it said “A caffeine free product”. WTF????
8:00 am Viewed the biggest Easter Egg in the World. Quite the way to start the morning.
8:30 am Our first moose sighting. Poor thing looked like it was freaking-out trying to get back onto the other side of the National Park fence. I could totally sympathize with it at this point
9:30 am Get to Edmonton. First really large city that we have seen this trip. Takes about 45 minutes to get through.
10:30 am Still flat, but there are a lot more trees. We have finally turned more Northern.
11:15 am Trees and hay bales. Hay bales and trees. Yet my father still manages to find things that he finds so interesting to stare at that he nearly drives off of the road.
Soundtrack for today so far: “Cornflake Girl” by Tori Amos, “Elevation” (we are finally getting some!) by U2, as well as a bunch of stuff that made mom purse her lips at me…
12:30 pm Lunch at an awesome rest stop outside of (I think) Valleyview, Alberta. Had a nice picnic area as well as a cute gift shop in it. Saw an RV towing a car with Florida plates on them. Damn. First bear-proof garbage can. Think I am going to take a nap for a few hours as I didn’t sleep well last night.
2:30 pm Nap is abruptly over as I am unceremoniously dumped on the floor of the backseat. In Grande Prairie with traffic. Not sure that it should be called Grande Prairie rather “Grande Shopping” as that is what it seemed to mostly be composed of.
Soundtrack since awakening: “Northern Lad” (seems appropriate for the area) and “Taula (Tornado Mix) by Tori Amos , “Club Thing” by Yoav, “Bubble Toes” by Jack Johnson (It always make me waggle my toes), and the Lime and Violet podcast.
2:45pm Have seen lots and lots of farmed Elk here. Almost more farmed Elk than cattle. I think I need an elk burger for dinner.
3:45 pm Pacific Time At our hotel in Dawson Creek which is mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. Had a scotch and a bath. Life is good.
Travel Knitting: Finished Dishcloth the 3rd. I know, boring.
6:15 am Wake-up call. Don’t want to get out of one of the most comfortable hotel beds that I have ever encountered.
7:15 am Have eaten and exited the city. Was unable to procure Mountain Dew. Survival of this trip is looking doubtful…
7:30 am The speed limit in Canada is going drive me nuts. It is so slow after the 75 mph speed limit in most of the Northern US. We are going 110 km/h (about 68 mph). Still pretty boring landscape but at least there are hills now.
8:00 am Doh! Where in the hell did the hills go?
8:15 am There she blows! Oil wells. At least it isn’t more wheat and oats fields.
8:30 am Doh! Where did the damn oil wells go now?
8:50 am Soundtrack for the rest of Manitoba: Yoav “Beautiful Lie” (kind of a hollow sounding song, good for this hollow landscape), Norah Jones “Above Ground” (the whole feeling of this song is of anticipation), Tori Amos “God”, “Big Wheel”, and most of the album “Scarlet’s Walk”.
9:00 am Entering Saskatchewan province.
11:00 am Soundtrack for most of Saskatchewan: Anything that comes up on my Ipod that is inoffensive enough to play with my parents listening.
9:30 am-2:30pm Driving. Driving. Driving.
2:00 pm Still in Saskatchewan. Feel as though will never leave at this province. Endless prairies make the job of driving very, very boring.
2:30 pm-on Soundtrack: Whatever I couldn’t listen to with my parents listening.
3:45 pm Found Mountain Dew!!!! There is a God!!!
4:00 pm Finally in the province of Alberta. Staying in a city known for it’s really big Easter Egg. I suppose that if you have to be known for something, at least it’s not crack use or anything bad!
*No pictures today as it was just as boring as yesterday as far as landscape goes. Hopefully, it will get at least a little more exciting tomorrow. Either that, or I can take a picture of the egg!
Travel Knitting: Most of the 2nd dishcloth. I did a lot of the driving today…
What is it about being with our parents for extended periods of time that turns us back into surly teenagers?
Sarah Jane Humke 