ALASKA AND THE INSIDE PASSAGE: June/July 2019
Thanks to my
daughter-in-law Sofia Keck, I was intrigued enough about Tauck tours to arrange
for a family vacation to Alaska, which
started in Anchorage, Alaska, and ended in Vancouver, British Columbia.
En route. June 20
Flying from Seattle to Anchorage, Alaska: amazing. And
what a beautiful setting for the airport in Anchorage!
At the airport, I met my first Alaskan icon!
My traveling
companion Pippi Longstocking (the world’s strongest girl) and I enjoy the view
from my hotel.
Anchorage! June 21
I started my trip
by meeting an HBS ’76 classmate for breakfast.
Steve Rieger has lived in Alaska for decades, and served as a legislator
there for several terms. He also is an
Iditirod finisher, which I came to learn is no easy feat! Steve graciously conveyed me to the Alaska
Native Heritage Center and I grabbed a quick photo with him before enjoying the
exhibits.
A few hours at the Alaska Native Heritage Center located
about 10 miles outside downtown Anchorage (with convenient shuttles from the
convention center) exposed me to terrific outdoors exhibits of traditional
homes, tools, games, and other important information about the ways that
Alaskan peoples managed and survived the harsh environment. Here, one
young guide explained the story on this totem pole.
I finished the day at a great
restaurant, Simon & Seafort’s. Best
salmon I have ever tasted in my life!
And then, enjoyed the eponymous dessert, Baked Alaska. The history of Baked Alaska: it is
thought that Charles Ranhofer, chef at the famous Delmonico's restaurant in New
York, created a new cake to celebrate the United States purchase of Alaska from
the Russians. Ranhofer is said to have invented it to commemorate Seward's
(Lincoln’s Secretary of State) negotiated purchase of Alaska in 1867.
June 22
We meet the tour group.
June 23
An early morning private tour of the Anchorage Museum gave an
opportunity to learn about the lifestyles, traditions and crafts of Alaska’s
indigenous tribes. I particularly enjoyed seeing the clothing made from seal intestine, the fishing gear made from bone, and then there were wonderful carvings from scrimshaw and bone. Every part of the animal hunted is used in these cultures in order to survive. Yet, the decorative arts are important too in everyday objects.
A float plane excursion from Lake Lucille enabled us to see the
mountains, glaciers, and Susitna River Valley, as we flew close to Denali, the
Highest mountain in north America rising 20310 feet above sea level.
June 24
Our
group went to take a look at homesteading in Alaska via the story of Joanne
Porterfield whose family moved here to claim their Alaskan acreage while the
Homestead Act was still the law. They forded rivers with their RV on
rafts pulled by bulldozers, and around 1967 she set up a one room school of
their kids and neighbors kids (other families few and far between).
My little miss stands in the original schoolroom, where Joanne now tells the
story to tourists who are interested.
Talkeetna,
not much to look at today, but important to the settlement of this part of
Alaska. The aerial view shows the extent of the town when the Porterfield
family claimed a nearby homestead around 1960.
Today the train from Vancouver to Denali stops here. Of course, the native Alaskan peoples have actively inhabited the area for more than 6000 years...
Our first
good look at Denali in the distance came during a jet boat ride up the Susitna
and Chulitna Rivers. In the color photo below, the spruce tree on the
right points to the icy peak of North America’s largest mountain, clocking in
at 20,310 feet. Off the jet boat for a picnic on the river shore, we got
a good look at moose antlers, which they shed each year and then proceed to
grow a new larger set. We also saw, but couldn’t capture a photo quickly
enough, a magnificent bald eagle in flight.
June 25- At last we are inside Denali National Park!
Denali is often described as the coldest mountain in the world,
with record temperatures of -60 F, wind gusts of 100 miles per hour, and wind
chills down to -100F. It’s only 200 miles below the Arctic Circle. Only
one day in three is storm free. More than a thousand climbers try to
climb every year; fewer than 40% reach the top in a stormy season, 2/3 in a
mild season.
Pippi Longstocking and I enjoy the sounds of the river
rushing outside our room at the Princess Denali Lodge
June 25
also equals a day for the dogs! ... the puppies and full-grown huskies at the
home and kennels of famous musher and Iditarod winner Jeff King. At his
Husky Homestead near the national park visitor center, we gained knowledge and
respect for his breeding and training program, and his innovations to the sled
and harnessing systems used in this incredible yearly race from Anchorage to
Nome, held every March. Oh, um yes, we get to hold the puppies, even the 3 week
olds (who come with a red diaper cloth, just in case...)
Other than racing, dogsledding is a
means of transportation still today; park rangers often patrol Denali during
the winter by sled.
June 26
June 27
Today was a long day on the bus as we traversed
the Alaskan wilderness, leaving Denali and scooting along the Alaska Range en
route to a lodge on the Copper River. On
the Denali Highway, which includes around 100 miles of unpaved gravel road
between Denali and Copper River, wonderful views! Much of this road is
built on the esker ridge between the Alaskan and Talkeetna ranges. On one lake
we saw Trumpeter Swans. The Denali Highway, just past the McLaren River
Lodge (the only place for lunch on this road) cuts through the Tangle River
Archaeological District, where over 500 instances of human habitation dating to
at least 13,000 years ago are being documented.
We pass the area that leads up to the McLaren
Glacier. A good working definition of a glacier is “An ice rIver which is
propelled forward by gravity”.
June 28
At 13.2 million acres, Wrangell-St.Eliass is the largest of all the national parks, and includes the tallest coastal
mountain range on earth,and the greatest concentration of glaciers in North
America. Mount Drum, 12,010 feet high, a beautiful view from the Copper
Center area, is known as Hwdaandi K’elt’aeni in the language of the traditional
owners of the land, the Ahtna.
On a nature walk with the park ranger at
Wrangell-St Elias national park and Preserve, two interesting plants: the red
di-called “soap berry” which is beloved of bears, and the greenish lichen
called “old man’s beard” which is an indicator of an environment of fresh clean
air and also is used by native peoples for its antiseptic properties.
So many beautiful wild flowers in Alaska,
including the yellow-spiked Arnica, the blue forget-me-not (the Alaskan State
flower), Wild irises and others.
Our other excursion of the day was a stop to
take a look at a section of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which transports crude
oil from wells at Prudhoe Bay in the northern part of Alaska to the port of
Valdez where it’s loaded onto tankers. (We’ve
all heard stories of the horrible spill at Prince William Sound in 1989 by the
tanker Exxon Valdez.)
A BIT MORE ABOUT THE
ALASKA PIPELINE: 85% of the state budget comes from the pipeline, which opened
42 years ago. These days, 500,000 barrels a day flow through. Throughput peaked in 1988 when 2
million barrels per day traveled through the pipeline and the journey of a
barrel from start to finish took 4.5 days.
June 29
A last bus ride: leaving Copper Center, more beautiful scenery
on the way to Valdez! We passed through
the Chugach Mountains on our way to Valdez. Pippi enjoyed this view of the Chugash mountains!
We took time to make a stop at Worthington Glacier.
20 miles from Valdez we took a quick photo stop at Bridal Veil falls, and then 19 miles from Valdez, another quick photo at Horsetail Falls. And then we arrive at Valdez!
Our last excursion before we get on
the 3600 passenger Royal Princess for 7 days sailing to Vancouver BC, is to
transit from the port of Valdez through the Valdez Narrows and across Prince
William Sound to the port of Whittier. We did this on a big high speed catamaran
ferry called “Bravest”. Along the way, we passed small icebergs with groups of
seabirds standing at attention, sea lions on the shore, small fishing and
pleasure boats, and oil tankers and other commercial ships.
At last, the ship!
June 30
On Sunday morning, our ship sailed across the Gulf
of Alaska and entered Yakutat Bay, in the mid afternoon. Then the captain said,
“We’ve sailed all day in the fog, hoping it would lift. But a ship that’s close
to the shore says it is even worse there, plus which there are small icebergs
floating around everywhere. So, since fog and icebergs don’t mix, as we know
historically to be the case, we cannot go near the glacier.”
BUT IF WE COULD HAVE GONE, this bay is where the Hubbard Glacier is
located. Known for its spectacular blue face, it is North America’s largest
tidewater glacier. Tidewater glaciers are those which flow into the sea. When
tidewater glaciers calve , they produce icebergs. Surrounding Yakutat Bay
is part of the Wrangell-St. Elias mountain range. I’m
sad not to see this famous calving glacier but hopeful for better luck later
this week!
July 1
Today we had Park Rangers from
Glacier Bay National Park come aboard to talk about the geological and deep
time climate changes that formed Margerie and Lamplugh Glaciers as we sailed
slowly up Glacier Bay and into Tarr Inlet for close-in views. The rangers
made themselves available for questions too... but I liked the way they
anticipated the most common question about where to get the best view:
see the bottom of their whiteboard for the best answer...
What a privilege to see this
beautiful part of the world! The “calving” of Margerie Glacier happened
so fast that I couldn’t get a photo, but the photo I have here shows the
beautiful blue cast that the ice takes in the very cold crevasses.
Two things to keep in mind about
Glacier Bay: 1) as you can see, in the north, climate change makes
its environmental impact known more quickly than in other parts of the world.
2) we tourists are just visitors. This land has real and traditional
owners, and it’s not us.
July 2
Skagway Alaska is a busy port city, where almost all cruise ships stop. Skagway’s population
generally fluctuates from around 700 in January to more than 2500 in July with
the influx of summer workers. Skagway was the first
city incorporated in Alaska, in 1900.
Skagway is the gateway
to the Klondike gold fields; those of us who live in California sometimes
forget that there was a huge gold rush in Alaska during the 1890s.
We took a ferry across the Lynn
canal, which is north America‘s longest and deepest fjord, to Haines. Then, we
rafted through the Chilkat bald eagle preserve. More than 25 % of America’s
bald eagle population can be found here. We saw 12 Bald Eagles during our raft
ride; Avahna and Mateo proved very adept at spotting them!
In the afternoon, an historical
train ride! The White Pass & Yukon
narrow gauge railway, built in 1898 during the gold rush, uses vintage cars and
locomotives as it navigates these steep grades and cliffhanging turns over the
mountains to where the Klondike miners hoped to find gold. There are
amazing views from this train ride.
Skagway was the staging area for
gold prospectors en route to the Klondike gold fields. Each prospector was
required to get a full years worth of supplies hauled over the Chilkoot pass There was a never-ending line, as several trips were
required per person.
The trail of 1898 can still be seen — but the railway
replaced the hazardous hike.
Today, no longer a gold rush town swollen by
thousands of prospectors, the
gold today comes from tourism: around 1,500,000 visitors come each summer, the
majority of which arrive on cruise ships.
The Skagway museum
has some Interesting photos of the Alaskan gold rush years, and some historic
buildings from those days still stand. Sadly, the brothel tour was closed for
renovation (plastic surgery, no doubt).
July 3
Juneau Alaska is located on the
panhandle of southeast Alaska and accessible only by air (900 air miles north
of Seattle and 600 air miles southeast of Anchorage) or by water, and that has
not changed since the era when prospectors arrived more than 130 years ago. It
has been the center of Alaska’s government since statehood in 1959, regardless
of its inaccessibility. Tlingit natives as well as Haida and Tsimshian peoples
first populated the area thousands of years ago, after they discovered abundant
salmon in the waters of the Gastineau channel nearby. Modern settlements did
not develop until the late 19th century, and of course gold rush fever impacted
Juneau. It's a busy town now.
The Mendenhall glacier is probably
the most visited glacier in Alaska, as it is just 14 miles from Juneau. This
glacier is 12 miles long, a half mile wide, and from 300 to 1800 feet deep. It
stretches from the Juneau ice field which feeds it, to Mendenhall Lake. Because
of the geography and climate of the Juneau area, the Mendenhall glacier has
been able to survive much longer than other glaciers in north America. It has
been nicknamed “the drive up glacier“, as there is a park in the Mendenhall
Valley a few minutes from downtown Juneau which is dedicated to viewing the
glacier and its surrounds.
WHALE WATCHING CRUISE! The naturalist on the
whale watching cruise explains about baleen, which is what humpback whales have
to catch their food, instead of teeth. A humpback whale can ingest as much as 5000 gallons of
water, as they have expanding accordion folds in their lower mouth. Then they
push the water out pass their baleen plates, which may number as many as 500,
spaced about 1 inch apart. Caught in the baleen sieve will be small ocean
animals such as krill, and small fish. We did not see orcas, aka killer whales, which do have teeth
and will hunt and kill humpback calves, sea lions etc. Orca predation is one reason that humpbacks migrate
from Alaskan waters to Baja or Hawaii, to give calves a better chance to
survive. About 60 humpbacks frequent the Juneau area, and are so common leave you
that many tour operators offer a “guaranteed sighting”.
July 4
Ketchikan is located on the western
coast of Revillagigedo Island, near the southernmost boundary of Alaska. In
1883, a salmon saltery was built in Ketchikan, and it still has a thriving
salmon fishery today. Ketchikan is surrounded by spectacular old growth forest. Ketchikan earned the title “salmon capital of
the world.“ There is one record that keeps Ketchikan’s reputation going, and
that is as the “Rain Capital of Alaska.“ Average rainfall is more than 200
inches per year.
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| Miss Avahna and her friend Darla do the dances! |
Goodbye Alaska and hello British Columbia!
July 5
Cruising the Inside Passage. I know
it is a feature that appears on every Alaska cruise itinerary, but frankly,
most of the cruising takes place at a good distance from the coast, and much of
the cruising at night. At sunset, it is
hard to know where the fog layer ends and the coastal mountains begin.
July 6
After the previous day of day
cruising along the Inside Passage, we made our early morning docking at
Vancouver.
The Royal Princess is such a big ship — a floating city of
over 5000 in fact — that it was a very new experience for me. Usually I've been on expedition ships of 120 passengers max.
