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Alaska

2 weeks adventuring up north

By Scott Richardson

February 13^th, 2021

We planned to go to Alaska in 2013, then in 2014, but emergencies kept us away. Finally in 2015 we made our long-awaited trip the trip of a lifetime. The following is our trip journal from two weeks of exploring around Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula, Denali, Fairbanks, and Kakotovik.

Day 1: Hiking in Anchorage

After landing in Anchorage at about 1 am we quickly found a shuttle to the hotel and fell asleep quickly. We flew for nearly 9 hours from Philadelphia to Seattle and then on to Anchorage. Alaska Airlines is awesome, flights are on-time, the staff is friendly and they offer power in each seat so your phone isn’t dead by the time you reach the airport.

This morning I was awoken with the realization that “convenient access to train station” means this hotel is right next to the train tracks, and they run those trains into town at all hours. After a few attempts to find more sleep, we started pairing down our daypacks to the essentials (Kir: food, water, camera; Scott: 2 cameras, tripod, water, whatever food would fit around all that camera gear).

Since we’ll be getting the train out of Anchorage in the morning, we’d planned to be dependent on public transport. Months ago I booked a hiker’s shuttle that would take us to a mountain right outside of town for a few hours of hiking. Unfortunately, earlier this week they canceled on us due to staffing but were nice enough to help us get set up with a cab. So we ended up splitting a cab with a couple of nice women from Brazil. The cab driver seemed less than enthused to get to drive us so far out of town and up a mountain, but after a crazy drive, he managed to get us there in one piece.

Flattop Mountain sits just south of Anchorage in Chugach State Park. The trail climbs 1300 feet in 1.7 miles and features a ton of loose gravel and a rock scramble that gets you on hands and knees right before the summit. The locals climb with ease with the children strapped to their backs. Us? Well, it was a tough hike but we did pretty well after we clearing the steep sections and rock scramble. At the top, we were greeted with a 360-view of the beautiful mountains around Flattop, a snaking creek flowing through the mountains, a birds-eye view of Anchorage and the Alaska Range in the distance. Totally worth the climb.

The way down the mountain was even tougher than the ascent. Climbing down the rock scramble requires a lot of falling on your butt and shimmying down to the next foot-hold. Apparently, the trail is marked with paint but we missed nearly all of the markers. When we eventually reached the trail, we slipped on loose gravel through nearly all of the steep sections. Two falls (one for each of us), 1 stone-embedded hand, 1 wooden sliver.

Due to the shuttle not running today, we had 2 options at the conclusion of our hike: call a cab and wait for it to come in from town, or hitch-hike to the zoo and ride a free shuttle back downtown. I think the days of carefree hitch-hiking are over…so naturally, this is the option we tried. After striking out with our first couple, we found 2 young women with a dog who were heading downtown. We didn’t want to over-extend our ask, so we just asked for a ride to the zoo (on the way) and they happily dropped us off. One girl is a geologist originally from Fairbanks and the other works for a PR firm in Anchorage though she is originally from outside of Boston.

When we made it back into town, we found a late lunch, dropped our packs at the hotel and made our way to the Saturday “flea market.” We had been told the market was a good place to find authentic Alaskan crafts, but we mostly found odd and kitschy items for sale instead. We ended our afternoon hunting for trains around the station and discovering where the ulu knife that cuts our pizza so well originated (thanks to Kir’s parents!)

Day 2: Alaska Railroad & Seward

This morning we woke up at 5 am, packed our bags, and walked the 100 feet to the train station. As the train wove through Anchorage we saw the Alaska Range appear along the horizon and witnessed low-tide along the beaches of Turnagain Arm. The mountains along the route from Anchorage to Seward are extremely beautiful with their ragged peaks that look untouched.

Since we were taking the train just one-way, we decided to splurge and get the first-class gold-star service, which meant we got to wear pins that told everyone else how much cooler we are than them. It also meant we got seats in a dome car and had breakfast included. If you’ve never dined aboard a train, I highly recommend it. Although I’m not as much of a train advocate as Kirsten and her family, it’s awesome to get a good meal, share a table with complete strangers and watch the scenery go by.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, but aboard the train, we managed to meet two guys who are connected to Kirsten’s dad. I’m not certain on how they met originally, but when Kir’s dad visited Alaska to chase trains last fall, the one man who works for the Alaska railroad helped them find the best photos and tipped them off to the train schedules.

We spent nearly the entire 4.5-hour ride in the open-air section of the car, snapping away at each new glacier or river view. Upon arriving in Seward we boarded a school bus and drove downtown to find our hotel.

We found lunch across the street from the hotel at a sandwich shop overlooking Resurrection Bay. The bay is surrounded by awesome peaks and features rocky beaches with fish constantly jumping in and out of the water.

After lunch, we walked to the Sealife Center where we had scheduled an experience to be up-close with puffins. When Kirsten and I started dating, we took a road trip to Maine and took a cruise out of Boothbay Harbor to see puffins. Since the birds are so small, they were hard to spot from the boat. Today we fixed that. We learned all about puffins and other seabirds, then entered their enclosure and spent about 30 minutes feeding the birds. Puffins are funny little birds, and apparently quite picky eaters. They had their favorite types of fish and would shake their heads disapprovingly if they didn’t like what we were offering.

After seeing seals, sea lions, and other types of fish and marine life at the Sealife Center, we walked back to the hotel for a well-deserved nap.

For dinner, we walked across town to a burrito place. I was hesitant to eat Mexican in Alaska, but man was I wrong. This burrito place was delicious and featured a great selection of salsas.

Tomorrow we hit the bay for a long wildlife cruise.

Day 3: Kenai Fjords National Park

This morning we woke up early and traveled the mile across town for a cruise through Kenai Fjords National Park. The park is unique as all but a small section are inaccessible by land, and most is pristine yet rugged wilderness. We ventured out with Kenai Fjords tours on a six-hour tour that started by cutting across Resurrection Bay to Fox Island and then rounding through rugged fjords in search of wildlife and glaciers.

All morning the wind whipped up the sea into a choppy mess and made the Dramamine a worthwhile purchase, but as the day wore on the seas settled to make the cruise more pleasant.

After rounding through beautiful fjords that looked like a travel brochure for Norway, we started to catch glimpses of wildlife starting with 2 bald eagles that rested in trees along the coast.

Soon after, the captain pointed out the spout of a young humpback whale and we spent 30 minutes pursuing it in hopes that it would breach. The whale led us through several coves and eventually showed us its fluke.

We saw puffins everywhere. Yesterday we spent time learning all about their behavior and lack of flight skills, but today we saw them diving and flying circles around the boat. We also saw them roosting on rocky cliffs all along the coast.

The boat then picked up speed and steered into Aialik Bay to get to Holgate Glacier. Holgate is a gigantic wall of glacial ice that appears massive when it first comes into view 12 miles across the bay. Eventually, we ended up about a quarter-mile from the glacier to get a closer look and witnessed the glacier calving as the ice broke off and crashed into the sea. While the visual is stunning, the sound echoes like fireworks across the bay. To the left of Holgate is another beautiful glacier named Surprise Glacier surrounded by massive rock walls.

Having seen the glaciers, we started heading back towards town and stopped by a small land outcrop to view about a dozen sea lions sunning on the rocks. While we floated a few sea lions climbed up and down the rocks and dove into the sea as the waves crashed around them.

On our way back towards town, we pursued a small group of Dall porpoises who twisted and played around the bow of the boat. These porpoises have the black and white coloration of orcas and the playfulness of sugar-high children.

Of course, the real highlight of the day cruise was the chocolate chip cookies that were served on the final stretch of the journey. We ate several.

Day 4: Exit Glacier

I started the day on the beach getting some cloudy shots of Resurrection Bay and waiting for the mountains to fall into the sunlight. It was a quiet morning so I tried to record some ambient audio of the seabirds and waves coming into the beach, but unfortunately forgot about my audio recorder as I was busy getting other shots. By the time I remembered where I had set it, the tide had started to engulf it, and it was waterlogged. I’m airing it out now, we’ll see if it can be salvaged.

We packed our bags and left the hotel in Seward in search of a shuttle that could take us across town. Shuttles were supposed to run every 30 minutes but we waited nearly an hour before finally calling a cab and splitting it with another couple. The fare; $5…and the other couple paid. If we would’ve known it would be so cheap we wouldn’t have wasted the time.

On the other side of town, we picked up our rental car and started out towards Exit Glacier, the only part of Kenai Fjords National Park that is accessible by car. Along the road, we saw a moose and her calf walking and then crossing the road before crossing back into the woods.

Exit Glacier is amazing, but it’s hard. Like really, really hard. We thought the hike may be a challenge but knew the views would be worthwhile. Well, let’s rephrase that. I (Scott) told Kirsten that this hike would be a challenge and we should set some realistic goals of what viewpoints on the trail we could realistically reach. Kir, on the other hand, said “Let’s do it all!”

The trail starts by winding uphill through heavy forest, the grade not too steep. Then suddenly the forest gets thicker and the incline becomes even steeper. There were a fair number of other hikers on the trail, but we still practiced good bear safety by making lots of noise and using our bear bells as the brush was so thick, and there were lots of blind turns on the trail.

Once we hiked through nearly 2 miles of heavy brush, we emerged at Marmot Meadows where there was an incredible view overlooking the glacier’s many crevices, and out towards the road and the rest of the valley below. Stopping here would make for a worthwhile hike. 4 miles roundtrip, 1250+ of elevation gain = pretty good workout, and the views = amazing. But we were (1/2 of we anyway) were on a mission to get to the top, no matter how many times we thought we saw the top and realized it was just another ridge we’d need to traverse.

From Marmot Meadows we climbed another 2.5 miles through low meadows, which eventually gave way to tundra which changed into dark soil and loose sediment as we reached the top of the mountain. As the trail climbed higher and higher, looking back showed us how far above the valley floor we had climbed, and looking to our left gave us an incredible view of the huge glacier and its blue and white ice fields.

The trail featured lots of waterfalls and streams that needed to be traversed. It also gave us a view of a herd of mountain goats grazing along the mountainside below. As it was a particularly warm day in the sunshine, and some of the goats gave up the grazing to lie in a patch of snow.

After about 4 hours of hiking steep inclines, we made to the top, a 3,000 ft elevation gain in just over 4 miles (or so says the map, FitBit thinks that mileage assessment is really low-balling it).

The view from the top was extremely rewarding. Looking out towards the glacier we saw an ice-field as far as the eye could see capped off by mountain peaks spotted with snow. The glacier has retreated quite a distance in the past 150 years, but what remains of it is just incredible to see up-close. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Looking down towards the valley showed a snaking river surrounded by mountains, and looking the other direction showed us the side of the mountain we’d been climbing with its dark, soiled face.

After a long break for rest, food, and rehydration, we started back down the mountain as the good sunlight was starting to fade. It’s summer so it doesn’t get truly dark until after 10 pm, but we wanted to leave enough light to safely make our way through the steep, rocky sections of the dense forest trail. On our way down through the tundra part of the trail, we saw the mountain goats starting to migrate closer to the trail and they eventually crossed as we continued our hike down. However, one goat and its kid played stubbornly and munched on whatever plant-life lined the trail blocking our access down. After about 5 minutes of stand-off, they made their way up the side of the mountain and let us pass down.

Hiking down the mountain was almost as difficult as getting up it. Our knees felt every rock and step we stumbled over, and we were cautious not to slip on gravel as we’d done a few days before on Flattop Mountain in Anchorage. It took us about 2.5 hours to descend the 4 miles down the mountain and return to our car. There were few parties left on the mountain by the time we left the top, but luckily we met another couple and hiked through the dense forest parts together.

So there we did it, the entire Harding Icefield Trail to see Exit Glacier. 8+ miles, 3,000-foot elevation gain up.

We returned to Seward to find dinner, and I crossed town to retrieve my hat and sunglasses from the restaurant where I left them last night at dinner. We again ate burritos as they were quick, and we still had to drive 2 hours to our Airbnb to sleep.

We arrived in Soldotna around 11 pm after a couple of driver changes as I was completely spent and not able to drive for more than 20 minutes. Kir was a champ and got us here in 1 piece.

Day 5: Kenai Peninsula

This morning we woke up to rain tapping the roof of our cabin on the edge of a lake in the middle of the Kenai Peninsula. We got a bit of a late start because yesterday left us completely spent.

Our first stop of the day was to a homesteading museum that told the history of modern-day settlers on the Kenai Peninsula. At one time you could move to Alaska, erect a “habitable” home (the definition being fairly loose), cultivate crops on your land and live there for five years and receive a deed to the land. Eventually, the homestead act was changed and granted US military veterans access to the best land.

We met Carol whose father homesteaded south of Soldotna where the museum was located. He had worked his way through Alaska, eventually ending up on the Kenai Peninsula, and upon hearing of Pearl Harbor immediately sailed to Seattle to join the Army. In Seattle, he was hit by a truck and rendered unfit for service. Without Army status, the family was unable to homestead any of the acreage around the Kenai River near Soldotna, but could still take a plot just south of the area.

Carol showed us around various structures that had been relocated to the museum grounds to demonstrate how homesteaders built “habitable” homes and how they lived fairly primitive lives until oil was discovered and the area grew in population and modern conveniences.

The definition of a “habitable” building varied depending on the skill and seemingly marital status of the builder. Many homesteaders were young and fresh out of the army, so they didn’t have the knowledge to properly build a sound structure. Some cabins featured inconsistently sized logs that left large gaps, and others tried to emulate the corner notching of older cabins but failed in execution. It seemed the cabins that were built by bachelor men were most shoddy, whereas the cabins built by married or engaged men were much more sound. There were also cabins built before a mill had been established in the area, so logs weren’t able to be milled for consistency.

Carol also talked at length about the Good Friday earthquake of 1964 that devastated the area. She recalled how her family was living in a trailer as they built a more permanent structure on their homestead, and how the cabinets flung open and poured their contents onto her as she tried to escape. She said the 9.3 magnitude quake caused the feeling of waves in the ground and flung the tops of the trees all the way to the ground and see-sawed them from side to side.

We also briefly met Marge at the museum, she is 95 years old and was the first woman to homestead land on the Kenai Peninsula with her husband. She had lived her entire life in an apartment in Chicago previous to moving to Alaska, and when her husband discovered an article about homesteading in the newspaper she responded that they should move as long as she could find women to teach her how to live life in the bush. The most amazing part of her story is that upon arriving in Alaska the furthest they could reach was Moose Pass, an hour and a half drive from Soldotna, and they had to walk along the river all the way to their new homestead.

After spending nearly 2 hours learning about homesteading from the locals, we had lunch at a great little pizza restaurant in town and drank cream soda and root beer that was on tap. Root beer on tap seems to be a thing up here.

Upon waking up to rain this morning we planned some quick indoor activities that could fill our day. One plan was to visit a local winery that had the distinction of being the first and only winery in the state to serve wine that was made of 100% Alaska-grown fruit. When we arrived at the small farm we had to get out of the car to open a gate designed to keep the moose out of their property. Once inside, we had a private tasting with the farmer who gave us a taste of wines made of haskap, raspberry, strawberry, and rhubarb. All were fairly sweet, even sweeter than other fruit wines we’ve sampled, and I’d say the raspberry was probably my favorite. Kirsten bought a syrup made of haskap berries that are supposed to go great over ice cream. Ice cream you say? We’re sold.

After the quick wine stop, we made the drive to Homer which sits at the southwestern corner of the Kenai Peninsula. Along the way, we stopped to view rivers and ocean overlooks and stopped for photos at Ninilchik which features a beautiful Russian Orthodox church from the early 1900s. The ocean nearby roared as waves crashed on-shore from winds that whipped through the Cook inlet. A couple stopped to tell us that the inlet had been closed to boat traffic today due to high winds and treacherous wave conditions, although we found 2 wind-surfers out at a beach just south.

We also made a stop at Anchor Point which holds the title of the most western highway point in North America. Kir and I visited near Lubec, Maine when we were first dating and noted it was the most eastern point in the US, so today we were happy to cross off another extreme of this country. We walked along the endless beach and Kir found seashells and interestingly colored rocks. The skies were a bit hazy but we were able to make out many of the volcanos on the opposite side of the inlet that makes up parts of Lake Clark National Park. The mountains clock in at over 10,000 feet and were capped with snow.

Day 6: Homer and the Kenai Peninsula

This morning we woke up in Homer and decided to forego the breakfast included at the hotel because we heard such great things about a bakery down the road. Seriously, everyone we’ve met from bar patrons in Anchorage (230 miles away), passengers aboard the train, and the woman who ran the museum tour yesterday gave glowing reviews of this place and said it couldn’t be missed. So we made the quick 2-minute drive to old town Homer and arrived at Two Sisters Bakery to order some cinnamon buns for breakfast. They were delicious. We also grabbed a couple of cookies for the road.

After breakfast, we drove a few miles to the Homer Spit which is a narrow strip of land that extends five miles out into Kachemak Bay. The Alaska Highway ends at a sign that reads “Lands End” which marks the end of the most westerly highway in North America.

We parked at the end of the road, explored the beach, and admired the mountain peaks across the bay. After a quick stroll beneath the piers and watching the Coast Guard prepare their boat, we headed back to the middle of the spit to explore some shops. One thing we learned about Alaskans is they’re not fond of waking up early, so very few shops were open for business mid-morning.

In the back of the shops was the harbor which was almost completely full of boats as the bay has been experiencing rough seas. We had read that the “Time Bandit” from Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch calls this harbor home, and Kirsten was on a mission to find it. After walking along all of the docks, we consulted a map and noted there was an additional road that flanked the back of the harbor, so we found the car and headed over. On that side of the harbor, we easily found the boat and Kir was way more excited to see it than I expected. We also found another group of people that you would think discovered Santa Claus due to their excitement. Along the drive over, we also found the “Cornelia Marie” that was also featured on the show which was beached and under repair.

Next, we headed back towards town in search of lunch but stopped to explore a wetland area on the way. A car of friendly Alaskans stopped to tell us there was a bull moose that had been camped out nearby, but we didn’t spot him. The overlook was located right next to the Homer airstrip so we spent some time watching cargo planes flying in and out of the airport.

Kir took on her usual Yelp-ing duties to find us a great lunch spot and today’s selection was amazing. We stopped at Maura’s Cafe which was just a block up from the bakery in the old town. We each ordered sandwiches and soup and found a table outside to look out at the mountains and beach while we ate. They brought the food out to us and Woah, it was crazy good. The soup was a tomato bisque which came drizzled with pesto and had a spicy kick to it, and it was addicting. Kir noted it was one of her top 10 best meals ever and said “I would fly up here again just to eat there.”

After lunch, we stopped in at the Oceans and Islands Visitor’s Center, stamped our national parks passports with their Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge stamp and headed out on a quick hike. The trail wound through marsh and bordered a town park where kids were flying kites. As I was playing with my camera and setting up a shot of the beach an Australian couple interrupted to tell me about an eagle they had sighted nearby. We headed in the direction that they had pointed to and fairly quickly found a huge bald eagle sitting atop a tree behind a house at the edge of the refuge. Luckily I had my telephoto lens attached and we spent about 15 minutes watching and photographing the eagle and hoping it would move or spread its wings. Literally, the moment I disconnected my camera and broke down the tripod the eagle spread out and drifted off…to many curses from me.

After our initial success with the first eagle, we headed down the road in search of an active eagle’s nest we had heard of. Actually, the directions I got were that it was “near the McDonald’s,” so we just drove in that direction and turned off the road until we found it. We found the nest but didn’t find any eagles actively manning the nest.

We then said goodbye to Homer and drove straight through to Moose Pass on the other side of the Kenai Peninsula only stopping to fill our car with gas for the first time on this trip.

Moose Pass is a very small “town” and its city center seems to be housed in one building. We found dinner across the street from what looked to be the town hall/fire hall/library. My only wish for tonight’s dinner was that it not be a sandwich as we’ve been eating a lot of them…but we ended up in a restaurant that served only sandwiches. One cup of chili and an ice cream sundae later I emerged not having eaten a sandwich, and I’m sure the staff thought I was the pickiest eater ever.

Tonight we’re staying in a small log cabin surrounded by woods and brush. There’s an approximately 11 inch TV/VCR combo unit to my right and a collection of the 90’s worst movies on the outside porch of the cabin’s office. I picked out Air Force One to kill the time and it’s distracted me from finishing this post for the past 2 hours.

Day 7: Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

This morning we explored the last stretches of the Kenai Peninsula that we had yet to reach in our nearly week-long stay. We started out from our cabin in Moose Pass and headed north along the Seward Highway to visit a variety of overlooks. The sun direction wasn’t great along with the early parts of our drive so we quickly moved on from most of them, but caught views of the nearby mountains and various creeks and lakes.

As the sun started to peek out we headed down the Portage spur road to explore the Byron Glacier and Portage Lake. We signed in at the trail register and set out along a quick mile-long hike to get closer to the glacier. Byron Glacier hangs from atop a mountain and the view from the end of the trail features a monochromatic grey rock pile in the foreground with the glacier painting a contrasting white across the mountain. Although it was impressive, after our closeup view of the Harding ice field a few days ago, it was hard to compare.

The glaciers around Portage carved out a deep lake with teal colored water that icebergs that chunk off of the glaciers float in. We walked down to the lake to get a better look and spent some time photographing the ice.

Next, we headed back out of the spur road towards the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. I’ve been looking to visit this place for a few years after reading about their efforts to reintroduce animals back into the wild, and help breed species that were on the edge of extinction. We took an informative bus ride and learned about how the center recently released dozens of wood bison into the Alaskan wild. Wood bison are slightly different in appearance than the bison that we’re most to see in the lower 48 with larger and pointier humps behind their heads. The center worked with the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game to purchase about a dozen wood bison from a national park in Canada and bred them to increase the size of the herd by 10x.

At the center we saw grizzlies playing and tussling with each other, black bears pacing back and forth, baby mule deer feeding, moose lazing around, elk racking their antlers wood bison roaming and a lynx slobbering all over its enclosure. We left the bus tour early to spend more time near the bears and walked the path back while looking at each of the animals along the way. The majesty of the large animals set against the striking Alaskan backdrop was stunning.

From the wildlife center, we continued to drive north to view the remaining sites along Turnagain Arm where tides roll in and out with huge differences in water levels between low and high tides. We saw low tide on the second day of our trip from the train, but today we saw a much higher tide that lapped waves along the shore but left islands of sand in the middle of the inlet.

This evening we drove through Anchorage to switch our car rental from a “one-way” rental we picked up in Anchorage to a local rental we could return to the airport at the end of our trip. Unfortunately, this side trip to the airport was the most economical way to rent a car for our itinerary. The good news is that we were able to keep the same car and not spend the time loading our luggage into a new car. We also stopped by FedEx to pick up some lenses we had rented and shipped to Anchorage that we can use to photograph wildlife over the next week.

Then we were onto dinner. In yesterday’s post, I talked about how all I wanted was some real meat, potatoes, and veggies for dinner, but the options weren’t available in the area. Well, tonight we made a point to find a “real” dinner in Anchorage and stopped by the Glacier Brewhouse which had a great menu. When we arrived we realized 7 pm on a Friday night wasn’t a great time to roll into a restaurant as they had an hour-and-45 minute wait. However, we stalked a party that was about to leave their table at the bar and were eating in no time. We both had a hankering for something substantial and ended up with a flat iron steak glazed in root beer and birch syrup. Delicious.

Over dinner, we saw someone who looked remarkably like Marty Raney from TV’s “Ultimate Survival Alaska” who was searching the bar for a table. I can’t say for sure it was him, and he’s not really the level of celebrity that it was even worth asking, but what I can say is that I got a table and a reality-TV star (or look-a-like) didn’t. Boo-yah.

Tonight we’re staying at a hotel in Wasilla that is literally right next door to Sarah Palin’s house. Apparently, it’s right over the fence, and I think we passed her driveway (her fence has a big American flag draped across it) on the way into the hotel.

Day 8: Iditarod puppies & Hatcher Pass

This morning was a bit of a contrast. We woke up in Wasilla, literally right next to Sarah Palin’s house. The hotel sat on a serene lake dotted with seaplanes, and we watched a plane take off over breakfast. However, the rest of Wasilla wasn’t quite as beautiful. We managed to drive through Main Street Wasilla, and let’s just say I hope Sarah was talking about a different “Main Street America” because her’s wasn’t so charming.

Our first stop of the day was to the Iditarod Museum in Wasilla to learn all about the legendary race. The review said it was a glorified gift shop, and it was, but we actually got a lot out of it. The museum was showing a 30-minute film about the culture of the Iditarod and its dog owners and talked about how much care each dog gets throughout its life. From the moment a husky puppy is strapped into its harness, it begins to pull. Running and pulling is in its blood and only dogs that truly want to pull will ever run the race. Dogs are also checked for health throughout the race by a huge team of volunteer veterinarians ensuring that their health and safety.

Outside of the museum, a dog team was set up to show off their dogs and give rides to tourists. Today’s team was run by the Reddington family, and the son of the man that started the modern Iditarod Race was the one steering the sled. We admired their dogs and then headed next-door to admire their puppies. Three 7-week old husky puppies were curled up on top of one another but seemed happy enough when picked up and pet. One puppy licked Kir all over her face. Normally she hates it when dogs do this, but the cuteness of the husky puppy stole her heart. The puppies also squeaked, yawned, and just were generally adorable.

After we left the museum, we saw signs for the Alaska Live Steamers and naturally, Kir made a quick turn and bolted down a dirt road in pursuit. Live Steamers are a hobbyist organization that builds miniature trains that a full-size adult can straddle and ride. We appeared to be the only guests of the steamers today and we talked with them about Kir’s family’s involvement with the F3 locomotives in Scranton. They then gave us a ride through their facility which encompasses 18-acres of wooded areas they’ve cleared and ran track through. They don’t currently have any live steam but did have a diesel engine running. Decorating the sides of the track were a variety of comical setups: Godzilla attacking the military, a herd of plastic dinosaurs, sled dogs in their kennels, a dragon castle, and a tiny construction crew set up outside of a worksite.

Our main mission for the day was to get to Denali, so we finally hit the road and headed north, but soon detoured to ride through the Hatcher Pass as Kir’s parents gave it a good recommendation. The drive starts by following a flowing creek or river and then winds through a valley with mountain views all around. The only direction we had for the ride was to head towards the town of Willow, so we turned onto a dirt and gravel road and started up a steep grade. The views from above were even better as the clouds began to clear and the sun emerged. After a few quick photos stops along the road, we decided to pick up speed in order to find lunch. Miles and miles later we turned on the GPS and realized we were still nearly 30 miles from the town all on a dirt road.

We figured lunch would be easy to find once we arrived at the main highway, but the only building at the intersection was a small espresso shop. So we continued north and researched a grocery store 30 minutes north where the Talkeetna spur road breaks off. We arrived at the store and filled out slips to order our sandwiches at the deli. While waiting for our orders we cruised the store in search of prices as we heard groceries could get very expensive up here. We found the product was locally-grown, beautiful, and very reasonably priced, but many of the prepared foods and canned goods were marked up slightly. Ice cream seemed to be the most ridiculous ($10 for about 64 oz). The sandwiches finally came out and we were shocked at how huge they were, we realized we made a huge mistake and set out to find a cooler for the leftovers, but apparently, they’re at a premium in the fishing season so that was a no-go. We ate lunch in the warmth of our car while people-watching cruise bus passengers entering the store, glad we arrived before them.

On the road again we made just a few more stops before arriving at our stop north of Denali. One stop was at Wal-Mike’s in Trapper Creek, a really odd roadside attraction that’s 1/4 gift shop and 3/4 junkyard. Outside was a collection of hubcaps, a kitchen sink, and what appeared to be a bleeding moose head. Inside was a small selection of postcards and t-shirts, and a couple of rooms of odd items like a marijuana home drug test and some off-color home items and art.

Tonight we settled into our room as the snow snowed off and on all evening. We headed down the road for a late dinner at the 49th State Brewing Company which features the “magic bus” from the movie “Into The Wild.” The cold really cuts right through their steel building, but it was way more comfortable than the blowing snow that greeted us when we left the restaurant!

Day 8: Denali National Park

Today was our first day in Denali National Park. We woke up to a snowy scene and leisurely made our way into the park. Inside we went to the visitor’s center to orient ourselves with the park and its history and watched a great short film that showed the park through various seasons.

After the film, we attended a ranger talk detailing Denali’s clean mountain program. The ranger detailed the steps the park has taken to maintain a pristine and natural mountain landscape. Many climbers think the program is too strict, but others think it should set the standard for climbing elsewhere in the world. Climbers are required to pack out all of their trash, and also all of their human waste. There’s plenty of places we’ve seen where there’s an expectation to pack out your toilet paper, but on Denali, they give you a bucket and you’re not allowed to empty it until you reach a designated dump site at the end of your journey which maybe three weeks later.

Typically the trash rangers find left behind are climbing accessories such as ropes, crampons, and anchors, but all trash takes away from the natural state of Denali. The ranger detailed how Everest is known to have a foul, human odor when you near its basecamp, and Denali is committed to keeping the entire mountain in its natural state.

The park road was closed this morning due to weather, so we planned our next steps. We were planning to visit a sled dog demonstration in which rangers demonstrate how dog sled teams have been used historically in building the park, and how they’re still used in park maintenance today. To get to the sled dogs we had 2 options: hike or take a shuttle bus. We were committed to hiking and picked out a trail.

After a quick lunch, we realized there was a ranger-led hike following the same trail we had selected that would detail the fauna of the area and arrive at the dog kennel area in time for the demonstration, so we joined that group. The ranger is a Buffalo-area native and we talked briefly about the area, how she ended up in Alaska, and small-world connections like her brother and my brothers all working at Geico in Buffalo.

The hike encompassed 2.4 miles of winding trail with small inclines through boreal forest and along a creek that we could only hear from the trail. The ranger told us all about the boreal forest that wraps the sub-tundra region around the northern parts of the Earth, and how Denali’s boreal forest consists of mainly white and black spruce. We talked about wildlife and how bears, moose, and squirrels prepare their food for the winter…and speaking of winter, during our hike we experienced snow, rain, and sunny conditions to give us a taste of what you can expect from Denali’s weather.

The hike ended at the dog kennels and we spent some time making friends with the huskies and their puppies. These puppies were caged though, so no chances to pick them up like yesterday’s puppies. The rangers led a program to talk about how sled dogs played a pivotal role in supplying areas of the park during times of construction, and how they’re still used in place of snow-machines when there’s a need to venture to sections of the park off-limits to vehicles. We then watched the dogs run information carrying a sled, and when they were finished, run back to their individual dog houses.

The park road opened by the time we were finished with the dogs, so we finally hit the road at about 6 pm. We drove as far as they would allow cars and searched for wildlife along the way. No wildlife today, but we made countless stops to photograph mountains that appeared under waves of sunshine.

Tomorrow we’ll see even more of the park by driving 90 miles up to Wonder Lake aboard one of the tour buses. The weather doesn’t look great for seeing the actual mountain (Denali), but we’ll cross our fingers.

By the way, yes, we heard that they changed the name of Mt. McKinley to Denali today. The state of Alaska has long recognized the name “Denali,” but today the federal government announced it would change the name officially to “Denali.” A park volunteer ran up and shared the news with the group as we waited for our hike to depart. Soon they’ll be announcing an updated measurement of the mountain’s height.

Day 10: Wildlife spotting in Denali

Today was an amazing experience. We are fully drained because today we rode the 12-hour Kantishna Experience bus through Denali National Park. The bus travels the entire 92.5-mile road through Denali National Park and ends at the site of a century-old mining community that once existed in what would one day become a national park.

This morning we were able to sleep in as all buses had been put on a delay. At about 9:30 we left the Wilderness Access Center and started the drive through the park. Our driver, an ex-park ranger, gave 12 hours' worth of commentary to tell the history of Denali, its earliest modern-day settlers, and detail the wildlife we’d all hope to see throughout the day.

Cars are only able to travel the first 15 miles of the park road up to Savage River. We had driven those miles last night and taken in the scenery, but today we were treated to our first wildlife sighting before the end of the road for cars. A sow grizzly and two cubs walked amongst the trees parallel to the river and gave the bus a lot of excitement. After watching the bears for a few minutes, we crossed over the Savage River where the asphalt road ends and an inconsistently maintained gravel road begins.

On the gravel road, the bus bounced and bucked as the driver attempted to avoid as many potholes as he could. We ventured on in search of more wildlife and for a sighting of the mountain that the government renamed to “Denali” yesterday afternoon.

A few dozen miles into the trip we saw cloudy skies and falling snow burn off into clear, blue skies as we rounded a turn in the road. The view suddenly revealed the base of Mt. Denali and the smaller mountains that surround it. Clouds and fog still surrounded the top of the mountain, but as we cruised closer to the mountain, the clouds started to lift showing us even more of its majestic landscape.

By the time we reached the Eielson Visitor Center, 66 miles into the road, much more of the mountain had come into view, but the top still remained elusive. The enormity of the mountain is overwhelming, at over 20,000 ft tall it’s the tallest peak in North America.

As we continued down the road, the driver explained the story of the sourdough expedition in which area gold miners attempted to summit Mt. Denali in the early 1900s. The miners employed the help of sled dogs to haul supplies to a base camp at 9,000 ft. From there, a select group of climbers continued to climb up to 11,000 ft where they made their final camp before attempting to summit the mountain 9,000 ft above them. Long story short, they summited Denali but summited the wrong peak: the shorter northern peak. Due to weather and exhaustion, they were unable to continue to the true summit.

The bus continued the drive down the road and as the skies continued to clear, we picked up a ranger to talk us through the final portion of the road past Wonder Lake and onto the Kantishna mining site. Wonder Lake is a beautiful, long and serene lake that was surrounded by golden and red fall colors. We took a short walk and watched a caribou graze nearby before picking berries along the road. Denali’s mountain top still stayed elusive in the clouds but provided for great textures with the fall colors in the foreground.

We rebounded the bus for a short drive to the end of the road to learning about the Kantishna mining site. Gold was discovered in the area at the dawn of the 20th century and a rush of prospectors came to the remote area in hopes of striking it rich. Two of the area’s most interesting characters included Joe and Fannie Quigley who ran a roadhouse for visitors to the mining area and provided hot meals and pies. Fannie Quigley seemed to be much more of a badass though as she hauled water daily to the mine, ran an elaborate garden, became a great hunter, and lived until the end of her life in Kantishna even after her husband decided to spend his later years in civilization in Seattle.

After a few quick pictures with the end of the road sign, we were headed back on the 92.4-mile journey to the park entrance. Finally, the clouds started to clear and Mt. Denali finally started to show its face. As we rode the 30 miles back towards the Eielson Visitor Center, the clouds cleared and afforded us a great view of the mountain’s top peaks. Eventually, the clouds passed enough to show us a brief view of the entire mountain at once, which is an incredibly rare sight in Denali, only about 30% of park visitors get to experience this sight.

We continued our search of wildlife on the drive back and stopped to view tons of caribou, a grizzly climbing and digging for roots on a hill near the road, a couple of ptarmigan birds, a few Dall sheep grazing near the road, another sow, and two cubs searching for plants to eat, a red fox running through the fields and several pairs of moose in the boreal forest.

In all, today was incredible as we not only saw plenty of wildlife closeup but also saw Mt. Denali in its entirety and experienced perfectly beautiful skies that provided a backdrop to the texture of the mountains and the color of the fall leaves.

Day 11: One last day in Denali

Yesterday we woke up in our awesome room in Healy, Alaska, and enjoyed a quick breakfast while looking out over Otto Lake. The mountains were just starting to come into the sun and the lake was serene.

I decided to shoot a couple of quick time-lapses of the mountains from our room’s balcony, and our room’s neighbor just happened to be a fellow camera-geek and we struck up a conversation about the Blackmagic cinema camera I’d been using. Turns out he was in Alaska to shoot an episode of an outdoor TV show called “The High Road” which airs on the Pursuit Channel. A quick google search makes me think it’s hunting focused, so I might rather not know exactly what they were up to yesterday. As we packed up, the host of the show was hanging out with the staff of the hotel in the communal sitting room and it seemed that he knew the area well and had probably shot there before.

We were sad to leave our room as it was the first time of the trip we had spent three nights in one place, and the setting was pretty amazing. However, it was on to better things and we checked out and headed back into Denali National Park for a morning of touring.

Kirsten is obsessed with collecting stamps for her national parks passport, so we visited the Visitor’s Center once again to make sure we got our official stamps. Afterward, we headed to the learning center where we read about research and wolf populations in Denali. There are plenty of active research projects happening around Denali including water tests, permafrost, and climate monitoring. The wolves are quite a story themselves: there are currently only around 50 wolves known to be living in Denali National Park, and that’s down from previous years. It’s unknown why there was a drop in population, but the park is monitoring. The boundaries of the park don’t include a fence so the animals are free to come and go as they wish, and that opens them to hunting once outside of federally protected lands.

The learning center also had a ridiculously detailed quilt hanging on the wall that took three years for a local quilting group to put together. It painstakingly detailed the topographic and fauna details of the park in a map that spanned the entire park boundary.

We had originally planned to do a short hike in the morning, but looking at the beautiful weather and clear skies, we decided to once again drive the first 15 miles of the park road that is allowable to cars. The fall colors were really starting to hit a peak and we agreed it was best to see the park in its full splendor. The drive didn’t disappoint, we spent a few hours gazing and photographing the mountains along both sides of the road, taking in the beautiful golden color of the leaves and searching for wildlife where we had previously seen bears and moose. No luck on the wildlife minus an arctic ground squirrel. Kirsten did stake out a train coming across the trestle surrounded by fall colors. She’s a true railfan at heart.

After exhausting the park drive, we wrapped up our trip to Denali and headed outside of the park for lunch. Along the way, we stopped at a store to find a shot glass for Kirsten’s travel collection and decided we needed to purchase Alaska-themed socks to keep our feet warm while in the arctic. Kir’s have sled dogs and mine have an eagle, they’re stylish…

We revisited the Prospector’s Pizza restaurant that we dined at a few nights ago for lunch and split a pizza before hitting the road to Fairbanks. While filling up with gas, I asked a guy at the pump next to me how much it cost to fill up an RV. He didn’t have an answer yet (this was his first fill-up), but we talked about traveling Alaska by RV. In my extensive research for this trip, I briefly considered renting an RV to save on hotels and rental car costs. Ultimately we decided we weren’t experienced with RV’s so we stuck with what we know, however, there’s a great company that rents RV’s out of Anchorage and they are everywhere in Alaska. This guy gave them a glowing review and said he’s used them before and that Alaska by RV is a great way to see the state.

We then drove the 2 hours along the Parks Highway up to Fairbanks and checked in with our Airbnb host at a great house overlooking the Alaska Range in the hills above the city. After settling in we drove the route to the airport we’d need this morning and chatted with the airline/tour group staff to make sure we knew what we’d be getting into with our trip to the arctic. Afterward, we headed to a few stores in search of cold-weather clothing because the temperatures had dropped further than we were expecting and we’d be spending all of today on a boat.

Afterward, we found dinner nearby at what was supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Fairbanks but ultimately was a bit frustrating. We were told the wait for two would be about 30 minutes so we asked to dine at the bar instead. The bartender said that would be fine but then acted like it would be a hassle after getting busy with drink orders. At this time, we had already released our table and people who had arrived after we had already been seated. Eventually, we were allowed to order but the kitchen had run out of most of the options we wanted. Dinner ended on an odd note when a regular came in and sat at the bar. He seemed disheveled and the bartender chatted with a waitress about how this guy dines for free. For whatever reason Kir engaged in a conversation with him that involved a meth-addicted mother who had abandoned her kids and how he’s got the best legal team fighting for his grandkids that aren’t related by blood. I’m not sure how the story got so far, but he said some weird stuff…so all in all, it was pretty entertaining.

After dinner we headed back to the house we’re staying at and tried to pair down our camera bags to only equipment we deemed necessary for today’s arctic trip. We had a 10 lb limit and it was really hard to limit what we wanted to bring. After that, we got to sleep early and dreamed about polar bears.

Day 12: Kaktovik

This morning we woke up early and headed to the Fairbanks airport to board a plane headed for the arctic circle. Today we traveled to the arctic ocean to view and photograph polar bears off the coast of Kaktovik.

We arrived at the east side of the airport and immediately weighed our bags to make sure they hit the 10 lb limit. We were traveling on a small nine-passenger aircraft and the airline required a strict weight limit. We removed our cameras and water bottles from the bags, as we would be carrying them onboard separately, so our bags consisted of a few batteries, memory cards, and some heavy telephoto lenses to capture the bears with. My bag checked in at ~9.6 lbs and Kir’s at ~10 lbs even.

Next, the tour company gave us a quick orientation of what to expect on our trip. There was some required reading about bear safety and regulations, and a quick primer on the aircraft. The plane was a nine-person twin-engine Piper Navajo Chieftain where every seat is both an aisle and window seat, perfect for flight-seeing on the way to the arctic. They warned that with these small planes it could get quite drafty from the back door, so they threw a couple of blankets on board.

We exited the building and walked out onto the tarmac, threw our bags in the storage compartment on the left-wing, and climbed up into the plane. There were six people in our group, and one passenger flying only as far as Deadhorse. We taxied out and quickly were in the air. I sat directly in front of the back door we loaded in through and felt a bit of the draft, but the other passenger in the back was wrapped in a blanket for the whole ride.

As we took off we had a great view of the Alaska range of mountains and quickly turned to fly above the city of Fairbanks. The city ends pretty quickly and we were soon surrounded by barren lands dotted with ponds of water. Apparently, these little pools of water form when the top layer of permafrost under the ground surface melts and freezes over time.

We flew for a while and eventually crossed the Yukon River that flows from British Columbia all the way down to the Bering Sea. The river stays frozen for more than half the year and is only crossed by the Dalton highway bridge and the trans-Alaskan oil pipeline that occupied the same bridge.

Soon after we crossed 66°33′ north latitude meaning that we were officially in the arctic circle. The imaginary line that circles the globe to create the arctic circle signifies that on the winter solstice no sun can be seen at noon above this point.

After a little more flying the Brooks Range of mountains came into view. These mountains span from the Canadian border all the way to the westernmost edge of Alaska and reach heights of up to 9,000 feet. They’re nowhere near as high as Mt. Denali in the Alaska Range, but these mountains feature beautifully jagged peaks and look completely untouched. I know there are opportunities to hike in the Brooks Range by chartering a flight up to Gates of the Arctic National Park, but you’d be completely alone with no one to see for hundreds of miles.

As soon as the mountains stopped, the arctic coastal plain began with it’s desert-like features occasionally cut by a stream or lake. The emptiness of this part of Alaska is astounding, no real vegetation to note, it looks like a cracked and scorched desert, brown in color.

After about 2 hours of flying, we reached Deadhorse which acts as the supply airport for the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay. Since we’d be flying directly back to Fairbanks on the return trip from Kaktovik, the pilot needed to refuel to ensure a full tank of roundtrip fuel. This also allowed a much-needed stretch of the legs and bathroom break. Inside a small building on the airfield at Deadhorse was a well-kept lobby where two guys killed time and messed with the tourists. They were more than accommodating though even offering up their wi-fi password as we Instagrammed photos from the flight. We noted a menu on the wall where oilfield workers could order food service. On the menu? Mostly chicken wings, hamburgers, and other junk food, a caesar salad was the healthiest option. All prices were north of $15.

Kirsten was excited to see the Prudhoe Bay base of the Carlile trucking company that’s been featured on several seasons of Ice Road Truckers. A little know fact about us is that in the summer of 2008 while I was interning in New Jersey and living with Kir and her parents, we spent nearly every night watching episodes of that show. Maybe it was the heat that made us lazy, or maybe it was the feeling that something exciting *might* actually happen, but somehow we watched every episode.

We boarded the plane again and headed an hour east to Kaktovik, following the coast of the arctic ocean the entire way. After passing some oilfields, we soon crossed into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge which you may remember from the “drill, baby, drill” chants of the 2008 election season. Debates still rage about whether to drill in ANWR but currently, it’s off-limits and should stay undisturbed. Migrating caribou and musk ox depend on the land near the shore, and off the coast, polar bears, porpoises, and whales feed and fight to survive.

We noted miles of chunked sea ice all along the coast and the pilot noted that this ice was persisting near shore all summer, but the majority of the ice was still hundreds of miles north in the ocean.

The small town of Kaktovik came into view and we landed on a small airstrip at the edge of town. A classic DC-6 propeller plane sat spinning outside of a cold war era hanger, the pilot noted the rare occurrence we could see such a scene. Cargo planes such as this are used to supply the town as winter fast approaches. The hanger and a radar station nearby was built by the government in cold war times in preparation for defense against the Soviet Union.

Kaktovik is an Inupiaq town on Barter Island which sits at the top of Alaska, east towards the Canadian border. Its population sits somewhere around 260 with about 60 children enrolled in its only school. The pilot wrapped the plane’s engines in what looked to be big blankets and had us crawl into a van. We picked up a guy who was working in town to open a bed and breakfast, although I’m not sure what kind of market there is for something like that in a town this far north.

We headed the few minutes across town to the Marsh Creek Inn where we had lunch. The inn has a long hallway of guest rooms on the right and a small cafeteria on the left that serves a lunch buffet. We were warned to not line up until exactly noon or the manager would scold us. All of the food has to be transported into town on either plane or barge so we weren’t sure what to expect, but were surprised at the quality and cleanliness of the place. Today’s menu was hot ham & cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, a fresh salad, and various desserts. Kir noted there was an ala carte menu on the wall that listed a $17 hamburger…that’s the price you pay for food at the top of the world.

After lunch we took a short tour of Kaktovik, mostly headed out to a new airstrip that’s currently under construction. The current airstrip sits only about 6 inches above sea level and floods easily. The state of Alaska has financed a new strip on the other end of town which is about 30 ft above sea level. Due to the permafrost ground, a layer of styrofoam insulation is laid on the ground, and gravel is poured on top to make the runway, and prevent it from sinking.

We made our way back across town and boarded a small boat with twin outboard motors and a small indoor cabin with benches for warming up. The boat was captained by a young guy whose Norwegian father led a sled dog team across Alaska until he met a woman in Kaktoik and settled there.

The boat headed out into the ocean around Barter Island, and our first stop was a nearby strip of land where whale bones are placed after a whale harvest. The Alaskan natives that inhabit the town go whaling every year as legally allowed for their subsistence lifestyle. The whaling is regulated, however, and it’s regulated by strike, not by a whale. That means that for each time they strike a whale with a harpoon, whether or not they can kill and harvest the whale counts against their total number of allowable strikes. The reasoning is that a harpooned whale that escapes may be injured and perish in the wild.

At the boneyard, we saw four polar bears gnawing on the whale bones. Three of the bears were a mother and two cubs, and another sat alone at the opposite end of the island. Polar bears are huge animals, even compared with other types of bears, and they are pretty majestic up close.

Kirsten and I prepared for this once-in-a-lifetime trip to see the polar bears in the wild, and we made sure we had the photographic equipment to make it worthwhile. Kirsten shot with a 70-200mm telephoto lens aided by a 2x teleconverter that turned it into a 140-400mm lens. I rented a 150-600mm lens, and my camera has a crop sensor with a magnification of 1.6x, so my lens was effectively a 240-960mm lens…pretty crazy range. Trying to shoot with that type of range on a moving boat was pretty well impossible. There was a lot of shooting and hoping something came out in focus with a decent composition. I attempted to shoot some video, but I think that may have been fruitless with the movement of the waves. Keeping an eye on a viewfinder extended between 600-960mm while rocking not the waves and holding on when a swell came in was rather dizzying…and doing that for three hours still, has me feeling it about nine hours later.

We then cruised over to another barrier island and spotted another mother and cub who lazed around in the middle of the land. Another huge bear appeared in the distance, circled around the bears, sniffed a lot, and eventually walked off. We weren’t sure if we were about to see something as the cub cowered behind its mother, but the mother seemed pretty nonchalant and the big bear just backed off. A few other bears could be seen in the distance and more on another island nearby. None of these bears were particularly active.

We ended up back at the boneyard where all four bears stayed put. The large solitary bear walked to the edge of the island and started pulling fish out of the ocean with its claws. It eventually walked further out onto a small strip of land, then exited into the water and disappeared off the coast. The three other bears meanwhile had started walking towards the mainland, but a villager on an ATV scared the bears back to the middle of the island. As the climate changes, the bears find it harder to survive in their natural habitat and push inland in search of food. That keeps the town on high alert and they often set off noises and gunshots to scare the bears away. Eventually, these three bears also walked into the sea and disappeared from view.

At this point, the wind started to whip up and the sea got very choppy. The boat turned towards the town and we headed in. The waves made docking near the airstrip impossible so we headed towards where the boat captain’s father kept his sleddogs. We could hear the dogs being trained in the distance as they were run in formation strapped to an ATV for their summer practice. The father plans to run his dogs in the next Iditarod race.

We climbed off the boat and Kir pretty much kissed the land (not a huge fan of boats, but a really good sport throughout the whole day). They led us to see their dogs as they started attaching them to their kennels. We pet and played with the dogs for a few minutes and then boarded a van and headed back to the airstrip.

We boarded the plane and put on our headsets. The headsets gave us communication from the pilot who guided us through the flight, but we could also hear communication from air traffic control throughout the arctic. Immediately we heard messages from Air Force One as Obama was visiting the arctic today. We actually visited the arctic on a historical day as it was the first time a sitting president has visited the arctic while in office. Air Force One must not be used to landing on remote airstrips as they asked for coordinates to make their landing in Kotzebue. The pilot joked that arctic pilots are used to finding their own runways.

On the way back we again flew over the Brooks Range and marveled at its peaks as we flew at 10,000 ft over its 9k peaks.

Upon returning to Fairbanks we headed downtown to a greek restaurant for a nice dinner to celebrate our crazy day. After driving through Fairbanks we concluded it wasn’t as terrible as other people had described, but after spending a little time downtown we thought maybe it just looked a little tired.

We headed back to our Airbnb after dinner and finished watching a movie we started last night. I started watching “Groundhog Day” on VHS but turned it off to concentrate on this blog. The aurora forecasts for tonight were good, but after sitting in this dark living room for several hours, I’m convinced the aurora is just too weak to see tonight. It’s now 1:30 am and I don’t think it’s going to show tonight.

Day 13: The aurora finally emerges

Yesterday we had kind of a lazy day. Two nights ago I stayed up late waiting for the aurora to show, but the clouds kept rolling by and the lights never seemed to appear. Kirsten had set several alarms and woke up to check the skies too. So we lazed around at our Airbnb house and watched a bit of “Groundhog Day” as we packed up our bags and loaded up the car.

We got going mid-morning and drove across town to a FedEx store to ship back the lenses we rented for the polar bear expedition. I’ll give a quick plug here, Borrow Lenses is a pretty great company. This is the fourth time I’ve rented from them and their service is top-notch. I first rented a super-wide-angle lens and this time a super-telephoto and it just makes sense to rent when you need an obscure lens you’d have no use to own.

On our drive across Fairbanks, we saw the usual sights: a million little espresso sheds. Alaska is crazy for espresso and they serve it out of these tiny-house sized stores, some of which have drive-thrus, and in Fairbanks, all seem to serve ice cream too. We also passed what appeared to be a real, working Blockbuster video store. We’re convinced Fairbanks is about 12 years behind the times.

Next, we headed to the Fairbanks Alaska Railroad depot so Kir could do some souvenir shopping. We boarded the train so early in Anchorage that the store had yet to open, so Kir staked out her options for merchandising later in the trip.

We had pretty well wasted away the morning between resting and running errands and decided it was time to find lunch and something to do for the afternoon. We were craving Mexican food and thought: why not eat Mexican food this far north? Turns out their tex-Mex tastes about the same as ours, although I noticed there’s a severe lack of hot sauce options up here: it’s always just tabasco.

After spending a few days in Fairbanks we’ve concluded that it’s not a bad jumping-off point for lots of activities. Denali’s only a short 2-hr drive south, you can get up to the arctic pretty quickly, and it seems like there’s plenty of hiking we didn’t get a chance to partake in there. It’s also really easy to get around with limited traffic (the only snarls are the summer road construction), and highways cut across the city leaving you just a few blocks from wherever you need to go. It’s also incredibly easy to get to their airport or out of town to complete dark skies.

We headed across town to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to check out their Museum of the North which he heard good things about. We spent a few hours learning about Alaskan history, viewing historical artifacts from the various native tribes and explorers, and checking out some more modern Alaskan art. They devote the largest section of their museum to the history and habitat of Alaska, but that room seems like it hasn’t been updated in about 15 years, so it’d be nice if they found ways to incorporate some more interaction.

Last night we headed outside of the city to the barbecue with Kir’s friend from high school. We met Russell at the Golden Eagle Saloon in Ester, which seems to be both the area’s social gathering spot and 50% of its buildings. The bar is unique in that plenty of dogs just hang on out on its front porch, and the only food it offers is a hunk of meat you can grill yourself. We found Russell in front of his own grill out in front of the bar prepping to grill up ribs from a caribou he hunted down last week.

Russell and Kirsten went to high school together and were part of the robotics team but haven’t seen each other in the 12 years since. They reconnected online a few years ago when he shot a video for an alumni video that Kir put together for the team’s head coach. Both reminisced about school friends and we talked about what life is like in Alaska. Kir asked about the plugs we’ve seen on the front of cars, and she was right in that it’s for an engine-block heater used when temperatures dip into the negative territory. Apparently, it’s popular to have an engine heater as well as one for your oil pan and transmission as well so your car will start when it’s 40 below.

We met a lot of Russell’s friends from the fire hall he works at and friends from the university he attended in Fairbanks. Everyone was super nice and gave us tips to make the most of the end of our trip. We mentioned the aurora was supposed to be active and one friend gave us a great spot for dark skies, which we used later in the night. Another friend arrived wearing a 3-wolf t-shirt he’d been gifted and didn’t have any clue that it was an internet joke.

Still feeling a little hungry and hoping to stay out late, we ended up at a restaurant called The Pump House in time to eat from their saloon menu. Just a few minutes after ordering a waitress came in yelling that the aurora had finally appeared and it was spectacular. There were only a few people in the dining room but we all ran out to the edge of the river to watch the light show. Large bands of green and purple danced across the sky and we were elated to finally see them. We’d been told that nearly every night we spent on the Kenai Peninsula was a great night for the aurora and we set up countless alarms in the middle of the night just to check if it were visible.

We sat down and ate a little food before the bartender said it had appeared again! Once again the whole restaurant emptied and this time we spent quite a bit of time outside with the restaurant staff looking at the aurora. One cook said it was his first time seeing the aurora so he was just as thrilled to see it as us! Actually, everyone was excited. It seems that no matter how many times they had seen it, it was still quite awesome to see it again. A huge thanks to Todd and the crew at The Pump House in Fairbanks for giving us every opportunity to see the lights last night!

We headed back to the hotel and prepped some cold weather clothing, then headed out to darker sky areas outside of the city. The first place we drove to was a small parking lot that one of Russell’s friends told us about near a dark marsh. The skies were darker than any we’d seen in a long time and the stars were clearly visible. It was dark, still, and pretty silent minus some dogs howling in the distance. We looked out of the car after a while and saw the aurora starting to form again and spent a few hours finding different shots within that little parking lot and near the road.

The northern lights are crazy awesome. I’ve only heard about them and seen images online, but seeing them in person is really impressive. The only way I can describe it is like a laser light show of these glowy fractals that dance and grow across the sky. We saw big bands of green, some that looked like they were showering down, some that were dimmer and painted faint green areas across the sky. They looked like concert lights shining through bands of smoke that lit up the sky.

Feeling like we had exhausted the ground objects, we moved onto a second location. We saw a bunch of cars turning towards a road a few hundred yards from us, so we followed suit and drove about 45 minutes down a dark, empty road where we only saw maybe 1 or 2 cars on the entire drive. The road turned from paved to gravel and eventually to rutted dirt. We ended up at Murphy’s Dome, a lot that sits on top of a hill far away from the city lights of Fairbanks. Here we played with composing photos with a radio tower paired with the lights.

Eventually, we headed back to the hotel and got to bed after 3 am. This morning we woke up in time for breakfast which ended far too early at just 9 am. Soon after we started on our drive to Talkeetna which will sadly be the last stop on our trip.

Day 14: In search of the cat mayor of Talkeetna

Facing what looked to be a four-hour drive and a hotel breakfast that closed at 9 am, we pulled ourselves out of bed “early” and packed up.

We hit the road before 10 am and headed south along the Parks Highway for four-hours of gazing at the autumn colors in full peak as we headed to Talkeetna. There are only two roads you can travel between Fairbanks and Anchorage, and we opted to break the trip up by stopping in the cool little town of Talkeetna along the way, so we needed to travel via the Parks. The four-hour stretch of highway between Fairbanks and Talkeetna is mostly devoid of civilization except at its halfway point where Denali is located.

Unfortunately, as summer winds down, road construction around Denali is in full effect. We found significant delays while cruising at only 35-45 mph through long stretches of highway construction, and at times we were stopped completely. When it wasn’t construction it was RV’s, trucks, and tour buses who slowly navigated the hilly, windy roads south of Fairbanks. By the time we stopped for lunch, we had already spent three hours on the road and the GPS reported we had another two hours to go.

After spending nearly the entire day driving, we finally arrived at our “hobbit cabin” outside of Talkeetna where we’d be spending the night. We loaded in and took a quick rest before heading out to explore the area.

Our first stop near Talkeetna was to sample a bunch of treats made of birch syrup including birch breakfast syrup and birch caramels. We’d seen them in stores throughout our trip, but we waited to get right to the source. We saw ice cream on the menu and decided a mid-afternoon sugar rush was much needed, so we shared birch syrup ice cream topped with blueberry syrup. It was delicious.

Next, we headed down to the heart of Talkeetna, a small touristy town that reminded us of a unique artsy town we visited outside of Santa Fe. Our first stop was the general store in search of the town’s mayor, a cat named Stubbs. It appears the mayor was busy with official business like zoning rights for mice or enforcing mandatory nap times for other area felines, so Stubbs was nowhere to be found. Disappointed at striking out on an animal visit, we headed down the street to check out the other stores and galleries in the area. The main street isn’t very long, so we ended up at the confluence of the Talkeetna and Susitna Rivers and hiked along its shore. We found a cool railroad bridge and admired its graffiti for a while, then headed back into town to find dinner.

We found dinner at the Denali Brewing Co where a super nice waitress informed us that (like the other night in Fairbanks) several menu items we wanted were no longer available. Luckily, the desserts were and we brought them back to our cabin for snacking later. We also witnessed a comedy of errors as multiple hosts/hostesses would greet the same guest then go to find them a table, while another host would come to greet them again and seat them right away. No matter how many people came through the door, they found some odd place in the restaurant to seat them.

On our way out of the restaurant, we reunited with David and Frank who we had met on the train to Seward earlier in the trip. They’ve been following our trip on Facebook and through the blog and it was really great to see them again and tell them about how much fun we’ve been having in Alaska.

Day 15: Native culture in Anchorage

Yesterday we woke up in our cozy little “hobbit cabin” near Talkeetna. The cabin sat out front of a lake used by a floatplane service that carries passengers in and around Denali, so our room was decked out in pilot themed knick-knacks. It was charming, but obviously new construction and had one of those electric fireplaces with the fake flames which proved harder than you’d think to the program to actually produce heat. A very dark walk down a boardwalk led to a separate private bathroom with a sign that read “No trespooping,” in case anyone was thinking of taking the opportunity.

We woke up, packed our bags for the last time, and headed towards Anchorage. It was about a two-hour drive, but we broke it with a quick puppy stop along the way. I think more highways should include the chance to stop to pet puppies. Since we were passing back through Wasilla we decided to stop back at the Iditarod museum and sure enough, a sled team was there to demonstrate and brought their puppies along for some socialization. Kir has become a total puppy-lover on this trip and was delighted to meet some new puppies.

We got back on the road and headed right for the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. We had an awesome time learning about the pueblos and native culture at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque a few years ago, so we planned to spend a day learning about Alaska’s natives on this trip.

The cultural center features a building with exhibits, a demonstration stage, and a sprawling outdoor complex of recreated traditional living structures. We grabbed lunch at their cafe and sat down to eat it while watching the tail end of a demonstration of native Alaskan games.

Next up on stage was a demonstration of traditional native dances presented by members of a Yupik dance group, originally from Bethel in southwestern Alaska. A few men chanted songs and beat drums while women demonstrated and explained dances that honored the land, sea, animals, and the creator. They also explained the meaning behind the dance fans they held in their hands as they danced with 5 feathers: one in the center represented the creator while the four flanking feathers honored animals of the land, sea, and sky and the fruits of the land. They explained the decorative pieces were made from various tail feathers and the underarm tufts of a swan. The base of the fans was often carved of driftwood although carving would’ve been a man’s job, so others were weaved from beachgrasses which could be done by a woman.

The dancers also explained that the word “Eskimo” comes from an Algonquin word that means those who eat raw meat, while Yupik literally translates to “real people.” They obviously prefer to be referred to as real people. They also explained that “Alaska” comes from a native language word that sounds like “Alas-kahh” and means “where the sea breaks its back.”

Many native Alaskans speak languages that are similar and overlap with distinct differences happening depending on the features of the geography of their area. For example, natives on St. Lawrence Island in the upper western Bering Sea had 90 words for snow in their language, while natives on the more temperate Kodiak Island south of the Kenai Peninsula had 66 words for rain. Why so many? Because they needed to describe exactly what the weather conditions were.

We ended up watching another demonstration of the native games as we had originally missed the beginning of the presentation. Two teenagers explained and demonstrated the games which are played competitively at the Native Youth Olympics and World Eskimo-Indian Olympics. The games featured feats of strength, agility, and balance. Many games centered around either kicking or touching a ball made of tanned leather and seal skin that hung from a string at ever-increasing heights.

Afterward, we toured the exhibits learning about the similarities differences in native cultures in Alaska. All share a love for the land and its resources and respecting their elders. They focused a lot of attention on the westernification of their societies and the positive and negative impacts it has brought. While many agreed that learning English and being able to work in western society was an important skill in today’s world, they also agreed that it was a mistake to force the abandonment of their native languages which have been all but lost over the past few generations.

After touring the native center, we headed across town to Kincaid Park where we…napped. Alaska has exhausted us, whether that’s from the hiking, or the constant packing up and driving to the next attraction or chasing northern lights until late at night…we’re tired. We napped for an hour and a half in the parking lot before venturing out for a few miles of the Tony Knowles Trail that follows the coast of the Cook Inlet around Anchorage. Along the way, we saw several moose resting and grazing in the weeds next to the trail. It’s amazing how such a large animal can appear so invisible when sitting amongst the foliage on the ground.

Our finale to the trip was dinner at the Bear’s Tooth Grill. Several people mentioned Bear’s Tooth as a go-to restaurant, so we made it the last meal of our trip. Feeling full of burger and southwestern chicken Fettucine, we headed for the airport, fueling the car on the way. After a thorough check of the car, noting how dirty it was, we headed into the airport for the final conclusion of our trip.

It was sad to leave Alaska, but after two weeks of non-stop hiking, train-riding, road-tripping, bus-riding, northern-lights spotting, polar-bear photographing, and occasionally hitch-hiking (just that one time I swear!) we feel like we accomplished everything on our itinerary and left satisfied.