Alaska PTR

[Zorba]

So this was my third trip to Alaska and my Wife's first. We flew into Anchorage then drove up to Denali National Park stopping in Talkeetna on the way. We then went back to Anchorage for a couple days then went down to Kenia and went on a fishing trip on "Big Lake." My first two trips to Alaska were at the end of April and early May. Alaska is very very beautiful both times of the year.

A map of our route can be Map

I have about 1200 pictures and some interesting movies so if you want to see more of anything let me know.

So we got a non-stop flight from CVG to ANC, which was very nice (7 hours). This is our plane, Delta 757:

This set of pictures was taken at Lake Hood, it is a massive general aviation airport in Anchorage. It has tons of bush planes and tons of seaplanes. It is really cool to watch the seaplanes taking off, but I am also an airplane guy.

Notice the massive tires on this guy, that is so they can land just about anywhere.

Some of the general aviation planes at Lake Hood, there are 4 or 5 areas with at least this many planes.

This is a float plane that is about to take off.

This is was taken in someone's back yard, this is a neighborhood airfield (all over the place up there), every house had a plane out back.

Now on our way to Denali we stopped at Beluga Point on Turnagain Arm. There were some Beluga whales out but I couldn't get a picture of them .

This is the best place to eat in Talkeetna, it is also a true roadhouse, you can rent a Bed for the night, not a room but a bed. This place is great and it is a must eat at if you are in town. The really cool thing about Talkeetna is it is the staging point for all the Mt. McKinley climbs, so climbers are all over the place, especially in late April.

This is the other resturant in town, the last time I was in Talkeetna all the roads were gravel, now this main road was asphalt. The town is TINY, but pretty cool in 2000 we stayed here for a couple nights (at the Lodge, not the roadhouse ).

K2 Aviation is a pretty famous place in the General Aviation community. They give flight tours around the mountains. They also carry climbers up to base camp. In 2000 my Uncle and I flew up to Base camp with them, which was amazing, this trip we saved the money (about $300/each). If you are here, spend the money and do it pay for a trip that you actually land at base camp. You land on skiies on a glacier.

Now back on the road to Denali we stopped at the "South Lookout Point" to try to see Mt. McKinley, and there were clouds . Most people will never get to see the mountain due to the weather. The stats claim that 80% of people that travel to Denali will never get to see the mountain. I had seen it on my last trip clear as day the whole time I was in Talkeetna, no joy this time.

It is there somewhere.

This sign was at the "North Lookout Point" still no joy on the mountain, but there were black bears in the area.

The road to Denali is beautiful, this is one of the many places we stopped and took a shot.

Next post will be inside the park.

[windshawne]

I was in Wasilla during July as well, and fished on Kenai too. Beautiful up there.

Yeah, those bears mean business. Whenever we "walked in the woods" the guide told us to make sure we sang to keep them away. Little brown jug was my favorite

[Zorba]

Now inside the park.

This is a snowshoe hare, we were very likely with our timing. The population of rabbits in the park is on a 10 year population cycle. We were at the high of the population, year 10, so if even thing follows trends this year you wont be able to see them anywhere. This year they were all over the place and they were no scared of us at all. That being said we didn't try to mess with them at all, which is illegal in a national park, but this guy just came right up to us and let us take some pictures.

Nothing like seeing a seagull in the middle of Alaska, I named him Johnathon .

Some cool scenery inside the park,

This is a Lynx cat. It is very very rare to see an Lynx, much less get a picture of one. We saw two but the other one was running so fast we couldn't get a picture. Our bus driver said that he worked in the park for 10 years before ever seeing one. Also the TV show 'Planet Earth' says that you can live you whole life in the Artic and never see a Lynx, so I few very very lucky to have a picture like this.

You can only drive 16 miles into the park, before we got there we decided this was good enough and we didn't buy tickets for the bus. Once we got there, 16 miles in was not enough at all. So we got bus tickets, we were very lucky they weren't sold out. We did the 60 mile trip. The following pictures are on the shuttle bus.

These are some Doll Sheep, very high on a mountain.

This is a Brown Bear, the browns in Denali are pretty blond, they look like moving haystacks. We saw 5 of them from the bus, this one was the closest.

The road the bus takes is SCARY!!! The road can barely take two busses side by side. It was okay when we were on the inside, but on the outside it was freaky.

More cool scenery from the bus.

This is our bus towards the end of the trip, about 25 miles from the end. The bus was completely spotless at the beginning of the trip.

This is the cabin we stayed outside of Denali, it was $230/night and tiny tiny tiny.

Park Entrance:

On the way out there are only two places to go

Next post will include my sighting of Mt. McKinley

[Zorba]

So on our way back to Anchorage, out of the corner of my eye I saw something massive. We had already stopped at the North lookout and couldn't see anything and we were about half way between the two lookout points. My wife and mom were asleep, so we were very lucky that I don't pay attention to the road when I drive .

So this is it, Denali, from the side, this is not one of the normal views you see in pictures, so that makes it even more cool.

Me with Smokey in Portage

This is the tunnel to Whittier from Portage. The tunnel is 3.5 miles long, one lane and has a train track in the middle of the road. So they let one side go for 15 minutes, then a train, then the other side of cars for 15 minutes.

Next post will be in Kenai and fishing with the Bears.

[gigacoaster2k]

Keep the photos coming, they are amazing. The photos of the snow capped mountains just take my breath away.

[Zorba]

This is the Kenai River, that is the real color of the water, Glacier run off makes the rivers look really cool.

Now time to go fishing at Big Lake. There is only one way to get there, there are no roads within 100 miles of the lake.

This is my first float plane experience, it was pretty fun, not quite as cool as landing on skis but still not your normal airliner landing .

They stash the boats out on the lake, so this is us leaving the plane behind.

So once we got there we had some company, luckly they were well fed.

These are black bears of course. The blacks were very big for Blacks.

Momma with cubs,

Then the browns came down to eat the fish the blacks had caught. The browns were all very small for browns and it seemed like they didn't know how to fish well. They would leave, let the black catch a lot of fish, then they would come down and scare off the blacks and eat their scraps. This guy is looking for scraps under some rocks.

Browns gone, blacks back. This bear was only about 20 feet away from me, with only 2 feet deep water between us. A little later he was about 10 feet away, looking right at us, for some reason I didn't upload that picture though.

Me fishing for Red Salmon

Black bear eating some fish

Browns coming back, this time the Black bear tried to stand his ground. Even our guide thought that they were about to fight it out. Normal blacks get away from browns, but this black was actually bigger than the brown.

But then the brown got reinforcements and the black bear retreated.

Time to eat, nothing like eat salmon two hours after it was caught.

It looks like a few of the pictures I was going to post didn't upload, if you all want to see more let me know and I'll upload some more.

Bottom line Alaska is amazing.

[Zorba]

Keep the photos coming, they are amazing. The photos of the snow capped mountains just take my breath away.

You know what is funny? Since my previous trips were in Late April/Early May every mountain was completely snow capped, so I thought that is how it always was, I was shocked but how clear the mountains were in July.

[G-Force]

Wow! Amazing PTR! I've never been to Alaska, but now you are making me want to! The scenery looks amazing and the first picture in your last post is just amazing! I'm also amazed that you guys got to see so much of the bears, they seem pretty cool!

[keiko_coaster]

OMG! Its soooo pretty there! And kinda scary how close you got to those bears!! Did you see any whales or anything?

[standbyme]

Thanks for taking the time to share all of these great photos! This has been a very interesting trip report.

[Zorba]

OMG! Its soooo pretty there! And kinda scary how close you got to those bears!! Did you see any whales or anything?

On this trip we saw some Beluga whales way out in the Turnagain Arm. That is pretty much it for marine life, mostly because we didn't go out on a boat or go out to the Harbors.

On my last trip I saw a lot of sea lions and otters in the harbors.

[The Interpreter]

My DSL is on hiatus at present, which means I am on dial-up. I must come back and see your pictures when I get it back, which I will. Thanks for posting!

[Avatar]

Zorba – wow I really enjoyed your report, we want to go to Alaska too, but right now with so many other destinations on our list Alaska may need to wait till after our daughter leaves home. Your report really captured the beauty as well as the the way of life Alsatians enjoy. Thanks again for your report it was very interesting.