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Alaska Trip

United was running specials on airfare to Alaska so one of my friends suggested we take a trip to Alaska.  It seemed like a good idea, so I did.  I missed seeing the Aurora Borealis in the night sky and missed seeing the reflecting pool in Denali, but still managed to see many, many things.

After you finish reading about my travels or if you just want to see the pictures, you can view them here.

Day 1 (Wednesday) - Travel from Austin to Anchorage and then to Seward

The flight to Alaska was an Austin to Denver to Anchorage flight, so I got to kill three hours in the Denver airport, which is pretty hard since the wireless signal isn't very strong anywhere in the B Terminal area that I could tell.  After arriving in Alaska and meeting my friend we went and grabbed some dinner (at 10:30pm) at Fire Tap Ale House before heading out to Seward.  Seward is about a three hour drive from Anchorage and at night, it moves pretty quickly.  The drive is also supposed to be one of the most scenic highways in America, however, at midnight to 2am, I couldn't tell you much other than it is really damn dark, there will only be a few cars out, and you can actually see stars in the sky.  Which was pretty cool.  We finally arrived in Seward at 2:30am which is (as I found out in the light) a really small town.  I might be exaggerating a little bit, but it seems like Seward was only a few city blocks.  This left us a good 4 hours for sleep until we got to hop onto a wildlife and glacier boat cruise tomorrow (or later today depending on your view).

Day 2 (Thursday) - Seward

My first full day in Alaska got off to an early start: 6am.  After a rather poor continental breakfast, we had a hotel shuttle take us down to the Kenai Fjords tour building so we could check in and hop on the boat -- and this was at 7:30am, since we thought the tour started at 8am.  However, it turned out the tour started at 9am, so we had an hour or so to kill.  Since I was depressed with the breakfast we asked for a suggestion on where to get some breakfast.  The workers at Kenai Fjords told us to try Railway Cantina and their breakfast burritos, so we did.  Now, price-wise I found it a little high, but like all the food in Alaska it all seems a little pricey.  The breakfast burrito was quite tasty though and it hit the spot although it felt funny eating Tex-Mex food in Alaska (being a little snobby, it isn't Texas Tex-Mex, but it was good food).

After the decent breakfast, we still had time to burn, so it was easily burned in the Helly Hansen store attached to the Kenai Fjords tour building.  Now, I suppose it makes sense, since well, you might not have dressed appropriately to sit out in the cold weather for 9 hours and Helly Hansen makes some nice outdoor gear.  After looking at all the gear, it was about time to get onto the boat.  So we made our way out to the docks, where I saw an awesomely named boat: El Patron.  And some awesome bumper (stern?) stickers that said: "Kill Fish" and "Burn Diesel."  The boat itself was a fairly large ship with a lot of deck and interior space.

The boat ride itself was definitely full and it got really cold on the water.. especially when they started cruising at 22 knots.  The cruise was long and I felt I got my money's worth with over nine hours of time on the boat we saw bald eagles, sea otters, sea lions, puffins, seagulls, orcas, and humpback whales.. and this was just the wildlife.  There were also glaciers, waterfalls, and various islands, where you find out they have great names for islands like: Guano Island and No Name Island.  The tour pulled back into port right at 6:00pm and it was then time to find dinner.

For dinner there were really two choices: Ray's Waterfront or Chinook's Waterfront.  Looking at the buildings, we picked Chinook's.  I ordered Salmon stuffed with Alaskan King Crab because it sounded wonderful.  When it arrived it looked great, and then I took a bite of it and I completely changed my mind.  The salmon was very dry and not what you expect when you pay about 30 dollars for an entree.  They offered to have the entree redone for me, but after hearing multiple people around me send back their fish, I settled on a cheeseburger.  When that arrived it was a little crispy, but I was so hungry I just added enough mustard to the hamburger to tolerate the taste.  I don't know if this was an aberration on their food or not, but this was enough to turn me off to this place if I ever go back to Seward.  The beer I got was very tasty though, so that was at least the one bright spot in the meal.  After the meal it was about 8pm and I decided to call it a night, since I'd only been running on a few hours of sleep before checking out some hiking trails in Seward the next day then driving to Denali.

Day 3 (Friday) - Seward and the Drive to Denali with a Stop in Anchorage

Friday started early as we took a trip to the National Parks Station near the docks to find out where we should hike.  The ranger on duty suggested Exit Glacier a few miles away where you can see the Harding Ice Field.  We decided to do that so we headed out to Exit Glacier and decided to hike to the toe of the glacier and then attempt the hike to the Harding Ice Field.  Hiking to the toe of the glacier was a nice fairly easy hike and I got a lot of good photos of the toe.  We then attempted the hike to the ice field.  And I couldn't make it up to the bridge (0.6 miles away), I was seriously not ready for it.  I was carrying my camera and three lenses along with a fairly heavy bag.  About 30 pounds of gear and water along with a fairly intense start (over 100o foot climb in the first mile) I realized I couldn't make it.  So my friend and I turned back after I had finished my 32 oz. of water, which I think was about half way to the bridge.

We then started off toward Denali, with a stop in Anchorage for REI and a good lunch.  At the REI, I looked for a new backpack that I could wear during the mountain biking we were going to be doing in Denali and still be able to carry some of my camera gear.  We can say that I learned more about appropriate hiking gear this trip than I have in a long time.  At the REI, I picked up an Osprey Manta 20 backpack that had a 100oz (3 liter) water pack and 20L of storage space.  As an awesome bonus, Anchorage has no sales tax which was completely awesome.  I'll talk more about the Manta later (since it is a very, very nice backpack).  For lunch, we ate at Simon and Seafort's and it is totally worth it.  The food here was awesome and I highly suggest eating here if you're in Anchorage (I ate here twice).  I ate the berry field medley salad, chili-smoked tiger prawns, salmon, and a fresh-berry cobbler with their Chardonnay Flight (Columbia Crest, Clos du Bois, and Sonoma Cutrer Russian).  The Clos du Bois was the Chardonnay was the one that was well worth it; the other two were very meh.  We got out of Anchorage around 5pm or so and started out toward Denali, only 250 miles away.  The trip to Denali is pretty, but also the most empty stretch of road I have ever seen.  There is no cell phone reception and no radio stations for most of the trip.  Oh, and Wasilla is a tiny damn town.  We ended up buying some food in a small supermarket and wow, some food in Alaska is expensive, just like the gasoline.

The drive however, took a long time thanks to the road being completely repaved so we didn't actually get into the hotel until 2am, at which point we found out, the hotel booked the room for the wrong night -- luckily they were able to get us into another room.  We prepared for the next morning and then went to bed.. the morning was coming early again.  The hotel we stayed at was not worth it -- and I can't remember the name right now, or I'd tell you not to go.

Day 4 (Saturday) - Denali and the drive to Alyeska (Girdwood)

Denali, now here is the reason I really wanted to go; to see Mt. McKinley and see the Alaskan tundra.  The plan was to rent mountain bikes, get into the park when the bus opens, make it to Eielson then ride our mountain bikes 20 miles to Wonder Lake hike around there then catch a bus out of the park.  As you can probably guess, it is not how it happened.

We showed up at the bike shop around 7am and no one was there.  We called them and said they'd be there soon, so we waited.  When they arrived, they didn't know how to rent us the bicycles, and had to wait for another person to show up.  Which was another 10 minutes or so.  The person showed up and then took care of some other people who arrived after us before helping us.. so we had to wait even longer.  Needless to say, we missed our bus into the park.  We also found out that they weren't going to drop us off at the visitor's center like they initially told us.  So we biked to the Visitor's Center a few miles away.  At the park, around 9:15am, we had to ride stand-by on the bus and hope we found one that would take us close to where we wanted to go -- and we weren't going to be able to take the bikes.

We did have a bit of luck and got a handicapped bus that had a life and section for people in wheelchairs.  Since there were no wheelchairs, we managed to get our rented bikes onto the bus.  So, something good did happen in the morning.  The bus ride into Eielson was three hours long and we saw a lot of wild life, some that I actually took pictures of.  I didn't bring my 100 - 400mm lens since it wouldn't fit into my Manta 20 pack.  I brought the landscape lens and the close by lens.  Looking back, I should have taken my landscape lens and the 100 - 400 mm lens.  Once we arrived at Eielson, we asked the park ranger stationed there how long it should take to get to Wonder Lake and he said we should be able to make it before the last bus that was able to take us out was leaving.  With that we hopped on our bikes and took off down the gravel road.

The bike ride wasn't bad at all, however, we only made it 11 of the 20 miles to Wonder Lake, the bikes we rented did not have the basic maintenance performed on them and then chains kept slipping meaning every mile or so we'd stop and hop off the bikes and put the chains back on the gears.  Really not what I wanted since I really wanted to see Wonder Lake, I did end up seeing some nice scenery anyway so I can't say I left completely disappointed.  Around 3:05pm is when we stopped biking because that was the time the last bus leaving Wonder Lake would be coming by us.  So we sat at the side of the road for about an hour since all the buses were running a little late.  We then had a nice hour bus ride out of the park and back to the visitor's center.

We arrived at the visitor's center around 8pm and then had to bike back to the bike rental place and grab some dinner.  For dinner we ate at Prospector's Pizza, a local pizzeria and ale house (just a note, but almost every Alaskan-owned restaurant is also an ale house).  The pizza was expensive, but quite tasty and when it came down to it, it was a great idea to have it, because after eating we headed toward Gridwood and Alyeska.

I started out driving toward Alyeska at 10pm, which you're probably thinking, damn that's late.  And you'd be right.  However, in Alaska it doesn't actually go completely dark until midnight or a little after, so I got to drive about two hours in the light until it went pitch black.  I made it all the way to the south side of Wasilla before I asked my friend to finish off driving to Alyeska.  We made it to Alyeska at 3am, and as you can guess, it was going to be another short night, check-out time at Alyeska was noon.

Day 5 (Sunday) and 6 (Monday) - Gridwood, Anchorage and The Plane Rides Home

Now, you'd think after getting into Alyeska at 3am I'd be sleeping as much as I could, however, I ended up getting up at 9am and getting everything packed up for the plane ride home and getting my backpack ready for a hike up the mountain at Alyeska.  We checked out of Alyeska and grabbed some lunch at Maxine's Glacier City Bistro.  I was not overly impressed with Maxine's at all.  The food was decent, but for my money I would have liked a little more food.  After we finished up at Maxine's my friend was still hungry so we decided to try another place to eat: The Bake Shop.  I'd love to say we ate here and the food was great, but that'd be a lie.  There was a line out the door and the food was seriously overpriced -- just like every other resort restaurant I suppose.  We decided to not eat there and just head back to Alyeska and take the tram up to the mountain.

Once we were up on the mountain we hiked to the highest point allowed where I actually stood in some snow.  Something I haven't done in a damn long time.  We were also above some of the clouds, so my head was literally in the clouds.  It was so ridiculous that I took a picture of it, me wearing pants and a heavy jacket up at the top of the mountain because at the base of the mountain you'd be comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt.  After meandering around the top of the mountain for a while, we hiked back down to the tram and rode it down then headed back toward Anchorage.

After an almost nasty crash and an hour later, we were at REI in Anchorage (I'm not going to pass up the chance to buy gear with no tax and no shipping).  My friend said, "We're gear whores" and I'd have to agree, there is always tons of neat stuff at REI to buy.  I ended up with a new long sleeve shirt from Arc'Teryx and another shirt by Moutain Hardware that the REI in Austin stopped carrying (I liked the Arc'Teryx shirt so much, I bought the short sleeve version of it too).  I also picked up some luggage packing cubes to keep my clothes sorted during travel, plus when the TSA goes through your luggage hopefully they'll be able to pack it back the way they found it.  I got out of REI relatively unscathed, my friend however, didn't fare so well.

Finished with the REI, it was time to grab some dinner and I chose Simon and Seafort's, again.  This time we had to sit in the bar area since it would be an hour wait to sit in the restaurant side.  This time my meal consisted of: Clam Chowder, Salmon stuffed with Alaskan King Crab and Macadamia nuts, and bread pudding for dessert.  For my drinks I did the Pinot Noir wine flight (Beringer Third Coast, Pencarrow, and Erath OR).  The clam chowder was decent, the Salmon stuffed with crab and macadamia nuts was amazing and the bread pudding left me a little sad.  I knew better than to order the bread pudding, but even with mediocre bread pudding, it still isn't bad.  If you're ever at Simon and Seafort's and they have Halibut cheeks on the menu, I highly suggest buying them.  They were great (even though I only had a bite).  Dinner was finished around 8pm (I think) and at that point we made our way to the hotel where my friend was going to be staying since it was going to be doing more sight-seeing in Alaska.  The hotel was nothing to write home about and in fact, I'd probably stay away from the hotel, it wasn't in the best looking neighborhood (but it was damn close to the airport).  Around 10pm we headed out to the airport so I could have extra time in case the airport security gave me any trouble like in Austin when I left.

If you've never seen The Ted Steven's Airport in Anchorage, it is completely ridiculous how nice it is.  I'm sure a lot of federal money was spent making it.  I hopped on the Anchorage to Denver flight on time, couldn't get any sleep because the person beside me was a complete jerk and arrived at dinner hungry and grumpy.  A quick McDonald's breakfast (I never thought I'd be happy to see a McDonald's) I made my way back to the terminal for the flight into Austin.  This flight was much smoother and much more comfortable.. I still didn't get any sleep however.  I will say that United does a good job of having flights running on-time and efficiently and Economy Plus is definitely worth it, however on the Anchorage to Denver flight, I would have killed for First / Business class just to stay away from that jerk of a passenger.  Even though the time difference was only three hours I'm still recovering from the time zone difference... I was tired, but happy I went and if I ever go back I know I have a list of things to see and do, and I'll definitely plan to spend more than a few days there.

Random Thoughts about the Trip

Now, my random thoughts of what I'd do different when going on this trip

• Packing
  • If you're going to be doing a lot of hiking or outdoorsy stuff, I'd come more prepared than I was.  I thought I had everything, but when it came down to it, the Osprey Manta 20 backpack was a lifesaver.  I had hiking sticks and the right layers and such, but not having the right backpack was an issue.
  • Know where you're going so you can choose the camera lenses to take with you appropriately.  I realized in Denali my 18 - 55 mm lens was completely worthless and I would have been better off carrying my landscape lens and the zoom lens.
  • I packed in a carry-on sized bag, which made packing a bit of a challenge, but knowing what I know now, I would have not packed my jeans and just packed my two pair of technical / hiking pants since they were the pants I wore for the entire trip.  That would have saved a lot of space in the bag.
  • The packing cubes are a nice thing and I'll definitely use the next time I travel.  They do a good job of keeping everything in order.
  • If you're packing camera equipment, I found my Mountainsmith Borealis AT bag to be a great way to bring the camera equipment as carry-on luggage.  If was able to fit my DSLR and three lenses along with a some reading material and my laptop computer.
  • If I was staying for more than a week I would have checked a larger bag but packed with the same idea as the smaller bag.
• The Trip Itself
  • It was a lot of fun, but we were rushing from place to place, which although OK, it was a little hectic trying to make it from place to place at night.  We did the best with the time we had allotted but now, I'd take it a little easier so we could travel during the day.
  • I'm definitely a fan of Economy Plus and now I'm thinking I'd almost buy two seats beside one another so I can keep annoying passengers away from me.
  • Food and gas is expensive in Alaska and if you're going to drive place to place, be prepared for a lot of driving
  • Most people don't understand how to drive nicely on a two-lane highway.  People would have stacks of cars behind them and keep motoring along like it was no problem.  What ever happened to pulling to the shoulder to left faster people pass you?
  • People RVing clog up the highways and a lot of them were the reasons for the two-lane highway issues.
  • For Denali, decide what you want to do because that'll change what you pack.  I shouldn't have packed what I did and I probably should have planned for two trips to Denali, one to mountain bike around and then another just to take pictures.
• Things I missed
  • The auroras, they weren't very active and I really needed a trip to Fairbanks to see them.
  • Wonder Lake in Denali
  • The Harding Ice field
  • Lots of other cities that are supposed to be beautiful

The bottom line: It was a lot of fun and I would go back despite the negatives.