(Note: This is part of my Big Trip 1996 retrospective travelogue. See
this
page for an introduction to it and links to all other posts)
Saturday, August 31, 1996 – We’ve covered about 700 miles in two days as we’ve left Alaska behind.
Currently, we are heading toward Watson Lake, along the Alaska Highway in
Canada’s Yukon Territory. The big claim to fame Watson Lake has is the
Sign Post
Forest, hundreds of signs pointing in different directions and showing the
mileage to various places.
A GI building the road started it in 1942, and it has kept going ever since.
It will be the highlight of our day, which has been filled with nothing but
highway and non-descript trees. We did pass through Whitehorse but didn’t see
its claim to fame: a DC-3 mounted on a pole to make the world’s largest weather
vane. Seems a waste of a perfectly good aircraft.
Meanwhile, we suffered our first windshield crack yesterday. We knew it was
going to happen, but it’s still depressing. A rock flew up and hit the upper
right-hand side of the windshield, making a nearly circular crack about the size
of a silver dollar. Actually, it’s not as bad as many windshields have been hit,
and hopefully — knock on glass — it will be our last. Of course, the car’s being
sold anyway when we get back. To whom we don’t know, of course — but we’ll have
three days to dispose of it!
I left off last with us about to explore Anchorage. Here’s to it:
Interact with this map
here.
Day 17 [Wednesday, August 21, 1996] – We dragged ourselves out of bed late and finally made it out into downtown
Anchorage. There was surprisingly little there. We parked right downtown, spent
about 5 minutes in the visitors center and quickly decided against doing the
walking tour. It didn’t seem that interesting. Instead, we did a walking
tour of the nearby touristy T-shirt shops, as usual checking out the various
models of stuffed moose, Alaska hats and Ulu knifes. Then we settled in for
lunch at a nice deli, sitting under the hot Alaskan sun and enjoyed the good
food.
Next, we headed out to see Anchorage’s Earthquake Park. This is where a large
area of land dropped down many feet in the massive (9.2, or something like that)
quake of 1964. Of course, we got lost along the way — but it was a good thing. We
stumbled upon the Hostess Thrift Shop, which Let’s Go had mentioned. This is
where all the day-old bread and other bakery goods are returned from various
stores. Heaven! I found the miniature powdered donuts I’d been craving but
refusing to buy in order to stick to our budget. $1 per box! We picked up some
bread, cupcakes, Twinkies (Lorna had never heard of them in Britain and now
loves America’s favorite snack food) and bread for under $10.
Still seeking Earthquake Park, we drove further and came across REI.
Naturally, we stopped in to see if there was possibly any camping equipment we
did not yet own. We found it, too — mosquito nets to go over our heads. Denali
was rumored to have terrible mosquitoes, so despite the pith helmet look, we
went for the protection.
Only minutes after getting back into the car, we came across a
Carr’s — Alaska’s number one attraction, in our opinion. Carr’s is the Alaska
version of Vons, and we decided it was time to stock up. We were thrilled to
discover great mark downs on sandwich meat about to reach its sell by date. A
budget-saver! We stocked up (and have not had any ill-effects, to date). Potato
chips, lots of soup and more needed foods were obtained.
We finally reached Earthquake Park, but it was mostly a disappointment. There
are lots of trees, and the ground is all jumbled, but you don’t get a real sense
of an earthquake causing it, much less how. A bit further down, we got to a
point were Beluga whales are sometimes spotted. None were seen by our eyes,
however.
Back we went to the motel, where we settled in more television and a
do-nothing evening. Even though we’re not working, all the traveling is
actually pretty tiring and it was nice to have a "day off" of sorts.
Day 18 [Thursday, August 22, 1996] – Out of Anchorage and off to
Seward, where icy fjords and more wildlife
awaited us. We got the car’s oil changed, then did nothing but
drive for about 5 hours and watched rain clouds ominously fill the sky. The trip
to Seward was stunning. We went along an ocean inlet most of the way, with
towering mountain faces on the other side. There were some fantastic tidal mud
flats–deadly if you go on them, due to their quicksand nature. People have died
getting trapped in them.
Arriving in Seward, we quickly knew we didn’t want to stay long. It was high
fishing season and not particularly our scene. The campground was
right at the edge of the harbor and was seemingly filled with pickup trucks,
boat trailers and stubbled-men in green rain ponchos and jeans.
After setting up the tent and staking it against the strong, cold wind, we
took a quick driving tour of downtown Seward. Most of the city was leveled
during the 1964 earthquake by several tidal waves. Rebuilt, Let’s Go praised it
for not having the mini-malls and Golden Arches that other cities on the Kenai
Peninsula had. We didn’t think it made that much of a difference. It looked
pretty much like a rundown little town.
A flag-fan, Seward did have one attraction that I liked. It was home of the
person who designed the very-attractive Alaska state flag, Benny Benson, I
believe. The flag is the Big Dipper and North Star on a field of blue, with the
Dipper or Bear representing Alaska’s bears, the North Star representing Alaska
as the northernmost state in the union, and the blue for one of Alaska’s
flowers, which I naturally cannot recall now. Benny entered a state-wide contest
back in the 20s when Alaska was only a territory and its territorial governor
had noticed it was the only territory without a flag to fly over the post office
in Washington DC.
Our discovery of Seward completed, we went to bed with hopes that the rain,
if it came, wouldn’t be too bad.
Day 19 [Friday, August 23, 1996] – Up in the morning, we headed to the harbormaster’s office where pay showers
were available. I had a lovely hot shower for $2 while Lorna reported freezing
to death in the coldest shower of her life. It was only a $1, so perhaps there’s
some weird situation where men can pay more and get hot showers in Seward while
women are resigned to freezing.
Next, we boarded the tour boat to take us on our cruise around
Kenai Fjords National Park. We kept our expectations low and almost wondered if we really needed
to go on the trip, considering we’d done something similar in Glacier Bay. And
unlike Glacier Bay, the day was rainy and dark.
Of course, we’d already paid for the trip, so there wasn’t really much of a
debate. Soon, we were well pleased with the sailing. For one thing, it was a
much faster boat and a shorter overall trip, only 6 hours. But mainly, we saw a
lot more.
When we arrived at the main glacier, it was glistening white and soon began
calving. I got a some good shots of the first icefall, but the most spectacular
one won’t come out. I had only 24 shots in the camera but thought I had 36, so I
kept advancing despite the pressure and probably just shot 12 frames all on one.
Nonetheless, it was something to watch, even better than what we saw in Glacier
Bay. Once again, as the ice hit the water, a huge surge came to lift the boat
up.
Humpback In Kenai Fjords
Humpback In Kenai Fjords
On the way back, we had the good fortune to spot a humpback whale leaping out
the water very near the boat. Lorna said it took her breath away, and I was
quite in awe to see the massive creature. It was beholding to watch, and I can
see now why so many people go out on trips every year when whales migrate past
California.
Along with the whales, we also saw sea otters, dolphins, puffins and sea
lions. We’re jaded about the sea lions, of course, since they are so common in
California.
Back on shore, we headed back toward Anchorage rather than spoil our great
day with dismal camping in Seward. We stopped at Portage Glacier, Anchorage’s
answer to Juneau’s Mendenhall Glacier–close to a city, easy to visit. By the
time we arrived, it was about 8 p.m., dark and raining off and on. With four
glaciers coming into the valley, it was also very cold. Still, we braved it and
put the tent up. We also took a quick trip to the visitors center, where huge
bolder-sized icebergs from the distant glacier had washed ashore near the
visitors center.
Returning to the campground, we dived into the tent and went to sleep.
Day 20 [Saturday, August 24, 1996] – In the morning, neither of us wanted to emerge from the cocoon of warmth. But
Denali awaited, so emerge we did.
We headed back to the visitors center, which had now opened, but we decided
against going in. It was still overcast, and the main attraction is the view
across the lake from the center to the glacier. I did dash in for a quick
look-around and got to see a few small ice worms crawling across a small piece of
ice taken from the glacier.
Driving through Anchorage, we decided to find a place to shower, as well as
get some more fuel and food. We found a Carr’s soon enough, so it was easy to
stock up on nearly out-of-date meat. But what about the bakery? Could we find it
again, after having just stumbled upon it before. We knew we were in the right
area, and Lorna joked that we could just look for a Hostess van and follow it
in. About 10 seconds later, one actually passed us and we did just that. Within
five minutes, I was stocking up on powdered donuts and bread.
On the edge of the city, we found a campground with showers. These were the
worst showers we’d ever used, and I was glad to have the pair of sandals I use
for the public showers as I trod across the muddy floor to the stalls. Still, it
was nice to be clean once again.
About an hour outside of Anchorage, we stopped at the headquarters of the
Iditarod dog race. The race follows a former trading and supply route that dog sledders used, with its most famous use coming when several times they rushed
urgently needed vaccine from Seward to Nome to relieve an epidemic of diphtheria
there.
There was a short video to watch, and I came away with a better appreciation
of dog sledding, especially the attention that sledders have to give the dogs,
down to putting little booties on their feet if the ice becomes too hard.
Back on the road, we had about another two hours before we reached the park.
Just before the entrance, Lorna brought the car to a quick halt. She had spotted
our first moose of the trip, as had several others pulled off beside the road.
It turned out to be someone’s pet, since it had a collar, so I didn’t think it
counted. Lorna disagreed and claimed it to be a perfect moose, the one she’d
come to Alaska to see.
Once in the park, we checked in and got our campsite assignment. For once,
Denali was not overcrowded, or so we were told. I’d hate to see what it looks
like when busy.
At the campsite, we put up the tent and had a hot meal, protected from insect
by our new mosquito helmets. We also had an interesting ballet of spoons as we
leaned over our bowls and brought the rice and soup up under the nets and out of
reached of hovering mosquitoes. Of course, if we did eat a mosquito, we probably
wouldn’t have known. A book I was reading when we ate at Tok talked about how
those working on the road watched as cooks made big batches of pancake batter
with pepper along the sides of the vat. It turned out the "pepper" was actually
mosquitoes. Yum!
After dinner, we retired to the tent. It was very cold, making us for the
first time unzip the sleeping bags from each other so that we each had our own.
This kept the warm air inside the bag much more than when they are zipped
together. It may not be as romantic, but with the temperature plunging, we
wanted to be warm!
- Previous In This Series: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
- Next In The Series: STILL TO COME!
