While we were in Winter Park, Colorado I bought a coupon book for Alaska. It cost $100 and offers lots of 2 for 1 deals.......unfortunately I forgot to check it out when we were in Tok, so we missed out on the free fudge, valued at $3.95. However, when we were in Valdez I found a coupon for a wildlife cruise....buy 1- get 1 free. It was pretty cold in Valdez most of the time we were there and snow was predicted, but we decided to brave it and do a cruise. It was a 7 hr cruise and like I have mentioned many times in the past few weeks, we are very early in the season, and summer hasn't started yet. We were going to take in some of the Columbia Glacier ice-fields and along the way hopefully see some spectacular scenery and wildlife!
It didn't disappoint.
We sat at the bow of the boat for most of the time and wondered why everyone disappeared inside...we decided they were weak, but we didn't mind as it felt like we had the boat to ourselves!! It was freezing at the front, but so worth it for the views.
We headed out into Prince William Sound, which as it turns out is where the Exxon Valdez (pronounced Valdeez) spilled 11 millions gallons of crude oil after it ran aground...the oils also spilled out into the Gulf of Alaska. I'm sure there are ongoing repercussions from this, but to the naked eye, you wouldn't know.
We passed Stellar sea lions lounging on shipping buoys (pronounced "booee" in the US)...for my US fans, Australians pronounce it "boys"....go figure!
and the most amazing contrasting mountains....thick, lush, green foliage with cascading waterfalls, butting up against mountains with snow and glaciers on them....it was a visual smorgasbord!
Then some humpback and killer whales joined us...
before we sidled up to the mountains to watch a heap of sea lions lounging on rocks, growling at each other...for the size of these impressive creatures, they are very agile, particularly getting up on to the higher rocks!
We made our way over towards the Columbia Glacier, where we saw icebergs floating everywhere...it was such a sight.....some were so blue and they made that fantastic cracking sound as they gently collided with each other or started to break up...
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| A Bald Eagle perched on an iceberg |
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| Bald Eagle |
The weather was overcast, but it didn't deter from the amazing scenery....
and the cute otters, who lie on their backs.....and form rafts as they join up with each other
....really cute!
As we headed back into the harbour,
we were a little disappointed it was all over, but absolutely hanging to get warm again! We were so cold...that expression..."chilled to the bone?"...that was us, despite the layers we were wearing....it's Alaska...of course it's going to be cold!
So we cranked the heating up in the RV...(we were thinking of doing a kayak trip amongst all the ice-bergs the next day, but we didn't want to experience such coldness again...so may do it somewhere else in Alaska.) We could have gone inside the boat where it was toasty warm, but didn't want to miss out on the sights...and I must mention the scrumptious clam chowder we had for lunch on board the boat. Delicious!
We decided to leave Valdez as it was only 8pm and we still had plenty of light to drive..it actually doesn't get dark here! I think June 21st is the longest day up this way....20 hours of daylight or something like that! On the way we stopped at the Salmon Hatchery in our last ditch hope we'd see grizzlies...no luck, but the water across the bay to the town was stunning, as was this Bald Eagle
and we Skyped Joan, Mum and Bill, where we got the news Connie had taken a fall at work..she is OK, but will take a few months to recover. Take care Connie!
We drove out of Valdez,up Keystone Pass...(we were starting to defrost from the cruise)...and looked in the rear vision mirror and saw these views...so had to get out, refreeze and take some photos. These were the same mountains we couldn't see a few days earlier because of the smoke haze.
They were absolutely beautiful. We spent the night on the old airstrip again and got up early in another bid to spot more wildlife. It was pretty scarce....other than a moose running off into the bush,
the only wildlife we saw was this porcupine....which I still think are amazing.
and I have to add...in fairness to Wrangell-St Elias NP, the smoke had cleared by the time we headed back, and we could actually see the impressive mountain range that we had zero visibility of a few days earlier.
We made our way out to Chitina (pronounced Chitna) where the lovely Rangers from Wrangell had told us to go to, to see salmon wheels in action. We were going to ask this fella for directions, but he looked a little out of sorts....
....the road was a little rough and was about 50 kms in and then the same back out...
it was really windy, so plenty of dust flying around as well...and there's those damn Wrangell-St Elias NP mountains again!!
We saw the fish wheel in action, but no fish....but we were glad we made the trip in.
There isn't much in Chitina, and the main photo in all the brochures was this....so we thought we'd join them.
We drove to Glenallen and fuelled up before heading on up the Richardson Highway, on our way to Fairbanks.....only 5 hrs or 400kms away. But in our usual style, we drove really slowly looking for wildlife, which was unsuccessful, stopped for a Nana Nap at around 2pm and hit the road again around 5pm. We were told by a ranger..."if you want to see moose, you have to think like a moose". That means.....on the go early morning and in the evening! Well that didn't work and we ended up camping on the side of the road, right near a bin that was encased in a huge wire cage, to keep bears out!!! We were in luck we thought!..bears will visit tonight....and they didn't!
But we had a lovely chat with Donna and Paul Bridge (Kimberley friends of ours) who are in the US at the moment (LA). Paul was awarded a Churchill Fellowship and is doing his research in the US and Canada. It was nice to hear his Aussie accent and fingers crossed we may meet up in Florida in around 6 weeks.
Not seeing bears was ok though as this was the view from the RV...
This morning we were up and left the campsite around 8am. We were enjoying our morning coffee, checking out the semi frozen lake, driving along at slow speeds when within the space of 2 hours we saw 11 moose!..Bloody fantastic...until one was nearly cleaned up by a truck!! So we now know there is actually wildlife in Alaska!! Such a relief! And sorry to subject you to some of the moose we saw, but we put a lot of effort into spotting them, so you have to look at the photos!
The road followed the Trans Alaskan pipeline which carries oil to Valdez, is picked up by tankers and taken to southern states for refining....
and is a terrific drive.
Before we got to Delta Junction we passed by Fort Greely Military Base, which is used as a Intercontinental Ballistic Interceptor Site (IBIS) and might be upgraded if the North Korean threat continues. Not sure whether to feel safe or scared!
We arrived at Delta Junction around lunchtime....first stop the Visitor's Centre which is also where the Alaska Highway ends.....
and the huge Alaskan mozzies thrive...here they are attacking Stuie!
So I will have to retract my previous allegations about Alaska and its wildlife. It seems I may have been a little hasty in my observations.....so here is a little video Stu put together, which he's called .....
Spotto Enjoy...we're off to Fairbanks!
