Denali - The High One!

So far, so good. Three days on water, it was time to explore interior Alaska. Day 4 Agenda - drive to Talkeetna - town some 110miles up north from Anchorage, 14miles off the road from Anchorage - Denali highway, go flight seeing for Mt. McKinley from Talkeetna and drive to Healy - town 12 miles north from Denali National park entrance for night.

First thing I did after getting up was to look outside. Sigh - it was raining. My hubby ( Okay, I'll be referring him as Arnab henceforth because you see, that is his name.) called K2 Air to enquire if they were still planning to fly over Mt. McKinley. We had also booked for glacier landing. They confirmed that there will be no glacier landing for sure but asked us to call back once we get to Talkeetna spur ( as name suggests, this is the place where road to Denali forks off from main highway to go to Talkeetna). We decided to have a good breakfast - who knows with this weather - it can be our only highlight of day 4. Anyway, waitress was good enough to serve us food quick enough when we told her that we were in a hurry. Also, hotel shuttle driver dropped off to Airport out of his schedule, so that we could pick up our car and start our journey soon. We had mixed experience with people here - some were really good and some were really pain-in-the-ass. Also, vacation was going either really good or really bad. Same was with food so far - either it was too good or too bad. Is this state of extremes or what? Anyway, day 4 started off with set of good people and good breakfast.

Drive from Anchorage to Talkeetna ( Optimistic people that we are, we were still hoping that weather will improve and we will have flight-seeing.) was full of us saying "Ohh- hate this rain", "feel like going home" and "rain, rain - go away". Eventually nature listened to our prayers, it stopped raining. No, no - not a good news as it still continued to drizzle. This drive is famous for dramatic landscape and Mt. McKinley views. Well, we were getting nothing. As if it was less, there was road construction in progress on this two-lane highway, slowing the traffic considerably. Finally, we reached to Talkeetna spur and called K2 Air only to come to know that 1PM tour was cancelled but we could still come and try for 6PM. Our day 4 plan was perfect with only one imperfection. We had not kept any flexibility on weather conditions. Big mistake. If you think you are smart enough to plan an Alaska trip on our own, always account for mercurial Alaska weather. Giving up on rain, we decided to drive to Denali, do early check-in and simply retire for the day.

Drive from Talkeetna to Denali is also scenic and guess what, as we were reaching more and more closer to Denali, it was getting more and more clearer. Thank you, GOD! Blue moods were not blue anymore. Glimpses of grandeur of interior Alaska were breathtaking. It completely stopped raining and we started flirting with idea of driving back to Talkeetna to catch 6PM tour. Excitedly I switched on my iPhone. Argh - no range. I said to myself "well - what do you expect? ATnT range in such remotely remote area? Your office is right in the heart of Down town and you don't get range there.". Luckily, we had passed by one lodge 15mins before. Going back and trying to call from lodge seemed a good idea at that time and we took a u-turn.

"This is a lodge, not a pee-stop. If you need to pee - go away!" greeted us on the front door. I don't know if we were being brave or desperate, we still went inside and this is how conversation went -

Arnab - Hi, can I have a coffee? ( Smart - you can not directly ask for a phone. )
Lodge Man - Around the corner. (Sitting comfortably sipping beer and watching TV)
Me - do you have a phone? ( I had to take over the conversation as I could sense Arnab wanting to get out this place as soon as possible. Young blood, you see - gets angry very easily. :) )
Lodge Man - No, I don't. Why do you need it?
Me - We want to call K2 Air to see if they are still planning to fly Mt. McKinley.
Lodge Man ( in angry tone ) - Have you seen outside? Even if they fly, what good will it be? I don't know - WHATEVER! ( One note - if some one asks for information, give them information (of course, if you have any!), don't start giving advices. People will call you "crazy". I will call you "crazy".)
Me - We still want to try.
Crazy Man - What will you do by seeing it? WHATEVER. ( and he walked off.)

Whatever to you, dude. What is your problem? Was he too lonely for too long? Was he as frustrated with weather as we were? Whatever. :P Sitting back in the car, we dropped off Talkeetna plan and started driving towards Denali again. Getting lost in scenic vistas full of humongous mountains, blue lakes and wild-flower blooms, 'whatever' crazy man became a distant memory soon. Ever heard of people saying that the bliss of having a baby can only be realized after having a baby? Likewise, ethereal drive can only be experienced. We could not see Mt. McKinly from south vista point - another beautiful picnic spot famous for mountain view. Hell bent to see it - we browsed Frommer's Alaska 2010 again and found out about Denali Air. Denali Air is near park entrance which fly over national park on north side of the High One ( Mt. McKinley is known as Denali in native language which means The High One). While I fiddling to get their address, Arnab saw their sign-post on road side. Heading straight to the office - we booked ourselves for 6PM tour. Denali Air is an expensive option than Talkeetna one but you see, we were eager to see the High one. Like a dying lover eager to see his love for one last time. Okay - this is bit over-exaggerated but you got the point. Right?

6PM tour meant we had one and half hour in hand - long enough to explore park entrance which was just 8miles away. After seeing 20-minute "Heartbeats of Denali" movie in Denali national park Visitor centre, we both got pretty excited about our next day "Grand Denali Tour". One of its kind, Denali NP is accessible only via shuttle or tour buses beyond 15th mile. If on shuttle, you can get down anywhere and explore the area and even camp in the wilderness(of course, you need to have a permit). We had booked shuttle till Wonder lake - 83rd mile on park highway. Upon ranger telling us that Eielson visitor center - 66th mile is a good stop for a day trip and chances of seeing wild-lfe beyond that point are bleak, we decided to make Eielson our stop.

Mt. McKinley flight-seeing was what can I say, wonderful experience. Earth surely does look majestic from up above. Aerial views gave us an idea of how grand and remote and diverse the land was. Rivers tangling in plains, glaciers running from amazing Alaska range towards earth with arms wide open just like a kid running towards his mother, vampirish valleys and misty clouds. Simply superb. Flying just above thick cloud cover, our pilot told us that The Great one is right there on right hand side but not visible. Sigh! Sigh! Dear Denali - why are you doing this to us? What ill have we done? I looked up towards the sky to pray for one last time and Oh My God - there it was. His highness is really really high. I was searching it way below. His glittering snow cladded peak was so spectacular - is it because it is so close to heaven? May be. Awe-stuck - I did not even try to capture it in my camera. I was capturing it in my heart. I still get goose-bumps when I think about that moment. My day was made. I will not remember this day for rain, not for crazy man but for Denali - the High One! The Great One!

Happy! Happy!! Time to have dinner. Denali Air personnel ( He looked a bit like Mccandles - "Into the Wild" guy ) suggested us 229th Mile - a famous fine diner. We could get 9.30PM reservation. Another one and half hour in hand. We headed back towards park entrance area (Nenana canyon)- to checkout on box-lunches for next day. There is no restaurant inside park - visitors need to bring food/drink for whole day. A sweet girl took our order and promised to keep our lunch-boxes ready at 6:15AM next day. Most of the locals looks like Chriss McCandless- unshaven beard. Denali fashion trend?

Back to 229th Mile restaurant, I ordered oysters. Totally ignoring organic cooking specialty of the diner. Oysters tasted real raw - I mean I tried a tiny bit and felt like puking. Nope - not gonna eat it. Mr. Sensitivity (read it as Arnab) thinking that if we won't eat even a single one - our waitress will feel bad, gulped down two oyster. Expression on his face - priceless. He kept one more in his plate hiding it below shells. It was very entertaining (well, for me) when waitress came to our place and instead of taking oyster plate back, saw oyster in Mr. Sensitivity's plate and said "Ohh - you have one more left there." and he had to eat it. Ouch.

It was already 11PM and we checked into our Nord Haven room in Healy. We loved this hotel - cute country lodging. And staff was great too. They packed us breakfast when they came to know that we will be checking out early in the morning. Sweet. Eager to see Denali in my dreams again, I slept off to dream away.....

Update : While I was soaking all of Denali's visible views in my heart, Arnab was capturing it in his camera.

James Cameron wasted hell lot of money on "Avatar"

Last year, me and my hubby had gone to Orcas Island for Killer Whale watching tour. We saw only 3 Orcas. Tour guide told us that most of the north-west pacific orcas reside in Prince William Sound in Alaska. I had no idea then that I'll be actually visiting this place but here I was. Day 3 plan was to go to Whittier and cruise on Prince Williams Sound.

We boarded on Glacier Discovery train at around 9AM. Glacier Discovery train takes same route as Coastal classic for first 1hour or so and then forks out at Girdwood to go to Whittier giving glimpses of glaciers to its passengers. Technically, we were seeing the same Turnagain arm coast in Chugach National Forest but it felt different. We were as excited to see Dall Sheep and Eagles again as we were on first day. Another magical power of nature? To keep sensitive souls like me intrigued all the time? Whatever, it was - my heart was deeply enjoying pristine beauty. It was still drizzling. :). I am not sure whether we got used to Alaska rain or stopped caring, we actually started enjoying it.

Glacier Discovery train stays true to its name by showing all the glaciers along the way. Portage glacier and Spencer glacier were noteworthy. Did I tell you about why glaciers look blue in color in sunshine? It is because glacial ice absorbs all the wavelengths except short wavelength of blue. About Spencer glacier - It was amazing to see huge mass of glacial ice emptying itself into lake - thanks to earth's gravitational pull. No, seriously - glaciers starts separating from main Icefield because earth's gravity pulls ice towards it. Our chirpy train guide told us that this glacier was named as Spencer because one Alaska rail employee named Spencer got lost in that area while carrying 3grands belonging to train corp. His friends had thought that he had ran off with all the money and settled down in Atlantic City but his dead body was found years later. There was no trace of money, though.

Through route of thundering waterfalls and mystical valleys, We reached Whittier at 12:15PM. No time to eat lunch. As impressed I was with Alaskan wild-life and natural beauty, I was having hard-time on food front. For occasional sea-food eater like me, not having veggie option was hurting badly. We went to a restaurant to eat something quickly only to find out that there was no veggie option on the menu. As if inspired by sky, my eyes started shedding light tears. I stopped crying only when hubby promised me that he will search for nice restaurant for dinner in Anchorage.

We hopped onto Major Marine Glacier tour cruise to witness Prince William Sound. It did not disappoint us. This area is so beautiful that words are failing me to describe it. Beautiful mountains bustling with lots of birds - with clouds just enough to create perfect harmony, calm water with cute sea-otter playing on it, puffins occasionally diving into it and sea-lions hauling - no human life but yet, full of life!! Towering waterfalls and massive glaciers shuddering straight into the sound and lots of sea-birds nesting on the cliffs. There are some moments we wish to hold forever - we never want to let go of these moments. One such moment was to see glacier calve. To witness huge part of glacier fall into the water causing thundering sound and making even calm water to shudder is quite something. Remember all the visual treat we saw in James Cameroon's "Avatar"? Hanging mountains of Pandora and stuff like that? Well, Prince William Sound is even more breathtaking than that. James Cameron did waste lot of money on "Avatar".



Totally satisfied and awed, we came back to Whittier harbor at around 5:15PM. We saw no Orcas, but hey, who is complaining? This place is going to stay in my heart for long, long time. About Whittier town - during winter, less than thousand people live here. and everybody lives in only one self-contained building, so that they don't have to go out. Pretty scary!!

Same Glacier Discovery train took us to Anchorage and hubby, as promised fed me nice dinner. It was already 11PM. Time to sleep? I don't think so. Because I had to fight with my hubby. Won't bore you with fight details but it got over within 1hour because you know, my hubby is very sweet (and all that...) and I am head-over-toes in love with him (and all that...) :)

Kenai Fjords National Park

“Some feel the rain, others just get wet.” says John Muir. Sorry to say Mr. Muir, I fall in “others” category. No matter how hard I try to appreciate rain, I always fail at it. Only thing I enjoy doing while it is raining is to get inside the blanket and sleep but I did not go to Alaska to do that. Second day of the trip and it was still raining. Was it going to be this way the whole trip? This question started to weigh me down. Anyway, me and my hubby reported to Kenai Fjords Tours office at Seward harbor at around 8:45AM. It had stopped raining for a while.

Right after boarding the cruise and getting all set to stay on water for 8 hours (well, at that time - that is what I had thought but I had forgotten one very important thing but about that, later! ) , sea otter greeted us. Tour guide told us about how they have millions of hair per square inch and how they can survive without blubber in cold water ( this will come many times, so please bear with me. :) ). Also, they do everything on their back - use it as dining table to eat shells, take their babies on back and teach them to swim. They even use rocks to break open mussels/oysters and if they like one rock, they keep it safe in between their arm and body. We observed them for 15mins and I must say, measuring at 5feet, they are pretty cute.

Cruising straight into Resurrection Bay, I was feeling like I was entering into some ghostly ocean because you know one of the charm of rain (really?) is to make everything foggy. Next stop was at the rock full of Steller sea lion - I mean hundreds of them. It did not look like they come into endangered species category. Scientists are still researching why their population declined by 80% in last 30 years. Was I thankful for my heavy binoculars now? Yes - I was. When I saw them through binocs - I found out that they all had upped their neck to look at us. Sight of seeing them gliding smoothly into the water was a pleasant one. It feels so different to see wild life in natural habitat rather than zoo. It makes us realize how they are part of this world and not something which is for our entertainment.

The Northwestern Fjords cruise that we had taken takes passengers to spectacular Northwestern most end of the Kenai Fjords foraging through three tidewater glaciers. Floating on the smooth Resurrection Bay waters and seeing porpoises play with our boat for 2-3 miles, I was actually starting to enjoy the trip. All the feelings of rain playing foul were started to take backseat in my mind. May be, that is why when captain announced that to reach to northwestern most end, cruise has to go through rough waters of Gulf of Alaska and today it was more rougher than it usually is, I totally ignored it.

So, it all started once we started to ride on rough waters. Remember adventure rides we take in Six Flags and all? It gets over in 2 to 3mins. Well, this was more worse than an adventure ride and continued for almost half an hour. All the food that I had taken since morning ( it was only one muffin and 2-3 cups of coffee ) was swirling around in my stomach and I could feel it coming till my neck. Drinking ginger ale and standing on the back-side of the cruise to breath fresh air for half an hour, I felt a bit better. Also, we reached our first glacier - Holgate glacier. Captain had changed the plan because of weather and instead took us to different glaciers. Holgate glacier was huge....really huge and beautiful and awesome.

After two more glaciers - Aialik and Pederson glacier - they were equally beautiful and awesome, we turned back. Back into rough waters. Oh my God, oh my God. This time I was feeling even worse. I ran out to the deck to - you know, throw up and i did. I did it like three times. I was feeling like I am going to die. Somebody told me to see still objects but there was nothing still. Water was having wild, wild waves and sky was full of moving ( or were they running?) clouds. Thank God - my hubby was with me the whole time - even when I was grossing out with all the vomit and all. Yuck!!! He stood close to me the whole time, holding my head some times and hand other times - that was impressive. Now to think about it, he had put classic Mills and Boons character to shame with his behavior. :)

Experiencing three glaciers and three vomiting attacks, I reached to Seward harbor at nearly 5:15PM. My dear Mr. Mills and Boons took me to the store to buy sea-sickness tablet (because, you know we were going on Cruise next day too.). We boarded the park connections bus from Seward to come back to Anchorage. Not willing to go to “pppppssshhh - good luck with that!!” hotel again, we booked another hotel in Anchorage Downtown and called it quits for the day.

Hello Anchorage

There are some things which we always dream. Even when we know that chances of those dream coming true are very bleak, we still carry on to dream on.... And if universe is favorable, sometimes those dreams do come true. Going to Alaska was one of such dream of mine - ever since I read about it. As a kid, every time i looked at the horizon, i wanted to go to that magical place - where earth seems to meet the sky...i always thought Alaska was as far as i can go to get as close to the horizon as i can possibly get. And now that I am on my way to Anchorage - the biggest city of Alaska - I am quite not sure about how I am feeling. My mind just seems clobbered with so many shades of emotions. Sun is setting down in the sky making all the endeavors of blue pacific water to turn into gold successful. The harmonious beauty created by the combination of real pacified Pacific below and raging fire-ball up in the sky is a sign of how universe maintains equilibrium. Pacific and Sun are so different in their nature but right now they are looking in total sync of each other....wish human beings could learn something from this and respect individuality of every person and still love each other - World could have been different place by now. But hey, why complain about the world? It is beautiful.....well, as long it has sun, moon, oceans, forests, rain and love!

I am seeing some islands carrying plenty of icy mountains on them...with no trace of human touch. Looks like we are flying via wild route. As we are going more and more up north, mountains are appearing to get bigger and bigger. The might of nature below has already started stirring some uneasiness in me but I think I am all set for my first encounter with something deep into the wilderness.

I have seen people trying to act normal and try to fit into the society. I have seen myself trying hard to act normal to fit into the society. But I think I am at my own peace - when I can be all myself. My all crazy self. I think that explains why nature looks so peaceful - because it is void of all the pretensions. It is always in it's True state. Wow!! Enjoying the flight completely, we reached Anchorage at around 10PM. I slept off by just saying "Hello Anchorage!"

Life is not fair (well, at least not always) - suck it up!!

Our first day of Alaska trip started off with funny (or was it humiliating?) incident. In order to reach to Seward, we had to catch Alaska railroad train which leaves at 6:45AM in the morning. So, we got up early and went to reception area at around 5:50PM. Confused whether to take a cab or wait for hotel's 6AM shuttle, we thought of making an informed decision.

Me to receptionists - Hi, Good morning. We need to catch 6.45AM train to Seward, will it be okay if we take 6AM shuttle? Will it take us to train-station on time?
Receptionists - pppshhhhh- Good luck with that!!!

....and she continued to do her work. Me and Arnab went away from her and burst out laughing. You see, we were in vacation mood - I don't think any sort of humiliation would have brought us down. Anyway, we did take 6AM shuttle and reached on time. Unfortunately, it was raining. Being Seattlites, it is not a new thing for us but it was a bit disheartening.

Coastal classic is really classic - A very comfortable train ride from Anchorage to Seward. We got first glimpses of Alaskan wilderness here when train reached shores of Seward passing through Turnagain arm ( Captain Cook had to turn here while he was searching for passage to Pacific ocean here), strings of beautiful glaciers and Moose pass ( moose outnumbers human population here). It was great to see Dall sheep looking down from mountain cliff and Moose munching on his breakfast totally ignoring huge train making noise just 20 feet away from him and Bald eagle chic waiting eagerly for his mom to return with food. Occasional water falls made this ride even more beautiful.

So engrossed in enjoying beauty of Alaska, I had totally forgotten about the rain...well, almost! But it hit me right on when I got down from the train at Seward. There was no other option other than heading towards our hotel to do luggage drop-offs. Our bad experience with receptionists continued here too. Upon asking which street was right in front of the hotel, our dumb (sorry - I do not have any other word) receptionists told us that he does not know it. But he said he can mark it for us on the map. Huhhh???

No outdoor activity was possible in the rain, how about some hot meal? This thought cheered me up a bit but guess what? Downtown is 2miles away. To catch half-hourly shuttle bus to Downtown, we ran to the bus stop as bus was scheduled to come in 3mins. Very happy to reach on time and see bus coming towards us. Well, you would think we climbed the bus and reached Downtown in 5mins. But nope - it did not happen. The bus driver lady gave us big smile (really - all 32 out) and waved at us but did not stop!! What the ****? We had to walk for 20mins in rain to reach Downtown. First day of our trip was not at all going good. I could see all my excitement slipping away from me.

Following Frommer's Alaska 2010 suggestion, we went to Mediterranean restaurant for lunch - food was ummm, abysmal. I thought - well, here goes my last hope of something I can feel happy about. Our happiness meter was going down and down every passing minute. I got tired of thinking about how my expectations out of Alaska were going into drain and thought - Life is not fair (well, at least not always) - suck it up!!

Sky was still crying his heart out. Okay, what is wrong? Hopeless!! Only solace was to get inside Seward Aquarium. It is good one (nothing compared to Baltimore or any other big city one) but still. Spending 2 good hours in aquarium did cheered me and my hubby. You see - we are bit boring kind of people. We actually feel happy when we learn something new - both of us. So, knowledge about sea lion, sea otter and puffin did made us happy. Do you know that sea otter has millions of hair every square inch? That is how it can survive in cold water without any blubber. :)

When we came out of the aquarium, sky had stopped pouring down. And all the beauty hidden in the cloud came out. We soaked all the beauty - Resurrection bay surrounded by green lushy mountains by walking National historic Iditarod trail. At the end of the trail - we were smiling and we were at Kenai Fjords National park visitor center. It was 5PM but hey, it is Alaskan summer time - time of 20hours of sunshine. Ample time to go to Exit glacier and come back.

Exit Glacier , 12 miles away from Seward harbor is one of few glaciers accessible via road. A bit stiff "Edge of the glacier" trail took us right in front of edge of the glacier. Huge mass of blue glacial ice coming down from Hardings icefield above, vast meadows below and mountains standing tall surrounding the area - I was totally in awe. Dear hubby asked me to close my eyes and sit still for two minutes - hearing winds gushing, smelling wild fragrances and birds chirping in sweet melody - I was in eternal bliss.

Our first day ended with nice dinner at Ray's waterfront restaurant. Over-all, day was great. Was Universe teaching me that it does conspire to maintain balance in every little thing that it encompasses. Life is not fair many times but it is fair - well, most of the time. Isn't it?