Alaska - South Central Region

We took off from BOS to ANC with a stop-over in Seattle. While passing through Seattle, we got a beautiful view of Mt.Rainier! It was a partially clear day and it helped. We reached Anchorage a bit past 11 p.m. and by the time we rented the car it was almost mid-night, but no sign of it, though. Well, it shouldn’t be surprising if you are traveling to Alaska during summer solstice! Luckily,  one of our friends is living in Anchorage and we stayed with them. Their hospitality is incomparable! During the entire vacation in Alaska, we spent considerable amount of time with them, eating and sleeping at their place. Amazing food! For us vegetarians, some regions in Alaska seemed to be a bit dull for food options. So, the tasty and varieties of home-cooked food at their place will always remain special in our hearts
Before I dive into details, I've got to mention about the TourSaver app. It is certainly worth the price as it has several businesses listed where you can claim the discounts - very easy to use!

    

Day 1 (Jun 30, 2016)
We had a very late start on the day as we didn’t have to get to our booked activity until about 3 p.m. Heart full/tummy full/tasty full-fledged brunch (South Indian meal!) was the start of the day. Then, we proceeded north, towards Denali. Our first activity was a flight tour with Glacier landing at Denali departing from Talkeetna. We booked our activity through K2 aviation. It was a cloudy day (an indication of the almost the entire period of our vacation there!). We reached there at least an hour earlier than our scheduled departure time of 3 p.m. While we thought about checking out the nearby Talkeetna town, but decided to check-in with K2 before. Not so surprisingly, they indicated that the weather is bad and is tending to worse! But they suggested that if we can leave immediately, they could beat the weather before it gets worse, for which we agreed immediately. K2 folks also mentioned that they can only do a shorter version of the tour because of the weather. Wait for another damper: They also said that they can land on the glacier only if the weather co-operates. Way to start our wonderful vacation, we thought in our heads! K2 charged us less for the shorter version of the tour and on top of that, they honored the older price that was cheaper when we actually booked! We certainly were pleased with their honesty and straight-forwarded attitude. Apparently, they had another party lined up as well to occupy the seats in the plane. So, we took off immediately in that Beaver plane and it took about 20-25 minutes before we started seeing the gorgeous mountain range around Denali!

To our surprise, the weather got better and better as the pilot approached Mt Denali and Mt Hunter and made a perfect condition for landing on the glacier. By the time the plane landed, it was almost blue skies! Nature has a way to play with you always – this time, it was a pleasant one! We got a good view of the Denali peak while landing and from the top of the glacier.

          

Up there, there was a lodge under construction!!! The pilot mentioned that it belonged to one Sheldon family and it is a private property. Later, we found about the details here. Though it is an interesting concept for some, we don’t think that we are wild enough to stay in such a lodge!

There were about 4 other bush planes already parked on the glacier – you can imagine the size of the glacier. Check out Ruth Glacier. After ample time for the photo ops, the plane took us back to the base along the length of the glacier gorge where you can see all sizes of crevasses from atop! It was an amazing experience/view! 

                

Overall, it was a satisfactory trip with the pilot continuously explaining details along the way. The pilot mentioned that he used to be a med-vac pilot in Arizona before he moved to Alaska after taking a liking to Alaska during one of his vacations there.. What a change for him from carrying sick people to carrying happy vacationers!

I’ve gotta tell you about the little village of Talkeetna – though it is a bit touristy! Within a few yards from K2, we went to this little town to see if we can grab something for lunch/late lunch/dinner. For some reasons, Sun wasn’t helping us to understand the time of the day:-). 

We found this little trailer that said Spinach Bread. What an amazing place!! It is all vegetarian and the dishes we tried had complex taste and very well made. It may be touristy, but it tasted great for us. We even packed something additional to munch later. A definite recommendation!
We drove on North towards Denali after this. It was a good ride which would have been better with lesser clouds. I didn’t say much about the drive till Talkeetna, because there wasn’t much to say about. It was a bit boring drive, but the drive from Talkeetna to Denali was good with views of the Alaskan mountain range appearing and disappearing. By the time we reached the McKinley Creekside Cabins where we were planned for two nights, it was almost 8 p.m. or so. But, what a location! Right next to a creek – literally ‘creekside’ as the name suggested. 

    

But, the cloud cover didn’t really show the reality of the location fully, until couple mornings later when the sky cleared up! The Creekside Cabins is a great location, but a real damper for vegetarian food. Are we glad that we packed from Spinach Bread or what – for the supper. They sold a packed lunch for the next day and we ordered the only vegetarian option which was a hummus wrap with fresh vegetables.

Day 2 (Jul  1, 2016)

We had our humble PB&J breakfast rather than relying on the McKinley café and went to pick up packed lunch. It was a bummer because they put a bunch of plain vegetables and dollop of hummus (may be a few dollops) in a regular to-go box. How are we supposed to carry these bulky boxes for our day long trip into Denali National Park?! Basically, it was not a good idea to rely on them even for a single meal, if you are a vegetarian! The Wilderness Access Center of Denali National Park is about 15-20 min drive from the cabins and it wasn’t difficult to get there in time for our tour at 7:45a.m. We took the bus tour all the way to Kantishna point. Originally, we thought that we could get off, hike a trail and get on with the next bus, but the driver mentioned that the regular tour itself is a 12-hour long trip if we stick to the same bus. Getting off and getting on to a later bus would just make the day even longer! In addition, the park has closed certain portions due to a bear attack on hikers! Need I say more about hiking?!? We firmly decided not to hike anywhere out of site of the bus! Within the first mile, we saw a Moose cow and its calf grazing along the road side. 

Around mile 46 or so, the bus stops at the Polychrome Overlook. There was an amazing view from top of the mountain which can be reached by a short hike. Here we saw a red fox that seemed to have gotten lost and confused by the number of visitors. 

    

Other than that, the bus ride felt really long until we reached Wonder Lake, especially because the views of the mountain ranges were completely hidden by the clouds and rain. Wonder Lake is supposed to be a great point where you can see the reflection of Denali Peak on a clear day. Given the cloud cover we had, it was hardly a spot! What a bummer! We were told that only about 30% of the visitors get to see the reflection any way. We stopped at few other spots, but most had cloud cover until we reached Kantishna. Even on a clear day, we didn’t think the ride beyond Wonder Lake until Kantishna would be of great deal. Okay, enough about these complaints!. Suddenly, the entire bus came alive when we saw a grizzly chased a real big moose into a shallow pond!! It was a Discovery channel event for the next 5-10 minutes! The moose was so big that it was walking through the pond water while the bear was swimming vigorously. Moose successfully wore the bear down by wading through the water for a while until the bear got the message, got out of the water and walked away. At this time, the driver of the bus mentioned that he has never seen that in his 18-year career driving the bus through Denali! 

    

So, to me, this one event gave such a gratification justifying the endurance of 12-hour bus ride into Denali! After that, even the sky started clearing up and everything looked amazingJ. We saw huge herds of Caribou grazing in the meadows in several areas. 

The scenic beauty of the mountain range with the glacial rivers running in a braided path in the meadows was unbelievable for the rest of the trip!

      

After the bus tour, we were driving back to the cabins through a sunny evening or night or whatever time it was! We suddenly spotted a sign for Thai Food! Why bother eating in that McKinley Cabin café that doesn’t have anything for vegetarians? Thai Food was served from a trailer parked in another cabin area. We ordered pad thai to go so that we can go back to the Cabin have the food by the Creekside (Remember, we are staying in the McKinley ‘Creekside’ somethingJ). It was an amazing dinner with Sun fully out and seated beside the creek on the porch of the Cabin! The day ended satisfactorily irrespective of how it began!

     

Day 3 (July 2, 2016)

The next day, we started the day lethargically as we didn’t have any specific tour planned. We were just supposed to drive back to Anchorage. The drive back was amazing as we had less cloud coverage and were able to see the mountain ranges better. It was beautiful, period.

    

Since food availability was scarce on the drive back to Anchorage, we decided to take a detour to Talkeetna and eat at the Spinach Bread. But, we spotted a food truck (way before Talkeetna!) by name ‘Moose Aka’ in front of the Denali Brewing Company. They had some interesting offering including vegetarian food – some kind of eastern European items. 

   

Apparently, the food truck was run by a husband and wife who were very friendly. We had a good chat and found that they have a seasonal business in Hawaii in winters! Summer in Alaska and winter in Hawaii! What a life, we thought!

Then, we continued towards Anchorage and decided to try a drive into Hatcher’s pass entrance near Willow, AK. Boy, it was a bad decision! The gravel road was too bad that we immediately took a U and returned to the highway. Watch out for the construction updates – lesson learned!

Continuing further towards Alaska, we decided to make a stop at Thunderbird Falls. It was a good, easy hike from the trail head. Great relaxing hike to a wonderful falls! 

  

While driving to the trailhead, we saw signs for Eklutna Lake and decided to go there if there is any time left. We did have some time left and went to the Lake. By the time we reached the lake, it has started drizzling again and got very cloudy. But, even in that weather, Eklutna is a must-see location! What a secluded, serene lake nestled between mountain ranges! The wet grass in the foreground gave the lake a surreal picturesque beauty. Rain didn’t stop us and we stuck around walking and taking pictures. Finally, decided to call it a day and headed to Anchorage!

      

Day 4 (July 3, 2016)

We had to start early as we had a train to catch from Anchorage to Whittier. One can either drive or take a train to Whittier – both options share a tunnel and vehicles had to assemble/park at the entrance whenever a train passes through. The idea of waiting didn’t appeal to us. So, we took the train. It was about 2½ hour journey that passes most part along the ocean where you can see the effects bore tide in the foreground with gorgeous mountains in the background. But, boy, the train was so shaky and slow. While slowness helped to catch the glimpses of the beautiful scenery, the shakiness wasn’t helpful at all to capture good pictures! Since most scenery is on the right side of the train travel, we missed out some because our seats were on the left side.

        

Couple seating across from us were from Michigan and we exchanged notes and travel trips when our hands were not busy with cameras. They mentioned that more than the typical travel sites, the local Chamber of Commerce sites were very useful in finding some reasonably priced hotels/cabins in different areas – something to keep in mind. When we reached Whittier, the cruise line was right across the train station. We took the Major Marine Cruise that left around 12:15 p.m. and ended at 5:30 p.m.  The cruise was to get an up-close glimpse of the Surprise Glacier, which is supposed to be most active tidewater in the Prince William Sound. This was our first experience seeing a glacier along the coast and what an amazing experience! While it was a cloudy day, the glacier appeared so well with the blue ice that a cloudy day is no big deal. 

    

On the way, we did see a few other tidal glaciers and an up-close view of the Surprise glacier. We did see some sea otters in a few places, enjoying in the cold water! 

While it would have been cool to watch glacier calving, the fact itself is a disturbing one if the effects of glacial retreat is fully understood. Anyway, we didn’t really miss seeing a glacier calving. On the way back, we got really hungry and found that they sold hot vegetarian chili on-board. It tasted so good and filling, especially after the cold venture outside to experience the glacier view from the deck!

                

It was a long day by the time we returned to Anchorage. At home, our beloved hosts provided a scrumptious meal that we could not eat lessJ.

          

Day 5 (July 4, 2016)

We had to leave early on Day 5 as well, but not before loading up on a great breakfast of Poori/KilanguJ. Day 5 was our Dog-sled tour on Knik River Glacier, followed by an Ice Fall Trek on Matanuska Glacier.

As we approached the Knik River Lodge, the GPS was instructing us to cross the Knik River bridge towards west when the Knik River Road was going straight. We were stuck for a minute, but decided to disobey the GPS! It was the right decision and we reached right on time at the Knik River Lodge for our tour. The helicopter ride was a first for us and it was a smooth ride (may be because of perfect wind condition – we don’t know!) to the top of the Knik River Glacier. 

      

At first it was so scary to see about 40 dogs barking all at once on top of the glacier, but they went complete silent once they started dragging the sled. It is as if they cannot be idle but running! Really, we could see that! The dog sled experience was amazing that it cannot be explained well in words. The partially blue skies and the many glacier flow paths around the area made the dog sled experience even better. 

      

While on the ride, one of us lost the sunglasses somewhere. We mentioned that to the musher and he was so accommodating that as soon as we finished the tour, he had his colleague go search for it in a snowmobile. Amazingly, the guy did find the glasses in that snow! Truly great guys. These guys actually live atop the glacier 7-10 days at a stretch and dogs stay there for the entire season!  Overall, it was a great experience that is well worth it.

                    

After this, we set out to Matanuska Glacier for the ice fall trek. Since we had more than enough time, we took a detour towards Hatcher pass again, this time at the entrance near Palmer. It made a huge difference! The entire way was so scenic and beautiful. It was worth the drive – it didn’t take much time anyway. We had packed a sandwich from the restaurant in the Knik River Lodge before we left that place. While driving back downhill from the Hatcher’s Pass, we found a serene spot for parking with views of snow-capped Alaskan mountain range for our lunch break. Lunch with an awesome view!

    

Then, we continued on to Glenn Highway towards Matanuska Glacier. The Mica Guides people provided the shoes and ‘crampons’ to walk on the ice. It was a partially sunny day and they suggested packing something warm just in case one needed. Totally, we were 6 visitors led by a guide who was originally from Utah. It was his first season doing these tours (not the first time, though!). It was really good experience walking on the glacier ice. It was a good amount of walk to reach the glacier. We were thinking that the white/blue ice is the glacier and the muddy foreground is what we need to walk across to get to the glacier. But, the muddy path we were walking was so hard and then realized that we have been walking on the glacial mud already. The glacial ice was underneath the muddy/rocky appearing surface. That was interesting to note – the white/blue ice is not the only region where the glacier is!

            

After Matanuska hike, we drove back to Anchorage.

Day 6 (July 5, 2016)

The plan was to pack for the next 4 nights as we headed towards Seward/Homer/Soldotna. The first stop was going to be at Portage Glacier before heading next to Seward. Again, it was cloudy and started raining just when we got on the boat! We thought this was going to be a bummer again, but of course, when we approached the glacier in a few minutes, it was amazing to see with the blue color. Apparently, cloudy days bring out the blue more dramatically in glaciers!

            

It was a short 1-hr cruise. After this, we headed to the Begich Boggs Visitor Center. They were about to show a movie on the Chugach National Forest area. It was a reasonably good movie of about 20-25 min that should be watched, if there is time. Amazing footage of landscape, flora and fauna! The café in the area did have a good veggie sandwich made well by the person in the café. We filled ourselves and headed towards Seward. The Portage valley itself was very scenic with a few glaciers that show up in several places. It was worth the drive, especially for the scenic beauty of the area. There are several opportunities for photography.

               

Then we continued our drive towards Seward. It was another amazing drive all along. There are lots of views of meadows, valleys and snow covered peaks. While it was a partially cloudy day, we had some areas where it rained as well. So, without the clouds, the view of mountains would have been even better, we thought. By the time, we reached Exit Glacier, it wasn’t rainy. Exit glacier is the only glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park that is accessible by road – which we didn’t know then! We decided to take the short hike to view the glacier and return, but as we went along, we kept extending our walk as we saw a lot of foot traffic in the area. We were glad that we extended our walk as the views of the glacier got better and better. It was saddening and amazing to see how far the Exit Glacier has retreated in a very short amount of time. Almost a year ago, President Obama had visited this Glacier and made strong comments about the impact of global warming.

After the Exit Glacier hike, we proceeded to the Cabin where we were supposed to stay for the next couple of nights – Twin Peaks Lodge & RV. The location of the cabin was on a gravel road and there weren’t any places to eat nearby. So, we proceeded to the Seward ‘town’ searching for food. Luckily, we found this Mexican place right on the main street – Railway Cantina! They had several home-made salsa and a few vegetarian options, not just one vegetarian option. So, that was a nice 
place that we decided to come back again the next day for sure.

Day 7 (July 6, 2016)

Next day, we went on the Kenai Fjords National Park Tour – a cruise for about 6 hours that departed around 11:30a.m. It started raining from the moment the boat took off. But the guide was great in keeping up the cheer in the crowd, explaining the abundant wild-life in the area. To justify his narrative, we did see a lot of wild-life along the way – sea-lions, puffins (tufted and horned puffins), huge bald eagle and several other sea-birds. The amazing thing was the spotting of several marine mammals – sea otters, orcas and hump-back whales. Of course, with these, we also saw a full-flip of the hump-back, twice! Overall, but for the cold-rain, it was an eventful trip to the majestic up-close view of one of the tidal water glaciers – Aialik Glacier. This is the only place where we saw ice-calving several times before we left the spot, though in small levels. The breadth of the glacier was spectacular to watch from afar and up-close!   

                                                   

On the way back, we saw several of the wild-life we saw earlier. In fact, the flip of the hump-back whale was actually on the way back. By the time we got back to the shore, it was tiring, mainly because of the cold and wetness. We wanted to buy something from the Kenai Fjords gift shop as the prices seemed reasonable, but decided to stop by the next day as the entire cruise crowd was in there. We stopped by the Railway Cantina again, grabbed something to go and came back to the cabin. 

Day 8 (July 7, 2016)

We vacated the Twin Peaks and saw that the weather was getting better with clear skies showing up. So, we headed towards Seward again to the Lowell Point. We had to drive on the gravel road for about 10 miles before we got to the Lowell Point community. It was a really secluded beach area and provided a beautiful view of the mountain range backdrop. There was a parking area for the beach as well as for the trail that would lead to a North Beach. There was a local Alaska guy who offered a free guide to the hike, but we didn’t have time for that. He mentioned that this hike has to be timed according to low-tide timing. If not, getting stranded is a certain possibility! While we knew that $5 parking is required there, we did not have change and hence did not pay. The ranger was nice to enough to leave the parking slip demanding only the $5, which we noticed when we returned from the beach. He was also kind enough to provide change and we got out of trouble!

After this, we grabbed some lunch from Eureka Pizza in Seward and proceeded towards Homer, AK. Eureka Pizza has nothing special to be mentioned – we would rather have a choice to avoid this place! On our way to Homer, we decided to take a small detour on a gravel road called ‘Skilak Lake Road’. Somewhere we read that there are some picturesque spots along the shores of Skilak Lake. Though it wasn’t a big detour, we didn’t find this path worth the time, if one is tight-pressed for time. For us, we had some time to kill and so, wasn’t a big deal. The entire path wasn’t travelled much by many vehicles. We did find a boat launch place with a view to finish up the lunch!

Then, we passed through Soldotna, which seemed like a reasonable size town with a lot of activity. We continued on to Homer where we had booked a cabin – Glacier View Cabins – for the night. On the way to Homer, the road has a beautiful view of the mountain range across the ocean which showed two volcanoes – Mt Redoubt and Mt Iliamna very visibly. The mountain range is actually the Aleutian Range. There are several pullouts to get a better view for photo opportunities. The stretch of the road from Soldotna to Homer was much more scenic than the boring stretch from the junction of Seward Highway to Soldotna.

When we reached the cabins, we were amazed at the location and scenic background! They have constructed the cabins in a really picturesque location. The cabin had a good kitchen with pretty much all the basic utensils and stuff stocked – oil, salt, pepper and spice mix. They even had stuff to prepare s’mores and microwave popcorn packets. It was worth staying for couple days, but it was too late for us, anyway! We checked in and headed out to Homer Spit to see if we could get some dinner. Homer Spit was so crowded with seafood restaurants and we hardly found any place for us, vegetarians! But, we spent some time in the small beach at the tip of the land and headed out to a local Safeway grocery. We decided to buy some basic stuff so that we can utilize the kitchen in the cabin to prepare some supper and breakfast for the next day. Especially with such a beautiful view from the cabins, why not? We ate supper and spent some time in the porch, enjoying the view!

Day 9 (July 8, 2016)

Only drawback in the cabin is that they didn’t have any light-blocking curtains for the windows. With sun never setting, it was bit difficult to get sleep. We woke up, had our home-cooked breakfast (rather cabin-cooked breakfast!) with a view. Then, we checked out and headed to Soldotna for the bear watch through Natron Air. When we booked for this event before our trip, the owner Janet Pope sounded very friendly and informative. But, when we reached there, we did not get the same feeling. May be our expectations were misplaced with them when you see the reviews/ratings from other customers in TripAdvisor! The entire trip felt very hurried for the price we paid. We saw 'a' bear picking on mussels in a beach and that is about it! We saw more than that in wild while driving through other regions. We paid monies hoping to see coastal bear size bear(s). We weren't even sure if we were in the bear viewing tour!  They didn't tell us anything about the outfits to wear and the fact that we will be walking in shallow water bodies (like marshy beaches). We did not expect this and both our shoes were spoiled completely for the rest of our trip in Alaska! One nice thing to mention was the up-close view of the Mt.Redoubt volcano, which actually erupted as recently as in 2009.

We were hungry by this time and when we searched for a restaurant, found a Mexican place in town. It was a really good place and we loved the food. They had many different home-made salsa types, most of which were good. The sunny weather in Alaska after so many days of muggy days made so much difference. In spite of so many glacial rivers running around, the atmosphere felt so dry. It kind of tired us out. So, we checked into Soldotna Inn, where we had reservation for the night. Relaxed for couple of hours and headed out to check out some campgrounds and fishing places along the banks of the Kenai River in hopes of seeing some Salmons. Though there were fishermen in every ladder along the bank, we could not find anybody lucky enough to have caught some Salmons! Then we headed to a beach in the town of Kenai, spent some time walking along the beach and came back to Soldotna – the entire day was surprisingly sunny. Such a day would have been perfect during our visit to Denali!
Then, had our dinner at Buckets – a burger joint. It wasn’t a bad place – they even had veggie burger. We called it a day after this.

Day 10 (July 9, 2016)

The program for the day was the travel to catch the Alaska Rail Road from Portage Station 2 for the Spencer Glacier trip. We reached the train station a little before than needed. Alaska Railroad has worked out this trip with Major Marine Tour operators. The Major Marine guides did a good job in fixing up with the necessary accessories like rubber boots, unlike the disappointing Natron Air guys!  It was only a 20-25 min train journey. We were told that we could leave our shoes in the train and walk out with the rubber boots, because the train was just going to wait there until the end of our river float and pick us back up. The only way to get into and out of the Spencer Glacier area is via the train, which is kind of interesting to note. After we got off the train, a bus took us to the Spencer Glacier area which is a few miles inside. The location and setting of that glacier is so serene and beautiful that one will be totally taken by surprise if you have not seen pictures or if you haven’t read about it beforehand. The glacial lake in front of the glacier had so many icebergs floating in it.

We wore the life jackets and stepped into floats/rafts. All the rafts were manually operated and the guide took care of that. One can literally see the icebergs up close to get an idea on the structure of the solid ice that has been formed by snow that has been compressed for several years! Also amazing is to see how fast these icebergs are melting by the sight of water dripping from the icebergs. Floating in the rafts and passing in-between these icebergs was really cool and felt cold (that shouldn’t surprise anybody, I assume!). After passing the area where the icebergs were floating, the rafts entered the Placer River, rafting downstream for about the 8 miles to catch the train back. All along the path, the views were breathtaking. Finally, when we arrived close to where the train was about to pick us up, there wasn’t any station or anything. You step off the raft onto some railing and climb into the train. Very interesting set-up for an interesting wilderness!

 After the Spencer Glacier tour, we wanted to go back to the Portage Valley again since there was sunlight this time unlike the last time when it was totally cloudy and raining.  We went up to the Begich-Boggs visitor center and back. Then, we continued our drive back to Anchorage.

On the way, when passing through Turnagain Arm, we stopped at couple of spots, including the Beluga Point. The scenic beauty was awesome. It was in the evening and I believe we witnessed the low tide (Bore tide) happening (around 7:30 p.m.), which we realized after getting back home and checked out the schedule. It was a very interesting phenomenon to watch the watch rapidly flowing back into the ocean.

Day 11 (July 10, 2016)

The last day of our Alaska trip!

We took it very easy today. With our hosts, we planned to visit the Eagle River Nature center hoping to see if we can get a glimpse of Salmons. While we didn’t see a single fish there, the trails were very nice and it was a nice day to be out hiking a little bit. We took the trail up to the river and back. The views with the river in the foreground and mountain ranges in the background provided for a nice treat for the eyes. If one has time, this spot would be a good one to get some hiking done in the natural wilderness.

Then we went to Eklutna Lake (second time for us) and the weather was completely different today with less clouds. Still a good spot for a picnic! If time permitted and if the group had energy, we could have walked a trail along the lake, but we didn’t!

That was the end of our trip, as we had a flight to catch that night!