On our return drive from Denali National Park to Anchorage, we stopped in the lovely town of Talkeetna. Talkeetna is the jumping off point for Denali adventures such as mountain climbing and airplane rides. The Alaska railroad also stops in Talkeetna. Most of the tourist business seems to be driven by the cruise ships. This quaint town is full of exciting shopping and fantastic food. I highly recommend the fish and chips at the Wildflower Restaurant. Another highlight was the Aurora Dora gallery of northern lights photos. Viewing the northern lights is on my list of things to do but alas is only visible in the winter months.

 

The following day our host family took us on a 25-mile ATV ride around Eklutna Lake. The scenery was beautiful, and it was cool to be driving an ATV. At the halfway point, we encountered terrific views of Eklutna Glacier. On the return trip, it started raining hard by Alaska standards. We were soaked upon arriving back at the parking lot. All part of the adventure!

Next on our agenda was a kayak and hiking adventure to Spencer’s Glacier. This was an all day and into the night affair. When reserving this activity, I noticed the description indicated a moderate activity that called for the ability to paddle a kayak and participate in a strenuous hike. We own kayaks, so I was not too worried about that aspect. I overlooked the term strenuous as most of these guide services overstate the difficulty. In this case, the description of the hike was very accurate. We started with an Alaska Railroad train ride from Anchorage to the Spencer Glacier Whistle Stop. From the train stop, we took a bus down a forest road to the edge of Spencer Lake. I don’t have any photographs of Spencer Lake as my camera was safely stowed in a waterproof bag 😊. We paddled for 1.5 miles across an iceberg filled lake to get to the edge of Spencer Glacier. Upon our arrival on the glacier, we put on our helmet, harness and crampons. After the safety briefing, I began to understand this tike would not be a walk in the park. Hiking on a glacier with crampons requires diligent thought about each step. A couple of nameless members of our party fell but suffered no injuries. The scenery on the glacier was awesome. We saw deep crevices and many moulins. The scale of the glacier was almost overwhelming, and the colors were like something I have never seen. After hiking for 3.5 miles, we returned to the kayak for the 1.5-mile return paddle. We rode the train back to Anchorage that night exhausted but satisfied with a feeling of accomplishment and inspiration at the beauty we had seen.

For our last day in Alaska, we scheduled a bear watching tour to Lake Clark National Park. We flew to Redoubt Bay Lodge on Rust’s Flying Service. Our objective was to see as much wildlife as possible with a particular interest in bears and moose. My wife has a new Nikon DSLR that was ready for action.  On the flight over, the pilot soared over the volcano Mount Lliamna. What an amazing view. Redoubt Bay Lodge is a beautiful, albeit remote facility. Everything must be flown in, including diesel to run the generators. After signing the obligatory waiver, we boarded a pontoon boat for our day of wildlife viewing. We were fortunate that we ended up on a small pontoon boat all by ourselves. After riding around on the lake for a while, we began to see brown bear, black bear, eagles, and moose. We stopped for lunch at the lodge which consisted of fresh salmon with jasmine rice. It was the best meal of the trip! We were back on the water after lunch for more wildlife viewing. We returned to Anchorage with hundreds of photos and a lifetime of memories. All the images seen here were taken with my cell phone. My wife took some fantastic shots with her new camera.

The next morning, we took an early morning flight back to Houston. Upon landing it seemed incredibly hot, that is when the reality that the “vacation is over set” hit home.

As I mentioned earlier, Alaska is a vast place. You need a solid plan with clear objectives to make the most of your time. I recommended multiple trips to capture the beauty and majesty of this frontier land known as Alaska.

 

Make the most of this day!