Anchorage Update
 

 

Dan
July 08

7/2/2008

OK .... Back in Alaska now.  We all had a great time visiting family and friends in PA.  We arrived back in Alaska on June 28th.  We left hot humid weather in PA and arrived to low fifties in Alaska.  It felt great!!!

 

There are tons of new pictures on the website.

 

The weather is really starting to get nice here in AK.  Yesterday we reached the high sixties with bright sunshine.  Great day.  As a matter of fact, I was at ConocoPhillips yesterday for a meeting when there was an announcement allowing ConocoPhillips employees to leave early to celebrate the first real day of summer.  More of the same weather today.  It was actually a little warmer today reaching into the low seventies.

 

Rhonda's father and his friend Joan arrived last night at the airport.  We have quite a few activities planned while they are visiting.  Should be an exciting month for us all.

 

We are very close to selling our house.  The people who are buying our house have accepted an offer on their house which allows the deal on our house to go through.

 

The boys and Rhonda's father and I went for a drive up the mountain from our house tonight just to see if we would get lucky enough to see any wildlife.  We went down a very remote mountain road (some might actually call this road a trail).  As I was concentrating on navigating the "trail", Ron spotted a black bear about 50 yards ahead of us on the side of the road.  We stopped and watched and noticed that this was a pretty big bear.  Ron estimated that it was a minimum of 400 pounds.  As we were watching this first bear, a second popped his head out from the brush on the other side of the road.  We sat there for about 10 minutes watching these two bears as they fed on berries or whatever it was that they were eating.  Ron snapped a few pictures.  Click here to see them.

7/4/2008

Went fishing with Ron and the boys today.  Not much was biting, but it was fun to see the boys learning how to fish.  Thanks to Ron, they will have an outdoor skill that I do not have.

 

Picked up the Arcaros at the airport.  I am looking forward to enjoying what Alaska has to offer with everyone.

 

We got home from the airport just in time to "hear" the fireworks.  That's right hear them.  With the sun being out so late, a fireworks "show" has a slightly different impact here than in other parts of the country.

7/5/2008

We all went to Girdwood today to the Alyeska hotel.  This hotel is at the Alyeska ski resort.  The hotel has a tram car that goes up the side of the mountain to one of the peaks (about 2500 feet).  There was plenty of snow for the kids to play in up at the top.  We had a snow ball fight.  The kids climbed up one of the slopes and rolled/slid down.  There was a pretty good package deal which included the tram car ride and lunch at the top.

7/6/2008

Took a ride out to Seward today to see Exit Glacier.  You turn off of Seward highway about ten miles before you actually get to Seward in order to get to the park where Exit Glacier is.  The walk out to the glacier is not a difficult one (pretty hilly and rocky, but still not hardcore hiking).  You do have to be aware of bear and moose.  By the way, there was a sign today saying that there were bear sightings along the trail today.  Not difficult, that is, unless you actually want to hike to the face of the glacier and touch it.

 

There are signs along the trail with years on them.  1954, 1961, etc .... These signs represent where the glacier was that year.  It was pretty amazing to see how much the glacier has receded over the years.  As a matter of fact, the park ranger said that the glacier is receding at a rate of 150 feet per year.  The park has to be dramatically modified each year to continue to enable access to the glacier.

 

The only way to get to the face is to hike down to "outwash area".  This is where the melt-off from the glacier forms a river of very cold and rapidly moving water.  Once you get down to the outwash area, you need to navigate your way across several streams before you actually get to the face of the glacier.

 

It was a little uneasy trying to step on rocks that are strategically placed across each stream trying not to get wet.  It became quite an adventure in trying to get to the glacier.  The kids were loving every minute of it.  The adults were loving it too even though our practical side was outwardly showing the contrary.  Tony decided to carry Michelle on his shoulders over one stream.  We eventually made it to the glacier (not completely dry I might add).  Then, we had to venture back to get to the trail that led back to the cars.

 

It turned out to be a really neat little adventure for us all that I do not believe any of us will soon forget.  If you make the trip to Exit Glacier and if you intend to touch the glacier ..... BRING WATERPROOF BOOTS.

 

On the way home from Seward I happened to look out onto the water and was fortunate enough to see a wave advancing up Turnagain Arm (the body of water fed by Cook Inlet and the Gulf of Alaska).  The wave that I saw was the tide coming into Turnagain Arm from the inlet.  Alaska is known for having an extreme tidal differential between low and high tides.  This extreme tidal differential coupled with the fact that Turnagain Arm is much narrower and more shallow than Cook Inlet, which feeds Turnagain Arm, combines to create a "Bore Tide" (Click here to learn more about Bore Tides).

 

When I saw the wave, I turned into the nearest parking lot and we all got out of the car just in time to see a 6 foot high wave rushing past us.  The strange thing about this wave is that it did not crash on the shore.  It just continued up Turnagain Arm with the incoming tide until it was out of sight.

7/7/2008

Back to Seward again today.  This time we went to Seward to catch a cruise to see wildlife and glaciers.  The cruise we took was the National Park Tour conducted by Kenai Fjords Tours (http://www.kenaifjords.com/543.cfm).  I am not sure how Kenai Fjords compares to other sightseeing cruise companies, but I can tell you that the KenaiFjords tour is well worth the money!

 

The boats are fast and safe.  The captain was incredibly knowledgeable about the history of the area, the wildlife, and the glaciers.  He went out of his way to make sure we saw as much as we could possibly see.  Although the boat was sold out, I never felt crowded.  There was plenty of room to move around on the boat and I never felt like I had to fight to get a good view.

 

Anyway, we saw all sorts of wildlife including porpoises (which swam along side the boat for a while), humpback whales (yes, that is plural), fascinating rock formations along the shore lines and on the islands, puffins as well as countless other types of birds, a seal, sea lions, and several glaciers.

 

The captain took us within a couple hundred feet of the face of Holgate glacier.  The face of the glacier is a half mile wide and 300 feet high.  It was incredible being so close to it.  To make it even more dramatic, once we were close to the glacier, the captain turned off the engines and and we just sat there watching and listening to the glacier.  The captain told us to listen to the glacier "talk".  Since the glacier is constantly moving, it is constantly cracking.  The cracking sounds like cannons going off.  It is incredible!  Definitely need to add this to your "bucket list".

 

Again, on the way back from Seward we were treated to another unique sighting.  We passed a small pond on the side of the road that had a group of about 15 Dall Sheep (http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=funfacts.sheep) drinking from it.  We quickly turned around and then came back to the pond and parked.  About 3 or 4 minutes went by before we got back to the pond.  During that time, the sheep climbed up out of the pond and up about 75 onto the steep rocky and jagged cliff side.  We could not believe how quickly they got up there.  Dall Sheep are known for their climbing ability.

7/8/2008

Happy 11th birthday Danny!!!

 

The first in our family to experience a birthday in Alaska, away from friends and family.  However, Danny was fortunate enough to have Pop-Pop and Joan and the Arcaros here to celebrate with him.  Danny actually said that it was his best birthday ever!

 

After breakfast, we went up to Flat Top Mountain in Anchorage to hike up the trail that Danny's class hiked on in May.  We all got out of the car and began hiking up the trail and we quickly noticed that there were several trees that had fresh bear claw marks on them.  It was little frightening, but we kept on hiking up to a clearing where we had incredible views of the city, the water, and the other mountains around Flat Top.

 

Next, we took the Arcaros downtown for a little souvenir shopping.  After shopping we headed towards Red Robin which was Danny's choice for his birthday dinner.  However before getting there, I suggested that we make a stop at Kincaid Park to see if we could get a good look at any moose that might be in the area.  We all saw a moose way out in a field as we sped home on the way from Seward, but the Arcaros did not get to see any moose up close.  As we were driving into the park, we spotted a group of 4 moose right next to the road.  They were behind a fence, so we were able to get relatively close to them without any fear of them charging us.  Great photo op!

 

We had our dinner at Red Robin and then escorted the Arcaros off to the airport for their flight back to Seattle and their long drive home from there.  It was really great to be able to hang out with them up here in Anchorage for a few days.

7/9/2008

Back to the daily grind today at work.  Only two vacation days and I feel like I am a month behind!

7/11/2008

We left today for Denali National Park.  It is a looooong drive!  It is actually only about 250 miles, but about 230 of those miles are on the same 2 lane highway with no turns.  And, there are no services for about 120 miles.

 

We finally arrived at around 7:00 pm at the Grande Denali Lodge.  This is a brand new hotel and it looks like it is the nicest of the dozen or so that are near the park entrance.  We checked in and went out for dinner since the hotel menu was outrageous.

 

There incredible views all around the park, the hotel, the restaurant ...basically every where.

7/12/2008

We got up pretty early to have breakfast and to catch a 9:30 tour bus which goes through the park to the new Eilson Visitor center.  This is an 8 hour round trip.  It is only about 60 miles one-way, but the park road is not built for high speed and the bus stops frequently to look at interesting views and at wildlife.  It sounds incredibly long, but it goes by pretty quickly when you have all of this nature to take in.

 

I also need to point out that we have had cloudy weather here for at least a week and a half.  Today was forecasted to be cloudy as well.  However, we had beautiful, bright sunshine all day.  As it turns out, it is relatively uncommon to get a clear view of Mt. McKinley due to cloud cover.  The bus driver said that he has not seen the mountain all year.  However, on this day we all got incredible views of McKinley throughout the day.

 

Within 5 minutes of leaving on the bus, we saw a wolf walking down the middle of the road right next to the bus.  The bus driver pointed out that this is really unusual.  We saw several caribou at various points along the drive.  We also saw eagles, dall sheep, and grizzly bears.  The bus driver told us that we saw "the big five".  Mt. McKinley, wolves, caribou, dall sheep, and grizzly bears.  He said that it is very unusual to see everything in one day.

 

About 15 miles into the drive, the bus leaves the pavement and enters onto a gravel covered one lane road for the rest of the way.  Part of the drive out to Eilson includes a ten minute or so drive over "Polychrome pass".  Polychrome pass takes you over Polychrome mountain.  Polychrome pass is where the one lane gravel road climbs about 2500 feet above the road below and has steep cliffs right off the edge of the road that go down 2500 feet to the river below.  This drive is not for the faint of heart.  Going out was not so bad, because our bus driver stayed close to the right side of the road which was the side the mountain was on.  Two or three times, he had to pull as close to the mountain as possible and come to a complete stop so that another bus could pass on the outside!  I just kept thinking that we would be the bus on the outside on the way back.  Sure enough, after leaving Eilson visitor center, we began the climb back up Polychrome pass.  And, yes ... we had to pass one or two busses on the outside.  I looked out the window once.  Yes ... ONCE.  After that, I locked onto the mountain side and did not look anywhere else until we were at the bottom of the pass.

7/13/2008

Made the loooong trip back to Anchorage today.  You know ... in the final analysis ... If you are planning on visiting Alaska, I would NOT recommend making the trip to Denali.  I am sure that comes as a surprise, but here is why:

 

You would have to schedule at least 3 days for the trip.  The shortest tour inside the park is 4 hours.  If you plan on taking that one, then I really recommend not going.  You simply will not get deep enough into the park to see much.  So, then the next choice is the 8 hour tour that we took.  This is the minimum length tour that you should consider.  If you do that tour, it is just not feasible to try to include either the trip to Denali, or the trip from Denali on the same day as the tour.

 

So, if you are up here for a week, then the 3 days for the trip to Denali is half of your time.

 

The bus driver said that you can expect to see Mt. McKinley only about 25% of the time due to cloud cover.  As a matter of fact, the day we went was the first time this season that McKinley was visible.  That means that you most likely will NOT be able to even see what you came to see.  You will get to see other mountains and some wildlife.  According to the bus driver, you will most likely not see all of the wildlife that we saw.  He said that we had a great day.  So, you will most likely see some wildlife, some mountains, but probably not McKinley, and it will take you 3 days to accomplish this.

 

Right here in Anchorage, you you can see several mountains.  You can see all of the wildlife except caribou right from my back deck.  And, you can see the top of McKinley from my back deck on a clear day (about 25% of the time).

7/14/2008

A few Bentley guys and myself took a group of customers out to Seward for a Halibut/Salmon fishing trip.  Our boat was scheduled to leave Seward at 6:30 am.  Seward is a 2 hour drive from Anchorage.  We rented a bus to take us from Anchorage to Seward.  The bus left Anchorage a little after 4:00 am.

 

We arrived in Seward at around 6:30.  The boat left the dock around 6:50.  We had a three hour boat ride just to get out to the fishing area.  It did not take long for the fish to start biting.  Within a half hour the first halibut came in.  It was only about 25 pounds.  Then they started coming in pretty quick.  I got two that were between 25 and 30 pounds.  The largest one was 75 pounds!

 

Others on the boat also caught a few silver salmon and ling cod.  Overall, it was a good day.  Everyone on the boat caught a total of around 600 pounds of fish.  After filleting the fish, we each ended up with about 30 pounds of fish.  Pretty nice!

 

I ended up getting home around 9:30 PM.  Incredibly long day!

 

I will say that this day confirmed that I am just not a fisherman.  Beyond the fact that I do not know what I am doing, I just cannot get excited about dropping a line to the ocean floor and standing there waiting for a stupid halibut to swallow the hook.  Maybe I will get one ... maybe I will not.  Maybe it will take 5 minutes ... maybe it will take 2 hours.  Just not for me ...

7/17/2008

We have been back in Alaska since June 28th.  A little over two weeks.  We have seen about 5 days of sunshine.  We have had heavy cloud cover every other day.  It is getting old!  People say that we are having an unusual summer.  Actually looking forward to winter!!!

 

We also went to the BP family picnic today.  It was a circus theme with moon bounces, obstacle courses, performers, and lots of food.

7/20/2008

We went down to Lake Hood today.  Lake Hood is right next to the Anchorage international airport.  Lake Hood is the busiest float plane base in the world.  There are float planes all around the lake.  In the winter, they switch the pontoons on the bottom of the planes to skis and they take off and land on the frozen lake.  We walked a little around the lake and watched quite a few planes take off and land.

 

After Lake Hood, we went to Earthquake Park for a little hike.  A large portion of the state around Anchorage was severely affected by an earthquake that hit on Good Friday in 1964.  I don't believe that this park was affected any more than any other area, but it does have signs and pictures throughout the park explaining the earthquake and its effects.

7/23/2008

The weather here has been awful in July.  Cloudy almost every day and rain for the past week.  As a result, the kids have been inside way too much.  After dinner I decided to take them out to Potter Marsh which is just down the mountain from our house  (less than 10 minutes away).  I hoped that we would just have 15 or 20 minutes or so outside to get some fresh (wet) air.

 

It turned out to be a fantastic 90 minute outing where we were able to take in beautiful scenery and wildlife.  There is a pretty large network of raised boardwalks above the marsh that allow you to get interesting views of the marsh and the wildlife in the marsh.  We took a walk down one of the walkways and I saw the tide going out through a stream that feeds the marsh.  I wondered if there might be salmon swimming upstream to lay their eggs.  We walked over to the stream and sure enough ... we saw about 50 salmon trying their hardest to swim upstream.  Some of them were more than 2 feet long!  We stood there and watched them for about 20 minutes.

 

Then we walked down another walkway and we saw all kinds of waterfowl (ducks, geese, and others).  At the end of that walkway we could see two bald eagles perched atop two trees slightly up the hill behind the marsh.

 

On our way back down the walkway, we saw too moose pretty far away from the walkway walking through the marsh.

 

Had a great time!

7/25/2008

We got sunshine today!!!  We tried to take advantage of it.  We went to Mitch Seavey's WildRide Sled Dog Rodeo (http://www.ididaride.com/index.php).  It was a really good show.  Mitch Seavey is a seasoned Iditarod champion and he and his family put on a show during the summer in Anchorage explaining a little about dog mushing, the Iditarod, and raising/training puppies.

 

After the sled dog show, we took a ride up to Hatcher Pass and Independence Mine.  Hatcher Pass is about 3,500 feet above sea level and ... yes ... there was fresh snow up there.  There were incredible views from up there.  The mine was really cool too, but we got there too late to tour the buildings.  Definitely need to go back. (http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/units/indmine.htm).