United States of America Alaska 2003

The below travel report is part of a 2.5 year lasting trip around the world in 2002-2003-2004.

Alaska: The Last Frontier (16-7-2003/14-8-2003)

Alaska. Synonymous to unspoilt forests, tough conditions, difficult mountain summits en beautiful glaciers. And to snow, lots of snow. But also to salmon fishing bears, packs of wolves and giant moose. And to mosquitoes, lots of them. And it was all true.

Alaska is the 49th state of the US and is also referred to as The Last Frontier; but it is also the largest state of the US, by far! Most of it is unspoilt. You will find some roads in between the cities, but the rest of it you can only get to by boat or plane. Alaska is as big as England, France, Italy and Spain together, but so few people live there that by comparison Manhattan would have only 16 inhabitants if it would have the same population density as Alaska!

Because of its remoteness and tough weather conditions, everything in Alaska is expensive. Very expensive. So you are probably asking yourself, why go there as a backpacker? Well, it’s the remoteness. And the toughness. It worked like a magnet to us. We did however count on it being the most expensive part of our trip. And we found out we even had been too careful…

Muskox
Still in African spirits we would do exactly what we had done in Africa: let the bears, wolves, moose, caribous and bobcats come! Well, we were completely wrong. It is true that Alaska has got the highest concentration of bears in North America, but you have to put that into perspective. It’s not like in Africa that you find animals wandering near the road, and even during hikes we didn’t see many animals. No, the animals were quite clever. They mostly stayed in remote areas where hardly any people came. I cannot blame them. Alaska has a very high density of hunters. Not for meat in the fridge, but just for fun. Just for the trophies. And indeed, everywhere we came, in every souvenir shop and every visitor centre, we saw stuffed bears, wolves and moose. We even saw polar bears and muskox. It made us really sick. It was repulsive, cruel and above all unnecessary. We did see more stuffed animals than live animals. And it even got worse. As an example, the population of wolves is only a fraction of what it once was. All have been shot, many of them due to silly stories. And what do they do to those animals left? Alaska just approved (this was in 2003) that wolves can be shot from helicopters again in winter. This is unbelievable. And by the way, all other animals one can shoot from the car – from the road, as long as the car doesn’t move. Yes, one does require a permit. But that is not too hard to arrange. Well, after Bush the Americans were not too popular around the world, and this will not improve their popularity either.

One of our big wishes was to see grizzly bears catching salmon from the river. We found out that in order to have an almost 100% guarantee, we had to go to Katmai NP, McNeil River Sanctuary, Kodiak Island or Admiralty Island. All of them protected, but remote areas (only accessible by plane) and with a strict entry policy. As an example, bear viewing in Katmai NP does cost about 500$ per person per day, and then still you are fighting for the best spot with 20 other frustrated photographers. And to see muskox in the far north is even more difficult (and more expensive). So we had to be creative. With both bears as muskox.

For the muskox we had to visit the Research Institute for Large Mammals. They have a number of animals for research purposes and we saw about twenty of them in the fields. It is a small type of cow-like animal with an oversized coat, just stepping out of the prehistory. Brilliant animals! And also a bit aggressive. We were watching 3 bulls and Rick was getting his zoom lens out. All of a sudden a bull came thundering towards the fence! Rick was still doubting if he was considered a rival or a handsome cow, when the bull hit the breaks only 50cm from the fence (and the zoom lens)! While the animal was still making angry sounds, Rick had to change his lens again because a zoom lens was not necessary anymore…

Despite the fact that we did not see the muskox in the wild, this visit was very much worth it. Another animal that we humans have brought to the edge of extinction.

Denali National Park
Denali NP is the Kruger of Alaska. Which was one of the reasons why we were warned not to go there: just like a zoo, too many tourists, you can only access by tourist bus. But…we thought it was fantastic. Fellow travellers, give Denali a chance because it can really be marvellous. This because we found many negative remarks on travellers websites. Which is NOT deserved – if you take a little bit of initiative, your time in Denali will be very rewarding.

Denali NP is basically a national park around the highest mountain in Alaska (and for that matter, the whole of the USA), named Mount McKinley. With more than 6000 meters height this white giant is very impressive, and since it is the highest mountain of the US it attracts hordes of Americans. They just love everything which is the highest/fastest/best etc! Anyway, Denali gets about half a million visitors in only 3 months time! Of course it raises the stress levels of any bear or wolf. Also the authorities found this out, so they implemented an ingenious system: nobody can enter the park with their own car, but only by special bus. So many think that’s not their cup-of-tea being an independent traveller and all. But…it actually can’t get any better! Because all those brave Americans are sitting in these busses and only come out at special viewing points, gazing at Mount McKinley and hoping to see a bit of Grizzly bear. But you, as adventurer and hiker, can just get off the bus whenever you want and start hiking in the bush, leaving the hordes behind. It is very much allowed! And all of a sudden Denali is your own private kingdom with a lot of adventure, because hiking trails are just not there so you have to make your own! You just get off the bus and start hiking. Through the bush, on the tundra, crossing rivers, climbing mountains. And around every corner there can be a bear, a wolf or a moose. Which is a true adventure, I can guarantee you. We did it for 4 whole days.

We camped at the Savage River Campground in the park. The first day we climbed Mount Healy (1800m) near the entrance to the park, which is the only true trail in Denali. 700m higher was the summit with a beautiful view of the valley and the surrounding mountains. The climb only lasted 2 hours (another mountain for Marieke!).

On the second day the bus brought us to the Eielson Information Centre. The drive was truly fantastic, what a beautiful landscape. And the weather was also great! We were really lucky. The days before our arrival it rained and a lot of floods took place. The days after we left Denali the weather changed again to rains and floods. But while at Denali, we had clear blue skies and a lot of sunshine. Mt McKinley was clearly visible and that’s quite rare.

During the bus ride we were lucky once more. You need to know that Denali has about 400 grizzlys and only 100 wolves, and everybody hopes to see both. Only 10% of the visitors do see wolves. And we were among the lucky ones: one black and one grey wolf were clearly visible in the distance. Our binoculars made clear the wolves were wolves and not ordinary dogs. Real wolves, beautiful!

Upon arrival at the Information Centre we climbed the mountains behind the centre and 500 meters higher we had the world to ourselves. What a magnificent landscape. Tundra everywhere, landscape dotted with little lakes and majestic snow capped mountains all around; and of course the great Mt McKinley as the best-of-the-best. Marieke got a little over-enthusiastic and decided we would descend towards the riverbed. It was only 100 meters, she said. Well, it took hours! Hanging from bushes, slipping and sliding and falling we proceeded, while clapping our hands to chase off any grizzlies that might be around. It did cost us a lot of blood, sweat and tears to descend safe and sound but Marieke was very satisfied with herself…

Animals have first right of way in Denali which is a good thing. But animals don’t see the difference between the bush and the road through the park so on our way back a caribou was blocking our way. We stood there for hours before the animal would move. I still suspect it did it on purpose…

But after the caribou more would follow. A little further the bus stopped abruptly. Next to the road a mother grizzly and her baby were roaming the berry bushes, and ignored us completely. What a great animals. Then…another mama grizzly appeared from the bush, together with her baby…the first mama looked angry at the second mama…doubting what she would do…and decided to turn around and disappear into the bush, her baby following. What a treat! On one day we saw 2 wolves and 4 grizzlies and a stubborn caribou. A day to remember!

Also on day 3 the sun did shine after some hours of rain, so we were on our way to Highway Pass, the highest point of the only road within the park. And again we were lucky; on our way we spotted a mother grizzly with her young on a mountain slope. The young grizzly just caught a squirrel and was very satisfied with itself, playing with the (hopefully) dead squirrel. After that the young bear let itself roll from the mountain.

Twenty kilometers further we saw a mother grizzly with two babies, staring into the river looking for salmon. Lots of young bears, so the papas had been very very busy…

Eventually the bus dropped us at a beautiful piece of tundra with views of river beds, glaciers and snow capped mountains. We hiked only for 500 meters when we noticed that one of the buses stopped on the road and all people in the bus were looking at us with their binoculars. It seemed hikers were quite rare! We continued, feeling a bit uncomfortable because a lot of people were looking at us! But hey, another bus stopped now as well and all people on the bus were also looking at us. Then Rick got the bright idea that all these people might not be looking at us, but maybe at something else! So we got our own binoculars out and scanned our surroundings. And gee, we found a wolf at 300 meter distance, watching us very nervously. Nobody moved. After some time the wolf walked backwards and laid down at the foot of a mountain slope. Were we afraid? Not really. The wolf resembled a husky or German Shepherd and as such just as impressive (or better: unimpressive). Just because we knew it was a wolf made it exciting. And also because all these people on the bus were of course secretly hoping we would be attacked by the wolf so they could take their “Photo of the Year Award” snap...

We hiked on the endless tundra, enjoyed crackers with peanut butter on hill tops and watched a caribou from behind some grass, when Marieke said she would actually love to see a grizzly right then. One moment later…we saw a grizzly about 1.5 kilometre from us. The animal did see us but decided to ignore us. We reached the road and felt saver already (false sense of safety though! Bears can reach 50km an hour so the animal could have been with us in 1.5 minutes!). That these bears are really wild was illustrated by the fact that one of the buses was attacked by a grizzly only a week before. The animal saw its reflection in the window and attacked without hesitation. He didn’t buy a ticket though so never made it inside…

The 10% of visitors who actually do see wolfs was all of a sudden doubled just because of us. On our way back we saw again another wolf. This one was on the road and slowly walked in front of the bus for 15 minutes. Also wolves like it the easy way/road…

Our last day in Denali was the most beautiful one. We got the tip to climb Cathedral Mountain (1700m). The bus dropped us again and we climbed the first mountain we saw…and only on the top we found out we climbed the wrong one! So we half hiked, half fell off the other side of our mountain and climbed the right Cathedral Mountain. After a climb of about 700 meters our reward was a magnificent view which is hard to describe. Maybe the pictures can tell our story. The weather was great and Dall Sheep were laying in the sun on the mountains edge. Yes, we truly loved Denali!

As a traveller you may ask yourself: how can you do Denali the affordable way? Our tips: apply for a free backcountry permit and take the Camper bus (22.50$) to your unit and you’ve got the whole area to yourself. They don’t allow too many people in one unit. If you don’t want to carry your own tent on your back, book a campsite in the park (18$; note: some campsites are closed for tents because of wolves). A camper bus will bring you to your campsite (22.50$) and this fare is for use of the bus for a whole week. The camper bus is better anyway. The “normal” tour bus does cost 33$ per ride and you do get a very annoying bus driver who will yell every kilometre or so “How are we doing today?” and “Are we all having fun yet?” AND you are obliged to wear seatbelts while driving 40kms/h. Strange folk, these Americans. Another important note: campsites in Denali you do have to reserve up front, it gets very very busy.

Anchorage
No, Anchorage is no longer de capital of Alaska (as many of you might think) because that’s Juneau. But it does have the most inhabitants of Alaska by far. A typical American city with parallel streets and avenues. Lots of drifters in the street, which were mainly Inuit with an alcohol addiction.
In Anchorage we have done some cultural things (does that exist in the States?) by going to the movies, restaurant dinners and … a bead store. Marieke is very into beads these days and is making her own necklaces (or for others).

On the campsite near Anchorage we encountered a lesser appealing side of American society. Upon arrival we noticed that the type of people there were a bit different than at other campsites. We found ourselves a spot and pitched up our tent and went to the office to pay. The man at the reception desk asked us if we really wanted to stay on the spot we had chosen. Apparently we pitched our tent just between two rival groups who had had fights for some nights in a row! We decided we would take the risk, but then he added we were right next to garbage containers and he had to chase some bears for days now every night! Oh well, maybe not. Just then a police car entered the campsite and removed a very neglected girl; we realised that most of these campers were permanent! They were just too poor to afford a house, so they stayed at the campsite! We also saw many youngsters without parents, runaways. And the showers were frequently used by people from town who couldn’t afford their water bills anymore…

Our new spot also wasn’t the best. In the middle of the night 3 people arrived with a dog and they sat only 10 meters from our tent, chatting until 5AM and sometimes yelling to their dog: “Blue, lay down. Laaaaaaaaaay Dooooooooown!!!”

Kenai Peninsula
The Kenai Peninsula is THE touristy spot of Alaska. Especially Americans seem to like it. We didn’t like it that much. Towns like Seward and Homer are awfully touristy and are packed with obnoxious souvenir shops you usually only see in your worst nightmares. But not all was bad...

On our way to Seward we drove around the Turnagain Arm, in which a group of Beluga’s or white dolphins were living. We were very lucky to see them. Or at least whatever there was to see. Which was not more than a dozen white ping pong balls in the ocean. Anyway, we had seen Beluga’s in the wild!

Near Seward the Kenai Fjords NP starts, which is actually only accessible by an expensive cruise. There is one exception: Exit Glacier. Kenai Fjords is formed by glaciers that are fed by the Harding Icefield. All those glaciers end in the ocean except for Exit Glacier. Highly recommendable: you can simple drive there with your car and a short stroll brings you until 10 meters of the glacier. By doing so, you realise how big a glacier is. And how much ice does come down from the mountains.

Even more interesting it was to hike the Harding Trail next to the glacier up until the mountains onto the Harding Icefield itself. Yes, it is almost 6,5km climbing and 6.5km descending – but the reward was magnificent. The icefield stretched as far as we could see, only interrupted by some black mountain tops. Our knees felt quite weak the days after, but it was very much worth it. By the way, while you are there stay at the (free) campsite at the foot of the glacier. Very quiet and relaxed, and we even saw our first American porcupine (which is like a giant hedgehog).

After Seward we drove to the other side of the Kenai Peninsula, to the town of Homer. That route was somewhat disappointing. What makes it popular with Americans though became very clear: fishing. Once a year the salmon run takes place, when thousands of salmon swim from the ocean up the rivers to their birth grounds and spawn. After that they all die! There were so many salmon in the rivers, that it almost liked there was more salmon than water in it! All those salmon do attract fishermen. There they were, with the thousands of them, shoulder to shoulder and catching the line of their neighbour much more than any salmon. And they all want one thing: to catch the biggest! After a while we couldn’t stop laughing anymore, it was extremely hilarious. Let’s face it, they were all trying to catch dying fish! Our laughing did disappear quite quickly when we were faced with one of the major problems during the salmon run. Not only humans are attracted by the fish, but also bears. Actually, the bears have always been there and they need the fish to create enough fat to survive the winter. But because there are so many fishermen, a lot of confrontations between men and bear were taking place. During our visit alone, 4 people were attacked by bears. One of them lost an eye. That is not very nice of course but let’s be honest: the bear is fishing to survive but the fisherman is fishing for sheer fun. So who has got first right of way, is quite clear to us. The authorities did indeed agree to this as well, but only at night. During the day it is still very much allowed, and we read newspaper articles to “bring down the population of bears”! Unbelievable. By the way, any bear that attacks a human is shot, if it does it for protection or not. On the peninsula that year alone (2003) 10 bears were shot (this was July). That number is including the baby bears they found after they killed the mother…

Valdez
Next destination was Valdez. Many of you don’t know Valdez. But when I say Exxon Valdez, then you probably wake up. Indeed, this is the place where one of the biggest oil disasters in the whole world took place when an oil tanker ran aground for the coast of Valdez. Tons of oil spilled into the sea. That was in 1989, but the consequences were still visible. And let me tell you that it is a shame, because Valdez and its bay are beauties. We didn’t see anything at first though because of the bad weather…but the next day it was a clear blue sky and lots of sunshine. We immediately booked a cruise in the Prince William Sound where we hoped to see many animals with beautiful glaciers in the background. It was quite expensive, but worth every penny. The tour took about 6,5 hours and we saw sea otters (yes, the cute ones that are swimming relaxed in the ocean on their backs), puffins, Stellar Sea Lions, dolphins,  Harbour Seals, sea eagles and the absolute highlight: orca’s. A group of 6 was swimming just near the boat. Magnificent. The final part was the Colombia Glacier, a glacier ending in the sea and spitting out huge chunks of ice. We zigzagd our way around the ice blocks until we were surrounded by them. Words fail to describe the view...

Wrangell-St Elias NP
East of Valdez is one of the biggest national parks in the world: Wrangell-St Elias NP. The park, bigger than Switzerland, is quite inaccessible with many mountain ranges and volcanoes, huge forests and rough rivers. You can find 9 of America’s 16 highest mountain peaks in this park. The only access is McCarthy Road, a rough gravel road of about 100km which leads deep into the park. The road was built to access the copper mines in this area. The road would have been easy with our LaRo but not really for our Mercury Sable. Slowly but surely we made our way to the little town of McCarthy. And it was raining cats and dogs...

Next morning however... blue skies. We were lucky again. We hiked the wooden bridge to McCarthy and continued to the deserted copper mines of Kennicott, about 10km further. The mines were exhausted in 1938 already, but the remaining structures were quite impressive. Funny though, how exaggerating the Americans can be about mines like these, only 70-100 years old. But that’s how far their history goes.

After another 4km there was a glacier, but this time one you could walk on. That’s fun, I thought. Halfway a short slope I found out however it was much harder and steeper than I thought – and the ice very very sharp – and I was just on my hiking boots. I was stuck. The local mountaineering club who were practicing were looking at me with disgust in their eyes. Marieke nearly wet her pants from laughing. I made it back in one piece. Then I saw two other tourists nearing the glacier. Clearly with the objective to climb it. Very satisfied with myself I sat down and watched them, expecting the same failure. I watched them climbing without any hesitation up the slope – looking around – and down very smoothly. I nearly got depressed…

Once back in McCarthy we not only hiked 25km that day, we were also very tired. But a street festival in McCarthy let us forget about being tired, especially when a live-band from Ecuador started. How funny things can be: Ecuador would be our next destination! And Rick’s sister Mariska was living there! It was almost a sign, like she was telling us to hurry up...

Haines
Fortunately Alaska kept the best for last. On the 6th of August 2003 we drove from Yukon (Canada) for the 2nd time to Alaska, towards Haines. This route is highly recommendable, very beautiful. We even saw a coyote and a black bear along the route. And Haines…was a delight. A beautiful bay, mountains and glaciers all around, not too touristy, relaxed and again…beautiful weather. And we found original and beautiful Inuit-art from the Tlingit tribe. If you are ever in Haines, pay a visit to the art studio of Tresham Gregg and you know what I mean.

Hyder
Of course you have been missing one thing in the above travel report: what about the fishing bears? Well, it proved that a little internet research does pay off.

After a long search on the internet and after some talks to fellow travellers, we learned there was a small town in Alaska where one can easily see fishing bears AND costs are minimal AND easily reachable by car. That place is called Hyder, in the ultimate south eastern corner of Alaska right at the border with BC, Canada. Hyder is so remote for Alaskan standards that the place depends for 100% on Canada and especially from the neighbouring town Stewart.

On the 10th of August 2003 we passed the border between Canada and Alaska for the 3rd time. From Stewart one simply drives straight into Hyder, also referred to as “The friendliest little Ghost Town”. The route from Canada towards Stewart/Hyder (a branche off of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway) is very pretty by the way and filled us with promises...

5km after Hyder is Fish Creek, a popular spawning place for salmon. The creek is very shallow and as such very popular with grizzly- and black bears to eat incredible amounts of chum- and pink salmon.
The first evening started great. A mother grizzly with two young was walking the creek. She caught a salmon and gave it to her baby’s, who did not know what to do with the very big salmon. Magnificent!

The next morning at 6AM it was bingo again. One grizzly gave a perfect one-bear show. One hour long it was fishing for salmon. It was running up and down, the salmon were shooting through the water and he was catching loads of them. In the end he only ate the brains of the fish (yammie!) or just played with them.

We stayed for 4 days in Hyder. Often we had to wait for hours to see a bear, but every day we saw one. Most frequent visitors were the mother bear with her cubs. Usually very early in the morning or late in the evening which brought the little army of photographers to the brink of frustration (including Rick) because it was so dark, but nevertheless, it was great. No 500$ a day, just pure nature for everybody to enjoy.

A note about bears: grizzly’s are not different than ordinary brown bears. The same we have in Europe (about 10 left in the Pyrennees). Then why are they called grizzly? In the states the name grizzly refers to the smaller (!) brown bears which live more inland contrary to the much bigger Kodiak bears on Kodiak Island. Whatever may be, grizzly’s are dangerous animals. On our 3rd day in Hyder the talk of the day was about a guide who was attacked by a grizzly and had to be evacuated by helicopter with serious wounds...

Hyder is not only about bears, but also Salmon Glacier, the number 5 biggest glacier of Alaska and the only one you can follow all the way up to the icefield. Spectacular views!

In Hyder we unfortunately also found out a less attractive phenomena of Alaska. Up until then we didn’t suffer too much from the mosquitoes as we did in Yukon. But the next plague was waiting: black flies. Very little flies but able to sting nasty. Just great. Can’t wait for the sand flies of New Zealand…

And with Hyder our time in Alaska really came to an end. A state with formidable landscapes, but not as unspoilt if you are a simple traveller. Only when you have a lot of money you can visit the really remote areas where it is unspoilt; to get there costs a lot of money though. Silence and solitude cost money…

We might go back to Alaska. But then we will take the tent on our back and will let us be dropped by plane in the middle of nowhere!

Note: for those interested, herewith our route through Alaska follows. Once in the US, the Top of the World Highway in Canada changed into the Taylor Highway. That road brought us to the town of Tok. After Tok we followed the Alaskan Highway again en route to Delta Junction and Fairbanks. From Fairbanks to Anchorage we took the Parks Highway, and en route we visited Denali NP. From Anchorage we visited the touristy Kenai peninsula via the Seward Highway to Seward and the  Sterling Highway to Homer. Back in Anchorage we took the Glenn Highway to Glenallen, the Richardson Highway to Valdez, the McCarthy Road to Wrangell-St Elias NP and the Tok Cutoff back to Tok. The Alaskan Highway brought us back to the Canadian border (to Yukon). Two days later we returned to Alaska via the Haines Highway to Haines and just a week later again to the town of Hyder. All roads were in good state, most of them tarmac but sometimes gravel. The McCarthy Road was the roughest: inform about the state of it before you go.

Last but not least some complaints: the number of RV’s in Alaska is incredibly high. And the behaviour of its inhabitants very annoying. Example: we are sitting on our campsite, enjoying the silence of the bush, then one of these Boeing 747s arrives and a generator was started for the air conditioning! Or for the vacuum cleaner or hair dryer. Forget about relaxing! And often the inhabitants never came outside, but stayed inside watching TV. Strange folk, these Americans...

 

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