At the end of September, at the end of the season, we made a quick trip up to Alaska before it got too cold and dark. We flew from Sacramento to Anchorage, missing our connection in Seattle but getting on the next flight up some 3 hours later. Flying into Anchorage, we had grand views of the snow capped Chugach Mountains and up to the north we had a good view of a cloud free Denali.
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| Denali from the plane |
We arrived in Anchorage around 5:00 pm and rented a car for the few days we were there. We had a downtown hotel, the Hilton, and after checking in, we went out for a walk around. The downtown area hasn't changed much since my last visit (2005) but looked significantly better than when I lived there in 1982.
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| Captain James Cook, Anchorage |
We walked over to the Cook Inlet area and went looking for the James Cook monument. We must have been looking a bit lost, as a young woman helped us find the right direction. She was Laotian and was most friendly and helpful and we walked and chatted for a while. A Laotian year round resident in Alaska must find it cold.
We walked on through town along 4th Street, the main downtown street. There were a few old places that I recognized from the 1980’s still there - the Club Paris, Darwin’s Theory, the Captain Cook Hotel.
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| A political statement in Anchorage |
We came across a wall covered in political left leaning graffiti. A great display of anti-faschist, anti-Trump messages. As we were walking further on, a guy in paint spattered overalls passed us and I commented on his nice pants. He stopped to talk to us and it turns out all the political graffiti was his work. He told us the story of what he was doing and how it had met with some resistance but he was undeterred.
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| Ziggy and one of his murals |
He then went on to guide us through the nearby streets and show us his other murals. They weren’t the best quality murals but nice enough and a nice splash of color in what can be a dreary city. His name was Ziggy and he spent a lot of time with us. What a nice welcome to Alaska.
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| Mt Susitna |
In the evening we went to dine at what was one of my favorite restaurants when I lived there - Simon and Seaforts. We had a great table by the window looking out over the Inlet to Mount Susitna. Susitna is often referred to as the Sleeping Lady and she is a beautiful sight, especially at sunset. The meal of halibut cheeks (some say the best part of the fish) was excellent.
The next morning we were up and out reasonably early (it doesn’t get light until 8:00 am). We drove south out of town and along the Turnagain Arm. The fall colors were wonderful and the mountains looked spectacular. The edges of the Arm are mud flats and there were warnings not to stray into the mud. It can be deadly if you get stuck there.
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| The entrance to the Whittier Tunnel |
We turned off the main highway onto the road to Portage and Whittier. We arrived at the entrance to the Whittier tunnel, paid the $13 toll and waited in line for about 20 minutes for the road to open up in our direction. The tunnel, built by the Army in WWII is 2.5 miles long and it is only a single lane. It is also a railway track and you drive along the rail line.
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| Cruise Ship Whittier |
We didn’t stop in Whittier, we just drove to the end of the road and turned around and got back in line for the drive out through the tunnel.
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| Portage Lake but no glacier |
Exiting the tunnel we went to the Portage Glacier, or rather what used to be Portage Glacier. In the 1980’s there were giant chunks of pale blue glacier ice floating in the lake. Now there is no ice and you cannot even see the glacier anymore. You have to hike a couple of miles or take a boat across the lake to see the glacier. What a change during my lifetime.
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| Mountains near Moose Pass |
Back on the road, we drove on towards Seward. Again the scenery was spectacular - the birch tree leaves were golden yellow and the remains of the fireweed, Alaska’s most abundant plant, were reddish brown.
We were pretty lucky with the weather - while there were a few rain showers they were not heavy and we did have spells of blue sky from time to time.
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| Moose by the highway |
On the wildlife front, there was not a lot of activity but we did see a couple of bald eagles and a beautiful bull moose looking down on us from above the road.
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| End of the road in Seward |
By early afternoon we were in Seward. It is not a big town and the Main Street can be walked in about 10 minutes. It has a few gift shops (the scourge of the Alaskan tourist industry) and a couple of restaurants and cafes. We refreshed ourselves with coffee and cake and continued exploring the town.
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| President Seward in Seward |
There was a bust of President Seward, the American President who purchased Alaska from Russia, and a few memorials to the Iditarod sled dog route. I always thought that the Iditarod ran from Anchorage to Nome, but apparently it originated in Seward back in the gold rush days. The race today has a ceremonial start in Anchorage and then a real start in Willow just north of Anchorage. There is insufficient snow nowadays to allow the dogs to run from Anchorage so they had to move the start to the north. Another example of global warming.
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| Hope, Alaska |
On the way back to Anchorage, we turned off on the road to Hope. This is an old gold mining town from the 19th century that had one time become a ghost town. It has since been resurrected and there is quite a decent community living there now. It has many interesting old buildings, a museum (closed) and a couple of quirky shops.
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| The view from the Crow’s Nest Restaurant |
We drove back to Anchorage and in the evening we had a meal at one of the best restaurants in town - the Crow’s Nest on top of the Captain Cook Hotel (risotto, squash soup and scallops). It was a very nice meal and we were on top of the tallest building in Anchorage with a great view out over the mountains as the sun set.
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| The Russian Orthodox Church, Kenai |
The next morning we were again up early and we drove out to town towards the Kenai Peninsula once more. This time we continued on to Homer, our destination for the night. The first part of the journey was pretty rainy but as we neared Soldotna the weather improved. In Soldotna, we turned off Highway 1 and went to Kenai. Kenai is not a very interesting town but there is a Russian Orthodox Church there that we wanted to look at. The church is still active and it has been restored by a group that promotes the restoration of old Russian buildings and culture in Alaska (ROSSIA - Russian Orthodox Sacred Sites in Alaska).
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| Russian Orthodox Church, Ninilchik |
Driving south from Kenai on the Kalifornski Beach Road we headed south towards Homer. We stopped to see another Orthodox Church in Ninilchik. This one had a nice old graveyard adjacent to it. The white crosses on the graves made for an interesting photo.
We spotted another moose, this time a female, nearby the church and a huge eagle’s nest in a tree overlooking the river below. Sadly no eagle was at home.
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| The very ordinary Ocean Shores Resort, Homer |
Driving into Homer the rain started again and we checked into our hotel, the Ocean Shores Resort, a very fancy name for a rather plain old motel. We were the only guests in the motel. The place was going to close down for the season in a couple of days. Since we were the only guests the owner upgraded us to what he said was the best room in the motel. It certainly had a great view over the bay.
In the late afternoon we headed out to explore Homer. We stopped by an art gallery with interesting local art. A small band was rehearsing for a concert later that evening. Very avant garde music - lots of screeching cello and base and erratic and varied percussion. Quite interesting but we didn’t buy tickets.
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We drove out along the Homer Spit, a 4.5 mile terminal glacial moraine that sticks out perpendicular from the shore into Kachemak Bay. It is a remarkable feature with many shops and buildings precariously perched on either side of the road. All the buildings are a bit ramshackle and weather worn. The Spit is only 19 feet above sea level so it is very susceptible to storms and tsunamis. I wonder if they have flood insurance?
We then drove out to the east out of town on the East End Road. The road follows the Katchemak Bay shoreline but some distance up the hillside. It passes through many nice homes, many of them quite recent. It appears that much of the recent development in the area has been out east of the town. We got to the end of the paved road in a district called Vosnesenka (there are many Russian sounding names in this part of the world).
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| The view down to Katchemak Bay and Katchemak Selo |
At the end of the road we continued on a dirt road down towards the shoreline at the head of Katchemak Bay. The road was good but it was getting steeper and steeper and it was raining a little and the dirt road was slick. We decided to be sensible and stopped before one particularly steep downhill.
While we were taking pictures a car came along with a woman and three children in it. They chatted with us and were quite friendly but immediately you knew there was something a little different. The lady was dressed in black and wore a head scarf, the children were conservatively dressed and the young pale-faced boy in the front seat reminded me of one of the children from the movie Deliverance.
We chatted for a while and she told us of the steep road down to the shore and the remoteness of the community at the bottom of the hill. The community is called Katchemak Selo and, as we later found out, it is a community of Russian Orthodox Old Believers. They are an interesting group that split off from the main Orthodox Church in the 17th Century. Among other things that distinguish them, they cross themselves with two fingers as opposed to the mainstream church that uses three fingers and they spell Jesus as Iesus (people have gone to war for less). They tend to live in remote isolated settlements and wear modest traditional wear, the men have long untrimmed beards (but most men in Alaska are the same). Surprisingly they relocated to Alaska in the 1960’s from their community in Oregon where they thought their traditions and language were being diluted by the modern Oregonians.
After our interesting encounter we turned around and carefully made our way to the top of the hill and the paved road.
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| Ekaterina’s Cake Shop |
By the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere there was a little shack with the name Exquisite Bakes on it. It was a little food stand and inside were a selection of cream cakes and piroshkis. We couldn’t pass up such an opportunity so we purchased what would be our desert that night and our breakfast the next morning. The proprietor of the business was one Ekaterina Martushev, a young girl who has a modest presence on Facebook. It is all the honor system either cash or Venmo
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| Homer and the Homer Spit |
Back in town we drove up to an overlook of Homer up on top of the hill behind the city. There were some very nice views of the town, the Spit and Katchemak Bay below.
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| The beach in Homer |
In the evening we dined at a nearby restaurant, The Kannery. It was a brewpub and had a great piano player entertaining everyone. It was also expensive - the bill was exactly the same as the prior evening's Captain Cook meal in Anchorage and we had more courses in Anchorage. That is Homer pricing for you.
The next morning it was raining quite hard so we got on the road early. We drove north through Soldotna, Cooper Landing, Portage, Girdwood into Anchorage - just over a 4 hour drive.
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| Nice mountains to the north of Anchorage |
We didn’t stop in Anchorage but continued north for a couple of hours towards Talkeetna. We passed through Wasilla, the home of Sarah Palin, which is not a very inspiring place. Most of the recent growth in Alaska has been around Wasilla and Palmer and it all looked quite modern - the place you go for affordable new housing and modern facilities.
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| Running the Dogs |
On the way north around Willow (the real start of the Iditarod sled dog race) we passed a woman exercising her dogs., A string of dogs pulling a small off road vehicle. She was just kicking back taking it easy while the dogs were happily charging ahead.
Just outside Talkeetna, we passed a vehicle that kicked up a pebble and cracked our windscreen. A 5 or 6 inch crack that will no doubt cost us when we return the car.
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| Talkeetna |
Talkeetna is an old town close to Denali (or Mt McKinley as Mr Trump wants to rename it). It has become a bit of a tourist draw as it is an interesting old gold rush town where occasionally you can catch a glimpse of the highest mountain in North America. It has also become the jumping off spot for adventurers wanting to climb the mountain.
When we arrived we walked down to the fast flowing grey waters of the Susitna River. The river’s size and flow were impressive but there was no sign of Mount Denali at all. There was one snow capped peak out there but it wasn’t Denali. We were told that if you are not sure if the mountain is Denali then it is not Denali. When you see Denali, you will be well aware that it is the mountain.
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| Denali |
After a walk around town and a bite to eat at one of the only restaurants open (it is end of season and nearly everything was closed), we went back to the river again and low and behold Denali was showing itself and it was magnificent even if it was wearing a small cap of cloud. After too many photos we walked back through town to the car and were going to leave but we thought we would take one more look at the mountain. Miraculously all the clouds were gone and we got a clear view. We also got way more photos than we really needed.
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| Park your plane in the back yard |
We drove back to Anchorage stopping here and there for the odd photo. We did take pictures of a lake with a couple of float planes in the back yard. Everyone out in the outback seems to have a plane.
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| Club Paris, Anchorage |
In Anchorage we went to the Club Paris, one of the oldest establishments in Anchorage. I remember it from my days there in the early 80’s. We sat at the bar and had a pretty good meal of halibut once again.
Interestingly the price of King Crab legs was $190 for a pound. That is a bit pricey, and $10 more than the fine Captain Cook restaurant. The bar meal at the Club Paris was also the same price as the Captain Cook, and believe me it isn’t in the same league as the Captain Cook.
The next day, Sunday, we went for a walk around the downtown area again. This time to visit the Anchorage Museum. The museum was excellent with very fine displays of native Inuit clothing and artifacts. There was also a pretty good art gallery in the museum with a lot of nice Alaskan art. Surprisingly they had a Rothko and a Georgia O’Keefe too.
On the way back to the airport for our flight down to Juneau, I explored the town a bit more looking for where my office was. It all looked so different so I am not sure I found it but I did find my old apartment though and that was still looking pretty decent, even though it was in Spenard, not one of the finer areas of town.
It was raining pretty hard when we arrived in Juneau. We took a cab downtown to our hotel, the Sheraton 4 Points, which was just adjacent to the old town.
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| Totem poll and Native Designs in Juneau |
We ventured out into the town in the evening. There was a cruise ship in port so there were lots of tourists milling around. We were told later that there could be as many as 9 ships in port. That must make things unbearable but it explains why every shop is a T Shirt shop or a Jewelry shop.
The town is quite compact and we walked around it in less than an hour. There were nice totem poles and native statues and even some nice art deco-ish buildings. Sadly there were also groups of drunk or stoned native Alaskans around too. That was very sad to see.
We went out later in the evening to a restaurant called Salt. It was described as nouveau Alaskan food. It was indeed quite good though I don’t know how nouveau Alaskan our pear and Gorgonzola salad and Wagyu burger was.
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| Mendenhall Glacier |
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| My 1982 picture of Mendenhall Glacier |
The next morning, a wet morning, we got a taxi out to the Mendenhall Glacier, about 10 or so miles north of town. When we got to the visitor center the rain had stopped and we had dry weather for our stay there. We walked from the Visitor Center over to what you can see of the glacier these days. It is much reduced from my visit there in 1982. However, the regression of the glacier has revealed a pretty impressive waterfall, Nugget Falls, whose water was previously flowing under the ice.
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| Nugget Falls, Mendenhall |
We walked around as much of the area as we could. Arctic tern nesting grounds caused a lot of it to be cordoned off, though I doubt there are any terns left there now, they are on their way south. We spotted a porcupine hiding under a rock. I had not seen one so close before and I was surprised how furry rather than spiky they looked. The spines were very delicate. The porcupine is the number one road kill in Alaska so we had seen many squashed porcupines on our travels.
As we got back to the Visitor Center the rain started again. We were so lucky with the weather. We took a taxi back into town and our hotel. In our absence three cruise ships had arrived in dock.
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| Russian Orthodox Church, Ketchikan |
Later in the afternoon we went out to walk around town again. The rain was light so it was not too uncomfortable. We took more photos of the Totem Poles, walked up to the State Capitol, saw the Governor’s Mansion, and the Russian Orthodox Church.
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| The Alaska State Capitol, Juneau |
In the evening we dined at In Bocca el Lupo. An Italian-ish pizza restaurant that apparently one time appeared on a list of top 50 restaurants in America. Perhaps it is now no longer on that list. It was OK but not spectacular.
We were up at 2:40 am the next morning for our 3:00 am taxi to the ferry port where our ferry to Bellingham in the lower 48 was waiting. The check in was pretty easy and we were assigned a room immediately so we were back in bed again quite quickly.
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| Camping out on the Solarium deck |
Life on the boat was pretty easy. The room had 4 bunk beds, a shower and a toilet and we had it to ourselves. There was breakfast between 7 and 10 am and dinner between 6 and 9 pm and a snack bar at times in between. If you didn’t have a cabin there were lounges you could relax and sleep in and if you had the equipment you could pitch your tent on the back deck and live in that. There was even a covered part of the deck, the so-called Solarium that had heaters so you could sleep on lounge chairs or hammocks.
Our first stop on the ferry was Sitka where we were docked for a couple of hours. As in Juneau, the ferry terminal is a few miles out of town so we needed transportation to get into town. Fortunately a tour company in Sitka laid on an old school bus to take people into the town (and conveniently bring us back before the boat departed).
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| Totem Pole, Sitka |
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| A Russian Block House, Sitka |
Sitka is a nice little town. It has a few totem polls and native carvings as well as a Russian Orthodox Cathedral and a few other old Russian era buildings. It was the place where Russia officially handed over Alaska to the USA in 1867 (for $7.2 million). There are a few plaques on the hill where the transfer took place in the center of the town.
Back on the boat we sailed further south to Petersburg where we arrived in the night. We didn’t get off the boat. Shortly after Petersburg we docked in Wrangell for another quick stop. The stay was too short to allow us to disembark.
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| Ketchikan |
6In the afternoon, we docked in Ketchikan. This is a larger town and the port is much bigger. We docked and were off the boat around 3:00 pm with instructions to be back by 4:45. We called for a taxi that took us the 2.5 miles into the town.
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| Creek Street, Ketchikan |
In town we walked around an area called Creek Street, which is an elevated causeway around a creek that flows into the harbor. There were quite a few sad looking salmon still swimming around. It is getting near the end of their life and they have changed to a dark color and have patches of light dead skin on them. There were lots of larger dead salmon lying on the bottom of the creek, possibly Chinooks.
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| Salmon in Ketchikan Creek |
There were lots of cutesy tourist shops in the Creek Street area. Many of them were closed because it was the end of the season and more importantly there were no cruise ships in port, so no customers. Apparently a few more ships would be arriving in a day or two and that would be it for the season. The town then gets very quiet.
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| Alaska’s First Town, Ketchikan |
There is a sign across one of the main streets in town proclaiming Ketchikan as Alaska’s first city and the Salmon Capital of the World. Everyone takes a picture there so we did too. Adjacent are all the jewelry and gold shops plying their goods to the cruise boat tourists. All were closed that afternoon.
We thought we had plenty of time to get back to the boat but when we called all the taxi companies, all three of them, none of them had cars available for up to 45 minutes. That caused mild panic as we would have missed the boat, Thankfully we saw an empty cab and managed to flag it down. She was looking for other passengers but couldn’t find them so we were in luck.
I am not sure why but the ferry terminal is a couple of miles out of town. It is even further out of town in Juneau and Sitka, whilst the cruise ports are much closer. In Ketchikan the cruise dock is right next to the center of town. Something is wrong there.
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| En Route South to Bellingham |
Back on board we then had a long uninterrupted sail down to Bellingham. We left Ketchikan on Wednesday afternoon and we arrived in Bellingham on the Friday morning. There was a little bit of movement of the boat where the waters were exposed to the full force of the Pacific but it wasn’t too bad, even for me, someone who is prone to sea sickness.
We disembarked in Bellingham and flew back from the small regional airport there to Seattle and on to Sacramento. We are already planning a return to Alaska - possibly to try and catch the Aurora Borealis.
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