Alaska Trip - Denali National Park

The next day we visited Denali National Park. It was two hours drive from Fairbanks, on the way back to Anchorage. One of the ways to see the Park was to ride the Shuttle buses which went deep into the park. Since we did not make reservations earlier, we got seats in the 11AM bus, which was pretty late, as we had to drive back to Anchorage the same day.

The park was huge, just as the name suggests, some 6 million acres of land, the bus covered only abut 100 miles or so, the rest was for the brave to explore. The right way to see Denali would be to camp for a few days and hike.

DH had a brainwave at the right time, just as we were ready to board the bus and he rented two binoculars. What is the point in going wildlife viewing without binoculars. Unfortunately we didnt get to see Mt McKinley. She is supposed to be a shy lady, comes out of the clouds only 5% of the days.

We saw our first arctic animal at Savage River. It was a Caribou. Caribou is just a fancy name for a Reindeer. It was too far away, but the driver stopped for us to look at the animal and watch what it was doing, which was pretty much nothing. It just stood there grazing, eating.

Out first stop was at the Teklanika River. The place was getting heavenlier as we went further inside. Green mountains, threatening skies, dark clouds, with the sun shining once in a while, We were a group of people in the middle of nowhere.







Our next stop was Polychrome Overlook. On the way we were on the look out for other animals. The driver told us that if we spotted any animal we should holler and he would put the brakes as hard as possible and as fast. We were now trudging at 25 mph over a mountain, with the road pretty narrow for even one bus to pass by. If there was another bus from the opposite side, it was scary to see the two buses crossing each other. I was very much reminded of India, of places like Ooty which had such roads.





Polychrome pass was the most beautiful part of the park. The mountains had so many many colors, and to top it off, there were snow covered peaks here and there, and then it was cloudy threatening to rain. We saw a cute wild squirrel, looking at us curiously, standing on its hind legs. We saw a few more Caribous on the way, and a few Dall Sheep standing on the mountains, grazing. The Sheep were in groups unlike the Caribou. We saw a few birds too, I dont exactly remember what they were.





We reached Toklat River at around 2:30PM. We saw hikers in the middle of nowhere, walking happily. Now that would be a real good hike! Just walk in the middle of nowhere, half expecting to bump into animals, lose your way, explore new routes, make your own hiking trail.





We saw everyone looking at one direction on a mountain. Upon enquiring, we learnt that there was a bear on top of the mountain. I was so excited. I zoomed my binoculars and panned the whole area. But the mountain was too far away, and our little friend was just a speck even with the binoculars. After a lot of explaining, like "see the brown patch between the green patches, a little to the top, go up a little and to the right, see the while speck? well thats a bear!" I borrowed a more powerful set of binoculars from a fellow bus rider and took a good look at the light brown colored bear. I even saw him move a little.
My day was made. I had seen a bear, even if from so far away. It is very tough to spot animals with binoculars, it really is a skill I think.

We had planned to return back from here, but the driver advised us that we might not get a seat in a bus going back right now, so we would be better off to stay in the bus go to Fish Creek our next stop and then return in the same bus. I am glad we went to Fish Creek. Fish Creek itself wasnt magnificent, it was just a small stream running amidst the tundra forest. This place looked like a real Tundra region and we were standing right in the middle of it. We saw some fireweed here too. We took some pictures, watched some hikers, as little specks far far away. How would it be to just get off the bus and take a hike in the park. Scary, yes, but that would be a real adventure. I like quiet places, and places which are not crowded with people. Here you can have a million acres to yourself to explore, it would be wonderful. But we had to return to our buses, our only connection to civilization for now.



We returned to Toklat River for another break, and this time we took photos with Caribou racks and Moose Racks on our heads. These rack aka horns, were really heavy, I couldnt lift them with both my hands, err, inspite of all my work outs at the gym.



While returning we saw three more bears, a Mama bear and two kid bears, we saw them moving, up and about, it was amazing. Atleast these bears werent really in captivation. We marked the area and called it a park, while preserving their habitat. I like to see animals this way than at the Zoo.

We saw more Sheeps and more Caribous, standing in the middle of nowhere, all the land to themselves to enjoy and cherish.



My trip to Alaska was complete with this, having seen the bears. It was past 7PM as we started driving back to Anchorage. Beautiful clouds formed nice pattern in the sky, I clicked them as I tried to locate Mt. McKinley without success. We reached Anchorage well past midnight. It was eerie driving towards Anchorage. I knew there were mountains surrounding the city, but it was cloudy and drizzling, so I couldnt see the mountains. The twilight after the sun had almost set had a ghostly quality too. We crossed a river, and the river had vapours hanging on top of it, it was amazing.

Though the drive was good, it did feel nice to jump into a cozy bed for the night.

The next day we wanted to see some places in downtown Anchorage, but we woke up pretty late and ended up walking in the downtown area, shopping for souveniers all morning. We took the flight back to home sweet home in the afternoon.


The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Alaska is still unexplored, there are so many places probably not yet set foot on by man. This was probably one of the few places we have been to where even Americans were clicking away at the scenic beauty that unfolded. This was the only trip in which we took more pictures of the scenery than of ourselves.


Ah, there I finally finished it.

Alaska Trip - Visit to Barrow

Day 3 (contd)

It was 1:30 as we set off in an old bus, our tourist bus, with our guide, who was a native of Barrow, talking in an accented English.



It was Founder's Day in Barrow, and hence the whole town was gathered, celebrating. There was free food, and Eskimo music and Eskimo dance. Yes! This was an Eskimo town, the people belonged to the Inupiat tribe. FYI, Alaska was bought by US from Russians by a guy called Seward. Of course, before they knew how much natural resources the piece of land had, he was taunted left and right for this 'stupid' act. It is a known fact that the natural resources in Alaska have not yet been exploited fully. The people looked different, kinda flat nosed and chubby, unlike regular Americans, but like folks in Hawaii. Its because they have a Russian lineage. Just like Hawaiians, these folks must have come to Barrow years ago, trying to find a place to settle down. Did they know all of earth was not bitter cold? :--))

The town itself looked very old, almost like a third world country, if I may say so. The roads were unpaved, dust coated vehicles lifted dirt as they drove by. We had a short history lesson, I will spare you of that.

The celebration was simple. A group was singing songs, in their language, the Inupiaq. And there was a group dancing. At one point, the singers called the tourist to join in the dance. DH forced me to join the dance. The dance was simple. I just had to stamp my left feet, and make a sweeping motion with my hands, like I was swimming. DH caught this on the camcorder. We saw this person dressed up in a thick coat and thick hood, made of real wolverine fur. Me and DH took signature pics with him, he happily posed for us.





Our next stop was the Visitor Center.There was a monument, I didnt really care to see what it was, I couldnt understand what the guide told us, I left it at that. We watched some native kids playing on the dirt roads. The houses looked really old. Each house had an ATV and a Snowmobile. It was their regular mode of transportation. I realized the roads were unpaved, because they get to drive cars only four months of the year, why take the trouble to build roads. :--))





After some more sight seeing, of whale bones, buried houses, finally it was my most awaited part of the trip - the arctic Ocean. I was a little disappointed. I imagined the Arctic Ocean with ice, and snow but I saw none. Our guide said a big mass of sea ice floated away only two weeks back. Only after that we saw the mass, far far away, (check out the picture). So much for visiting in Summer.



Some of the oldies wanted to take a full dip in the Arcitc Ocean. You get a membership in the Polar Bear Club if you do. They saw how cold it was and backed off. Me and DH went and wet our legs in the ocean. Boy, was it freezing! I had to go into the water three times before DH could get a decent picture, as I kept jumping and shrieking. Legs felt totally numb. But it was great! Our guide, had been inducted into the Polar Bear Club only the day before. And since it was summer for him, a relaively warm temperature of 48 F compared to negative celsious rest of the year, he was able to stand deeper in the ocean for a longer time.



Our next point of interest was the Barrow monument , made of whale bones. Whale hunting is a favorite sport/profession in Barrow. If they catch one whale apparently the whole town of 4800 can be fed for days. Our guide told us that if a whale is caught, the whole village comes and helps in pulling the whale on to the shore. Then each family takes a piece of the whale home to eat. It sounded very interesting, like the olden day stories, too unreal to be true.



We went to the only decent Hotel in Barrow, called Top of the World, rightly so, with the most basic amenities, to buy some souveniors. This is where we would have stayed had we opted to spend a night in Barrow. Although I would have loved to see the midnight sun, and the sun making a circle right in front of my eyes, there wasnt really much else to see or do in Barrow, and we were short of time, so we had dropped that plan. The time that the sun was not hidden in clouds, it shone so brightly, that it was impossible to see it with naked eyes.

We visited the Cultural Center next, it was pretty deserted, saw and read about the history of the place, the different Eskimo tribes etc etc. Everything used in this place has to be flown in. So everything was too darn expensive. Our guide asked us to guess the gas price. 5 bucks a gallon. The people generally worked in Prudhoe Bay at the Oil Drills. They were are flown in and flown out everyday, and were paid a lot of money too. Money was the main reason people lived in Barrow. Alaska is one of the places where you get paid to just live there. There were schools for children in Barrow, but for college they had to go to Fairbanks.

It was half past four when we left Barrow. We had seen most of what was there to see in the three hours we were there. We flew directly to Fairbanks, I slept most of the way. I was thinking of the people in Barrow, what a unique life they led. I wouldnt want to live there of course, but still, it was interesting to see this side of the high and mighty US of A.

Once back in the hotel, at about 7PM, it was still bright and sunny. Since most tourist places were closed by then, we went to see the Trans Alaskan Pipeline up close. It was much bigger than I had imagined, and went from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, where the oil was refined.



Then we went to North Pole. A city in Alaska. :--) About 15 miles from Fairbanks. We saw huge Santa Claus, and boards which said "get gifts from Santa with a real North Pole postmark!" :--)

It was 10:30PM when we went back to our rooms, stil bright. We forced ourselves to sleep, pulling the window curtains tight shut.

PS: I will finish this in the next post, I know it is getting really boring.

Alaska Trip - Arctic Circle and Beyond

Day 3

We were a couple of sleepy heads in the morning, having slept late the previous night. It was already really bright as I openned the window shades. Once I saw where the sun was, and had risen from, I knew my answer to the question in the previous post.

This is one of the places where if the teachers teach "Sun rises in the east and sets in the west" kids would be baffled. Sun rises in the north east and sets in the northwest, I guess, in Summer. To give a background, We know the earth is tilted on its axis. As it revolves around the sun, in Summer, the earth's north pole is tilted towards the sun. In winters, the earths north pole is facing away from the sun. If the tilt were not there, there wont be any seasons, just like it is in the equator, like in India. Because of the tilt, there is a certain part of earth near the north pole, which always faces the sun. Even when the earth makes a full rotation, this place never away from the sun. As we go down from the north pole, the Arctic Circle separates that area and the area where the sun does set. But the sun is hidden for a short while, because the circumference of the earth as we go towards either poles is smaller.

I am terrible in explaining things. Here is a wonderful website which shows what I am trying to say. The red circle on top is the Arctic Circle. So as we go more north, across the arctic circle, the sun would make a neat circle right in front of our eyes, as it sets and rises again. The concept of day and night, which we folks closer to the Equator, take for granted is so differnt in these places.


The picture above is from the web.*

We had to be at the airport at 9AM. We got ready and had the Hotel Breakfast. The airport was 15minutes away. Fairbanks is the second largest city in Alaska, next to Anchorage. Still it was small. We went to the Northern Alaska Tour Company. There were already a group of oldies. We were going to travel with them. It looked like they all wanted to fullfill their dream of crossing the Arctic Circle before they died, or something. Yes, we were going to cross the Arctic Circle. This was my birthday gift from DH.

We were travelling onboard a twin engine plane for the first time. It was so small.


The pilot, he was our host too, he took our bags and jackets, and put them in a compartment in one side of the wings and locked it. There were eight seats in all, four rows, and one seat next to the pilot. All the flight controls were directly visible to every person onboard. The pilot took off, it was pretty smooth. It was very noisy, as all small planes are. And it was very bumpy, as all small planes are too. We gained altitude pretty fast. The landscape of beautiful Alaska stretched out for us. No snow. Just green mountains, with meandering rivers in the middle. For now. We saw Dalton Highway, winding along in the middle of nowhere. When we decided to cross the Arctic Circle, one of the many plans was to drive on Dalton Highway, that way you can actually physically stand on the Arctic Circle. But we had a lot of driving to do already, so we dropped it. We saw the Trans Alaskan Pipeline zigzagging along, in the middle of nowhere too. We also saw the Yukon river, flowing through the wilderness.







To give some history, Dalton Highway was constructed to transport machinery from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, where Oil is drilled. The Highway is just gravel road, unpaved. Trans Alaskan Pipeline is one of man made wonders, winding along cold tundra, about 800 miles long I think. transporting gallons of oil everyday from the drill site.

I rarely have motion sickness. But this time, both me and DH had trouble because of the very bumpy ride. I surely would have thrown up if we had landed just a minute later. It was a 90 min flight to Coldfoot, which is 55 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The vegetation slowly changed. No trees, only small shrubs, and plants. Lot of Fireweed, giving a reddish pinkish color to the ground. The pilot told us exactly when we crossed the Arctic Circle. By the time we landed on Coldfoot, We reached the part of Alaska where, it was too cold most of the time even for trees to grow. BUT, it was 70 degrees when we stepped out of the plane. :--) There was a van waiting to take us to a small restaurant, where everything was exorbitantly priced. We had our lunch waiting for us. Coldfoot has a population of 14. Yes 14! And one of us was our van driver. There was nothing in that place really. Saw this sign board, 240 miles, all the way to DeadHorse in Prudhoe Bay, no services on the way.





I shyly asked an old lady who talked nicely to us, if she had any medication for motion sickness. She gave us Ginger Candy. Ah! Namma Inji mittai. I have never had motion sickness, so never realized how charmingly the candy works. She asked us to suck on it slowly. The next leg was a longer one, almost two hours to Barrow, we had to make sure we were alright.

Barrow is the northernmost settlement in Northern US. It is one of the fifteen or so cities touching the Arctic Ocean. We saved out lunch till the end of the flight, while sucking on ginger candy. The landscape was beautiful, as we flew over the Brooks Range. We seemed to be close to the land because of the tall mountains over which we were flying. We kept clicking pictures like crazy. The others in our plane also did the same.









The mountains were barren. I guess most of the time they are covered with snow. No trees whatsoever. Real Tundra! An hour later, the mountains ended, it was barren flat land thereafter. It was really like flying over nowhere. There is no road connecting Barrow to civilization. Only means to reach Barrow is by flight. Makes one wonder who would want to live there.



There were numerous lakes. It was from all the snow melting from Brooks range. We finally saw some patches of snow on land. I thought we would never see any. In Summer this place didnt seem to reveal what bitter winter it suffers every year. The sun was shining really bright. I guess we are closer to the Sun across the arctic circle in summer, than in any part of the earth. It was irritatingly sunny, I had to wear my sunglasses.



Finally, we saw the land end. The Arctic Ocean. It was like the beginning of any other ocean or sea, but to think it was part of the mass of water, often covered in ice, around the North Pole, it was a huge deal. There was no sea ice for as far as we could see though. It was a bummer.

When we landed and went out, it was cold. It was 45F, one of the warmer days in Barrow. We hurriedly wore our jackets and set off to see the northern most point in continental US.

* With due credit to the author of the picture taken from here.

Alaska Trip - Dog Sledding and Drive to Fairbanks

Day 2

We tried to get up early, as we had a long day and a long drive ahead, 350 miles to Fairbanks. We reached Willow, a small town about two hours from Anchorage at about 10AM. We had our Iditarod sleg dog tour scheduled at 11AM. But nice as they were, they let us do the ride with the 9AM group, and then have the explanation session later.

A few words about the Iditarod. Iditarod is an annual dog sled race in Alaska, inviting all mushers to participate and win lot of money. This happens in remembrance of the good old days when mailmen took their sleds from place to place distributing mail. This race started at Anchorage, and ended in Nome.

Initially I thought it was not such a big deal but many banks, and other companies do sponser mushers, just like any other race. We went to Dream a Dream Dog Farm in Willow which was run by a musher, who had participated in Iditarod many times, and won cups.

We had to put on a wet suit kind of a garment, which was optional, but since it had been drizzling, and we were going to go into the woods, we thought it was a good idea. Later we realized it was a great idea. Me and DH and the other couple looked like real mushers, with the suit and the boots and the caps. We saw retired huskies around the house, all waiting to be petted.

I love pets. I love cats, yes, but I love dogs even more. They are the most faithful of animals, we know, and I can particularly empathize with them. We went out to the kennels and there were about thirty huskies, mostly Alaskan and some Siberian, chained of course, but barking their heads off. They all wanted to be petted. When we neared them they tried to jump up on us, with their front paws on our chests, to be petted and cuddled.

DH was so scared. :--) This is because he has had some encounters with dogs in India, not good ones. Me on the other hand, though have been thoroughly scared of dogs in India, after looking at how dogs in America are well mannered, with excellent behavior, was not scared at all.

I somehow feel dogs can understand that they are not supposed to hurt human beings. Atleast the owner make sure their dogs understand that. I know some leave their kids with the dogs, and the dogs are so delicate with kids, I was sure we were safe with these dogs. These huskies they look like wolves. They are huge, but very athletic. They love running, they have been bred for running in cold temperatures. In fact their optimum throughput in races is in negative temperatures.


We saw the puppies, they were barely two months old. They were waiting to be let out of their enclosures. They all were so playful. I fell in love with them. They had so much energy, they were running around, curiously checking out everything on our way, fighting with each other, biting, barking. It was a merry crowd.



All the time the tour guide was telling us about the dogs, what kind of food they take, and how they are prepared for the big race, how much training they go through for months before the actual race.

Once we were back, the guide and her helper started tying selected dogs onto the long ropes in front of the jeep. We were going to go on a shot ride in the jeep with the dogs pulling. It is not a real sled, but still for summer this was more than enough.

Now, all the dogs wanted to go with us on the ride, so all of them started barking, it was deafening. It was as if all of them were shouting Pick me! Pick me! Ten of them were chosen, two leads and eight followers. They were only too eager to run, as fast as they can. It was work for them. They have been bred to run. We went on muddy road and then into the woods, on narrow pathways.


Once we finished the run, the dogs were fed fish again, it was a riot, unhooking them from the sled and tying them back to their kennels. Once that was done, we were back to the house, for the session about the Iditarod. We watched a short video on the race, and then the lady talked about race, it route, the number of days it took, the checkpoints, the bitter cold in which the mushers had to go, the breaks they had to take. The mushers had to carry the dog food and a first aid kit for the dogs with them. A cooker and oil to melt snow and make water to cook the food for the dogs. It was an interesting session, a look into the preparation that went into the race, the risks, the dangers.

Soon it was time to leave. It was about 1PM. My desire to have a dog increased even more.

We crossed Mat-Su Valley. It was very cloudy and was drizzling all along. It was a bummer, but given that it was a Valley with the Alaskan Range on either sides, it was not a surprise.

Our stomachs started grumbling. We drove to Talkeetna, had lunch, and it was 3PM by the time we left from there. A few miles after Talkeetna, before reaching Cantwell, our surroundings slowly changed, as we entered Denali Borough. It was beautiful with spruce trees, all around. I tried to locate Mt. McKinley , the tallest mountain in North America, also called Denali, in the horizon, but it was too cloudy. It was quite a bummer. Untamed wilderness, they call it.


Pictures and movies dont do justice to the beauty of this place. It has to be experienced, in my opinion. At one point, it was cloudy, and the road went winding in front of us, with an occasional car n the front or behind us, or on the opposite side, Low lying mountains sprung up as we drove, trees were a brilliant green, thanks to the rain, I would call it heavenly.

Soon we entered, and drove inside the Denali park, stopped by at Nenana River, which flowed through the park, another way to see the Park was on the river.


We reached Fairbanks at around 8:30-9:00. I liked my hotel instantly. It had fresh flowers hung outside, and inside had a gardeny look, in a bright green shade.


I had to click the notice board which gave the Sunrise and Sunset times, along with the temperature in Fairbanks. You see, one of my colleagues thought Alaska was cold all through the year. I had to take evidence to prove it was not the case.

Our room was cozy too, there was a cute little book about Alaska, which had facts and anecdotes about Alaska, pretty funny ones. There are only a couple I rememeber.
"You are in Alaska if you would not dare to tell your kids to back before dark in Summer."
"You are in Alaska if when you try to order something to ship, they go, " Alaska? Oh no we dont do international shipping"" :--))

Fairbanks being north to Anchorage, the sun sets at around 1AM in the morning and rises at 3:00AM. As you might have already seen in the board. ;--)

The hotel was in Fairbanks dowtown, close to Chenaya River. We had dinner at an Italian place very close by. The food was amazing, we had an Indian waiter. Did you know Alaska recruits people in Summer from all over to cater to the tourist crowd? ;--) This guy was from Bulgaria, studying Medicine, and was here in Alaska in Summer to make some money for his studies. They have valid Visa and all. I was surprised.

It was 11PM and we walked to downtown, and a little by the river, clicked pictures of the sun still in the horizon, like it was just evening. Our main topic of discussion was how the sun never sets in areas beyond the Arctic Circle. Like would the sun set in the west and also rise in the west? Like it would go down close to the horizon and then just backtrack its path? It was totally mystifying*. We took pictures with DH's watch, to show the time, initially, then I set the camera to show the time, so we could capture the midnight sun in all its glory. :--)


I wanted to stay up until atleast midnight, to take the signature picture of Alaska, the sun at midnight. We found a bank in downtown, which had a display of the time and the temperature. So precisely at midnight, there was still day light, so I wasnt scared at all, we went to the bank to take pictures underneath the display. Yeah! I saw the midnight sun!


We retired to our beds soon after tired from the days drive. I wanted to wake up early to see the sunrise also, but we had a long day ahead the next day and DH was totally against waking up at 3:30 in the middle of the night. :--)

* I did find the answer to this question the next day morning. Can anyone guess?

Trip to Alaska - Glacier Cruise

Day 0

The day after my birthday. Thanks to the party we had on my birthday every single soul in my team knew I was leaving to Alaska. It didnt help when a couple of them dropped by at noon to ask why I was still sitting in my cube, instead of being on a plane. This was when my manager was sitting right opposite me, and we were in the middle of getting some things done, before I left.
I took off work at around 1PM. DH also had been busy with a doctor appointment in the morning, so packing was done as fast as can be done. Usually for a 5 day trip I pick about 10 set of clothes, one set for incase it is cold, and another for incase it is too hot. By 2:00, we were out, all packed, set off to the Doctor's, the nurse looked at our hand and said we didnt have TB, and we postponed our vaccination for the next week and left hurriedly. Since our flight was from SFO and the traffic has always been unpredictable, mostly being slower, we wanted to make sure we got to the airport on time.
Surprise of surprises, there was not too much traffic, even at the Bay Bridge Toll. The East bound lanes were jam packed though, I had a good time pointing and laughing. We had a lot of time to spare at the airport, while having dinner of soup and hummus wrap, we were wondering why the airport was not crowded. It was about 7PM. It was me who came up with the theory that, at 7PM, no flight from SF can go anywhere, long distance. All the East bound flights from West either take off in the afternoon, or take off late night. All international flights take off in the middle of the night. Tcaah! Thats why the airport was not too crowded.
The flight was full, me and DH had seats in different rows, later we managed to be seated together. We were chasing the sun, it became darker outside and then there was light, it continued. As we landed in Anchorage, at about midnight, the sun had just set, and there was still the dusky sunlight. My first experience of the midnight sun! :--) We took a cab to the Hotel, the driver said this is just about as dark as it would get, wow!! We scrambled to our beds as fast as we could, and slept like angels.

Day 1

We picked up our rental car from the Airport, a Subaru Impresso, connected our GPS, and set off towards Whittier on Seward Highway. Seward Highway is one of the top scenic drives in the US, and it certainly lived up to its name. It was a two lane road, winding amidst the snow capped mountains of the Kenai Peninsula.

We crossed the Turnagain arm of Cook's Inlet, a water body between the Chugach Mountains. We were on a schedule and it was drizzling, so we didnt stop anywhere. We missed the left turn to Whittier, and had to drive a few miles before we could make a U-turn. We entered Portage, by now it was certainly chilly.

We stopped at a scenic spot, with a good view of the Portage Glacier. Our very first view of a glacier. A glacier is a large slow moving river of ice. It had a tinted blue color to it.
We were at the Whittier Tunnel by 9:05AM, a good 25 minutes before the tunnel openned at 9:30AM. Whittier Tunnel is the only way to get to Whittier. It opens for 15 mins every one hour for either directions. It is a tunnel built into one of the mountains, for either side traffic, and the train.

The tunnel length is 2.5 miles, one of the longest. It seemed unending as we drove at 25mph inside the tunnel. A big relief, as we saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Whittier was a small little town, the gateway to Prince William Sound. Here is a new definition of sound I learnt, Sound is a relatively narrow passage of water between larger bodies of water or between the mainland and an island.
We checked in for our cruise, at 11:00AM, went to a nearby cafe for coffee, and watched a short video of what we were going to see. I am tired of cruises, and boat rides now. My head felt funny the first few minutes and I wondered if booking the longer six hour cruise was a bad idea afterall. We went out to the deck, and I instantly felt much better.
The boat moved slowly, away from the dock, into the sound. Snow capped mountains surrounded us. I thought this trip must make me tired of mountains.
We had crab cakes and wild rice pilaf for lunch, they were yum. We had loads and loads of coffee, to make up for the cold everytime we were out.

We saw the glaciers from Harding Ice Field at a distance. We went through Esther Pass, and then a Salmon fish Hatchery. We saw loads of Salmon jumping out of the water. There were apparently millions of salmon at the hatchery.
We saw a lot of bald eagles by the hatchery. At this point we werent experienced enough in wildlife viewing to know the importance of a pair of binoculars. We simply zoomed our camcorder to the eagles and video taped them. I caught some good pictures too. I am not sure what is the big deal about bald eagles anyway. I think they were an endangered species at some point.

Here is a classic reflection picture of Alaska.



We saw a bunch of sea otters as we neared the glaciers. I thought they looked cute. They seemed to just lie there in cold water, like a man sitting comfortably on an easy chair, rolling over once in a while. They were such a sight to watch. DH said he wanted to be a sea otter, solely for the carefree life they lead. He doesnt know they are an endangered species too, as they were hunted for their thick fur.

The first of the glaciers we saw was the Cox Glacier, we werent headed for it though. It started getting chilly as we closed down towards the glacier. We had to cover our ears and necks. I was so excited about seeing the glacier that I kept clicking away to glory. ;--)

Then we went through a small water channel, towards the Surprise Glacier. It looked magnificent. We realized how huge it was until we got closer and closer to it. There should be a sign which says glaciers are very much larger than they actually appear from far. :--)

The glacier was about half a mile wide, and it flowed almost 25 miles from the mountains into the sound. All these glaciers are tidewater glaciers.

We stood there and waited for some calving to occur. Calving is when a large or small chunk of ice spilts from the glacier and falls into the sea. We saw some small pieces of ice fall into the sea, but that was it. It was a bummer. Then we turned back, to watch three more glaciers, Barry, Cascade and Serpentine. There were a lot of water falls, all over,they looked beautiful.






By this time it got very cold to stay outside. :--( We clicked pictures and then ran back inside to the warmth of the cabins. One of the guides told us why the glaciers looked blue. Here is an explanation. Those lazy to click, it is because the shorter wavelengths, predominently blue, have more energy and hence easily escape the ice, while the other colors like red are absorbed.

It was time to return back. I slept for sometime on the cosy comfort of DH's shoulders.

We had free tickets to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. So we stopped by on our way back. This was just in case we never got to see the exotic tundra/arctic animals that Alaska is famous for. :--)

We saw Caribou, Moose, Reindeer, Muskox, Bison, and other animals. We saw a Brown Bear too. I felt sorry for the guy, because apparently he got lost before his Mom could teach him how to survive in the wild. :--( My heart went out to him. He was lying there on his own, swatting flies. The conservation center was pretty huge with lot of space for the animals, but still I guess it is not like actually roaming free in the wild.

Finally we stopped at another baby bear. I had a fun time watching him dig deep. He looked soooo cute, I really wanted to cuddle him. No wonder they make teddy bears. ;--) There definitely is something about them bears.

By now DH was a bit tired with the travel, we thought we would retire for the day. It was past 8PM, normally I would have happily retired for the day, but since it was still bright and sunny, I was reluctant. ;--) The sun actually came out out of the clouds only past 5PM.