Alaska Day 4 - Whittier

On Day 4 we headed to the city of Whittier. Land access to Whittier is through the tunnel - locally known as the Whittier tunnel or the Portage tunnel, the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel is a tunnel through Maynard Mountain. It links the Seward Highway south of Anchorage with the relatively isolated community of Whittier. It is part of the Portage Glacier Highway and is the second longest highway tunnel and longest combined rail and highway tunnel in North America. Eastbound traffic, westbound traffic, and the Alaska Railroad share the tunnel.

Whittier Tunnel

With a population of about 200, almost all of them live in Begich Towers - like a "city under one roof", the other older Buckner Building is just an abandoned building.

Begich Towers

Portage Pass trail to Portage lake

The trail to Portage pass and on to the lake is close to the town of Whittier. Coming from Anchorage via Portage the trailhead comes shortly after you exit the tunnel - take the first right across the railroad track onto a dirt road and then a second right past a cinder block building to reach the signed trailhead. About 2 miles roundtrip to the pass, 4 miles roundtrip to the lake. 

The trail to the pass is moderately steep but well maintained and offers good views of the glacier and lake. The trail down to the lake is steeper and made somewhat adventurous by the forest/natural conditions, but provides magnificent views of the Portage glacier.

portage glacier trek

At the pass, someone has installed a solid wooden bench. Great views of the valley & lake from the bench point. Heading back from the bench, cross over to the other side of the pass, over the hill and the trail continues down to the lake.

View from bench

view of portage glacier from bench

Prince William Sound Cruise

There are various tour companies serving the PWS area - Philips Cruises, PWS Cruises and Major Marine. All three of them are great, the PWS cruises and Philips cruises have similar route, Major Marine navigates a different arm of PWS. Kenai Fjords Tours is the sister company of PWS Cruises and after our meal incident, we decided to try out Philips Cruises.

The 26 Glacier Cruise travels over 135 miles into Prince William Sound, the cruise cover 26 “named” glaciers and many more unnamed. We saw several types of glaciers, including Alpine (hanging), Piedmont and Tidewater. 

We got face to face with Surprise & Cascade+Barry+Coxe glaciers - these towering masses of ice, so close you can “hear” the glaciers move and gaze at their brilliant blues hues. After spending about 15-20 minutes at Surprise glacier, we witnessed glacier calving (when broken pieces of ice fall into the water and become icebergs). 

Surprise Glacier

Cascase, Barry & Coxe Glaciers

We also saw humpbacks, orcas, sea lions, sea otters, eagles, mountain goats and kittwakes. There was a US Forest Service Ranger on board to narrate the tour. (Incidentally, she was the same person on our Spencer train tour)




http://www.26glaciers.com/route.htm

Scenic view like this along the tour

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Alaska's wildlife - they take in injured and orphaned animals and provide food & shelter. Between the zoo & AWCC, we chose AWCC since it was on our way back from Whittier.

 

Alaska Day 3 - Portage Valley

Driving south on Seward Hwy, we planned to cover Portage Valley on day 3. The valley is known for its beautiful and scenic routes. The highway with the Turnagain Arm coast on one side and the railroad track on the other side is reminiscent of the movies especially when a train is also chugging along.

Mt Alyeska Resort & Tram

• Access: Take the highway and look for signs to Girdwood, the home of Alyeska Resort. At the Tesoro Gas Station, take a left-hand turn and follow the Alyeska Highway for three miles. You will come to a "T" intersection - turn left and go one mile for The Hotel Alyeska. At the "T", turn right for Alyeska Resort's Daylodge and base area.

• http://www.alyeskaresort.com/resort/about-aerial-tram.aspx
  

Tram is a seven-minute scenic ride from The Hotel Alyeska to 2,300 ft in elevation and the top of Mt. Alyeska. From the Tram & top one has spectacular views in all directions  – including views of the Turnagain Arm. There are also trails to reach the top.

Alyeska Resort from atop Mt. Alyeska

Turnagain arm from tram, midway to top

Spencer Glacier & Grandview Whistle Stop

There is only 1 track and route from Anchorage to Seward and it is very scenic. It is one long path from Anchorage-Portage-Whittier-Portage-Spencer-Grandview-...-Seward. The "Glacier Discovery Train" only does the roundtrip to Grandview. Since we had other activities planned for the day, we drove to Portage and boarded the train there (although there is little difference in price).

Chugach Explorer - Glacier Discovery

After the 2nd Portage stop, the train heads south into the Kenai Mountains. The next stop is the Spencer Glacier Whistle Stop, accessible through a unique partnership with the Chugach National Forest Service. The adventure begins here and you can only get there by train. You can either go hiking or rafting. Take a guided 2.6 mile round trip hike with a Forest Service interpreter, or for the more adventurous types, take a self-guided 6.8 mile round trip hike to the face of Spencer Glacier. Or, take a guided Rafting/paddling on the Spencer river.

Spencer Glacier

The train continues south to Grandview through some of the most breathtaking landscapes along the entire railbelt. If you just need a day of relaxation and fabulous scenery, this is the segment - lakes, creeks, rivers, waterfalls, wildlife and ofcourse glaciers. When the train reaches Grandview, after a peek at Trail Glacier, it reverses direction to the Spencer Whistle Stop, picks up hikers, bikers and canoers, then makes a quick stop downriver to pick up rafters. Back to portage.

Spencer - to - Grandview scenic views

Train side view

Train chaiya-chaiya top view

http://www.alaskarailroad.com/

Begich Boggs Visitor Center

This small visitor center ended up being a decent surprise for us. The nearby views are nice, with glacier chunks floating by in the portage lake. 

Glacier ice floating on Portage lake

Apparently, the portage glacier has receded quite a lot and is now present only the southeast tip of the lake. From this vantage point, we didnt have a good view of the glacier. We missed watching the glacier movie "Voices from the Ice". The Ptarmigan cruise is cheap, but with 2 glacier cruises planned, we didn't plan for another glacier cruise.

Begich Boggs Visitor Center (front view)

BBVC is built on the terminal moraine left behind by Portage glacier !!

Byron Glacier 

• Access: Drive south from Anchorage for approximately 50 miles. Turn left on Portage Glacier Road and drive 6 miles to the trailhead on the right side of the road (past the Begich-Boggs Visitor Center). The road continues to a boat dock for summer tours of Portage Lake. Parking is free.

Byron Glacier Trailhead

• http://www.rei.com/passport/Byron-Glacier-Trail 

This trail is a great, easy little trail with nice scenery. The trail was in good condition and popular for humans and mosquitoes. It takes you along a rushing glacier river into a steep glacier valley to basically the base of Byron Glacier. If you are adventurous you can ignore the "End of Trail" sign and proceed to hike on the glacier rock and ice - the black rock surface is actually solid ice!

Byron Glacier (up close)

View of Portage Lake from Bryon Glacier

The forest is lush with ferns for a serene beginning to the hike. Byron Creek is a cascading, whitewater, glacial creek. Navigating on the rocks of the side and terminal moraines can be a challenge. Portage Lake and Valley can be seen looking north from the trail. Trail is very flat. First half of trail to Byron Glacier viewpoint is well maintained, with a wide footpath and brush cleared away from trail. Second half becomes rocky with small stream crossings some standing water. There was company and we decided to hike up further "on" the glacier.

On Byron Glacier

Byron wall

Alaska Day 2 - Seward

This was our only day dedicated to Seward, it is a long but enjoyable 3hr drive. The train journey is even more scenic and goes through areas of Chugach NP that are inaccessible by road. Tourism and fisheries primarily drive this town. Notable things to do are the cruises, sealife center and glacier hikes.

Kenai Fjords NP Cruise

 
The 6hr wildlife & glacier cruise provides ample opportunities to view wildlife and glaciers. It will get chilly once the vessel is in cruising, thus dress in layers and have a rainjacket handy. The included "lunch" was a joke for vegetarians (we got salad instead of the hummus roll since they ran out of it!). But apart from that the cruise was nice and the crew were wonderful. 

Glacier.. in perspective (see the small tiny ship?)

I was hoping we would visit the Aialik bay & glacier, but enroute we were told that the cruise was visiting the Holgate Glacier and not Aialik (bummer!). As we went through Resurrection bay, we enjoyed the spectacular scenery and saw lot of wildlife - whales, orcas, stellar sea lions, harbor seals sea otters etc and got glimpses of Bear Glacier. The major stop was the Holgate glacier - it was enormous. 

Wildlife

Glacier wall

One of the crew members picked up an calved glacier ice floating in the bay. Glacier ice doesn't melt as fast as regular icebox ice - something to do with the bigger size of ice crystals and absence of air bubbles in glacier ice.

Glacier ice

Exit Glacier

• Access: Harding Icefield / Exit Glacier. The park is a short distance from the town of Seward, about 120 miles south of Anchorage. There are three final destinations from the visitor center - the toe of the glacier (moraine maybe inaccessible), the edge of the glacier wall and the icefield. Although we wanted to do the icefield hike, we settled for the "edge" due to the fear of hiking without bear sprays at 7pm and the one of the return dudes said that he was the last person from the last trek of the day to the icefield. (bummer!)

• http://www.nps.gov/kefj/planyourvisit/exit-glacier.htm

From the vista point

From the hike end point

Another angle

Alaska Day 1 - Chugach State Park & Matanuska

We wanted to start in a relaxed manner and thus planned only self-tours on the 1st day, lest we knew about the surprises in store for us. We headed out to explore a few trails and lakes in Chugach National Park. Mind you, this is a huge park and you can drive about 50 miles to visit various parts and it extends almost into Seward. We picked a few popular ones from web searches and tourism websites.

Flattop Mountain

http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/maps/flattopmountaintrailguide.pdf 

That flat top is the hike destination

• Access: Drive south on the New Seward Highway and take the O'Malley road exit and head east about 4 miles and take a right onto Hillside drive. Drive approximately 1 mile and turn left onto Upper Huffman Road, and drive .7 miles to a three way intersection, turn right onto Toilsome Hill Drive. Go about 2 miles to the Glen Alps parking area. $5 park access fee and there are two trails - there is a easy trail on the northwest for scenic views and the Flattop Trail is found by climbing the stairs on the southeast side of the parking area. 

The top

• Summary: The trail starts with a wooden staircase and switchbacks through hemlock until reaching the alpine tundra at Blueberry hill. The last few hundred feet are steep & rocky. The views are great from the top of the 3550 ft peak.

• The Hike: http://www.hike-anchorage-alaska.com/PicsHikes/HowtohikeFlattopMountaindirections.aspx

View of Anchorage downtown from flattop

We grabbed lunch back at the hotel and set forth on Glenn Highway.

Thunderbird Falls

• Access: Mile 25, Glenn Highway, Thunderbird Falls Exit, follow signs one mile to trailhead parking. $5 access fee.

• Walk through the mossy forest of birch trees about one mile; you're soon surrounded by ferns, and then at the viewing platform, where you can watch the thunderous falls tumble down the rocky cliff face.  There is another side trail that provides access to the base of the falls.

• http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/maps/thunderbirdfallsguide.pdf

Thunderbird falls from observation deck

EkLutna Lake

• Access: Take Eklutna Lake exit at Mile 26 on the Glenn Highway, and follow signs ten miles to Eklutna Lake

• Twin Peaks Trail / Lakeside trail from the lake trailhead. We wanted to do one of these trails, but lack of time forced us to just hang around for a while before heading back to hotel. 

• http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/maps/eklutnalaketrailguide.pdf

Eklutna Lake trailhead/entrance

Matanuska Glacier Park

• Access: Take the Glenn Hwy (Route 1) towards Glenallen. At mile 102, drive into the Glacier Park Resort.

view from the parking lot

• Stop here at the State Recreation Area for a photograph of the Matanuska Glacier-a rare roadside glacier that you can actually look down on. Even though they say "You can get closer to the glacier via a one-mile interpretive trail", dont pay and park here. Instead proceed further to access the face of the glacier. Continue on to Glacier Park Resort at mile 102. For a $20/person fee you can drive to the terminal moraine and walk around on the ice. You can go further northeast on Route 1 to get different views of the glacier.

glacier wall

glacier ice hike

glacier ice hike

glacier

Glacier river = matanuska river

Ice climbers

Alaska Day 0 - OAK to ANC

Due to late flight booking we could only get reasonable tickets from Oakland airport to Anchorage. We don't prefer OAK airport merely due to traffic if driving, and lack of public transportation (outside of east bay).

The security scan and layover in Seattle were smooth. From Seattle it is a long 5hr flight to ANC, we decided to learn few things about Alaska from the in-flight magazines. Here are a few we could remember:

• Over 100K glaciers and 3M lakes.
• 49th and the largest state in US!
  
• Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire in 1867, for $7.2 million ($113 million in today's dollars) - $0.02/acre
• Juneau is the capital, not Anchorage. The only US capital accessible only by boat or plane.
• The trans-Alaska pipeline is 4ft wide x 800 miles long!Of the 20 highest mountains in the United States, 17 are in Alaska. 
• Mt. McKinley is the highest peak in North America. Mt. McKinley is the highest "vertical rise" in the World.
• Economy - oil & gas, seafood, logging, transportation,tourism, metal mining/minting.

Flying over Gulf of Alaska, approaching ANC, we could see over the peaks above the clouds - called a "Nunatak" but with clouds instead of snow/ice. More like this, but lots of them, we lost our other pictures taken from flight :(

Arriving at ANC, looking at our outfits of down jackets, we were instantly "Cheechako" (native for tourists). The airport is very neat and big. This walkway caught our attention, and someone told us about "Northern Lights" effect.

We were pleasantly surprised by the midnight sun, take a look of downtown Anchorage at midnight.

We checked-in and tried to sleep, to begin an adventurous vacation. Welcome to "Alakshak" - meaning great lands or peninsula!

Alaska 2011 - Plan & Logistics

In our quest for honeymoon spots, Alaska came a close 2nd. Thus, for our 1st anniversary we decided on Alaska.. well atleast part of it - Anchorage & vicinity. We planned the travel, boarding & lodging, daily activities and transportation ourselves... although last minute. We also got help from another couple who visited Alaska in summer '10.

Flight  : Alaska Airlines, OAK to ANC

Car     : AVIS Compact Car @ Airport

Hotel   : RodewayInn @ Downtown ANC

Duration: 6 Days

Apart from the usual things, the other most important things to pack: Hiking Shoes, Sunscreen, rain jackets/umbrella, kayaking/rafting wear, *mosquito repellents*, eye-shades (24 hr daylight), crampons, hiking poles, bear sprays. During our hikes, we heard some Alaskan locals carry a gun for protection from wildlife in some of the wild trails. 

Various sites offer useful travel information:

http://alaska.org 

http://www.alaskatravel.com

http://travelalaska.com/

Alaska is huge, it is impossible to cover everything in 1 week. Of the various places to visit, we picked some that we could cover in this trip: Seward, Whittier, Anchorage, Talkeetna, Mt. McKineley, Matanuska, Wasila, Palmer.