Up next is our land cruise before joining the cruise ship in Whittier. We start this part making our way to Anchorage in Alaska from Seattle. Having all survived the night in our (hopefully) last, respective crappy motels (and hotel for one couple 😉), we say farewell to the “Lower 48” and make it up to the 49th state of Alaska. The views in from the plane are nothing short of spectacular, and James and I enjoy sharing the ride with my nephew Matti, as I teach him how to play Animal Crossing (thanks Hector!), and James shows him photos and videos from our adventures under the sea. He’s such a lovely kid.
It’s funny to now be in Hawaii’s sister joining state and hearing their admittance story from the other side. Oddly enough they seem to have a bit in common, despite their vast geographical differences. They both are an important military location, and they’re both so far away from anywhere that everything is incredibly expensive! Their way of life seems so vastly distinct from anything else in the lower 48, that it is understandable this state is hugely Republican, a state of independent people surviving in tough terrains, many living a subsistence lifestyle, needing and wanting nothing from the State but to be left alone.
Our travelling style is now vastly different from the last 11 months, everything is organised for us. Bliss! We’re almost a bit lost not having to be constantly researching our next steps and location. Happily so though, as the cruise company Princess arrange a bus to pick us up and ferry us to our hotel. So easy! But first, we need to get a safety briefing for how to survive our 13 minute bus ride. The kid delivering the long list of instructions and warnings, like a warnings label at the end of a pharmaceutical advert, finally gets going and tells us all about Anchorage and life up here. He’s also not from here, but he’s incredibly knowledgeable, as we learn all about “float planes” (what we’ve been calling sea-planes up to this point). That you can get a pilot’s licence at 14 (before a driving licence), wheel covers are used to stop dogs peeing on their wheels, which will attract bears at their destinations, jeeps cut in half to create the platforms that roll them into the water, and how Anchorage has boomed since the war on Ukraine, becoming the largest distribution centre in the world. With distribution companies (from certain companies) no longer able to refuel in Russia, they are having to come over here. This means that they have to carry more fuel and less cargo, making the journey more expensive.
Our little intro to Anchorage complete, we’re now welcomed to our hotel for the night by another staff member. They’ve done all the thinking for us! A welcome change of pace of us having to figure out the logistics ourselves. James and I are told that we have the “Junior Suite”. If our travelling has taught us anything, it’s that the names of rooms almost indirectly relates to what you get. Like an estate agent, the grander the adjectives, the worse it is. We shrug and move on from the surly hotel manager, eager to get some grub in all our bellies.
Lunch today is atop a huge brewery our bus-driver recommended, and our server is even more friendly than him. Jovan, originally from Jamaica, is the perfect host. I don’t think I’ve seen a server love his job more than anyone else, as he chats away with us and gives us the perfect amount of attention, he even entertains the kids some, telling us he has one on the way next year himself.
Having enjoyed our Alaskan salmon, yak burgers, fish and chips, and the rest, we head back to check into our rooms. James and I are a good few floors away from the family, and open our door to an actual suite! Not a proverbial one. We have our own living room! What a shift in accommodation from our stinky motel room!
We all sort out various bits and bobs for the rest of the day, whilst James and I make the most of the hotel facilities, namely the men’s and women’s “Athletic Centres”, respectively. The decor in this grand hotel harks back to a bygone age (it is named Hotel Captain Cook after all), and so we envisage smoking rooms for the men, and beauty rooms for the women. Thankfully, the only difference seems to be that James gets a huge gym playground with even a squat rack. My gym is far smaller and full of the cardio machines women often favour over building strength, but there’s enough for me to work out with. I don’t think I could even lift an empty barbell these days so it’s probably for the best!
Coach Trip
We’re up early once more before being herded onto our next coach with the rest of the silver surfers. Expecting to catch up on sleep for the next few hours as we’re carted to our next destination, we all hunker down for a snooze. “GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY….” booms the loud speaker. We get our already familiar safety briefing, and are off as our driver seems to once more be a tour guide! The next few hours are spent hearing all about everything around us and his life. We start off learning about a plant called fire weed, that was believed to signal the first snow fall in nine weeks with its flowers… it is flowering already! Moose eyes don’t reflect, making them even harder to spot in the dark. He jokes about the characters who choose to live up in this odd part of the world, cut off from everywhere and largely unpopulated. “The odds are good but the goods are odd” he jokes when referring to a bachelor auction each spring after being in the dark and isolation for the winter months before, and the tiny town of Talkeetna that we drive through has a mayor, it is a cat. On the way, we are even lucky enough to speed by a moose just munching away on the foliage roadside. Too quick to photo, we’re nevertheless excited to finally get to see these odd-shaped creatures!
Our next accommodation is a spectacular wooden cabin surrounded by woodland. We’re told that we can’t access one part of the trails around the complex because there is a baby moose up there and it wouldn’t be safe! More moose!!! Considering our initial reaction is to go and see said baby moose, they’re definitely right to close off the area for the safety of probably everyone involved.
We have lunch and kill time and energy in the nearby playground despite the rain. Teaching the kids wrestling (largely in an attempt to find a way to stop them breaking one another by introducing them to the tap-out rule, to rather marked success I might add), and testing James’s strength. This is the definition of rough-housing.
Next up we’re going to check out a talk by someone who lives up in Denali’s base camp during the climbing season, being in charge of the many planes that bring climbers in and out of base camp. It’s a desolate landscape and challenging life but she clearly loves it. We learn about what it takes to climb this elusively seen peak, that until now we had never heard of. It is the highest mountain peak in North America, it is also colder than Everest. However, you don’t need oxygen to climb Denali like you do for Everest, but you also have to carry your own gear, no sherpas in these parts! She tells us of the grueling 21 day journey, where you climb up to point B with half your stuff, go back down to A, and do it all again with the rest of your stuff, effectively climbing it twice in one go. Those that come back, desperate for bed and a pint, may find themselves stuck at base camp for n days as the weather can turn on a dime. The planes can’t land on soft snow, so part of everyone’s job (including potentially stuck climbers waiting to get off) is to walk the landing strip to compact the snow down so that the planes can land again. Toilet-wise, this area well protected and managed by the rangers, is a personal bucket that you carry with you. There’s only one dumping spot allowed on the mountain, a crevass in the glacier! One more reason to protect the glaciers from melting!
A fascinating talk into a life so completely different from our own. After, we enjoy a lovely dinner with another spectacular server, once more gifted some cards and colouring in. The clouds are somewhat parting as we check out the campfires, enjoy some smores, and head back over to the main lodge to check out the surrounding mountains.
Northern Nights
We finish the day with a film featuring the Northern Lights. It was put together by a guy who spent his life finding the best ways to capture this natural spectacular. At first, frames were your standard, more square-like ratio, which kept cutting off the sides of the amazing landscapes around him, so he created a setup of three cameras on a platform that would capture the image instantly, and he would stick them together to make the landscape aperture by hand. We take this ratio for granted now with our phones able to do it with a quick click of a button! The guy spent 30 years capturing the perfect footage, and the short film we are shown is the collection of his best works. It starts with an incredible static shot that ever-so-gradually changes, so subtly you think you just didn’t spot that one yellow plant in the corner, but soon enough you realise that this isn’t a photo, but a video of the changing seasons. Unlike other timelapse photos where a plant flaps about in front in the wind, giving away the passing time and natural growth getting in the way of the shot, literally nothing moves in the photo. It’s unlike any timelapse I’ve seen. The rest features spectacular footage of the Northern Lights, and also the World Ice Sculpture Championship.
Some info on the Northern Lights… they’re created by solar flares from the Sun, that burst out and start moving towards the Earth. Thanks to our amazing developments in astronomy, this means we’re now quite able to predict when the northern lights will occur by tracking when solar flares start making their way to Earth. The colour of the lights depends on the strength of the flare (for reasons I couldn’t follow). The energy from the flare comes towards Earth and is drawn to the top and bottom of the poles due to the magnetic fields, causing halo effects around these poles. It’s this energy that activates the ions in the air and causing the light that we see. It is only by seeing them from the side that you see the more-typical curtain effect. Of course I couldn’t film the film, and we don’t see any on our travels, so it’ll be one that remains on the bucket-list for now.
Lessons Learned
The next day the rest of the family have some activities booked, but James and I are just having a quiet day enjoying doing nothing, a rare event when backpacking around, always planning for the next days. We start off with a quick run around the grounds with Ben, passing by ‘The Treehouse’ that was previously closed due to a moose calf. It’s another beautiful wooden lodge in the forest hills above.
After our quick jaunt in the rain, we enjoy a big buffet breakfast to set everyone up for the day, and then James and I check out a couple more talks on bears and mooses. The ranger providing the talks is so enthusiastic and clearly loves his job. We learn loads about these two fascinating animals that live in this region.
Bears – Polar beers are considered marine mammals. If it’s black, fight back. If it’s brown, lie down. They can run faster than humans, 30-40mph. If you come across a bear, you want to not panic, as this will make you look like prey. Don’t scream or flap your arms. Talk to it normally, and put your arms in the air to make yourself look big. You used to be able to protect your food by hanging it between two trees but bears can climb, and they learned to cut the ropes. This is why there are so many bear boxes now! We learn how to tell the difference between a black and a grizzly. That black bears are often not black. The biggest grizzly/brown bears are found in Alaska, on Kodiak Island, so they are called Kodiak bears. The size of the brown bear depends on how much it hibernates, so the ones in the coldest areas that hibernate longer, will eat less and be smaller. The kodiak bears don’t hibernate, so just eat all your round and are the biggest. Female bears can give birth whilst in hibernation! Bears mostly eat berries, but during salmon season, brown bears will sit in the water and wait for one to swim into its belly and grab it. The black bears will be further downstream to get any remnants or leftovers as these two don’t really get on, they tolerate one another, but they don’t mix. Even amongst themselves, they’re pretty solitary creatures. The biggest predator to baby bears is male bears, as the female bears will not be able to get pregnant whilst they still have their cubs around, so the male bear will kill them so the female will go back into heat and he can impregnate her. Nice. Most incidences with black bear attacks are because someone has startled one that was near its house, usually checking out their bins. The black bear will likely be inquisitive at first, give you a tap to see your reaction and ascertain if you are prey, and decide whether to attack or not. If you get tapped, you punch it in the nose to show it you are not prey. If you get charged at by a brown bear however, you should lie down, either in a ball or face down to protect your vital organs. It will probably try and roll you over and give you a few damaging swipes, but hopefully won’t kill you. I don’t fancy my odds with that one! Bear spray is basically mace, and will likely do you more damage than the bear, so unless you want to fight a bear blind, best not to use it.
Moose – Moose are the state mammal. The largest moose in the world is from up here, the Alaskan Yukon Moose. Normal moose get to 6ft tall, the moose up here are 7 ft tall at the shoulders, with antlers they can get to 9 or 10ft tall. The older the moose the blacker it gets. Scientists don’t know what the lump dangling from its neck is for. It’s just a hairy flop of fat. One idea is that it’s a decoy or added protection if attacked from below, either way, there is no actual name for it. Moose have one coat of fur, to protect them from freezing water, but also the immense heat in summer. Because of this, they like hiding in still water to cool off, but to also get rid of mosquitos. Autumn lasts only 2 weeks up here. The moose eat bark and twigs during winter. Their antlers can get up to 70lbs, and 7 feet across. They shed and regrow them every year! They grow to their biggest at 10-12 years old, they live to about 16. They grow half an inch every day, only growing them for 4 months! How they can grow these huge antlers in 4 months is very impressive! The antlers are covered in something called velvet, which they need to rub off to allow the antlers to grow, except this is like pulling off a layer of skin as the keratin below has a blood supply, and so they rub them off on willow bushes (which is where aspirin comes from!), revealing bloody, red antlers underneath. If you see a photo of a moose with bleeding antlers, it is from this process, not because they’ve just slaughtered a tourist. The mating ‘dance’ for moose is that they all get together, the males practice fight, pee into the mud and spray themselves with their new muddy-wee combo, they proper fight, the females then roll themselves in the muddy-wee combo of the winner. Lovely. The winner gets all the females. Baby moose are so imbalanced it takes them longer to start walking than horses (still only two days). At day five they can outrun humans. Within four months they are 10 times their birthmass. The calf stays with the mum until just before the mum has another calf, they can only look after one round of calves at a time. Although they often have twins and sometimes triplets. Once the mum is ready for her next round of impregnation, she will kick the calf away until it gets the message to piss off. Serious rejection! If a moose attacks, you RUN, you want to get something in between the moose and you, like a tree, not your partner. More people are killed by moose than bears, probably because people think moose aren’t dangerous, but it’s easy to tell if a bear is about to attack, where moose will just flip a switch and go for you with no warning. Despite their mopey appearance, they are serious business. Don’t “risk it for a biscuit”, as our ranger says. It is only the male moose that have antlers (with caribou, males and females do).
That evening we enjoy another yummy dinner, and play cards with Ben and Emma in the main lodge. Mid-game, everyone in the lodge is suddenly up at the windows looking out. One other thing we’ve learnt from travelling is that the best way to spot something is following the tourists’ gaze. And we are rewarded once more. There is a baby moose outside!
The ranger in the building tells us that the mother moose was around before, but she’s not been seen for a while. In all likelihood, she has been the victim of a traffic accident. Which means that in all likelihood for the calf, they will be the victim of a predator attack without the protection of its mother. The circle of life at its finest. Soon enough, a staff member comes whizzing by in a golf cart to scare the poor calf away. The ranger explains that they don’t want it getting familiar and comfortable around humans, it needs to maintain its fear. Sadly, I suspect this is the safest place for it right now, without its mother to protect it, but we inflict enough on nature without breaking the food chain for the other animals in the region on top.
Denali National Park
Next up on the coach trip is moving on up to Denali National Park. Compared to our remote lodge in the woods, this area is a buzzing metropolis. Princess have their own village of stores, eateries, bars and cafes to choose from, on this location just by the river. We arrive and are directed to our different buildings once more, and lumber our way in the (now all too familiar) rain to our room. Loe and behold, we have another suite!
We can’t figure out our luck on this trip, but we’ll take it. No time to relax though, as Ben, Emma, James and I are booked to go rafting!
If one thing has been consistent on this trip, it’s the kind of people who work at commercial rafting companies. They are too cool for school and forever young, as they instruct us on the order of play for the day, and also how to get ourselves dressed into our first ever dry suits. The dry suits are giant baby grows, with tight wrist and neck holes, and all-in-one rubber booties. To protect these rubber feet from getting a hole in them, we’re all given old, decrepit shoes. Whilst everyone else gets battered running shoes, I am given some Converse! The suits are a one-size-fits-all kind of job, which means we all look FABULOUS.
It’s a quick ride to our setting off point, but not before our newly qualified teacher (woop woop) Emma is voluntold to tick off the items from the safety briefing. Unlike in Costa Rica, this one doesn’t make us think we’re going to die. But we are told that if we fall in, we should swim! I guess it’s a lot colder up here to just calmly float down the freezing river. We are grouped up with another adult-family group consisting of two sisters, one of their husbands, and their dad Joel, who must be in his eighties. Our guide is called Mike, and he’s the eldest raft guide of the group, by a solid margin. He is ever the professional, which puts our other group a bit more at ease, as one of them is conquering a fear having never rafted before. Joel, the dad, sits behind me, as Ben volunteers himself up front in the splash zone, with James jumping to the call to be at his side. Emma and I sit in the middle behind the boys. It is a rip-roaring ride, with Emma goading Mike to take us into bigger rapids, as the daughter behinds holds her nerve, and Joel whoops with excitement.
The river itself is a murky grey, the colour of many a post-sink-clothes-wash, and it is coooooold. It doesn’t take long before we get our first splash soaking those of us up front and making sure we’re well and truly awake. Ben definitely takes the brunt of the splashes, but the family behind us don’t manage to get away with it for much longer. Due to all the rain, the river is high and fast, but we still get a really long ride. Ripples that look like nothing give us huge face-fulls of water, and we roll right over many an intimidating looking wave. Mike really knows his stuff in directing us down this ever changing commute.
At one point, Joel asks for some bigger waves, to which Emma laughingly asks over the roaring water, “are you trying to kill us Joel?!”, his response… “well I think I’ve lived long enough! 😉”. Joel is loving life. The way he whoops and cheers with unbound glee as though he were 8, not 80 is surely inspiring, he really is young at heart, teaching me once more to not judge an older person by their age. He had more energy and excitement than all of us, including Emma!
We make it to the end where Mike teases, if anyone did want a swim, now is the time. I think he’s joking, but Ben and Emma go for it! They lower themselves into the freezing water and float alongside us. James gets a huge bout of FOMO and jumps in after, giving himself some serious cold water shock instead. Everyone is hauled back onto the boat as we park up the rafts and head back to warmth. Despite us all insisting our booties must have holes in them as our toes are damp and freezing… all our feet are bone dry. Mike explains, “our bodies can’t tell the difference between cold and wet”, another lesson learned!
Natural History Tour
Our next day is spent getting to know the National Park we are now staying in. We finally get some clarity around the naming of this here land, and also around the infamous (except to us) elusiveness of being able to see the namesake of the park.
Prior to being a National Park and Preserve, this land and mountain was called Denali by the native people on this land. Prospectors came in the gold rush age, and one who did manage to strike it rich, wanted to ensure the now familiar ‘gold-standard’ was brought in to secure his wealth, instead of the alternatively prospective ‘silver-standard’. In order to influence the decision, this prospector offered to name the mountain after presidential candidate McKinley. And so it was done. Until the age of reckoning, where the white folk started realising the harms they had done to the native Americans, and starting un-naming places, renaming McKinley Park back to Denali Park. The mountain, however, kept its President’s name for a while longer, until Obama finally signed off on the mountain also being given back its original name in 2015. A small but meaningful move.
Our driver and guide today is a wonderfully calm and informative voice in our bus. We’re informed to yell “Stop!” if we see anything, and indeed this is yelled a few times. Largely for some birds, but also for some Caribou (as expertly spotted by Ben!). Fun fact, Caribou are reindeer.
We make a brief stop for a little bimble in the woods as we are taught about spotting moose action that has stripped some willow bushes bare. But also, a snapped portion, that gives away not just the presence of a hare, but also the snow-line where the hare would have been a good foot or so in the air by comparison. It’s incredible to imagine this vast land covered in feet of snow and how anything can survive out here during those long months. We are also given an introduction to a log cabin (rebuilt for educational purposes) showing how life used to be like. The windows are lined with nails sticking out to stop bears coming in.
On our way back round, a spruce grouse comes to show off its tail-feathers.
The views of the area are really beautiful and expansive, as we move up through elevation out of the tree-line and into the vast flat-lands above, reminding us of images we’ve seen of Scottish Highlands.
Next stop is to listen to a brief talk from a native Athabaskan who lives in this area, Greg, continuing on the traditions of his ancestors, but also sharing a small part of their lives with us tourists for awareness.
He is a true character keeping everyone engaged and seemingly enjoying himself to boot. He tells the brief history of his people, one that now has become all too familiar. Of a culture that didn’t write, but shared their knowledge through stories and the verbal word. This meant that when the white folks came enforcing Christianity on them, banning their original way of life for 80 years, much of their knowledge and history was lost, as a generation of people were unable to pass down their traditions to the next as had been done for so many years before. This man before us, and many others, are doing their best to piece together their culture and document it for future generations, not only to be able to pass down the almost lost knowledge, but to bring awareness to their existence. Surviving in this area without modern amenities is a hard-fought life, but they have done it for centuries, and thanks to the Athabaskan people like our man here today, and the protections they are (sometimes) afforded, will hopefully continue to do so for many centuries more. He tells us how they survive the years by the seasons, foraging certain fruits, nuts and berries, hunting animals, and processing and storing them all for winter. It sounds a full and hard life!
A Trip to the Dogs
We make the most of being in the National Park by heading to the dog kennels after the tour. There’s at least 15 dogs with their kennels, raring to go for a run and display. We get to see them pull a sled around the yard, and get some info on why these gorgeous dogs are important to the parks service.
We learn that only hand tools for construction, and sled dogs for transport amd used to maintain the quiet of the back country – part of the 60 year Wilderness Act. No chainsaws and industrial machinery for construction.
We’re taught about the importance of travelling by sled dog was to the indigenous people here as travelling by sled dog, generations were able to talk and pass on information, such as noticing what is around them and being able to say “this is where this happens, and this plant does this”. This was lost when people used skidoos, you can’t talk to one another on a skidoo.
There is research in the world to not just protect the night skies, but also the natural soundscapes. Sled dogs help us protect the quiet.
The dog at the back directs the sled as it turns out. During winter, the dogs lay track to the different cabins. They also help carry materials to construction areas.
James, mum and I decide to eke out as much of being in the park as possible, by walking back to the visitor centre instead of returning to the bus. As luck would have it, the rain finally clears and we are blessed with even more stunning views.
We finish the day with a lovely dinner all together at King Salmon, celebrating the many reasons we have to cheers over a bottle of bubbley.
9 Hours…10 Hours… 13 Hours Galore
It’s time to head to the ship! Unfortunately, our journey has taken us inland, away from the coast, which means it’s a long way back to shore! We’re scheduled for a nine hour train ride back through the National Park to the dock in Whittier, where our ship awaits. Our ship of endless free food, drink, and no more packing, we can’t wait!
Someone clearly told the engine pulling us along, because it decides to break down, and extend our wait by a further four hours. We really feel for the staff who have been up and about hours before us, and have to get another hour-long bus back to Anchorage after dropping us off, before they finally get to clock off. Some of them are starting again at 4am! The staff do a fantastic job of keeping spirits up, and the kids are so well behaved (having a ratio of 6 adults to 2 kids definitely helped though!). What follows are the photos of this lengthy train ride.
We make it to the final tunnel, and are told that the tunnel is so small that cars and trains have to alternate through, with one being allowed through on the hour, and the other being allowed through on the half hour. They do us a favour and get us through without further delay. The crew hope they can make it back through on the next slot, otherwise they have an even longer wait before getting home! We hope they did!
Our minds however are more on the blustering and rainy gale outside as we try queue our way to the giant ship, that is now, at long last, in front of us. We make it on, dump our stuff, and head straight to the bar. We’ve made it!!!!
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Adventure – journeying through the wilderness by train
Excitement – finally making it onto the ship and learning about the 15 drink ‘target’ (I mean limit). Seeing moose!
Trauma – despite the long ride, it actually wasn’t that traumatic, but was the worst part of the day.
1 Comment
What an amazing blog, what a wonderful experience, I can’t get my head around trying to avoid Black/Brown Bear attacks by talking to them or punching them on the nose 🤣, or lying down flat. I wouldn’t want to try either , but I’m sure mostly people do just want to leg it, which is obviously not the thing to do. I was also amazed to read Moose can be violent, they always look so docile. You have done so many amazing things the rafting looked awesome and what a fantastic way for Mattie and Eddie to experience first hand some of nature’s most beautiful places. Lovely to see pics of you all together having a great time. Look forward to the next instalment ❤️