My Wildest Dreams Fulfilled: An Astonishing Adventure in Alaska

“The gateway to adventure”

Day 1: Anchorage 

Anchorage is the place where the traditional and modern world are uniquely combined and surrounded by the natural beauty of the nature. “Petit” down town, with its main touristic area around 4^th to 8^th Avenue, can be explored either by walking or taking the Ulu Factory Tram from log cabin visitor information center in down town. Goes around the city at regular intervals and ride is free of cost. There is paid bus also available for guided tour.

Downtown offers visitors multiple eateries, bars, souvenirs, small – small shops with genuine fur products and native people’ handcrafts. On the side of the Ship Creek (clear water stream with king and silver salmon) lays the so called “Bridge Restaurant” with lot of spots for salmon fishing. There’s a nice walkway with platforms where you can view fishermen trying to catch fish by dipping into the water till their waist.

Entering Anchorage by flight remember to take your pick – as per your itinerary- of free tourists welcoming colorful “Bearfoot” magazines  and Alaska Guides, which are very informative about the highways, cities, things to do and not to do. At the tourist information desk, I got to know that the expression “bearfooting” is a traveling verb, and it means losing yourself in the moment, losing track of the days.

Good to know and keep in mind that most of the Alaska cities are tax free, though food and lodging is reasonably expensive. Fuel cost compared to other American States is not that high.

Near to Downtown starts a walking, running or biking coastal trail (Tony Knowles) next to the beautiful coastline and through absolute wilderness. Various spots on the way encouraged to stop for a moment and enjoy scenic beauty, which has been eternalized by our eyes, smelling the nature and photo cameras. You can also drive down to earthquake park. This park commemorates the earthquake in 1964, when an “entire neighborhood slid into the ocean during last century’s most powerful earthquake”  Another great place to visit (walk or by car) on the same trail is Point Woronzof for its scenic view.

Next drive to lake shore drive at LakeHood, which is again a scenic drive with one of the biggest seaplane / float plane lake in Alaska. Lake is full of sea planes parked around the shore and number of them available for rental flight of short duration or longer flight seeing of the city and glacier views. You can have a view of Mt Denali on a day with clear sky.

After a short but good night sleep we continued our journey towards Denali National Park with a stop in Palmer and Talkeetna. Stay tuned and get ready for your virtual trip to explore together with us Palmer, Talkeetna and Denali National Park, which got completed on Day 2 of the journey.

“The mountains are my bones, the rivers my veins, the forests are my thoughts and the stars are my dreams [..]“ / Unknown /

Day 2: Palmer, Talkeetna and Denali National Park via Glenn’s Highway connecting to Park Highway

After a short but good night sleep we started the day with the drive to Flattop Mountain, and completed a short hiking trail for the beautiful view of the city and the stretched mountains.  Flattop is a 3,510-foot (1,070 m) mountain located east of urban Anchorage and it is the most climbed mountain in the state.  

Was great to start the day by rejuvenating with the fresh air and let the nature touch our souls. The oxygen – rich fresh air cleaned up our thoughts, freed up our endorphins, joy, happiness, curiosity has occupied and possessed us. We were ready to explore and conquer Matanuska Glacier.

To reach the Glacier we drove towards Talkeetna via Glenn Highway (vast tundra area with gorgeous mountain ranges) and through Palmer city. This is one of the most approachable glaciers by road to Matanuska Glacier Pass, which is an unpaved road leading to a small barrier and a house converted into a souvenir shop. At the entrance of this converted shop multiple colorful, vibrant, smiling flowers were welcoming us.  

Prior entering Glacier road visitors need to sign a small document to acknowledge their awareness of the risk by hiking the moving “ice-river”.  You pay $25 each for entry.

Drive another 1.5 miles on the spectacular, fairy tale type view and you reach the parking area from where you have breathtaking view of this rare roadside glacier.

Another mile-long hike takes you directly on the glacier. Trail is marked, and hike to glacier edge is pretty flat with its enormous colors of white and blue and pebbles coated glacier ice at places which makes tracking a bit easier. Do wear tracking / hiking shoes for better access to the glacier.

Near to Matanuska glacier is reindeer farm, which you might like to include in your itinerary for being close to reindeers and feeding them with your hands. There are some Elks also in the farm. Staff is highly informative and fun while taking you on the guided tour, which takes around 1 hour. Place is extremely muddy with Reindeer’s excreta, hence do wear well covered shoes or wear shoes provided by the park. Entry is $9 per person, feeding of the animals included.

Palmer is famous for giant vegetables, however farms, which grow them are hard to find. We were lucky as we went during Alaska State Fair, which happens annually in Palmer and had a display of award winning giant vegetables. The sight of these vegetables was incredible. We were told by local farmers that these plants grow this big due to the long ours of sun.

Disney Family Movie << Iron Will>> 1994 American adventure film directed by Charles Haid, inspired me a lot to see and explore real traditional wooden sledge with those amazing strong, proud, powerful Husky dogs. And my wish came true. Headed towards Wasilla which has Iditarod headquarters. Here we took the sled ride on wheels (no snow season), while experiencing sheer power and excitement those husky sled dogs have once start pulling the sled. Fantastic power, focus and team work.

Next destination is the authentic Talkeetna, which is a “minuscule” historic town, with its share of beautiful nature, fast flowing river, nice places to eat, enjoy fishing and rafting trails. Another key thing famous in Talkeetna is Denali National Park and Glaciers flightseeing and Glacier landings. There are lot of aviation options available and we chose to do Glacier landing (has been jeopardized due weather circumstances) with Talkeetna Air Taxi, which is just next to downtown. Glacier landing trip is for 90 mins and cost around $300 per person. Birds eye view is a must do activity on a clear sky especially glacier landing if weather permits. Flights without glacier landing are cheaper and for around 60 mins. Flights take off at regular intervals so you can be lucky with walking’s, though prior booking is recommended.

Back from the amazing flight and continue the journey towards Denali National Park on the Park highway which takes around 3 hours. If you reach on time, do visit Denali Wilderness Centre and Denali Visitor centre else check in and relax at the hotel while enjoying nature. We personally liked Denali Grand Hotel, which is on hill top with good views of the mountain range and river, Princess Wilderness lodge for its river side restaurants with great views from the terrace, gift shops and lot of activity within the lodge itself.

Visit Denali Square for it’s location, within small valley next to downtown surrounded by mountains full of trees, vibrant flowers spread in the grass and Starbucks for those coffee lovers.

As per the famous saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words”, enjoy pictures and follow me on my next virtual journey in Alaska Day 3. Stay Tuned !

“Mountains are calling and I must go“ / John Muir / 

Day 3: Denali National Park, Fairbanks:

Day three of our amazing journey was dedicated for a special place, which is two-hundred miles away from Arctic circle of glaciers, located in southern part of Alaska. Considered as the third larger National Park in United States. This mesmerizing place is Denali – “The High One”. A place with breathtaking heights, where there is a combination of three unique ecosystems – Taiga (home of the grizzly bear), Tundra (home of reindeers), high Alpine (bare rock patches and rock tops covered with glaciers).

Be ready to spend all day long outside in the fresh air and salute mother nature. Depending upon the tour you want to do, you may have to start the day pretty early. Do check the tour schedules online in advance and plan your tour itinerary accordingly. You can choose to travel till Toklat River, which is a six hours’ roundtrip. Trip to Eielson Visitor Center is the most recommended one and is for 8 hours. If you are more adventures and you wish to further explore the place do sign up for the bus which takes you till Wonder Lake, be aware it is an 11 hours journey. You can take your own vehicle only up to Mile 15, till Savage River. Beyond this point private vehicles are restricted and only Denali park buses operate. All these buses start from Denali Wilderness Access Centre.

There is nothing available to eat or drink during the trip, hence ensure to pack your bag with enough food and water. We did the 8 hours trip which started at 11AM. There are quite a bit sittings of wildlife including Beers, Moose, Reindeers and Caribous in addition to beautiful stretch of roads with view of snow covered Mountain Denali on a clear day. There are lot of scenic spots for photography and bus operators are extremely supportive and informative. They would stop the bus if anyone shouts out spotting of wildlife of interest at any location during the trip.

There is also opportunity to have demonstration of sled dogs, which happens at various intervals during the day at Denali Visitor Centre and last one I believe happens at around 4PM. I wish I could have experienced this show, however we missed it due to our itinerary.

Reaching back from National Park trip, we started our trip towards Alaska’s second largest city Fairbanks. Around 2.5 hours’ drive from Denali National Park. We reached Fairbanks pretty late, hence decided to relax. Fairbanks being closer to Arctic circle, opportunity to see Northern lights is good even during summers on a clear day. You need to be away from city lights and sky has to be clear to view Northern lights if their activity is strong. Unfortunately, we had cloudy weather, hence could not experience it, but instead we had the well – deserved good sleep and we could start our fourth day.

In the tourist booklets is highly recommended once in Fairbanks to do the Arctic Circle trip, which is minimum half day and you can do it either by air or road. All the trips provide certificate that you crossed Arctic Circle. We had to miss this one due to our itinerary, however as they say, some good things have to be kept for next time as well.

Day 4 – Starting our day early, we went to Discovery River cruise which takes around the city on a Paddle Wheel Cruise.

For our journey from Fairbanks, we decided to visit a place which is every kids dream. The house of Santa Clause at North Pole, which is a small town around 1.5 hours from Fairbanks to Valdez. There is Christmas all year long in this Santa’s place with houses decorated all year around and street lamps and poles decorated as candy strips. This is the official address of Santa Clause in North Pole where all the letters mailed by children across the world are received. There is a small display board with number of such letters written by children to Santa. Though we had expected much more activities in Santa’s house, it turned out to be more of a gift shop and limited activity to do. Yet feeling of being at a place, which is addressed to by children around the world to send wishes and message to Santa was a great feeling and definitely worth the time.

Couple of miles before Valdez, at Mile 28.7 we reached Worthington glacier, which is one of the most approachable glaciers by road in Alaska. Of about 1.5 miles unmarked hiking trails lead from the car parking to Glacier, which has almost formed a cave at one of the edges. Scenic and eye catching. This glacier is vast and feeling of being there and connecting with history. Trail is pretty tough at locations, yet approachable. Would recommend to hike with appropriate hiking shoes and clothing and try to do earlier part of the day. Overall hike to reach glacier takes about 1/2 hour, which means you would need 1.5 to 2 hours depending upon how much time you want to spend on the glacier itself.

 Climbing back from the Glacier, we started our journey via Keystone Canyon couple of miles ahead on the highway itself. This stretch of approx. 3-4 miles running through the canyon with river flowing on one side and multiple waterfalls coming down from the top of mountains is breath taking. There are spots to click photographs and park your car at two massive waterfalls (Bridal Veil and Horseback waterfalls.) Getting into late hours’ drive, and being surrounded by mist / fog formed on top of flowing river the whole place became mysterious yet enchanting, created the feeling as if this was a place in Hollywood movie where anything can happen good or bad.

Reached pretty late to our hotel next to the harbor road, overlooking amazing landscape full of mountains and glaciers surrounding the whole place. We had dinner at Totem Inn restaurant which had it’s true Alaskan feel interiors with all the native wildlife showcased in addition to good souvenir shop. Alaskan Island ice tea was a good blue variant to LIT and food was good as well. Ready for day 6? 

“Wherever you go, no matter what the weather is, always bring your own sunshine”. (Anthony J. D’Angelo)

Day 5: Valdez, Girdwood / Alyeska

Knocking raindrops on the roof of the hotel, and the celestial thunder battle of the clouds would have definitely been enough to make us stay in the house well covered watching a nice movie and popcorn. But we were at our fifth day of Alaska trip, in Valdez, a must see place for its endless mountains, salmons, waterfalls, wildlife watch and outdoor activities, not to forget about massive span of Columbia Glacier, hence – “Valdez is calling so we must go”. 

Heavy rain, fog and grey clouds surrounding the whole area playing spoil sport for our plans of kayaking around the Columbia Glacier and its icebergs floating on sea water. On a clear day it’s good to start early morning this highly recommended 8-10 hours’ water excursion.

As per the saying “Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine” /Anthony J. D’Angelo/. And so did we. With big smiles on our face, stepped out from the hotel room, and before embarking our grey horse we sniffed fresh air and unique smell of the showered plants and Earth.  Driving around the harbor we found a nice and cozy breakfast place at the harbor front called Potatoheads. Amazing place with mouth – watering food smell. Everything was homemade and fresh.

By the time we wormed up with the nice breakfast, fog decreased and rain stopped. We headed towards a place where life ends and begins, called Solomon Gulch Hatchery. We were at the right place at the right time, annual salmon run was on. Salmons try to make their way against the current to move upstream from ocean to rivers to spawn. In front of your feet you have the never ending salmon carpet, vast sea of dead salmon all over the shoreline and alongside creeks. Salmons dying on their way in pursuit to reach their destination. This place is also frequented by bears, though we did not encounter any. You could actually walk down the turbulent shoreline next to hatchery and catch your chosen salmon(s) directly by hand from the ocean water connecting to upstream creek. Fishing is not allowed over here so you just might have fun of catching salmon by bare hands and drop them back though this is not recommended due to possible presence of bears anytime.

We continued our drive towards next destination Girdwood / Alyeska, which was a seven hours’ journey from Valdez. Driving back through the spectacular waterfalls road of Key stone canyon, we had the chance to see Worthington glacier 32 miles from Valdez. Try to stop at milepost 28.7 on the Richardson Highway to view this picturesque glacier, or if weather allows take a short walk to shake hands with this gigantic formation.

Highways are long with limited or not many destinations to eat or drink on the way, hence I would recommend to carry your stock of food and drinks. We picked our stock from IGA at Glennallen, which had good stock of almost everything.

Crossing through Glennallen (Centrally located where highways from Fairbanks, Tok, Denali, Anchorage and Valdez meet at this town) and continuing our journey on Glenn Highway 1 by following the scenic Copper Valley, breathtaking views of Wrangell Mountains straight ahead on the highway towards Glennallen, scenic natural rock outcropping of Lion’s Head, Matanuska Glacier view. Palmer and Anchorage through long and winding roads with lot of opportunities for photography and landscape viewing. From Anchorage onwards to Alyeska, we started our drive on one of the most scenic and beautiful highway among the coast line called Seward Highway.

Mesmerized by the scenic drive overlooking mountains, water body of Turnagain arm, rail road running parallel to the highway and glaciers across the costal line with many viewpoints including Beluga Whales point, we reached Alyeska resort. Located in the resort town of Girdwood. Alyeska a true hidden pearl in the shell of Girdwood with beautiful landscapes, surrounded by seven glaciers, largest ski destination in Alaska during winter time. Though a bit the higher side of the cost, would recommend to include stay at this place in your itinerary simply for the class and grandeur of the resort. What was our overall experience in Alyeska? You will find out by reading day 6 in Alaska. Stay tuned and curious 😉

“Petit Bijou” – Little treasure

Day 6: Alyeska & Seaward

Euphoric state. Surrounded by seven glaciers, standing with arms wide open pointing towards the eagle eyes of endless grey clouds,. Zipping fresh air in the lungs, listening to the sound of nature. Watching down onto the towering ever green trees and green carpet, being distant from civilization and the surrounding tranquility created a sensation of being on the top of the world.

Getting up there, was easy. Alyeska, in the winters is a ski paradise, summers hiking resort. Has its own cable tram, which operates throughout the year, takes you up the hill where good restaurants and beautiful views of the seven glaciers are waiting for the visitors to host them. Restaurants open at 11AM and bar lounge “7 Glaciers” opens post noon.

After our hotel breakfast, we took the tram up the hill from where we continued our journey for about 1.5 miles hiking on a marked trail. This gradually raising height trail led us to ice field of one of the seven glaciers and breathtaking views of Turnagain arm surrounded by mountain in it’s magnificence.

Post hiking, we spent some time at the museum, where all kinds of local souvenirs where waiting to be brought home. The most cute and authentic gift item is a tiny little bottle filled with Alaska pure gold, representative of great gold rush.

Headed our way down to the hotel we still had stamina to walk and hike. There are some nice trails around the resort area inviting visitors for walk. Decided to head towards berries picking trail full of blue berries in the wild. Knowing of the existence of the bears and blue berries being their favorite snack of the day, picking those berries was increasing the level of adrenaline. Berries were delicious, sweet and tasty, organic raised by the mother nature, washed and fed by rain drops and pampered by the combination of fresh air and sun raises. Worth the effort, but stay alert!

Back in time the lure of gold attracted many individuals to this area, so does today. Many tourists visit this place to try their luck. Post the berry picking trail, we headed towards Gold mine creek, where visitors can try luck in finding gold dust from the river creek flowing alongside.  While there is no gold mine now, houses and work areas, tools etc. have been kept the way they were. The ambience and atmosphere is very authentic; you feel like you are back in time. Walking around those old houses, scrolling your hand on them, you could sense how this place might have been several decades back. The hope, ambition generated energy by “gold hunters” have been preserved by the surrounding trees and plants. Wild nature, sound of the gurgling water, sparkling flowers give the “masala”, the flavor of this place. Staff is very helpful in explaining how we can search for gold ourselves. Fun activity!! Never know where and when you meet your luck!

Started our journey towards Seward which is around 1.5 hours from Alyeska. We did not include Portage lake (glacier lake) and its Glacier in our itinerary, however if time permits, you might like to include that along with a drive to Whittier city (about 58 miles southeast of Anchorage) through the great Alaskan tunnel. While in Whittier, you can also explore glacier cruises.

We reached Seward in the evening and post check in to the hotel and dropping or bags, went towards Seward Sealife Centre on 4th Ave. For people who have visited Aquariums in Chicago, San Diego or Monterey, might find this sea life center small, however it is worth the visit for its diversified collection of sea life and coastal view from open deck.

Seward is a tiny town primarily habited around harbor, hence we decided to have our dinner at harbor front restaurants at 4th Ave. Slightly high priced, but great views of harbor, ships and mountains along the sea.

Day 7 Seward

And the big day arrived!

The day when we onboard the boat to go out on the sea and watch for 8.5 hours the scenic view, sea life and remaining small portion of the ice field, which keeps decreasing hour by hour due to the falling ice. Standing on the deck of the boat was clearly audible the weird noise of the falling ice, the air was chilled and water was full with ice chunks. At some point my mind pictured the movie Titanic. Romantic, scary, dramatic, historic and at the same time beautiful by its scenic view.

While floating in the sea, be watchful and have your eyes wide open because eagles, sea lions, humpback whales, puffin birds and dolphins occasionally make surprise visits and greet visitors. Have your camera ready.

We managed to get the “Tail shot” of humpback whale from a distance while it played around in the water for quite some time before taking a long deep dive.

Would recommend this tour as it gives opportunity to explore sea life at its best and amazing views of Magnificent Glacier with its cracking sound of ice falling into the sea. Ocean cruise of Kenai Fjords National Park and Glacier View starts at 10AM inclusive of lunch on the cruise and dinner at Fox Island.

Fox Island is another great place to visit, with lot of history and beauty. Dinner at Fox Island was good.

 Day 8 – Final Day in Alaska

Post breakfast, we headed towards Exit Glacier which is also approachable by road and 8 miles of diversion on the way to Anchorage.

Exit Glacier is an arm of Herald Ice field. You can do a hiking trail of six to eight hours on Herald Ice field starting from exit glacier, however we limited to two hours of hike from glacier view to edge of glacier. At the edge of glacier, you could feel and hear sound of glacier moving down the mountain.

Continued our journey towards Anchorage to explore Anchorage city, its malls and market spaces before heading back to the airport budding farewell to Alaska.

looking forward to explore more of this wilderness again as there is so much we have seen and so much more to be still explored in Alaska.

No goodbyes, just ‘See you soon Alaska’