Alaska Trip – May 21-27, 2021

We also saw Ptarmigan – state bird of Alaska.

We were back by 4.30 pm.

We then drove to Talkeetna about 3 hours. We wanted to see Mt. Denali, and we stopped on the way at a couple of viewpoints. But Denali was always in the clouds and nowhere to be seen.

We ate a sit down dinner at a restaurant to celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary.

We came back to the lodge by 10.20 pm. Lodge was really nice in the wilderness, but it had heating, water and electricity. Very comfortable.

Sun, May 23

We wanted to take a flight to do Mt. Denali viewing. But there were no flights available. Everything was booked. We thought we would have to change our plans and drive back up from Anchorage. Luckily, when we woke up in the morning, we called Talkeetna Air Taxi and they called back saying they had a booking available at 11 am. Perfect for us. The flight was about $330 per person, but the experience was worth it.

The flight took off around 11:30 am. Alex was our pilot.

Once we reached above the clouds at around 15,000 ft, we saw Mt. Denali above the clouds.  Denali (also known as Mount McKinley, its former official name) is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet  above sea level. 20,310 ft may seem less compared to Himalayas, but since snow in Alaska starts at 800 ft above sea level, and Denali climbing starts at 7,000 ft, climbing 13,000 ft of Denali takes 21 days, a pretty tough task. So it is a hard mountain to climb.

We saw fantastic views from the 8 seater plane.

Our flight landed on the Ruth glacier. Ruth Glacier is a glacier in Denali National Park and Preserve its upper reaches are approximately 3 vertical miles below the summit of Denali. The glacier’s “Great Gorge” is one mile wide, and drops almost 2,000 feet over 10 miles, with crevasses along the surface. Above the surface on both sides are 4,900-foot granite cliffs. From the top of the cliffs to the bottom of the glacier is a height exceeding that of the Grand Canyon. Ruth Glacier moves at a rate of three feet per day and was measured to be 4,000 feet thick in 1983.

The views on the glacier were amazing. Surprisingly, it was not too cold. We were able to step outside with a light jacket. It was cool to see all the flights that had landed on the Ruth glacier. There was also one small hotel with electricity on Ruth glacier which charged $10,000 per night for up to 10 people.
We came back around 1.30 pm. It took about 1.5 hour flight including landing.

See the tall peak Denali in the background from Ruth Glacier. Still partially covered by clouds.

Our flight took off from the glacier on skis.

We then drove all the way down past Anchorage (largest city in Alaska) to Seward, the southernmost city connected by railroad in Alaska. We reached Seward around 6 pm.

We went to do the Exit Glacier hike. We broke the safety warning sign and went further. I was not happy about breaking the safety sign limit. The views were fantastic. They had  posted signs about where the glacier was in 1815, 1870, 1926, 2000, 2010 etc. That gave us a view of how the glacier was retreating.

Aditya and Sahil went all the way up the rocks. Anu and I stopped a little earlier. We came back by about 8.30 pm.

We came back and stayed at Steller Inn in Seward. It was a very nice and cozy place. Maya was the manager at the facility and she had immigrated from Belgrade, Serbia about 5 years ago. Since we were the only guests in the facility, she had a long conversation with us. We talked about our trip to Belgrade in 2017.

Mon, May 24

I took the day off on Monday.

We went to Seward Downtown. We took the 11.30 am Kenai Fjords cruise and came back by 5.30 pm. The cost of the cruise was $169 per person. We checked into the cruise at around 10 am and then hung around until the cruise started.

We had a beautiful sunny day. We spent a lot of time on the boat deck.

The cruise went all the way to Holgate glacier. Very nice cruise.

We saw Orca Whales, Humpback Whales, Black Bear, Mountain Goat at a weird place up on a mountain, Dall Porpoise. We also saw lots of birds, but interesting no puffins. Apparently, puffins are beautiful birds seen all over Alaska, but we did not see them.

We returned from the cruise at 5.30 pm and drove to Anchorage, checked in at Four Points Sheraton.

Tue, May 25

Aditya and I started work in the morning at 5.30 am Alaska and completed my work by about 1 pm (5 pm Eastern). This was the routine everyday. That way I could get my work done and still have time left over to do some sightseeing in the afternoon and evening.

At 1 pm we started for Whittier. Whittier Tunnel – Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel—the longest (2.5 miles) highway tunnel in North America, and the first designed for -40 Fahrenheit temperatures and 150 mph winds! The one-lane tunnel was built in the 1940s by US Army and must be shared by cars and trains traveling in both directions, and it usually needs to be aired out in between trips (with jet turbine ventilation, another first!). This unique design that enables a single lane of traffic to travel directly over the railroad track saved tens of millions of dollars over the cost of constructing a new tunnel. We caught the 2.30 pm tunnel crossing to Whitter, you can only cross at designated times because the traffic is unidirectional. 2.30 pm (to Whittier) and 7 pm (way back from Whittier).

We did the Portage Glacier Hike. About 6 miles (10 km) in ankle deep snow. Very challenging hike. it took us nearly 4 hours. We were totally soaked when we came back.

We were caught a 1 hour traffic jam on the way back to Anchorage because only one way traffic was being allowed due to road paving.

Kids and Anu ate at Olive Garden. I ate at Taco Bell because I was hungry earlier. We came back to the hotel by about 10.30 pm.

Wed, May 26

Aditya and I worked in the morning and completed work at around 1 pm.

At 1 pm, drove to Potter Creek parking, about 1 hour from Anchorage. We did the 6 mile (10 km) part of the Turnagain Arm Trail until McHugh trailhead. Turnagain Arm is a waterway into the northwestern part of the Gulf of Alaska. It is one of two narrow branches at the north end of Cook Inlet, the other being Knik Arm. Turnagain is subject to climate extremes and large tide ranges.

We also saw an engine being used on the Alaska Railroad to plow snow that piles up on the tracks during winters.

We finished around 5.30 pm and then we drove to Potter Marsh, a huge marsh created due to the Alaska railroad. A long wooden walkway has been built above the marsh. It is a beautiful location. We saw a bald eagle with another visitor’s binoculars.

For dinner, we ate Indian food at Taste of India in Anchorage. Paneer, Dum Aloo, Dal. Decent food.

Thu, May 27

We worked in the morning and checked out at 12.30 pm.

We dropped kids off at Alaska Aviation Museum from 12.40 to 2.40 pm. Anu and I stayed back to pack our stuff and get ready to check out. The museum’s mission since 1988, is to preserve, display, and honor Alaska’s aviation heritage, by preserving and displaying historic aircraft, artifacts, and memorabilia, and to foster public interest in aviation and its history. The museum has over thirty aircraft on display, a restoration hangar, flight simulators, two theaters, and a Hall of Fame.

At around 2.45 pm, we drove to Matanuska Glacier, north east of Anchorage reached there at 4.50 pm. On the way, we passed Wasilla, where Sarah Palin was the mayor from 1996-2002.
Matanuska Glacier is a valley glacier in the US state of Alaska. At 27 miles (43 km) long by 4 miles (6.4 km) wide, it is the largest glacier accessible by car in the United States. We took a guided tour of the glacier and did a 2.5 mile hike on the glacier with micro spikes. The cost of the tour was $75 per person. We finished at 7.15 pm.

The guides were college kids who were interning in Alaska. They said that glacial mud is good for the skin. So we applied it on our faces.

The scenery was quite stunning.

We saw some deep crevasses. The bluer the ice, the deeper is the crevasse.

We drove back directly to Anchorage. We drove to Kincaid Park (near Anchorage downtown) which was closed because it was 10.20 pm when we reached there.

We finally reached Anchorage Airport at 10.30 pm to catch our flight to Salt Lake City at 1.00 am on Friday.  We took the 1.00 am flight on Delta on Friday morning – Anchorage -> Salt Lake City and landed in Salt Lake City at 7.00 am.

Our Alaska trip was memorable. All four of us were together and we saw some amazing sights.