Alaska vacation ideas ?

[ronny]

I concur on the "seeing the mountain" comment. The day I went north for that purpose turned out to be a glorious one. The view of the mountain was spectacular. You could even see the blue ice of the glacier. Old-timers commented on the rarity of such a day for viewing. There's a big lodge (I forget the name) south of the mountain which has a great viewing area.

 

[7stw]

Just got back this evening. Wonderful trip. Started in anchorage stayed the first night there then picked up rental. The air port is neat. Lots of native art and some badass mounts.

Cruised around Fairbanks for a few hours then headed north. Did a few good stops while in anchorage. Barneys sports chalet was one of my highlights of anchorage. They make and sell sheep hunting gear and are sheep hunters themselves.

snow sheep from Russia one of the owners killed.
Also stopped at the local SAMs club for a few things. Camping hunting and meat processing equipment where a welcome sight there. Had an awesome pizza at the mooses tooth there in anchorage as well.
Drove from anchorage to talkeetnna without stopping in Palmer or wassilla (part of return trip). Stayed at a nice bed and breakfast called the Denali overlook inn. Super nice place friendly owners with a spectacular view. Denali is 60 nautical miles but was clouded in during our stay.

these are views from our room. That's all for tonight. Will post more of the journey and pictures tomorrow.



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[dennishoddy]

Love the pics! Keep em coming!

 

[7stw]

Went and had dinner at the west rib in talkeetnna. The next morning went back into talkeetnna and went a few places there. The ranger station was extremely informative. Interesting that's the stop point and briefing station for every climber who attempts Denali. Neat local museum there as well. Left and headed towards Denali national park. Had lunch at a funky little "roadhouse" (I forget the name) along the way. Had a cabin reserved at "the perch" located about 13 miles south of the park gate. Good restaurant there by the same name. Nothing in Alaska especially the Denali area is cheap though. The cabins where a good value. Went into the town that supports Denali park a few neat bars and restaurants to check out. The boardwalk was nice as well. Had a bus trip into the park booked for the next day.

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[7stw]

The bus trip into the eielson center was awesome. It was an eight hour round trip bus ride into the park. Great experience got to see lots of wildlife. Two grizzlies six moose lost count on the caribou. Thirty five dall sheep and several different kinds of squirrels. The mountain had been clouded in for a few days. We got to see the peaks for a few miles. They say only 30% of visitors get to see Denali and we where fortunate. Got some really good pictures with my digital camera and haven't uploaded those pictures yet.

Got some neat footage of one of the Grizzlies with my digiscoping set up. Couldn't get my tripod set up so its not the greatest but still it was over a mile away. The last ram screenshot was about 1.5 miles away and close to 1500 ish vertical feet above us. If you ever find yourself in Denali I highly recommend taking one of the buses into the park. The wonder lake bus was full over two months before our arrival but the eielson bus had availability. Advance booking is recommended though. Had dinner at the "princess resort" there in Denali/healey.

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[dennishoddy]

Great pics. On our trip, we talked to several that took the bus trips into Denali. They said they didn't see any big game wild life.
I suspect they didn't know how to look for them.
Was there a naturalist on the bus that narrated during the tour?

 

[7stw]

Great pics. On our trip, we talked to several that took the bus trips into Denali. They said they didn't see any big game wild life.
I suspect they didn't know how to look for them.
Was there a naturalist on the bus that narrated during the tour?

We where really lucky in that respect. Our bus driver was a naturalist and park historian. Several aren't though it seemed luck of the draw basically, after talking to a few people back at the Rangers station.


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[7stw]

The next day we had booked an atv tour. There's an eight mile by 26 mile strip that was a coal mine in Healy that the park surrounds on three sides. Took the four hour trip. They offer a shorter one and a longer one. Got picked up by bus then driven the 15 or so miles to the headquarters. Quick safety rundown and off we went. We had a Yamaha rhino SxS the "guides" drove a four wheeler and a SxS there was only one other person in our group and he chose to drive a Polaris ace. The trails where rough but easily defined. The guides knew a lot of the local history and answered questions with good answers. Got to see some good scenery at a slower pace than the day before.

Got to stop in a glacial stream bed and get a mini geology lesson. Picked up some nice pieces of jade that we got to keep. Good fun the tour came to an end and back into town to our rental. Left Healy/Denali and headed towards Fairbanks. A short 120 mile drive. Lots of stopping points and scenic overlooks along the highway. Ate lunch at a small "roadhouse" along the way.

lots of both types of rivers. Glacial (too much silt so no fish) and traditional rivers along the way. Beautiful drive checked into our B&B where John the owner was a wealth of info on things to do and see around Fairbanks. Took advantage of the longer daylight and went to the river and park that surrounds it. Also went to the ice sculpting museum. After it closes there's a photographer who spent 50 years photographing the northern lights who has set his Picts and video to symphonic music in a wonderful mini movie. At only ten bucks it was one of the real highlights of the trip for me.

After the northern lights show took the short drive north to fox where right along the highway there's a neat display of the Alaska pipeline. Several facts and figures as well as some scale models of the pipeline and some of the various devices used along it route. Back to Fairbanks tried a highly recommended bbq place in town. Reminded me of a swadleys or similar here in the states except you could get reindeer hot links which of course I had to try.


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[dennishoddy]

Awesome!

 

[7stw]

The next day we got up and went to the large meat animal research station the college has in Fairbanks. They raise Muskox caribou/raindeer moose and also a few cows. The vet students work there. Pretty neat tour really. It was 10 bucks a person but really informative. Next stop was the tattoo shop. We had decided to get wedding band tats and what better place to get them than Alaska lol. From there we went to the museum of the north at the college. Amazing display of early artifacts and art etc. as well as many pieces of natural history of the state. Highly recommend a trip if you ever make it to Fairbanks. From there we had a late lunch at a local cafe. Stopped into SAMs just to check prices etc. went to the dog mushing/sledding museum next. Neat display. From there we went to pioneer park. Awesome museum and several shops with local artisans selling their wears. Went to the aviation museum there as well. Had dinner at "the salmon bake" it's an outdoors buffet with salmon cod crab and prime rib. Best food we had on our trip. All you can eat for 35 dollars. The grilled salmon was incredible the glaze the put on it was incredible. So good I asked the chef what it was and he gave me the recipe. Final stop of the evening was the tanenan valley state fair. It's more like a district fair and really reminded me o a county fair in Arkansas. Educational booths livestock various contests for baking and gardening etc. midway/carnival rides as well. Goats and pigs where the popular livestock although they had a few reindeer and a couple of cows. Other than the daylight till almost midnight and the reindeer show it felt just like a fair here. Long fun day that even though we where constantly moving was fairly relaxing.

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