Don’t forget to read Part 1 of this saga before you venture here!
Continuing onwards…
Day 4: September 6th, Thursday
Left for Talkeetna early morning. Got ourselves a cup of strong Hazelnut flavored americano to go. Perfect… :)
Our first stop on the way was The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Centre situated just before Portage on the Seward Highway. Check out the magnificent views of the Portage Glacier that we got from here
The conservation centre, we got to know, housed orphaned and weak animals left in the wild. As per Alaskan law, an animal once domesticated cannot be left out into the wild. Hence the animals we saw here had become quite comfortable with their surroundings. Can’t blame them — the views were amazing from this part of the valley.
We had our first encounter with many of the native land animal species here including:
- Wood bison
- Reindeer
- Black bear
- Elk
- Moose (4 month old and Adult ones as well)
The next stop in our journey was Girdwood with its World famous Alyeska ski resort. After taking the (ski)trolley up to the hill-top observatory, we got some great views of the so-called Turnagain arm as well as the Alyeska Glacier - Truly a fabulous place. Not to be forgotten as well was the sumptuous sandwich snacking we did here!
A bit about Girdwood here. This is a small resort mountain town located near the end of Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet. It sits amongst lush green forest and is surrounded by the peaks of the Chugach Mountain Range.
We got some interesting bits of history from the Girdwood Gift shop, informing us of the rich history of the Glacier city (what Girdwood used to be called previously).
Thrilled from this great experience, we then moved onwards on our journey, getting some magnificent views of the picturesque mountains. We took multiple stops to catch this breathtaking natural scenery along the way. Finally reached Talkeetna before dusk, (situated at the confluence of 3 rivers, The Susitna,Chulitna and Talkeetna rivers) and were just-in-time to catch the Mahay Jet Boat tour on the Susitna river! The tour was a bit hasty and overpriced, but it did take us into the wilderness navigating through the river which was previously inaccessible . We also got to view the nesting bald eagles!!
The guide, a local, also took us on a land tour of a trapper’s lodge. Here she showed us various different furs of some game animals hunted by trappers in the Denali Forest. It was extremely interesting learning about the hard life they led. Got a glimpse of the insides of their lodge too!!
While here I managed to get some snapshots of wild mushrooms and cotton.
After a tiring day filled with plenty of excitement and adventure, all we wished for was to crash at our stay. But alas we had a flat tyre!! Since it was pitch dark we slowly drew to our Log Cabin, putting off the tyre change for the next morning.We had booked The Talkeetna Wolf Den cabin which was simply awesome. It had a well stocked kitchen having all basic amenities and some board games and books as well. It had a homestay kind of feel to it and kept us warm and cozy through the night.
The puncture repair took a bit of work and help from the Cabin owner, whom we approached the next morning. Jeff, the designated tyre guy of the village was unavailable as he had a doctor’s appointment to keep, so we put the stepney and went all the way to Trappers Creek Trading Post 40 miles onward to Denali. Yes this was indeed the nearest repair shop!!
Day 5: September 7th, Friday
Now in between our tyre fiasco, we had to catch a flight over Denali, land on a glacier, and fly back to safety, like a boss! We did have to wake up quite early for a 8:15am pickup.
We had booked a Glacier landing tour with the K2 Aviation company and suffice to say, they do put their money where their mouth is. Not kidding, they literally flew us 50 miles into the Denali National Park landing on Ruth Glacier at 5600 foot level. This was the base of Mount Denali which is the tallest peak of N.America standing Majestically at 20,310 ft.
The flight-seeing tour views of the Alaskan range slopes and the gorges were simply breathtakingly beautiful not to say the scariest too!! The snow-capped mountains were seemingly at a touching distance.But landing and walking on the glacier was an other-worldly experience altogether. It felt so surreal seeing so much of pristine white snow all around.And we were in the midst of all this heavenly natural beauty. This turned out to be one of the best adventures of the entire Alaskan trip!!!
After the K2 adventure, we left for Denali, capturing some great views on the way. We passed by Cantwell, which mostly seemed like a ghost city. Adding to this spookiness was the mysterious Igloo hotel right in the middle of nowhere.
After reaching Denali, we checked into our homestay at Cabins at Denali. We wanted to go see a cultural show at the Denali Education Center so we made our way back south on the Parks highway. On the way we spotted our first pair of wild Moose!
We were to be disappointed with the Denali Education Center as the place was practically shut down being the season-end.But we did manage to get a great view of the Nenana River though. The day showed us another twist of a good turnaround when we got to feast on Caribou meat at the Lynx Creek Pizzeria. Anuj was denied a drink here, but we managed to get him an interesting cocktail nevertheless.
Day 6: September 8th, Saturday
We woke up super early to take the Tundra wilderness tour at 7am. We were dressed up our heaviest till now, though luckily in layers because it gets pretty warm towards the afternoon.
The next 8 hours saw us traveling up the Denali Park road, deep into the national park. 92 miles long, the Denali Park Road parallels the Alaskan Range and travels through low valleys and high mountain passes. It is the only road in the park, mostly unpaved, and reaches upto the Kantishna Roadhouse. During summer private vehicles may drive uptill the first fifteen miles of this road to a place called Savage River. The road to Savage River is paved with numerous pull-outs for visitors to camp and enjoy the park.
Along the way, we were treated to some magnificent views with beautiful landscapes seen at every turn whilst offering various opportunities of viewing the majestic Mt.Denali. It was mostly foggy to start with. Then all of a sudden, the bright rays at 9am helped to turn the fog away.
Although our Bus only took us till Mile 60 or so, we managed to see a ton of wildlife, albeit with the aide of our Binocs(Nikon…), namely
- Moose
- Reindeer (a.k.a Caribou)
- Grizzly bear(freaking 9 of them)
- Dall sheep (up on the mountains to stay away from predators)
- Squirrel
I was not carrying a telescopic lens so I was not able to come up with good shots although even with one would have been tough as we were inside the bus.The tour was over as expected by 2pm. We were much tired yet decided to take a short trek to Mt.Healy thinking it would help us burn off some calories, alongside getting up close with nature.
We still had our doubts whether the pizza we had last night had been caribou meat, so we proceeded to the Canyon Steakhouse at Mckinley Chalet Hotel to get some proper Caribou Steak. Needless to say we were not dissapointed :)
Onwards to Part 3 of this series now…
