This is the second phase of the Alaskas Trip, covering Montana, Canada, and Alaska from Prudhoe Bay south on to Seward. it is continued from Phase I published in July.
Montana and Glacier National Park
Upper Quartz Lake; where we camped
Female Bighorn sheep
Looking back over Glacier Park along the Mary River
Alberta, Canada
First Canadian Sunset
In Banff Park
Edmonton, Canada
We stopped in Edmonton to spend a couple days with my pal Roman, a guy I met while traveling Europe. We had a good time.
With the race track girls
Sharing a little Texas-Mexico neighborly fun
Ian’s rockin’ out
Alaska Highway
Here we begin driving the famous Alaska highway. The Alkan was built by the American Army as a supply route to defend Alaska and especially the Aleutian Islands from Japanese invasion. The impressive 1,523 mile road was complete in only 8 months
Rare woodland buffalo
Smith falls
Signpost village in Watson Lake, Yukon
We tracked down the sign for Austin and eventually…
the sign for San Marcos
A black bear making a hasty get away
Sunset over Faro
Ian pretending to be a Tommyknocker mining elf
This location along the Yukon river was the setting for the fiery wreck of the steamboat Columbian in 1906
A tilting building in Dawson City
At the Dawson City bluegrass festival, celebrating the midnight sun
Paragliders over Dawson City
Alaska
Finally made it!
It’s a big state!
At the Chicken Saloon in Chicken Alaska, population 21. 1 pool table, over 1,000 old caps
With the official mascot of Chicken at the post office
Mother moose and calf
Dalton Highway
The next set of pictures are all from our run up and down the Dalton Highway. The Dalton was built as a haul road to service Prudhoe Bay and the Trans-Alaska pipeline. It was opened to the public in 1996, but is still mostly unpaved with only two service stations the whole 440 miles. It runs through some gorgeous tundra, and right through the impressive Brooks Mountain range right up to the Arctic Ocean. This highway would take us above the Arctic Circle up to Prudhoe Bay, the farthest North you can drive in Alaska.
Beginning the long drive up the Dalton highway.
Reaching the end in Deadhorse, AK.
One filthy truck
A bay connecting to the Arctic ocean
Arctic Fox
Anderson Alaska
We once again stumbled onto another music festival in Anderson, Alaska
One giant ice cream cone; it was good too!
The fire dancing 7 year old
Denali National Park
After Anderson we reached Denali Nation Park, one of our top destinations for the entire trip. Denali is a rare and special type of place. For one thing it’s huge, nearly 6 million acres. There are also no private vehicles allowed within the wilderness area, nor are there any trails through the back country. Navigation is up to the hiker, by map and compass. It feels much more wild and pristine than any other park I’ve ever visited.
We spent four days in the Denali back country. We hiked along a high ridgeline and camped in the creek valleys, which gave us splendid views of the valleys below. The weather ranged from driving cold rain to 70 MPH winds up on the summit of Sable Mountain to warm 75 degree sun. We were able to see Grizzly bears, a bull moose, caribou, many Dall sheep, and even a rare white wolf. At one point we relaxed in camp while a Golden eagle soared over head, lord of the high country.
The impact of Denali on me was tremendous. It was here that the weight and majesty of this land finally hit me, and I realized that I was standing in a place that I’d wanted to visit since I was very young. Add to that the raw natural quality of the back country wilderness and the experience was tremendous. I can’t adequately put into words what I felt here, but I was moved to near-tears several times. It is a place I will return to.
Hitting the trail in the rain
Fireweed and a busy bee
Wonder Lake
The summit of Mount McKinley, unveiled from the clouds
A busy beaver
Rain sweeping in
One ugly animal
Ian up on Sable Ridge
How many Ptarmigan can you spot? (Hint: there are 7 birds in that picture!)
One BIG grizzly print! My knife is about 3” long! We would later discover that it was a mother traveling with cubs.
One of the Denali sled dogs. The park still uses sleds to patrol the back country in the winter. They are still the best way to cover the 70 mile run out to Wonder lake.
A blue-eyed sleepy sled dog
Kenai Peninsula
We said goodbye to Denali and headed for the Kenai to check out the towns of Homer and Seward
Port of Homer
Bald eagle on the beach
From Homer we traveled on to Seward. Seward is a great fishing community situated right on Ressurection Bay. It is one of my favorite towns so far. We stayed in Seward for six days, unable to leave the little piece of paradise. We camped right along the shore line, and had amazing weather. We also caught a lot of fish! We took a charter the first day and both limited out on Halibut and Silver Salmon. We also released 7 other halibut, several big ling cod, and countless dog fish. We shipped 62 lbs. of fillets home to the parents. Then we found a great rocky shore line and spent the next three days catching pink salmon. We released almost all of them each day, but kept 1 a night for dinner. You can’t beat fresh salmon each night! In all we landed around 50 salmon from the rocks, including a few big males that were ready for spawn.
The view from our camp site in Seward
The first pink Salmon of the trip
Headed offshore aboard the Crackerjack
Ian hooked up to a good fish on the butterfly jig
Taking it easy after limiting out for the day
Rods and blue sky
The day’s catch
Lure-caught pink salmon
Ian with a good fish
A humpy male just before release
Can’t beat the scenery back drop
Big Grand daddy Humpy!
Today we leave Seward, and head for the Wrangell-St. Elias National Forest. Our time is running short, but we plan to get one more back-packing trip in, and maybe just a little more fishing too. We’ll be back in Texas by September!
