Alaska | America's Last Frontier

After eight years in the US, we finally made it to Alaska, America’s Last Frontier. Alaska has the second-largest concentration of National Parks after California. Over the course of 12 days, we visited four of its eight.

Denali

Upon arriving in Alaska, the first thing that struck us was the temperature difference between an Alaskan and Pacific Northwest summer. We left Portland at 90F/30C and arrived in Fairbanks at 50F/10C. By the time we got to Denali, the evenings had dropped just above freezing, and we had gusts of 80mph winds. Goodbye shorts, hello to puffer jackets and woolly hats…

After an overnight pitstop in Fairbanks, we took the once-a-day southbound tourist train and arrived at Denali National Park four hours later. Home to North America’s highest peak (Mt. Denali), which stands over 20,000ft tall, the Park spans over 6 million acres - larger than the state of Massachusetts.

Despite its size, most tourists, including ourselves, only explore a small sliver, accessible only by the one road in the park. Due to a landslide a few years ago, only 43 of the 92 miles of the road are currently open and only accessible via a Park bus. These retrofitted school buses (painted NP Green vs. Yellow) take visitors into the Park, allow brave hikers to explore on foot, and, most importantly, be bear-aware!

When you see a section of the park you like, you shout at the driver (quite literally!), and they let you off. Little did we realize the majority of the buses were full of retired pensioners, so not only were we bringing the age range down, but they deemed us crazy for stepping off the bus and not heading straight back to the warmth of the visitors center and gift shop! Armed with bear spray & camera, you're free to explore, making your own trail.

Over the next few days, we hiked over 20 miles in the Park. We were lucky enough to see Mt Denali free of clouds (which only happens <20% of the summer), hiked up mountain passes, along ridges, and around lakes. As well as spotting Moose, Caribou, Ptarmigan (a small Alaskan bird that Mel calls a dumb Chicken), and a Grizzly Bear.

We left Denali and continued to take the once-a-day southbound train. This time, the destination was Anchorage, home to ~40% of Alaska's population. For this leg of the trip, we managed to book tickets in a railcar with a glass-domed ceiling, which provided panoramic views, an outdoor viewing platform, and free alcoholic beverages, which we made the most of during the 8-hour trip... Mel behaved and stopped at 3 Vodka Diets as she was already rallying troops to head 'out out' in Anchorage. Thankfully, we are in our mid-thirties now and decided finding a laundrette and having clean clothes for the next 6 days was more important...

Lake Clark

After a quick overnight stop in Anchorage, we left early the following day to fly to Lake Clark National Park. This involved getting a small <10 seater aircraft, ~1 hour flying through mountains, over Glaciers and lakes, landing in a small community (<150 people) called Port Alworth in the National Park. We checked into our lodge for the next couple of days.

We either hiked to some local waterfalls and alpine lakes from our lodge or took a float plane to an even more remote location. In one adventure, we stopped by a famous trapper cabin built by the 1960’s influencer Dick Proenneke who filmed himself [link] building a cabin using only hand tools and surviving in this wilderness. Mel used the most remote toilet (if you can call it that) she has ever used. No walls but great views…

Katmai

Katmai is famous for having the largest population of Brown Bears in the world and for the iconic photos of them catching salmon from Brooks Falls, which we were lucky enough to see in person, and it 100% lived up to the hype [check out the live webcam]. We loved it!!!

Katmai is only accessible by float plane, and we were lucky enough that Lake Clark Lodge had options for a day trip. After a 1.5-hour flight on a four-seater float plane, we were happy to arrive with our breakfasts still in our stomachs. Neither of us are good flyers - the smaller the aircraft, the worse we seem to get.

After the morning at Brooks Falls, we flew over the valley of the ten thousand smokes, where we saw the remnants of a large volcanic eruption that took place over 100 years ago, covering the landscape in tons of ash and pumice.

On our way back to the lodge, we took a detour to fly up a river valley with an ongoing salmon run. This meant we saw 20+ bears enjoying their all-you-can-eat buffet.

Kenai Fjords

Our final few days took us south to Seward. We used this as a base to explore parts of the park on foot and by boat. Mel found a fantastic Airbnb in a converted WWII railway car with views of the harbor and surrounding mountains.

We got close to many glaciers and saw Orcas (our second whale of the trip, having seen Belugas in a river), Bald Eagles, Sea Otters, Puffins, and Seals. The photo below shows the boat in front of the glacier — a great reference to how big they can be.

Final Thoughts on Alaska

Remote, wild, and stunning. We BEARly (terrible pun, we know) touched the surface of what Alaska has to offer. I’m sure we will be back in the future, but DEFINITELY need a little break from small planes, bear spray, and the fear of a moose charging at you!

What’s Next

4 days in Portland before our next trip to Maui and Kauai with Ben’s parents. It will be nice to trade in the winter clothes for shorts and sunglasses. Aloha!