Editor’s note: it’s fun to read about places I’ve been from the perspective of another writer. It is even more fun to read about the exact trip I was on. I was with Jackie (she is my mother, as you might recall) on this Alaska trip. My articles will come out later on, so here’s her wonderful overview. For more of Jackie’s writing, click here to visit her index page.

We accompanied Jonathan and his girlfriend and my cousins on a wonderful trip to Alaska.  The trip included a 7 day cruise from Vancouver, Canada and a 5 day land extension.  The cruise stopped at or visited Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), and Hubbard Glacier prior to ending at Seward.  The 5 day extension including a 5 hour boat trip in Kenai Fjords, a visit to the Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, a 5 hour trip into Denali National Park, and a Discovery Boat trip in Fairbanks, along with all the transportation between these places.

Jonathan is writing up all the details, history, and more about the various places.  I wanted to talk about the major themes of the trip (not counting spending nearly two weeks with people I love) – the natural beauty of the scenery, the wildlife, and the indigenous population.  These themes will cut across the various places we visited. 

Scenery

Alaska (at least the part we saw) is gorgeous.  I was surprised (but shouldn’t have been) at the large number of rivers and lakes.  This is despite an average rainfall in many of the places we visited of only 12” per year (including the water content of the snow). 

The mountains are also beautiful – especially Denali.  We were fortunate to see the mountain both from a distance from the south as well as closer up in Denali National Park and even on our airplane flight home.  Denali is more than 20,000 feet tall and takes weeks to climb, partially due to getting used to the high elevation, but also because there is always snow.  It is very close to the Arctic Circle, unlike Mount Everest and the Himalayas. 

Besides Denali, the other mountains have varying rock features and beautiful color.  In addition to the rock colors there was also some fall foliage, with red and yellow shrubs. 

We saw several glaciers on our trip.  First was the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.  I had last seen the glacier 20 or so years ago and at that time it was right behind the Visitor Center.  Now it has retreated (due to global warming) and is 1.5 miles away from the Visitor Center.  We walked to the lake beneath the glacier, and saw the glacier and the beautiful Nugget Falls nearby.

The cruise itself went to Hubbard Glacier – which is an enormous, thick, and beautiful glacier.  We were lucky that the clouds lifted so we could see it.  Note the bluish color due to the fact that the glacial ice absorbs the longer (red) wavelengths and scatters the shorter (blue) wavelengths. 

Finally, we saw Aialik Glacier in Kenai Fjords.  This is an extremely active glacier, with many large chunks falling off while we were nearby.  Losing these chunks is called calving and one never knows if or when or which piece of a glacier will fall off next. 

Wildlife

No story of Alaska wildlife would be complete without talking about salmon.  We were fortunate to be present during the run of the chum salmon in Ketchikan.  When we first looked at the river, we only saw a few dead, silver fish and were disappointed.  Then we looked closer and saw a huge number of dark salmon, which are hard to make out in the picture.  We followed the river up past some rapids (and a fish ladder) and thought that none of the salmon had made it up there.  But again, there were tons of them!  It is amazing when you see what they have to endure to get up to where they spawn.

Bald eagles were also present in several of the places we visited – notably Ketchikan and Icy Strait Point.  We never tired of seeing them in the trees above the rivers or near the shores.  In Sitka we visited the Alaska Raptor Center, where they rehabilitate raptors (mostly eagles, but also owls, hawks, falcons, and more).  These raptors have been hurt in some way and the staff works to be able to release them.  When we visited, there were only two raptors (both bald eagles, one adult and one juvenile) in their flight training center, perhaps because they released 18 raptors earlier this year.  They also had other raptors which could not be released due to their injuries.

Seeing whales is another special feature of Alaska.  We sometimes saw their spouts at a distance from the cruise ship.  Then on the boat in Kenai Fjords National Park, we saw a whale floating on its back with its flippers in the air – one or the other or both.  The whale was quite close to the boat, and our captain said it was basically playing!  But oh, so much fun to watch!

On the Kenai Fjords boat trip, we also saw seals, sea lions, otters, and a number of kinds of birds including puffins. 

Last but not least was the wildlife in Denali.  We were privileged to see the four large mammal species that one has a reasonable chance of seeing – moose, caribou, bear, and Dall sheep.  Unlike the last time we were in Denali (about 20 years ago), the buses are now equipped with a high magnification camera that the bus driver/guide uses to enlarge the animals, and then there were monitors for the passengers so we could see the animals too.

We saw a few moose, at least one with a baby, but they were in and amongst the trees, so hard to see fully.  We saw many caribou, including one which was walking on the road in front of the bus with a huge rack! 

We saw one brown (grizzly) bear at a great distance.  Finally, we saw a group of Dall sheep.  At a distance, they were just white dots, but with the camera they were fuzzy sheep – including lambs.  On the way into Denali, the sheep were spread out.  But on our way back out, the sheep were in a clump.  With the driver’s camera we could see that there was a golden eagle, that was (according to our driver/guide) trying to attack one of the lambs.  Considering that the lambs were born in spring and we were in Denali in late August, they probably weighed 30 or more pounds.  But on-line one can read that the golden eagles go after newborn lambs and can carry them off, even though the eagles only weight 8-15 pounds.  Virtually the whole bus was rooting for the sheep and lambs.  Eventually the sheep that our driver/guide said was the matriarch reared up and then the eagle flew off and the sheep dispersed because the threat was gone.  A National Geographic moment!

Indigenous Population

Estimates say that indigenous people reached Alaska 15,000 or more years ago, long before Europeans reached Alaska.  They were part of many different tribes.  The Native Heritage Center in Anchorage has artifacts, historical facts, life-size models of their houses, and other information on some of these tribes or groups of tribes.  The history includes a discussion of boarding schools, where native kids were taken from their families and sent to these schools where the goal was to have them “assimilate,” which meant to eliminate their knowledge of their native languages and customs.  These schools lasted from 1879 (shortly after the United States purchased Alaska) until late in the 20th century.  Recently that trend has been reversed with native languages now being taught (to avoid losing them) and their games and dances being honored and demonstrated at places like the Native Heritage Center.

We saw an exhibition of their games.  These were games where the participants competed one at a time in exercises demanding strength, agility, balance, and concentration.  For instance, there was one where the participant had to start in a specific position (only one hand on the ground) and kick a tethered ball with their foot.  If a participant was successful, the ball was raised for the next participant.  The participants encouraged each other and gave each other suggestions.  Other games included a two-footed jump, followed by a one-footed jump that was itself followed by reaching as far forward as they could to stand a dowel upright on the floor in front of them and then standing back up (the latter steps taking place on one foot).  It was fascinating to watch.  All of the participants were indigenous and proud of it.

In Fairbanks we took the Riverboat Discovery boat tour.  The tour went up the river to the Chena Village, which features indigenous guides who explained their history and life style.  Included were presentations on the various kinds of pelts and what they were used for, as well as the kinds of houses they had.

Nearly every place we went on this trip, we saw totem poles.  Often the totem poles told a story of a particular event (such as when the tribe migrated from one place to another) or served as a sort of coat-of-arms.  The totem poles were not worshipped.  Many of the totem poles had animals such as eagles and whales, which may have been viewed as ruling the air and sea.  The wood was usually cedar – red or yellow cedar.

We were fortunate in Hoonah (the village near Icy Strait Point) to see someone who was carving two totem poles for a local park.  The artist had various play equipment (such as a baseball and bat) on each totem (different for the two totems) and each totem pole had a girl and a boy.  On the top, one totem pole had a mom and the other had a dad.  He was carving them from yellow cedar.  One was essentially done and he said it had taken him a few months.  He also said that he was not painting them because then they would not last as long.  He said they should last 100 years!

Our trip to Alaska was fantastic.  I hope this article gives you a sense of some of the amazing things to see and do and that you put Alaska on your bucket list.

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