Alaska 2010 (Our Asses Go To Alaska)
Tuesday 8/24/10
Plan was to go South and East, check out some glaciers, and go to Seward, a southern coastal town. Why, because it's there. Highway 1 South to Portage Glacier Road, to Whittier, back out to Highway 1, Highway 9 South, to Exit Glacier Road (Kenai Fjords National Park), back to 1, then finish at Seward. Then Highway 9 and 1 back to Anchorage.
Once again, we're up at dawn and down to the breakfast room to eat to our hearts content. By the way, we didn't take any photos of the breakfast room while we were there, but here's a couple off the Hotel sight.
I can still taste those cinnamon rolls... mmmmm mmmmmm....
Anyway, let's begin the show... The first shot is on Highway 1 just at it's approaches the shore of what's called Turnagain Arm... and then the rest are as we gradually make our way along shore.
Driving along that road is just eye candy, every corner you come around is another beautiful view... I don't know how many times we stopped to take photos. And the road had plenty of turnoffs just for that purpose. Turns out that this is one of the most dangerous stretches of road around, because locals get sick of the tourists slowing down to ogle, people get frustrated, pass in non passing zones... etc.
Judging from the photo below, things aren't so nice in the winter... Apparently in Anchorage, because it's closer to the shore they get somewhere in the neighborhood of 160 inches of snow... some areas further inland get as much as 900 inches... that doesn't even computer in my head...
Here's a piece of view across the Turnagain Arm...
Photos pointing East were difficult because the sun was up and bright...
Our Asses just couldn't get over the scenery...
At this point we had been on the road for about 40 minutes...
The further we got toward the East side of the arm, the closer we got to that fog... it was quite the site... sunshine fighting with the clouds...
I couldn't take enough photos...
And there was our first glacier sighting... on the opposite side of Portage Lake...
With the fog, the water, the clouds, mountains, glacier it was just unreal... so we planted our Asses on a rock and took in the site...
Now, just down the road, here's a little different view..
Ok, we're in a tunnel, and those are railroad tracks... This is about 8000 feet of tunnel and the only way to get into Whittier via road. There'a an elaborate gate system and speed monitoring and basically traffic going into Whittier and traffic coming out shares the tunnel with the occasional train. Each take their turns cause it's only wide enough for one. Obviously trains have the right of way. Going in was a little more reassuring because we went in in a group... coming out we were the only one's... the gate was open so we proceeded in... wondering... were we suppose to go in... and is that the end of the tunnel over there or a train...
Whittier has a beautiful bay... a very windy beautiful bay...
I guess it's a typical fishing/tourist town... Although you can see from one end of the town to the other... Population? Totally irrelevant... It did look a little depresses cause some of the tiny businesses were for sale. From what I remember there were a couple large motels there, but nothing was very crowded. Technically we were here at the end of the tourist season.
This was kind of an interesting looking shop... you could probably spend some time there looking at all the trinkets.
Anyway, we walked and drove around town a bit and headed back through the tunnel. This photo was my attempt to get a shot of the tunnel entry out my back window. It looks like you're about to drive into someone's house. Definitely high on the weird scale.
Anyway, we made our way back out on the main road. Here are some interesting shots...
In this area and others you basically had wetlands... complete with lillypads and water grasses in some areas. But the above photos are trees that dies some time ago because the salt water came up and flooded the area. The vegetation was killed, the grasses grew back, and the dead trees stand, like skeletons. By the way, we saw those black and white birds quite often. Don't know what they are.
Hmmm... in this next photo looks like someone's Alaskan Ass was drunk when they were painting that white line... Or maybe it was the guy who laid the asphalt?
Yeah, there was a lot of this kind of stuff again... and I'm just showing you a fraction of the photos I took...
Getting bored yet? We didn't.
Anyone need a few dozen screen savers or wallpapers for their computer? Take your pick...
The little speck in the above photo is this guy...
And just about 4 hours into our trip... we came upon Exit Glacier...
Our Asses were pretty excited, cause this one you can walk right up to...
We drive down the road a bit further and come to the tourist information center... lots of interesting factoids... some that could save your life... First, notice from the photo of the glacier that what we see of it from the road is just the tip... it stretches for miles back into the mountains...
You can opt for the close to 4 mile hike, which takes about 6-8 hours round trip, or the one+ mile.. we opted for the one+...
And here you go, if you've ever wondered how to behave if you meet a bear or moose...
I like the phrase up there that says "most" bear charges end without injury... if you stand your ground... so, there is a change you will get injured... but I guess running is a sure bet you will... bummer... Could you stand your ground against a charging bear?
Ok, so, what's the significance of this sign...
Well, all along the trail to the glacier, and I later found out, along the road driving here... are posted signs about where the edge of the glacier was at a given year... You have to drive a few miles away from the glacier to get to the point where you're in the 1800's. In the photo below, right about where those people are standing is 1998.
When we got our Asses up there it was COLD... The glaciers actually create their own winds as warmer air travels over the ice, cools, and creates constant flow or air. I actually had to hold our Asses down so they wouldn't blow away. Unfortunately we could go right up to the ice, because the area had become unstable.
And that was that... our first glacier up close and personal... we headed back out toward Seward...
Question. What do Huskies do during the Alaskan summer? Pull a sled with wheels, of course...
IDIDARIDE... ? Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!... oh stop, they're killin me... get it?... It's like the Iditarod dog sled race across Alaska... http://www.iditarod.com/learn/ except it's I DID A RIDE...
Well, by about 1:00 we made it to Seward... a small town with a couple main streets and a good selection of small businesses, restaurants, etc..
Can you tell it was really sunny?... Now here's an interesting sign... Guess it makes sense since they are pretty much right on the coast.
Another interesting sign...
Hmmm.. I guess this is some sort of multifunction crane, boat loader, unloader thingy...
This was picture worthy... Actually there were quite a few motorcyclists on the roads.. it was summer after all.
We scoped out a restaurant to get some food... we walked in and found we were the only people there. Our waitress turned out to be a college student from Wisconsin, she and her parents were here for the summer. She was here to earn some money and her parents, who after visiting here once, bought a bed and breakfast and were fixing it up. She was the first one who told us that they had just had 30+ days of rain; we had caught some beautiful weather they haven't seen all year.
A couple of older ladies came in and as we were eating we asked them a few questions about the area. Apparently during tourist season the place is packed, but come winter the sidewalks roll up and except for the few people that have jobs with the schools, government, and some larger businesses, they have to make due with what they earned during the rest of the year.
Lunch was good, but expensive... par for the course. Food an gas are definitely more and some things are just plain crazy... like a bag of ruffles potatoes chips.. $5-6. I think someone has been smoking the potatoes... We're going to move up there and start a potatoes chip business... Pay UPS to ship us cartons of potato chips and sell them for twice the price, and still be the lowest price around... But, there is no state sales tax, probably because the oil companies pay a lot of money to the state.
Well, we headed back to Anchorage, and of course had to deal with the usual boring scenery... :)
Here's an amazing spot along the side of the road...
And some more scenery...
So, anyway.. there was a lot of that on the way back... and the beauty of it is it looks different when you're going in the other direction...
Now, here's something we didn't expect to see... when we were back around the Turnagain Arm just South of Anchorage...
Now, you have to realize, that is some cold water, doesn't matter how sunny it looks... but I guess you put a wet suit on and go for it... and they were moving cause there was plenty of wind. They would jump out of the water... get carried 10 or 20 feet... land... do it again...
We made a few more stops and took more photos on the way back, but that's about it for the day. More days to come.
