Alaska activities

[Alex]

I lived in Kodiak for four months but otherwise have never been anywhere in Alaska.

Lani and I will be fixing that with a 10-day trip in August and I know some people around here have been. So if anybody has thoughts on things to do or see then I am open to suggestions.

I prefer to avoid things that require a lot of preplanning, reservations, etc. but say them anyway. About the only thing I'd rule out is fishing, since I have exactly interest.

The first part of the itinerary is arrive in Anchorage at midnight. Catch a 7a.m. puddlejumper to Homer (a 35 minute flight) in time to catch the 10a.m. ferry to Kodiak. This is as 12-hour ferry and supposedly has some very good wildlife viewing and is the only daytime trip during our visit which is why we're flying to Homer rather than driving . Spend at least a full day in Kodiak then fly back to Anchorage. Rent a car then do a road trip for four or five days ending up back in Anchorage.

Have at least one dinner with a college friend up there and maybe go to the Alaska State Fair with my sister and niece (can't imagine actually spending a full day in a one-on-one social situation with my sister as this has never happened before but I'll give it a shot). Then kill a few days in the immediate Anchorage area and head home.

[Ghoulish Delight]

We stayed in Anchorage, so everything we did was within about 1-2 hours drive from there. The only thing we did that required a reservation was rafting on the Kenai river. It's about as tame as it gets rapids-wise, but absolutely beautiful.

Portage glacier's worth a trip. You get about an hour's boat ride on the glacial lake, getting a good view of the glacier's face and a decent chance of witnessing some calving.

Right near Portage is the Big Game park. It's no San Diego Zoo, but you get some real up close views of Alaska's native large animals.

Matanuska Glacier, north of the city, is one where you can get down and walk right on the glacier.

We've got plenty of visual aids (http://www.jenniegreg.com/Gallery/main.php?cmd=album&var1=Alaska+-+May+2006%2F&var2=0) of what we did.

[wendybeth]

We did the cruise thing, so I only have info on the ports we visited. Moon had a great webpage up for his trip there- I would ask him!

[MouseWife]

The only thing I can add~

I am trying to get something planned up towards the mountains the weekend of August 12th for the meteor showers.

I'd reckon up there you might be able to get some great views.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/augustmeteorshowerwillbeagreatshow;_ylt=Ao5VPMpDbW 4d5GJEKqgN4Ias0NUE

{Sorry if this doesn't pertain to your area...never bothered to read exactly the best places...mostly I want to get up to the mountains and this is a great reason...}

[DreadPirateRoberts]

I spent some time doing killer whale research up in Whittier Alaska, it's on the Prince William sound. To get there, you traverse a 2.5 mile tunnel that alternates between cars and trains. When we did it, about 15 years ago, we drove the car onto a flatbed railcar and rode the train in, not sure how they do it now. Prince William Sound is beautiful, I didn't do this tour, (http://www.alaskatravel.com/whittier/explorer-cruise.html) but it looks pretty interesting.

[Alex]

Ooh, I really want to do this while in Kodiak, but they aren't doing a flight (http://www.seahawkair.com/) the day we could do it.

Maybe I can find something similar for Denali.

[Kevy Baby]

I've been meaning to post about this, but I have not been able to find anything on the web to point you to. In Ketchikan, Susan found this really cool cemetery in her wanderings. She was looking for another cemetery, (she thinks it was the Bayview Cemetery (http://www.sitnews.org/JuneAllen/041302_bayview.html), but she is not sure), and found this other one instead (name unknown).

What she found interesting about this other cemetery was how it was buried back up in the hills with graves almost haphazardly strewn amongst the trees in a forest. I couldn't even begin to tell you how to find it, but I wanted to throw it in the mix if you were 1) going to be in Ketchikan, and 2) like to wander to find unique things.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Oh, and since you've been to Alaska this probably isn't news, but it's important to know the unofficial state motto: "Nothing's funnier than moose sh*t".

[Alex]

I don't know if they have moose on Kodiak so there wasn't much talking about them. Though a University of Alaska student was killed on campus by one when I was up there. That got a lot of talking (the student was drunk and harassing the moose;moose, for those who don't know, can be pretty mean).

Our trip will be based out of Anchorage so Ketchican and southeast Alaska are probably out of the question.

As a broad framework this is what we've put together (and I'm surprised I've even bothered to think about how many days we have at this stage of the game):

Friday, August 17 - Fly from SFO to Anchorage
Saturday, August 18 - Fly from Anchorage to Homer. Take ferry from Homer to Kodiak.
Sunday, August 19 - Kodiak.
Monday, August 20 - Fly from Kodiak to Anchorage. Rent car and begin road trip.
Tuesday, August 21 - Road trip
Wednesday, August 22 - Road trip
Thursday, August 23 - Road trip, return to Anchorage
Friday, August 24 - Anchorage
Saturday, August 25 - Anchorage (state fair?)
Sunday, August 26 - Anchorage in the morning, fly home at 2p.m.


For the road trip I'm thinking of heading to Fairbanks via Denali National Park and then looping back to Anchorage via some different route.

[katiesue]

I was only in Anchorage for three days. The glacier and animal park GC mentioned were definately worth it. We also went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center (http://www.alaskanative.net/) which was interesting. Besides Humpy's (http://www.humpys.com/) which was fun I can't think of much else we did.

I would love to go back for a longer stay. We were there mid September the week after the last cruise ship was done for the season so things were very quiet.

[Mousey Girl]

The Old People arrived in Anchorage (via Faribanks and Denali) yesterday. They have gone to a bunch of different gold mining areas, and other stuff that is good for Old People to do.

They did decide that moose are extinct. They have seen the road signs everywhere, but not a single moose.

[Mrs. Nesbitt]

I would definetly do Denali but would skip Fairbanks and continue on up so you can say you crossed the Arctic Circle. Not much to do in Fairbanks other than rip off the tourists.

[Alex]

I will be a tourist on a limited schedule so I'm the perfect target for getting ripped off (just getting to, from, and around Kodiak for one day on the island along the route I intend will run us over $1,000). Add another $900 if I can find a tour company with room on a Katmai bear watching flight.

But simply being able to say I've been above the Arctic Circle and turning around doesn't hold much appeal to me (it'd feel like claiming I'd been to London with just a Heathrow layover). I don't expect to spend much time in Fairbanks, it is just a logical turnaround point for the time I have to drive (about 12 hours of driving over four days with, I hope, lots of stopping and distraction).

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I spent some time doing killer whale research up in Whittier Alaska, it's on the Prince William sound. To get there, you traverse a 2.5 mile tunnel that alternates between cars and trains. When we did it, about 15 years ago, we drove the car onto a flatbed railcar and rode the train in, not sure how they do it now. It's been converted, so trains can run, and cars can drive over the tracks as well. It's too narrow to accommodate two lanes, so every half hour they switch the direction. It's an interesting process, and the drive is not for anyone with claustrophobia. Most of it is a rough hewn tunnel with bare, jagged rock staring at you. Whittier itself was a simple port town, but the journey to get there was a kick.

I looked it up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Anderson_Memorial_Tunnel), it's the second longest highway tunnel in North America. Worth a visit.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Killer fish and chips in Whittier.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

It's been converted, so trains can run, and cars can drive over the tracks as well. It's too narrow to accommodate two lanes, so every half hour they switch the direction. It's an interesting process, and the drive is not for anyone with claustrophobia. Most of it is a rough hewn tunnel with bare, jagged rock staring at you. Whittier itself was a simple port town, but the journey to get there was a kick.

I looked it up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Anderson_Memorial_Tunnel), it's the second longest highway tunnel in North America. Worth a visit.

Thanks for the updated info. I always thought it was interesting that everyone in the town of Whittier lived in one building. From what I heard, it was a real soap opera, living there. Certainly not a tourist spot in itself, but a jumping off point for Prince William Sound adventures.

[Alex]

Oh, by the way. We went to Alaska. It was fun.

The big ticket activities included:
- Taking the ferry from Homer to Kodiak
- A "flightseeing" tour around the peak of Mt. Denali (McKinley)
- A glacier cruise from Whittier to Blackstone Glacier in Prince William Sound

The small ticket activities (which are the ones that make a vacation) included:

- Barely avoiding rear-ending another car that stopped suddenly and having my annoyance/anger quickly terminated by the realization she stopped because of the beluga whales dining on salmon just 100 yards away.

- Being flexible enough to stay in "rustic" tent cabins while surrounded by people staying in $300 rooms.

- Spending a fair amount of time among large packs of geriatrics and seeing how, when in large packs they exhibit the same full range of personality types, behaviors, and misbehaviors as younger people. Really, it was kind like being on an anthropological tour.

- Two moose sightings, just to make GD jealous. One of them on the side of the road while (we were) driving.

- Turning every corner and having it be somehow more beautiful than the last.

- For the first time ever having falafal and liking it and the irony of doing so at the northernmost hummus stand on the continent. And all it cost me (beyond the $5) was a menacing stare from a librarian.

- Seeing the sandhill cranes and Canada geese gathered at the other end preparing for the migration south. I asked that they skip California this year and not **** on our sidewalks but I expect they'll ignore me.

- Muklukland even though we didn't have time to stop for it. It just makes life better knowing it exists.

- Watching Lani's reaction to seeing for her first time a salmon run in full go.

- A very large dead whale on a beach and the people fishing within yards of it considering I could smell the thing from 600 feet away.

- Bitching about how seeing dozens of businesses with the word "Sourdough" in the name has made me really want some and there must be great sourdough available though I'd never heard that before. And then learning what "sourdough" means in Alaska. (And I did eventually get some sourdough pancakes though they weren't all that great.)


Here (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1224/1280054109_bc1ebdf1b6_o.jpg) is a panorama I made from our glacier cruise in Prince William Sound. Your browser will probably resize it to fit in your browser window but if you click on it you can scroll through it full size.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Here (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1224/1280054109_bc1ebdf1b6_o.jpg) is a panorama I made from our glacier cruise in Prince William Sound. Your browser will probably resize it to fit in your browser window but if you click on it you can scroll through it full size.

That sounds like a great trip. Nice picture!

[wendybeth]

I'm surprised those geese have any **** left in them after flying over our place, Alex. I suspect we are on a primary migration route and are the rest stop for Eastern Washington.

Sounds like a great trip!

[cirquelover]

What a gorgeous panorama view. I've never seen one before but our camera is capable!