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Published: August 21st 2014
First of all I would like to correct the bird's name in our last blog which I incorrectly named as an Osprey when in fact it was a Peregrine Falcon - thanks SC for pointing this out and thanks for your email to - glad that you are still enjoying our blogs after all this time. I know you particularly like the bird photos but I am afraid there have not been too many recently as most of them seem to have flown the nest!
It was sad to leave the
Lower 48 and our
‘Eyeball van home’ but it was time to set off on yet another adventure, so we flew from San Francisco to Juneau in Alaska with a brief touch down in Seattle.
Alaska only became the 49th state of the USA after WW2, before then it was a Russian Colony from 1744, although it had been occupied for thousands of years by indigenous people. The USA purchased the land from Russia in 1867 for $7,200,000 when it was declared a Territory. It finally became the 49th State in 1959. Not linked by land to the Lower 48 its only bordering country
is
Canada and has the Arctic Ocean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south. Russia and Alaska are divided by the Bering Strait which is about 55 miles at its narrowest point so they are really close. Alaska is the largest state in the US, being twice the size of Texas the next largest, followed by California where we had just travelled from.
Our second flight of the day went smoothly and we soon touching down in
Juneau, the capital of Alaska - we had always thought it was
Anchorage. We walked through the terminal looking for our connecting flight to Gustavus. There were several small air taxi firms and we soon arrived at the
Fjord Flying Service and were greeted by a young lady (without uniform) who said that we should hand her all our luggage including hand luggage but we could keep our camera! She said that the flight should take off in about 30 minutes so we could go for a coffee which we did, then realised we had handed her everything we owned including our passports!!!!
We arrived back at the desk and
she said to follow her which we did to an awaiting aircraft on the runway. She introduced us to the pilot called
Larry who was all smiles. We had expected to meet a few other passengers but we were the only ones and he said to even the weight on the ‘4 seater plane’ that one of us should get in front with him. Paul pushed me to the front so that I could take some photos and before we knew it we were in the air and flying high on our third flight of the day. I was transfixed as in front of me was a complete set of aircraft controls and steering wheel - is that what it is called!! I tried to avoid the wheel and any of the controls as much as possible in case I touched something that I should not! Oh my, what a journey, the late afternoon sunshine provided spectacular lighting as we flew through a high mountain pass - if we reached out we could have touched the very tops of the trees, Paul even spotted some animals below us which we think were probably mountain goats. It was one of the
most extraordinary flights we have ever taken and we have certainly taken a few – it was ‘take your breath away’ gorgeous.
Behind us dominating the Juneau landscape was
Mendenhall Glacier which we hoped to visit later. It was such a scenic flight and we enjoyed our first glimpse of the beautiful Alaskan countryside but it over all to soon and we had arrived in
Gustavus.
There is no airport lounge facilities at
Gustavus Airport just an airfield and a young girl to meet you … … … she was charming and helped us carry our bags off the plane. The airfield was built in 1941 during World War II changing the face of Glacier Bay as it ushered in a modern world to this remote region. Today though it is a sleepy airfield ferrying in tourist. The young girl led us over to meet Corrinne from
Gustavus Inn where we were staying. She still had her apron on as she had just been helping to prepare our supper……… The two girls (who obviously knew each other well) chatted for a while and helped load our luggage into the car and we headed off
with a wave from Larry our pilot who was flying back to Juneau as we were his last passengers of the day. He was looking forward to his supper and so were we……..
On the short journey to
Gustavus Inn, Corrinne gave us a little bit of history of her home and also an orientation of the small township. The ‘town centre’ consisted mainly of a crossroads with a couple of churches, a cafe, a gift shop and a gas station - still with retro gas pumps. The Salmon River meandered through town and residents lived in wooden houses, all well spaced out from their neighbours surrounded by wildflower meadows, forests and the sea. Apart from our inn there were also a couple of other guesthouses and B&Bs.
JT you would be pleased to know that there was even a local
golf course - it was run on an honesty system, you just put your money in the box and selected from a mixed array of used clubs and balls. The antique tractors dotted around the course were home to a number of bird nests and the tall grasses and wildflowers would make for an interesting round
of golf notwithstanding the beautiful mountain vistas in the background! Corrinne said we could play if we wanted too but we said we were not ‘great’ golfers! She said there were lots of birds and other wildlife including moose and bears, a few local trails with wild beaches and a very empty road that we could wander around at our leisure - sounded more idillic to us………….
With about 450 residents the small community of
Gustavus is surrounded by Glacier Bay National Park and adjacent to the Tongass National Forest. It is located at the mouth of the Salmon River on the north shore of the Icy Strait just 50 miles northwest of Juneau, Alaska and only accessible by boat or plane. In the past early settlers called the town Strawberry Point but the US Postal Service renamed the town in 1925 - not sure why - strawberry point sounds nice to me.
In the summer the township sees an influx of thousands of visitors because it has become known as the
‘Gateway to Glacier Bay National Park’. Most of these visitors however do not step ashore in Gustavus as cruise boats
do not land passengers in the township. Instead NPS rangers sail out from
Bartlett Cove and climb aboard the moving cruise vessels and return to the cove after the cruise boat leaves the NP.
Literally surrounded by mountains, Gustavus really was impressive - our Inn was surrounded by majestic scenery and a pristine wilderness with views of open meadows and the
Icy Straits just off shore. We had a friendly greeting at the inn and were shown to our room which overlooked the mountains and the inn’s special garden. This huge garden was full of different fruits, vegetables and herbs that would become the main ingredients for all our meals during our stay.
Each day Gustavus Inn changed the menu and we always knew what we were getting as they also advertised which fish was on the menu on a
large billboard outside their driveway to attract locals and other visitors alike - and this it did…………. If you do not like fish though then you would not like it here but ‘oh boy’ what lovely fresh fish we had each day we stayed here including,
Lingcod, Dungeness Crab, Salmon and my favourite, Halibut. Freshly cooked meals with the ingredient from the ‘sea’ and the ‘garden’ were produced daily. With our evening drinks (Mine SB and Paul’s Alaskan Beer) we were greeted with delightful antipasto dishes all freshly prepared and this was followed by three tasty courses. The inn selected your table and who you were going to sit with and this proved to be great as we met some delightful people during our stay here. On our first day we met an alaskan couple from Anchorage - they come here for their holidays every year, which we thought must be a good sign and also the inn was frequented each night by local residents coming to enjoy the delicious food.
Tables were laid with freshly cut flowers from the garden - a nice touch. We saw so many flowers that we knew and indeed had nourished in our gardens in England - it truly felt like home………… The starter on our first day was
Dungeness Crab and we were giving a short demonstration on how to eat it which proved very useful. particularly to me who never really liked crab - I do
now………..The main course was
Parmesan crusted Lingcod and the Sweet was
Wild Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble - what can I say … … … I just love rhubarb and this was truly the best I have ever tasted, freshly picked from the garden beneath our room. Rhubarb was to appear on the menu many times including at breakfast - which was truly delicious……….
The inn is owned and run by Dave and JoAnn Lesh who we had found by internet research and they were delightful hosts and really helpful during our stay in Gustavus, like staying with family and friends. They were both keen gardeners and Dave showed us a
Killdeer with its two chicks that lived in the garden. The bird is a medium-sized plover with brown wings, a white belly and is recognised by its two black bands around its neck. A pretty bird but quite out of character living amongst the flowers and vegetables in the inn’s garden. The garden was stocked with rows and rows of fruits and vegetables that the staff collected each day for our meals. When we retired to bed on our first night the sun was still shining -
no it was not too early but this is Alaska home of many hours of daylight. Daylight hours are so long the lights do not often go out here during the summer.
We had four days in this
delightful place and we just knew straight away that this was not going to be enough time … … … Every time you stepped outside the inn locals would wave and welcome you and were happy to stop for a chat or to give you some free advice.
On our first day we decided to explore the area and as there were
free cycles we chose the appropriate size and headed off to explore the dock area off Icy Strait. This area is home to some of the best halibut and salmon fishing in Alaska and if you like fishing this is the place to be. We were to meet many fisherman during our stay here and they all had lots of ‘fishy’ stories to tell - sorry!!!
We stopped at the dock and walked along the beach and within minutes saw at least
11 Bald Eagles hunting on
the shoreline - yes eleven………… These magnificent birds did not seem afraid of us and we could walk up really close without them flying off.
A couple of guests we had met the night before were departing on the ferry that day so we watched their transport arrive, manoeuvring carefully into the small dock and then headed off with the guests back to Juneau - we were going to fly back so would not be using the dock for our departure but it was in a handy location for the inn.
This small inlet of Alaska has only been accessible by this ferry service for just under 4 years. The
LeConte Ferry leaves Juneau twice weekly and arrives at the new Gustavus dock. Anyone wanting to bring their vehicle on the ferry are advised that the options in the area are limited as the only road runs for
just 10 miles between Bartlett Cove
and Gustavus with no services and amenities as in other road linked Alaskan communities. Apart from the one road other areas can be reached on foot, by boat, small aircraft or by bicycle which we took advantage of during our
visit. It will take some time for the park and the small community to fully adapt to these new opportunities with the arrival of the ferry, lets hope it does not spoil this beautiful area and that they get the balance right… … …
During our visit we had booked a couple of excursions with the inn so the next day we were taken by one of the staff to meet the owner of a local
Whale Watching boat for a trip out to see some ocean wildlife around
Point Adolphous. It was a real shame as the weather was wet cold and we had a very rough day but enjoyable nonetheless as we saw many humpback whales feeding in the rich ocean as well as seabirds and sea otters. The visibility was not that good and the whales were some distance away, not nearly as close as we had seen in Harvey Bay in Australia! However to see the first spurts of water raising into the air and know that there are whales nearby is truly memorable. We did really enjoy our day even though we were soaking wet and very cold at the
end of it - they did have warming drinks on board which kept us warmish … … … One of the staff was there to greet us at the dock and ferry us ‘home’ and we knew we had a delicious supper waiting for us …… … so all was well.
Our next excursion was to be the highlight and why we had made our way to Gustavus in the first place -
a trip on Glacier Bay by small boat rather than a large cruise ship as we hoped to see so much more this way. Unless you are rich and own your own seaworthy boat or airplane, you must begin your experience of the bay in the same way most of us do - arriving in the small community of Gustavus by air or ferry or be aboard one of the cruise boats that sail through. We were lucky enough to be experiencing ‘both sides of the coin’ in the next month…… …
Staff at Gustavus Inn drove us to pick up our boat in
Bartlett Cove which is also the Headquarters for Glacier Bay National Park and has rooms
in its adjoining Lodge. Alas yet again the weather was not looking promising - cold, wet and very misty. So misty in fact that you could hardly see in front of your face - a typical winter’s day in England we seem to remember ………….
The boat set sail and we were joined by more fellow travellers than we had anticipated as a tour group had arrived at
Glacier Bay Lodge the night before but still much smaller numbers than we would experience on our cruise boat! You cannot change the order of things so we had to make the most of it which we did even with the bad weather. Thick mist surrounded our departure from Bartlett Cove as we sailed out on Glacier Bay. As it was so cold outside everyone sat inside, steaming up the windows so even these views were poor. The crew warmed us up though with some delicious
Salmon Chowder Soup and the Rangers on board were helpful and informative trying to ‘cheer’ everyone up as we cruised down the bay towards the mighty glaciers.
The marine wilderness of
Glacier Bay offers rare opportunities to study the ebb
and flow of ice glaciers. The last of the bay’s glacial periods, the Little Ice Age, began about 4,000 years ago, and the glaciers that exist today are remnants of that period. There are
sixteen gigantic tidewater glaciers spilling out of the mountains here, calving and then filling the sea with icebergs of all imaginable shapes, sizes in every shade of blue you could ever imagine.
The weather did not improve but one could still see and feel the majesty of it all as we got little glimpses of huge mountains and amazing fjords through breaks in the mist. Luckily the small boat was able to get really close to the shoreline and I managed to spot a couple of bears walking tentatively across the beach looking for food. As there was only a couple of us outside braving the cold windy weather not many passengers got to see them (including Paul who was in the warm) but I did get a photo to prove that they were really there … … … A ranger confirmed it was a
bear from my photo and announced to everyone that one had been spotted. She said I should have
‘shouted to all’ but that was really difficult as I was outside and they were all inside in the warm - my hands were so cold I could hardly feel to press the camera shutter button……………..
We slowly manoeuvred along the bay and even spotted a cruise boat in the mist (probably the one we would be on later on our visit to Alaska). We paused at
South Marble Island and were lucky enough to spot numerous birds, with small to medium-sized colonies of
gulls, guillemots, cormorants, tufted and
horned puffins. The last time we had seen puffins was years ago on the
Farne Islands. We do so love these colourful funny birds. We also saw
rhinoceros auklet a close relative of the puffin. Its name is derived from a horn-like extension of the beak which is only present in breeding adults, and like the elaborate sheath on the bill of puffins is shed every year.
The park rangers on board were very informative and gave talks on the birds in the park. Considered at-risk elsewhere a population of
Marbled Murrelets can still be found in the park. This small diving bird is believed
to breed extensively in the old growth forests along the Icy Strait. They do not build a nests but lay their lone egg on a moss-covered branch high up in a tree. The parents fly to sea at dawn and return at dusk daily to feed the chick, which sits on the branch camouflaged and quiet. When it is time for the chick to fledge, the parents depart one morning and never return - that’s nature ……..… The chick, realising that it’s on its own, leaps off the branch on its first flight and finds its own way to the ocean which can be up to 30 miles away. I will never marvel at what birds around the world can do. As well as Marbled Murrelets a population of
Kittlitz's Murrelets visit in the bay. It is believed that 95%!o(MISSING)f the bird breeds in Alaska with the rest in Russian. Their numbers in Alaska have declined 85%!i(MISSING)n the past decade and may soon be listed endangered.
We cruised up the Tarr Inlet passing Russell Island and stopped at the
Grand Pacific Glacier which was hard to see
with just the dark moraine visible (the white ice being further up the glacier). Glaciers by nature move rock and debris in front which looks like giant rock slides. Nearby however was the gigantic
Margerie Glacier and that was a really magnificent. Here we witnessed the spectacular scene of a calving glacier, where ancient fragments break away with a thunderous crack and then plummet into the bay below. We waited in anticipation for the next crack and saw some large chunks crashing into the sea, heading down the bay to slowly melt on their way to the sea like white rafts.
Despite the weather we still had some good memories of our time out on Glacier Bay on a ‘smallish’ boat as we saw several
humpback whales, black bears, seals, stella sea lions, sea otters, a couple of very wet
white mountain goats sheltering from the rain high up in the rocky cliffs as well as numerous birds. We learnt so much from the rangers on board and throughly
enjoyed our first trip along Glacier Bay. One of the most memorable things that I saw was a
huge raft of sea otters floating on their backs, the ranger said there was probably about 50 of them drifting on the cold icy waters.
Sea Otters were hunted to extinction in Southeast Alaska 150 years ago by Russian fur traders. So in the 1960’s 400 were transported to Glacier Bay from elsewhere in Alaska. For two decades, the sea otter population remained steady but this changed in the 1980s when their numbers started to increase. We loved watching them as they are so cute as they float lazily on their backs, preening their fur and caring for their young. But beneath that cuddly fur coat lurks an insatiable appetite for food particularly crab and other marine life.
Dungeness Crabs are one of the sea otter's favourite foods and the area once teamed with them. We loved them also when the Inn served them on our first night - even me! As sea otters continue to multiply and expand over their former range, crab populations are being hit and this is having a big impact on their numbers, effecting
local fishermen and the economy. Scientists have predicted that in the next few years, the rapidly growing sea otter population will reduce crab numbers to a level that probably existed just before the Russians arrived in the 1700s.
On our way back to Gustavus our boat was ‘hailed down’ by a couple of
hitchhiking kayakers on the shoreline. These two hardy Spanish chaps had rowed down the bay, camping on the shore for two weeks. Once spotted by us they rushed back to their tent and packed up quickly. They then proceeded to wade through the icy glacier waters to get on board along with all their equipment and kayaks themselves. They were extremely wet and tired but had some awesome tales to tell of their trip of a lifetime. I chatted to one of them on the back of the boat as he wrung out his socks and poured pints of water from his wellies - I think he was very glad of his rescue! The boat served to drop off and also pick up camper/kayakers who spent days out here in the wilderness so the captain kept an eye out for any that wanted a
‘rescue’ as he passed by.
We were also cold and wet when we reached
Bartlett Cove but it was soon forgotten as we prepared for another delicious meal at Gustavus Inn. Just like the kayakers we had some awesome tales to tell - find out more in our next blog from Alaska - see you there.
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denidax
Deni, Dax and Ella
It looks so nice and peaceful! That flight in the small plane to reach Gustavus (Strawberry point is a much nicer name than Gustavus!) would have freaked me out, though!