Alaska. Part 2. Road Trip Begins!!!!!

---

Boats and Bears

After leaving Pat and Ian for their week of luxury on a cruise ship we went back to looking for the cheap places to sleep. One reason for being in Alaska was to get so see bears up-close. Having looked around for trips even before we left the UK we knew it could be as expensive as $700 per person for a day trip. Well we had heard of a cheap operator in Soldotna called Talon Air that didn’t go to the National Parks and was therefore tons cheaper. It turned out to be worth every single penny and hundreds more.

We pulled up at the office of Talon Air was effectively just a small house by the lake with the float plane parked on the lake. We got in the float-plane quite excited as it was the smallest aircraft we had ever been in and the flight itself was amazing. We landed smoothly on a picturesque lake, surrounded by mountains. We then boarded a small boat and off we went in search of the bears. It didn’t take long. Within five minutes we arrived at a small cove with a beach and there was a grizzly bear and her two cubs sitting on the beach.

Our little boat pulled up about twenty metres from the shore where the bears were just resting. It was incredible to see these huge animals up-close. The mother of the cubs, known to the guide as Bailey, is estimated to be 650 lbs. After a short while the action started and Bailey was perched on the rocks by the side of the beach watching the salmon below that were trying to make their way up a tiny creek. After a while scanning the waters she dived in and we saw a mass of salmon swim away in a near perfect semi-circle away from her. She didn’t catch anything on her first attempt but we got to see her dive in many times throughout the day. We also go to watch her swimming and even snorkelling with her eyes underwater as she was looking for fish below. At one point she swam about six feet away from the boat and we were both exhilarated and terrified that she came so close - we could have reached out and touched her.

When she caught her fish then the cubs would start making some loud whiney noises so she shared the salmon with them. We got to see three other adult bears that were Bailey’s siblings and the whole day was incredible. We were there for about four hours in total and the time just flew by - definitely one of the best things we have done.

Camper Van Capers

After our lovely relaxing few days, the fun began. Well not really. We were now on the hunt for a camper van, or at least a vehicle we could sleep in. This was the start of our epic journey driving down to Panama City. The first thing we need to do was to find somewhere cheap to base ourselves while looking for a van. We spoke to the manager at a hostel called the Alaska Backpackers Inn who arranged a decent rate for us. Rich did some hunting on the internet while Jess was left with the pleasure of arranging insurance.

We set off to a few forecourts that looked like they might have crappy old camper vans for sale. We saw a great van but it was just too old and even the owner of the lot was honest enough to tell us it wouldn’t make it all the way to Panama. At our first private viewing we followed the directions the guy had given us over the phone. When we arrived there were tons of ‘DO NOT TRESPASS’ signs. The guy turned out to be a total head-case and spewed his politics where he said he would push the button to eliminate three billion people and how he admired Margaret Thatcher for her ‘balls’. We were starting to wonder if we’d find a suitable van in Anchorage.

After some more unsuccessful phone calls, viewings and forecourts we met a cool guy called Brian. He was selling his 1993 Ford Econoline 150 which is essentially a cargo/work van. He had done some modifications to the van with insulating and panelling the inside, put a bed in and made some storage shelves at the back. It was exactly what we were looking for so decided to go for it. Once we had bought the van we had to register it with the DMV and insure it - all tedious stuff. We also had to have an emissions test and put a couple of tyres on it.

Modesty permitting we have done a brilliant job of kitting ourselves out! Rich put up a shelf above the bed area for our clothing and fixed an ‘inverter’ into the van so we could charge up our iPods and phones. They have a huge store in Alaska called Fred Meyers and the camping stuff is all incredibly cheap. We got some nice funky bedding and curtains and it is now our home. All in all, it took us about a week to get the van fixed, registered, thoroughly cleaned and ready to go. However, we did take a half a day off on Jess’s birthday. We couldn’t do much as the van was in for the tyres and the rental car had to be back the following day so we just had a nice lunch, took a drive to outside of Anchorage and treated ourselves to a lovely evening meal. The following day our road trip began.

Seward and Back Again

We decided to head south as we wanted to do a Glacier cruise and had heard that Seward was the best place as the Glaciers were most active. So off we went in our new home, music playing and the van smelling perfectly clean after all our hard work. However, when we got there it was horrible weather. They had high gales and rain and the tour operators had cancelled the tours that day and maybe the following day as well. After a chat with a local tour guide she advised us to go to Whittier as they were slightly more protected from the weather there.

We booked a tour over the phone in Whittier and set off there. However, when we got there our tour was also cancelled due to weather. We hung around in Whittier, hopefully for a trip the next day. The only problem was that there was nothing to do in Whittier. Whittier is a tiny, unattractive port that is separated from the rest of Alaska by a huge toll-tunnel that is only wide enough for traffic to go one way. Some of the time the traffic is incoming, sometimes it is outgoing, sometimes it is reserved for trains and the rest of the time it’s shut. Anyway, after a day of hanging around in Whittier in our ‘campsite’, which was just a car park, in the rain we managed to catch our glacier cruise.

On the day of our cruise the weather was far from great. It was still raining and extremely foggy so we couldn’t see anything on the way out to the glaciers. But luckily, once we reached the glaciers the fog lifted and we had perfectly clear views. We pulled the boat up about a quarter mile away from the glacier and heard and watched the movements of the glacier, Most of the time, what looked like smallish pieces would break off though you could tell they were much bigger from the noise they made. At one point, an absolutely huge piece broke off and as it entered the water you could see a huge wave begin. The captain shouted out to the hundred or so people on board to hold on while he moved the boat so it could face the wave head-on. We passed over the following waves easily enough but it was incredible to see it calve like that. After our cruise we headed back to Anchorage, because we had to pick up our insurance documents that had hopefully arrived at the hostel while we were away. The next destination was north to the Denali National Park.

Denali National Park

At Denali National Park the only way to get around the park is to get shuttle buses along the main road and then walk to where you like. However, there is a lottery each year where the winners are able to drive though deal and camp up where they want. Unfortunately we turned up there just before the lucky winners could drive through the park which meant all the accommodation in and around the park was booked out. We managed to book ourselves into a campsite in the park itself for two nights however. We took a shuttle bus into the furthest point in the park to go trekking but the weather was lousy so we just hang around for a while there. The park itself is beautiful and being autumn all of the leaves and fern were changing and the colours were incredible. The only problem was is that it rained the whole time and the visibility wasn’t great either. However, we did manage to see some bears, a fox, some hill sheep and we could just about make-out some moose in the bushes. After the National Park we took the beautiful, but incredibly bumpy, Denali Highway eastwards.

Towards The Border

After Denali we basically headed to the Canadian border. The drive took us a couple of days. A lot of Alaska is geared up for tourism and this was really obvious for us as we were there in the ‘shoulder’ season just before nearly everything shuts down for the long winter. Many of the hotels, restaurants and cafes on the roads were already closed for the winter. One night was stayed in an RV park that had closed down for the winter. With a restaurant and petrol station that were also closed down the place certainly felt quite eery - even if it was a free night.

After our night in the ghost town we carried on south and saw a guy standing on the side of the road who looked like something out of a horror movie. Dressed in yellow water-proofs, staring at us vacantly and most importantly holding a rifle he just stared at us as we drove by. A moment later there were some cars parked up on the side of the road and Jess noticed a skinned caribou on the side of the road. We did a u-turn and went back where there were some local hunters who had caught this caribou, decapitated it, skinned it the body and fixed it to their ATV. We got chatting to them and they were keen to ask if we had seen any wildlife for them. Fortunately, we could honestly say that we hadn’t. A moment later, the weirdo in the yellow waterproofs and his wife arrived waving the caribou’s liver telling the guys they must have dropped it somewhere. It was all very surreal.

We spent our last night in Tok which although a small town was the largest we had been to for quite some time. We got some supplies for dinner and gave the van a good clean before our drive to the US border the next day.

---