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The Alaska part of our trip is now over and we are back in LA. Basically we went to four main areas:
Prudhoe Bay, Denali NP, Prince William Sound and Katmai NP
Prudhoe Bay lies at the very top of Alaska and is bordered by the Arctic Ocean. There is an extensive oil field area here stretching over 100 miles. All supplies have to be trucked in along a gravel road known as the Haul Road (Dalton Hwy). There are literally thousands of workers up there living in prefab buildings, it is like an industrial estate, all buildings are constructed on gravel pads so they don’t get soggy in the spring when the ice and snow start to melt.
The other big thing is the light. The sun doesn’t set for several months during summer. You come back from looking at wildlife on a drive and it is midnight and still totally light. It is something you really have to experience to understand what it’s like. These workers put up with the constant light then in winter they put up with freezing temps and total darkness for months. Tough place to work but they are well paid.
The environment up there is amazing, the ground is permanently frozen a foot or so below the surface even during summer. It is called permafrost. The landscape is flat tundra, no trees or bushes can survive here, just sedges and spongy type mosses.
When some of the ice melts in spring it forms pools everywhere because it cannot soak into the frozen ground below. It gives the appearance of a wet area when in fact it is very dry climate with little rain.
Wildlife wise we saw Caribou, Musk Ox, Artic Fox, Red Fox, Dall sheep and dozens of bird species.
On the drive south along the Haul Road you go through the Brooks range. It is only after passing this and many hours of driving from Prudhoe bay that you see your first tree. A little black spruce tree.
Second stop Denali National Park was also great, we drove the 100mile gravel road into it to where we were staying. The weather was too cloudy over the 3 days to see all of Mt McKinley (the highest peak in North America at 6194m or 20320 feet) from the ground.
I took a scenic flight
up in a light plane from a little gravel strip near the lodge which was great and saw the mountain quite well, it is very impressive having a vertical rise of about 18000 feet compared to Everest which has a vertical rise of about 12000 feet because it all ready sits on the Tibetan Plateau.
In Denali NP we saw Brown Bears, a Lynx, Snowshoe Hare, Moose, Caribou, Pika and lots of bird species.
Third stop was Prince William Sound we traveled in a 65 foot boat called the Discovery. The crew were great and the food was fabulous, we dined mostly on fresh King Salmon and Halibut.
We visited several glaciers over the 4 days and went Kayaking a couple of times as well as doing a couple of hikes. The landscapes are beautiful, the weather was pretty good the last 3 days which was great.
We saw Humpback whales, Porpoise, black bear, Sea Lions, seals, sea otters and dozens of bird species including peregrine falcon and bald eagle.
Our final destination was Katmai NP were we took two flights from Anchorage to reach it. The second flight is on a float plane, you
land in Brooks lake. First stop is the Ranger station where you get a compulsory talk on bear ettiqutte. The whole area is overrun with brown (grizzly) bears. While we were getting instruction a group of people led by a ranger rushed into the room from outside and seconds later a large bear ran past the window followed by an even larger male bear. It is the breeding season so they are a bit keen.
Anyway the whole area of the lodge and surrounding national park where you stay is crawling with bears. They are large and wild and can be aggressive so the idea is to avoid them. The bears are here in concentration because of the salmon coming up brooks creek to spawn in Brooks lake. When you walk on the trails in the woods you have to keep you eyes open as the bears use the walking trails as well as their own bear trails to get around. It is more than a bit alarming when you see a bear marching towards you on a forest trail. You are supposed to stay more than 50 yards away from them but sometimes they appear through the woods
much closer. You have to back up quickly and get off the trail they are using, don’t make eye contact and hope they move past.
There were numerous sows getting around with between one to three cubs in tow. The cubs are fun to watch they stick close to mum. If mum leaves them to hunt in the water for salmon they watch her and then run to a tree and climb up quite high. If a large male bear finds the cubs unprotected he may kill them so they are on edge all the time and you often see them scampering behind mum while they run from a male bear Mum may have seen approaching.
The shots I wanted of the bears catching salmon as the jump Brooks falls didn’t really come to fruition as the salmon weren’t running strongly and there weren’t very many jumping the falls, the bears were there waiting and they caught some in the pools in the creek but the classic jumping shots were few and far between.
Coming in to land at LA we had an unusual and alarming incident on the plane.
We had descended a fair way and
were only probably 5 minutes from landing flying straight and descending smoothly. Suddenly the aircraft banked hard to the left and after about two seconds rolled back level hard and banked to the right pretty hard then after about two more seconds straightened out. Needless to say this scared the shit out of everyone. The flight attendant came on the intercom and told everyone to remain calm and keep their seat belts on. After several minutes of more slight gentle turns we continued to descend and landed seemingly normally much to everyone’s relief.
As we taxied the Captain said over the intercom that he had been directed by traffic control to follow in an Asian Airlines 747 cargo plane landing just ahead of us. We had been too close and the wake turbulence from the 747 had throw us out.
So we are now back in LA, we have 3 more days here and then we are flying home.
Today we walked along Hollywood Bvld and tomorrow we are doing Santa Monica Pier area and going to Dodger Stadium for a concert and fireworks for the 4th of July celebrations.
As usual click on the images to
get a bigger version.
Brett and Corinne
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joe
non-member comment
Alaska
Thanks guys great to experience your moments with you . Photos are all classic Joe and Julie