Glaciers, Bears & Wildfires, Oh My

Our plan upon leaving the Yukon was to head down the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. There are some interesting things to see along here, plus then I wouldn't have to drive the same stretch of the Alaska Highway again. So we turned off the Alaska Highway, somewhat thrilled to be leaving the land of frost heaves, only to be stopped at a roadblock because of a wildfire that was burning pretty much right along the Cassiar. We had arrived 5 minutes late and would have to wait for the next pilot car. So we did, and it was quite an experience to be piloted through a basically active wildfire area. We couldn't stop, for obvious safety reasons, so our only pictures are kinda blurry due to the motion of the car. It is definitely eerie to see a forest like this:

But I saw forests in Yellowstone only 5 years after fire, and it is definitely true that they grow back quickly. Hopefully that will happen here as well.

One the main reasons to take the Cassiar Highway is that it provides many, many opportunities to see black bear, as you can see:

This momma and her cubs were my favorite, but we didn't get much time to observe them because this big old truck came barreling down the road honking his horn and scaring them off.

Another reason to take the Cassiar is that it also enables you to visit what is probably one of the most isolated towns in the US: Hyder, AK. It is only accessible by road through the slightly more populated Stewart, BC and is so far removed from the rest of the US that it uses Pacific time (instead of Alaskan) and Canadian schools money. (You still have to go through customs, though). The main attraction here is the Fish Creek Viewing Platform run by the US Forest Service. This area is officially part of Tongass National Forest.

Everyone goes and stands on that platform and then the bears come and catch salmon in the creek. We didn't see any bears in the creek (bummer) but we did see tons of salmon doing their spawning thing.

We also got our first good look at the temperate rain forest, which produces massive trees that you find pretty much halfway down the Pacific Coats. They are just so beautiful and majestic.

Another thing you can do here, which is according to Lonely Planet USA is "totally worth the trip," is drive to Salmon Glacier, which is purportedly the largest glacier in the world accessible by road. The forest service ranger assured us that it was a lovely, hour-long drive. Now, I had already known the road was about 17 miles long. You think I would have put those two pieces of information together and realized something was amiss, but no, I just accepted the road guide she handed me and off we went on our merry way. The first views along the drive were beautiful.

Um, until I looked down and happened to notice just how high above the valley we'd gotten.

And these people clearly have a different definition of "maintained road" than I, because my idea of maintenance involves more than one lane, seal coat (at a minimum) and guard rails. But it was too late to turn around, so we soldiered.....er, snailed?....on.

It was probably one of the scariest things I have ever done, but it was kind of one of those no-turning-back-now moments (especially since I'm lucky to do K turns when there are four lanes and the worst that can happen is you bump someone's mailbox). The view at the top, though incredibly buggy, was so worth it. I guess the Lonely Planet writers weren't just being cliche after all.

Coming next, the rest of our stay (in way more populated) southern BC, including the gorgeous Minter Gardens & Vancouver.

The Kenai

We spent two days touring the Kenai Peninsula, which had some of my favorite parts of Alaska (so far). The drive along the Turnagain Arm on the way out of Anchorage to the Kenai is gorgeous, even on a cloudy day. Here's my favorite shot from that part of the drive:

On Monday we drove down the Sterling Highway to Homer., making a bunch of stops. One of them was at this little overlook near Kenai Lake. The water was such an amazing color-and we even had some sun!

Here's a beautiful fireweed that I saw growing near the lake. I think this might be one of my overall favorite pictures from the trip so far.

This is the Russian Orthodox Church in the town of Ninilchik. It has such an amazing view.

We were also able to see some of the volcanoes in the Aleutian range. This is Mount Iliamna.

We also saw tons of eagles, both bald and golden. I got a lot of pictures, but this was one of the best.

On the way back up from Homer, we took a detour into Kenai. That was a really neat town, and I think if I ever moved to Alaska, that might be where I'd want to live. It's in a good location, with gorgeous views. Here's a shot of the Russian Orthodox Church there.

We stayed at a beautiful lodge called Summit Lake on Monday night. The next day we drove down to Seward, where we took a boat cruise into Kenai Fjords National Park. It was windy, rainy and grey, so we didn't see as much scenery, but it was still awesome! We also went to the Alaska Sea Life center; here's a harbor seal at that aquarium:

The next three shots are all from the cruise. Here are some Stellar sea lions:

This big guy was definitely in charge on this rock:

The water there in Resurrection Bay was also an amazing color, and it was so starkly beautiful.

The captain of our boat was great. He took us pretty far out in the Gulf of Alaska to try and find some whales. We didn't see any, but it was still an awesome time. We had some great pizza in Seward and then stopped at Exit Glacier, also in Kenai Fjords National Park, on the way out of town. We hiked a trail called "Edge of the Glacier," which I had thought would enable me to actually touch the glacier. I was so disappointed when I got to the top and found out I couldn't actually touch it. But it was still nice.

Tomorrow my dad and I are heading up to Healy and then to Fairbanks on the weekend. My awesome friend Tasha is flying in late Saturday night to drive home with me, and we're going to spend a few days in Denali National Park before starting to head home on Tuesday. Not sure where we're going yet, so stay tuned. I'm having an amazing time, but this adventure isn't even half over yet!

Long, Awesome Trip

Yesterday we went to Valdez-it was a pretty long trip: 6 hours down and 6 hours back! But it was really cool. Here are some of the things we saw:

The Trans-Alaska pipeline. In some places you can see it stretch as far as the eye can see.

Dad and Susanne with the Worthington Glacier int he background. It was pretty cool to be able to just drive right up to the glacier-well, almost right up to it. I've been curious about the temperature of the water all along, so I stuck my hand in just to see:

Boy, was it cold! You would NOT want to go swimming in there!!

Here's a close-up shot of the glacier ice. We saw a whole group of people walking out on the ice way up high. Pretty crazy, if you ask me!

We also stopped at a few neat waterfalls along the way. Here's me, Dad & Susanne at Bridal Veil falls:

And here's Horsetail Falls, too:

We stopped at a place right outside of Valdez where you could see salmon spawning in this little stream.

Then we went to Chitina to see if we could meet up with my Uncle Larry, Aunt Kathy and cousins Gracie and Robbie. We saw them in their car as they were coming around a bend in the road, all done dip-netting for salmon (which was a bummer because I would have liked to have seen that), but we followed them to their campsite and were able to visit for a little while:

My dad and my uncle talking. Then my aunt filleted up a fresh-caught salmon for us, which I'll get to try tomorrow night. (I've never really had salmon before, so I'll let you know how that goes).

Today we're off to Anchorage again, so I'll post all my Anchorage pictures later tonight or tomorrow.

A Much Needed Break From Driving

Sorry about the gobbledy-gook posts, everyone. I sent them from my phone, and I'm not sure why that happened. They were both letting you know that I am currently safe in Alaska!! I got to my dad's place yesterday evening. It is amazing beautiful here. I'm glad that I don't have to drive anywhere for a while, though!!

Here are few pictures from my travels along the Alaska Highway.

Here's the marker at the beginning of the Alaska Highway. There was no one around to take my picture, and it was to windy to do a self-timed shot..

A panoramic view of the Rockies. There are so many mountains around here; it's absolutely crazy!

Stone sheep licking minerals off the highway in Northern Rocky Mountains Provincal Park. I got tons of shots of these guys, especially the cute little one that's in the middle.

Liard River Hot Springs.....I've never been in a natural hot spring before. It was really cool (well, actually, really hot). Very relaxing apart from the voracious mosquitoes!

I saw a whole herd of bison on the road. This big guy seemed to be in charge, and he kept giving me the evil eye, like he didn't want me to move or go anywhere!

This was taken at Kluane Lake (I think-I saw so many lakes it's hard to remember) at about nine pm. Look how high the sun is in the sky!!!

At the US-Canadian border! It definitely was a feeling of accomplishment.

The Matanuska glacier. These are the Chugach Mountains, I think. There are so many mountain ranges around here, it's crazy. Every time you think that you've just seen the biggest mountain ever, you see a bigger one! The Wrangell-St. Elias mountains are huge-I don't have any pictures of those, but I'll get some on the way home. I can't wait to see Denali!!