Alaska - The Last Frontier. Final Thoughts

I just finished an amazing month of travel in one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Nowhere in the world do you see so much wilderness and wildlife, yet so easily accessible.  Alaska has 23 national parks!  It is the largest state in the United States; twice the size of Texas.  Mount McKinley has the highest peak in North America.  After reading my blog, it should not surprise you that I am a big proponent of conserving and protecting the environment.  A place like Denali has done such a good job protecting the wildlife there that the animals probably think of vehicles and people as just another animal.

One thing you find out very quickly traveling in Alaska is everything is expensive.  Expect to pay up to 30% more for anything that you'd pay in the lower 48 states.  One puzzling thing is why seafood that is abundant there like salmon and halibut are so expensive in restaurants.  Most of the salmon or halibut dishes I ate or saw are about $30 a dinner.  Even Alaskans don't understand why.

Speaking of fishing, most non-Alaskans see pictures of pristine rivers or streams full of salmon where there are very few people fishing.  That's not true.  Yes, those places exist but you probably have to fly to those remote places at $600-700 per trip.  Alaskans love their fishing too.  When the season starts, you can see them standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the river.  Alaskans called it "combat fishing." In some parts of Alaska they do something called dip-netting.  This involves putting a big net into the river and catching whatever salmon swims into the net.  I think the limit for Alaska residents is 25 fish per year.  More for native-Alaskans.

Dip Nets being sold at Costco

Another item you won't see at Costco elsewhere - Bear Repellant

Alaskans also love their coffee.  You see standalone expresso stands at almost every shopping mall parking lot.  The local Costco even has a big roaster on its premises.  Don't know why but maybe it makes the coffee taste fresher and better.

Big coffee roaster at Costco

I mentioned about the sled dogs in Denali.  The NPS has a live webcam that you can see the puppies. Allow some time for the camera to refresh

Live Puppy Cam from Denali National Park Kennel


If you enjoy watching bears catching salmon at Brooks Falls in the Katmai National Park, go to this website:  

Live Bear Cam at Katmai National Park

Salmon runs are most active in July so you can see a lot of bears having a fish buffet here.
At this website you can get links to other live cams of other animals around the world.  If you are bored, this is something that will make you smile.  Watching live animals in action is never boring.

Here is a very good article in the New York Times about the bears at Katmai National Park:

At Katmai National Park in Alaska, Bears Rule - August 7, 2015

Did I enjoy my trip?  Absolutely!

However, if I have more information or the right information, I'd have done it slightly differently.  I'd have rented a car in Anchorage to drive to Denali instead of taking the train or shuttle bus.  It'd have  given me more flexibility in my schedule and allow me to do more things at Denali.  I found out that Alaskans use a travel guide called Milepost to give them detail information about what is available at each mile post on the Alaskan roads.  It includes advertising from local businesses at each mile post.  This is different from the generic travel guides from Frommer or Lonely Planet.  If you are planning on traveling on your own, this is the book to get.

What about future Alaska trips?  Here are some future Alaska trip ideas for me:

1. Fly to Katmai or other areas to see live bears catching salmon in action.  There are many companies offering these trips from the Kenai Peninsula.
2. Salmon fishing in a remote area.  Possibly combining that with bear-watching.
3. Camping or back-country hiking and camping at Denali National Park
4. Driving a car or RV from the lower 48 states through Canada to Alaska.  Drive through the Yukon area and visit historic places like Dawson City.
5. Go further north to the Arctic Circle and places like Nome and Barrow.
6. Explore more of Southeast Alaska - Haines, Skagway, Ketchikan, etc
7. Visit the Prince William Sound area.

Finally, thank you very much for reading my blog.  Knowing that my friends and family are reading my blog makes me a better traveler.  I go out of my way to do the things I like and make sure that you enjoying reading about them too.  Instead of casually looking at things, I spend more time reading and asking questions so that I can share the information with you.  This is also a journal for my travels.  I still go back to my 2011 European trip to refresh my memory on some of the places I visited.  As we grow older, we like hang on to whatever good memories we have.

I am working on my next trips.  Keep checking back to see if I updated the blog.  Until then, hope to see or talk to you soon.

Halibut Fishing

I came back to Homer specially for this.  This is the grand finale of my Alaska trip before I return to Phoenix.  I love fishing.  When I saw pictures and actually saw the deck hands filleting halibut, lingcod, and salmon around the Homer Spit, I was hooked.  Some of the halibut that were caught were over 200 pounds!  Of course, I'll be happy even if I catch one that is around 100 pounds.

I signed up with North Country Halibut Charters.  It costs about $180 for a 3/4 day fishing trip.  There are some that are for 1/2 day and some that are full day.  The one I signed up for is for halibut only.  The longer trips are usually for multiple variety of fish.

Fishing boat "Irish" that took us halibut fishing

For those not familiar with the halibut fish, it's a very good eating fish.  It has white, slightly firm meat and usually served in fillets.  A halibut dinner usually costs around $25-$30 in the US.  It's the biggest flat fish, which means it swims flat, like a flounder, usually at the ocean bottom.  The top part of the fish is brown, the bottom is white.  When caught, they fight very hard.  I understand that it's one of the strongest fish.   You can read more about halibuts here.

A recently caught halibut

We have to get an Alaska fishing license in order to fish.  Our limit is 2 halibuts - one that is any size, the other must not be bigger than 29 inches.  Our captain first took us to an area where there are a lot of big halibuts.  That way we can catch our bigger fish first.  Unfortunately, the fishing was quite slow.  Only 4 or 5 of us caught a fish, the biggest about 50 lbs.  After 3 or 4 hours of frustration, the captain took us to an area where the water is much deeper.  As soon as we dropped our lines we were catching fish.  Not very big but around 30 inches.  After a while all of us on the boat caught our limit.
Everyone went home happy.

This fish is about 25 inches long, my second fish

All the fish that our boat caught - limit of 2 each

Our deck-hand David cleaning and filleting a fish

When we got off the boat there were a couple of guys waiting for us to take our fish and help us freeze, pack or ship them.  It's a separate company and it costs us extra.  I am going to vacuum pack, freeze and have them put in a box so that I can check in with the airline.

Tomorrow (July 16, 2015) I am flying home.  I am driving from Homer to Anchorage, hang around Anchorage a little bit before taking a red-eye flight first to Los Angeles, then to Phoenix.  I will give some closing thoughts to this amazing trip to Alaska when I get home.

The Eagle Has Landed

It was a short one-hour flight from Fairbanks to Anchorage.  I picked up the rental car and drove about 5 1/2 hours to Homer.  Tomorrow is the grand finale for my trip - halibut fishing.  After I checked into the hotel, I hung around the beach watching a few people fishing.  I noticed a couple of bald eagles nearby and knew they were waiting for dinner opportunities.  Well, you see for yourself below.

Searching for food

On the way

Claws down, ready to grab the fish

Got it!

Heading back for a nice dinner

Dinner is served

Fairbanks

Fairbanks is almost right in the middle of Alaska.  The Athabascans natives have lived in this area for thousands of years.  They were hunter-gatherers and are nomadic.  In 1902 an Italian immigrant by the name of Felix Pedro found gold near Fairbanks and soon the gold rush started.  In those days the river was the easiest mean of transportation so many gold prospectors came via the Yukon, Tanana, then the Chena river.  The original town, which is today's downtown, was built along the Chena river.

I took a shuttle bus from Denali to Fairbanks.  It took about 3 hours and costs $60.  I booked a hotel near downtown so that it'll be easier for me to get around.  I was hoping that the public transportation is good enough that I don't have to rent a car.  Boy, was I naive.  I very quickly found out that the places I wanted to go are scattered all around town.  Taking taxis would be expensive.  After walking around the afternoon I arrived and talking to different people made me realize that I do need a car.  So, in the morning I took the hotel shuttle to the airport and picked up a rental car.

Antler Arch in Downtown Fairbanks

Chena River, next to the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center

Fairbanks is nicknamed the Golden Heart City

 My first stop after I picked up my rental car is the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  I heard they have a beautiful campus and indeed it is quite beautiful.  Besides providing university education for a lot of the locals here, the university does a lot of cold or arctic research.  One of its better known research is on the Aurora Borealis.  It also has a well-known museum called Museum of the North.  It's all about the history, culture, people, and wildlife around this part of Alaska.  I spent about two hours at the museum.  Although small by other museum standard, it's very well done.

Museum of the North

Geophysical Institute, where they do research on the Aurora Borealis

My second stop of the day is the Riverboat Discovery tour.  Many people said that this is the only exciting thing to do in Fairbanks.  It costs about $63 for a 3-hour riverboat ride tour.  It's very touristy but well-choreographed and informative.  It was packed with tourists, most coming as part of a cruise.  It seems that the big cruise ship companies like Princess, Celebrity, Holland America, and Royal Caribbean, not only provide cruises but combined them with tours of Alaska too.

Riverboat Discovery 3, a paddle boat

Visit to a model Athabascan Village.  Furs of different animals that are trapped by the Eskimos

Snowshoes, worn by the Eskimos

One of the native guides modeling a beautiful fur coat

Salmons being smoked

Fish wheel that is used to catch salmons

A demonstration of dog mushing by Dave Monson.  His late wife Susan Butcher won 4 Iditarod races

Demonstration by a float plane landing and taking off.  In the winter, they use skis instead of floats

For dinner I went to a restaurant called Salmon Bake.  It's a very popular local restaurant and again it's packed with tourists from the cruise ships.  It offers an all-you-can-eat buffet of prime rib, salmon and cod.  The food was great and I probably ate too much.  The restaurant is located in Pioneer Park, which is a combination amusement park and replica of old-time Fairbanks.  Many of the buildings were original old Fairbanks buildings from downtown that have been moved to this park

Pioneer Park Entrance

One of the old buildings that have been relocated here from downtown

A Hike Through The Tundra

I'll be remiss if I did not hike at least once at Denali National Park (DNP).  Taking the buses is a lazy way to see the park.  Except stopping for the restrooms, you pretty much stay on the bus the entire trip.  It's just glossing over the park without seeing the details.  Many visitors hike, camp, and bike to see the park.  The National Park Service encourages that.

There are many hiking trails all around the park.  You can also hike the back country, i.e. places where there are no trails, deep into the park.  Instead of hiking by myself, I signed up for a ranger-led Discovery Hike.  Not only will I be able to see the park on foot, I am learning more about the plants and tundra as well.  Our ranger was supposed to be a very likable and knowledgeable guide.  Unfortunately, he was having pain in his legs so his wife Tina led the hike instead.  Bob and Tina King are retired science school teachers from outside of Nashville, TN.  They have been coming to DNP for 4 years.  They come around April/May and return to Tennessee in September.

We took one of the buses first to Tolkat, one of the rest stops, to pick up Tina.  Then we drove to Milepost 57 to start the hike.  That is almost 3 hours from the entrance of the park, mostly on unpaved and winding road.  Tina gave us a quick lesson about safety, especially with respect to bears.  Contrary to what most people think, you don't run when you encounter a bear.  You stand still and raised and wave your arms.  The bear would think that you are big and will turn around and go away.  If it doesn't go away, you're supposed to talk loud and make noise.  All the rangers also carry bear sprays in case the bear doesn't back off.  One of the worst thing is surprising a bear.  So while we are hiking, Tina would be yelling "hey bear" loudly to warn any nearby bear we are coming.  Fortunately, we did not encounter any.

Walking on the tundra is like walking on sponge.  The plants here have a very short, about 3 months, to survive.  The rest of the year they are covered with snow or the temperature is very cold.  In spite of all the extreme weather, there are a lot of plants and flowers.  Tina is very good at identifying and explaining them.  She has a wealth of information.  The King's are both passionate science teachers.  We took a slow easy hike for about 3 hours and stopped briefly for lunch.

Tina King, the Park Ranger, leading the five hikers through the tundra

View of the Alaska Range and Tundra

Home for the ground squirrels, which are true hibernators

Fireweeds, which are all over the roadside

Bears love this wild blueberries.  It's a big part of their diet.  They are 80% vegetarian.

Small willow plant, which is food for the moose and caribou

This is one of many types of lichens that are found in the tundra

Part of this plant looks like fingers

Melting of permafrost under the ground

Small but beautiful flower.  Sorry.  Don't know the name

Bears were here

Hiking amidst beautiful mountains and streams

Finally, I had a good picture of a bear.  There was another blonde bear nearby

Poppy

Don't know the name of this flower

Plants find little space to grow

Four beautiful bull moose in the same area.  The fourth is off to the side

As you can see, Alaska is a tough place to survive.  Not many living creatures or plants live here.  You either adapt or die.  Some, like the birds and whales, go somewhere warmer when winter comes.  Animals, like elk and deer, are not found here.  There are no reptiles in Alaska - no snakes or lizards.
Unfortunately, there are lots of mosquitoes here.

The rangers who work here see changes to the environment every year.  Every ranger I meet voice their concerns about climate change.  Tina asked "the animals may be able to adapt, can men adapt?"