In the first week of July 2012, my husband, our toddler and I had a most memorable trip to Alaska. It was a week full of nature and pristine freshness. And since it's so close to the north pole, from June till about August, you get to experience the midnight sun. That was something special! Although technically there are 21 or so hours of daylight, while we were there we found that even after "sunset" the sky was lit enough for you to go out without streetlights. With a week of no nights, it was just a perfect vacation to relax. You could wake up each day and start the day quite relaxedly, without having to rush to do the next thing or get to the next place. There was really no hurry, cause it was not like the sun was going to set!
To get to Alaska, I considered cruise options as those seemed to be very popular, at least from Seattle. But with that alternative, you spend most of your time on the cruise, and do a lot of eating and drinking. And then you get lesser time on land. I felt that we'd get bored doing that. Since our priority was to explore Alaska and get into the wilderness a little, while sticking to the week-long timeframe, I decided that flying in would be the best option.
We started our trip at Anchorage. After having heard and read everywhere about how sunny Alaska is in the summers, and having seen beautiful pictures of lakes and mountains drenched in sunlight, as soon as we landed in Anchorage and got out of the airport to find the weather very much like the usual weather in Seattle- cold, gray and cloudy, if not a tad worse with winds and rain, I started to get disappointed. Seattle had been bright, sunny and gorgeous when we left! My heart sank at the thought of having left the sun for a cold and wet vacation. I started to gnaw my husband's brains that I'd probably made a wrong choice for a destination. All the way during the ride from the airport to the hotel, I was looking out of our rental SUV and grumbling "Seattle's prettier than this. And it's summer there. Why did we come here?! @#$%^".
Once we checked into the hotel, it was time to go out to get lunch. It was a weekend and downtown Anchorage was quiet and sleepy, which didn't help my apprehension about the trip. We found a Mexican restaurant to eat at. Food was decent, and as we ate we were trying to plan the day. We had that day to spend in Anchorage and would head up north to Denali National Park the next day by road. The owner of the restaurant was a friendly guy. He suggested going to Matanuska Glacier, about a couple of hours' drive from Anchorage. He said he went there quite a bit and it's a good hike, but also warned us to only go as far as it looked absolutely safe. He also said he usually put his kids on leash when he took them there as "If they fall anywhere, they're gone forever". That was scary. We never use a leash on our kid, and were not going to get one. Moreover, our son was too little to hike by himself, especially on a glacier. We only had a baby carrier to carry him on, which my husband could manage to carry.
We decided to do the hike anyway, and first stopped by an REI to get some good hiking boots for both of us. We didn't get crampons or any special boots for walking on ice, based on the advice of the REI staff. While we were there, we also got binoculars, mosquito repellants and bear sprays, the things you should definitely equip yourself with when you're outdoors in Alaska.
After some circus time running up and down the stairs behind our son while trying to shop, changing diapers somewhere half way through the shopping, trying the hiking boots on while holding him with one hand so he wouldn't toss down a whole bunch of shoes from the racks, we finally got out of the store, exhausted. We had everything we needed but I turned to my husband and said "Are we really going hiking now?!" But we were not going to give up that easily. We gave our son some milk, let him nap in the car, and started our drive to the glacier.
One thing I immediately noticed about the landscapes was that it all looked very vast. You could see ahead of you for miles and miles, all around- 360 degrees. Rivers and mountains and evergreen trees. And the stark difference from Seattle was that the evergreens looked much smaller (younger). There were also big patches where there seemed to have been fires and the trees had burned down. I learned from a friend later on that the flora being younger in Alaska was because of a tsunami that had hit Alaska in 1958, which wiped out the vegetation, letting it all grow from the scratch once again. Because of the rather short evergreens and some dry patches, I felt that Seattle looked a lot grander, with the extremely tall straight trees reaching up to the heavens. So, although I started enjoying Alaska at this point, I still wasn't blown away by it, coming from Seattle which is paradise on earth. I can tell you one thing, if you live in the Seattle area, you definitely get spoilt. You get used to all the nature and beauty around you and it's hard to find a lot of other places that compare to this area.
Anyway, coming back to the drive to Matanuska Glacier, it was beautiful nonetheless, especially once the sky opened up a little and the light and shade started to play on the mountain slopes. It really took on an aura. It was as if all along, the place had been shy and was slow to reveal itself. Here's a picture taken during the drive.
However, since I'd heard so much about seeing moose and bears on the side of the road anywhere and everywhere in Alaska, I was still not completely satisfied. We hadn't had any animal sightings yet. I kept saying "Where are the moose? Where are the bears?!" as we drove.
On the way, we stopped by a little convenience store/deli to pick up some food as there was going to be no other place to buy supplies until we reached the glacier. We bought some snacks, sandwiches for having after the hike and some bread and peanut butter and apples. These supplies would come in very handy for most of the trip. Especially when you're hiking with a kid, a little bit of planning by way of food goes a long way in making the trip more comfortable.
I asked the guy at the store about moose sighting. I said that we hadn't seen any yet. He said that in the winters you can see big packs of them crossing the street. Suddenly I was transported to that scene and wished for a second that I could witness that, despite the unimaginable cold of an Alaskan winter...
Once done stocking up, we continued onward. We reached Matanuska glacier sometime early evening. It seemed like there weren't many people there, as there was only one other car parked. And that is one other thing you'll notice in Alaska. Because of the sheer vastness, it's hard to spot people when you're hiking anywhere. I think spotting wildlife is similar as well. The place is all open and vast, so bears, etc. are few and far between, or at least so it seemed to us.
We got off the car excited. Our son was up by now. We put on our hiking gear, layered up, and started out, with our son in the baby carrier on my husband's back.
Once we reached the periphery of where the glacier started, it was quite magnificent! But also very scary to hike on. There were patches of ice, and it seemed like you could go wrong in your assessment of where it was safe and where it was thin and hollow beneath. My biggest fear was that there weren't that many people, let alone people with kids and that it would be impossible to run or even move fast if we were to spot a bear somewhere in the middle. Every few steps we took, I kept wanting to turn back, but my husband just kept going. We spotted just one group who were done with their hike and heading back. They just told us what we knew when we asked them how safe it was, and that was- to stay where the dirt was. I didn't hear any reassurance I was hoping to get that it was perfectly ok to go with a baby! We carried on anyway, with me constantly switching lenses between the regular one and the macro one to try to capture the endless beauty around, beside and beneath us.
After 40 minutes or so, I insisted that we start heading back, as we were deep inside with not a single soul to be spotted anywhere, and I was not ready to have a bear encounter at that moment.
We got back with happiness and satisfaction in our hearts, adrenalin flowing through our veins. It had been a perfect first day!
We went back to the hotel, had dinner and went to bed.
I'll continue about the rest of the trip in the posts to come. Stay tuned!
To get to Alaska, I considered cruise options as those seemed to be very popular, at least from Seattle. But with that alternative, you spend most of your time on the cruise, and do a lot of eating and drinking. And then you get lesser time on land. I felt that we'd get bored doing that. Since our priority was to explore Alaska and get into the wilderness a little, while sticking to the week-long timeframe, I decided that flying in would be the best option.
Arrival in Anchorage and Day 1 : Walking on thin ice?
Once we checked into the hotel, it was time to go out to get lunch. It was a weekend and downtown Anchorage was quiet and sleepy, which didn't help my apprehension about the trip. We found a Mexican restaurant to eat at. Food was decent, and as we ate we were trying to plan the day. We had that day to spend in Anchorage and would head up north to Denali National Park the next day by road. The owner of the restaurant was a friendly guy. He suggested going to Matanuska Glacier, about a couple of hours' drive from Anchorage. He said he went there quite a bit and it's a good hike, but also warned us to only go as far as it looked absolutely safe. He also said he usually put his kids on leash when he took them there as "If they fall anywhere, they're gone forever". That was scary. We never use a leash on our kid, and were not going to get one. Moreover, our son was too little to hike by himself, especially on a glacier. We only had a baby carrier to carry him on, which my husband could manage to carry.
We decided to do the hike anyway, and first stopped by an REI to get some good hiking boots for both of us. We didn't get crampons or any special boots for walking on ice, based on the advice of the REI staff. While we were there, we also got binoculars, mosquito repellants and bear sprays, the things you should definitely equip yourself with when you're outdoors in Alaska.
After some circus time running up and down the stairs behind our son while trying to shop, changing diapers somewhere half way through the shopping, trying the hiking boots on while holding him with one hand so he wouldn't toss down a whole bunch of shoes from the racks, we finally got out of the store, exhausted. We had everything we needed but I turned to my husband and said "Are we really going hiking now?!" But we were not going to give up that easily. We gave our son some milk, let him nap in the car, and started our drive to the glacier.
One thing I immediately noticed about the landscapes was that it all looked very vast. You could see ahead of you for miles and miles, all around- 360 degrees. Rivers and mountains and evergreen trees. And the stark difference from Seattle was that the evergreens looked much smaller (younger). There were also big patches where there seemed to have been fires and the trees had burned down. I learned from a friend later on that the flora being younger in Alaska was because of a tsunami that had hit Alaska in 1958, which wiped out the vegetation, letting it all grow from the scratch once again. Because of the rather short evergreens and some dry patches, I felt that Seattle looked a lot grander, with the extremely tall straight trees reaching up to the heavens. So, although I started enjoying Alaska at this point, I still wasn't blown away by it, coming from Seattle which is paradise on earth. I can tell you one thing, if you live in the Seattle area, you definitely get spoilt. You get used to all the nature and beauty around you and it's hard to find a lot of other places that compare to this area.
Anyway, coming back to the drive to Matanuska Glacier, it was beautiful nonetheless, especially once the sky opened up a little and the light and shade started to play on the mountain slopes. It really took on an aura. It was as if all along, the place had been shy and was slow to reveal itself. Here's a picture taken during the drive.
However, since I'd heard so much about seeing moose and bears on the side of the road anywhere and everywhere in Alaska, I was still not completely satisfied. We hadn't had any animal sightings yet. I kept saying "Where are the moose? Where are the bears?!" as we drove.
On the way, we stopped by a little convenience store/deli to pick up some food as there was going to be no other place to buy supplies until we reached the glacier. We bought some snacks, sandwiches for having after the hike and some bread and peanut butter and apples. These supplies would come in very handy for most of the trip. Especially when you're hiking with a kid, a little bit of planning by way of food goes a long way in making the trip more comfortable.
I asked the guy at the store about moose sighting. I said that we hadn't seen any yet. He said that in the winters you can see big packs of them crossing the street. Suddenly I was transported to that scene and wished for a second that I could witness that, despite the unimaginable cold of an Alaskan winter...
Once done stocking up, we continued onward. We reached Matanuska glacier sometime early evening. It seemed like there weren't many people there, as there was only one other car parked. And that is one other thing you'll notice in Alaska. Because of the sheer vastness, it's hard to spot people when you're hiking anywhere. I think spotting wildlife is similar as well. The place is all open and vast, so bears, etc. are few and far between, or at least so it seemed to us.
We got off the car excited. Our son was up by now. We put on our hiking gear, layered up, and started out, with our son in the baby carrier on my husband's back.
Once we reached the periphery of where the glacier started, it was quite magnificent! But also very scary to hike on. There were patches of ice, and it seemed like you could go wrong in your assessment of where it was safe and where it was thin and hollow beneath. My biggest fear was that there weren't that many people, let alone people with kids and that it would be impossible to run or even move fast if we were to spot a bear somewhere in the middle. Every few steps we took, I kept wanting to turn back, but my husband just kept going. We spotted just one group who were done with their hike and heading back. They just told us what we knew when we asked them how safe it was, and that was- to stay where the dirt was. I didn't hear any reassurance I was hoping to get that it was perfectly ok to go with a baby! We carried on anyway, with me constantly switching lenses between the regular one and the macro one to try to capture the endless beauty around, beside and beneath us.
Views around the glacier
Our trek was slow and careful. This was the first hike with the baby on the back, and that too on ice. It was not until much later, in September when I hiked Camp Muir, that I'd know that those beautiful patches of bright blue that we saw meant thin ice that would crack easily and give way if you were to accidentally step on them.
Beyond a point, it was all still. We could hear nothing except the sound of snow melting. Zen!
A crevice, taken with my macro lens
After 40 minutes or so, I insisted that we start heading back, as we were deep inside with not a single soul to be spotted anywhere, and I was not ready to have a bear encounter at that moment.
We got back with happiness and satisfaction in our hearts, adrenalin flowing through our veins. It had been a perfect first day!
We went back to the hotel, had dinner and went to bed.
I'll continue about the rest of the trip in the posts to come. Stay tuned!
2 comments:
Nice travelogue Sumi! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Alaska and would go there in a heartbeat!! We had a fantastic vacation in 2010 and I can completely relate to your experience! We didn't hike the Matanuska Glacier but we hiked up to the foot of the Laughton Glacier at the Tongass National Forest and it is by far the most memorable, strenuous (9 mile hike), and breathtaking hike of my life! And having lived in Seattle I know what you mean by being spoiled! People think I'm a hard to please snob when l look at the North East and say, Meh, I have seen better ;). But from my experiences thus far, Alaska and Montana are two places that I would call gorgeous! :)
Oh that sounds good- 9 mile hik! And I agree about Alaska and Montana. Glacier National Park is one of the most beautiful places in America, I think. I am yet to experience Yellowstone...
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