Exploring Our nation’s Largest National Park (07-02-14)

  Have any idea which national park is the largest one in the United States?  I, for one, had no idea.




It turns out that Wrangell- St. Elias National Park, at 13 million acres, is 6 times larger than Yellowstone. I had never even heard of it until we arrived here in Alaska.

There are only two roads into this remote park, and we explored one of them- Nabesna Rd.- on the way down to Valdez. Both roads are gravel, but Nabesna is the easier of the two roads to travel on, even though it did require us to cross several streams with the truck.

Once we had traveled most of the 40 miles of this road, we stopped to hike the Skookum Volcano Trail. This is a 6 mile trail that starts in mosquito filled woods. We wore our net hats on this trail. 

We are in Grizzly country and this is the first time I felt nervous about that.  This is prime habitat, and there were signs of recent bear activity on the trail.

The key to hiking in Grizzly habitat is to make noise, and we ran out of conversation, so I started singing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall”.  By the time I got to 86, the lyrics had morphed into “86 Grizzly bears on the trail, 86 Grizzly bears- I push one down, onto the ground, 85 Grizzly bears on the trail.”  Paul didn’t join in.

Once we were out of the woods, so to speak, we came upon a creek.  The trail follows the creek, which is usually just a trickle of water, but the recent rains turned it into something that required some strategy for crossing.  Unfortunately we had to cross it about 24 times. A rough path is marked with cairns- piles of rocks that show you the trail- but they are hard to see, and I don’t think they were put in place when the water was so high.  There are cairns on both sides of the creek in this picture.

We had gotten a late start on the trail and actually gave up before we found the path to the volcano, but we still had great views from the top of the hill.

McCarthy Road

On the way back north from Valdez, we drove McCarthy Rd. into the park.  The decision to drive this road isn’t one to be made lightly.  It’s 60 miles long and  isn’t in very good condition. It takes at least 3 hours to drive it. Only the first mile or so is paved.  The rest is gravel and dirt, with deep ruts.

 

  The rewards made the drive worth it though.  Within the first mile, we came upon this family.

   

The twins were adorable and we were able to watch them for quite a while, with mom glancing over at us once in a while to make sure we didn't approach.

Soon enough we were on to the rough stuff.  We took our time, and in fact, we spent two days exploring this area, just pulling off the road to spend the night.

At the end of the road is a parking lot with a footbridge next to it that spans a river. Before the existence of the footbridge, people pulled themselves across the river on this contraption, which hung from a cable. It reminds me of the seats that can be found on a swing set.

Two small towns- McCarthy, and Kennecott, are across the footbridge (apparently there is another, larger bridge, but it costs a lot of money to cross it).


Kennecott is an old mining town that was funded by the JP Morgan and Guggenheim families. The copper ore found here is the richest in the world, with 85% copper content instead of the usual 10%.




After $100,000,000 in profits, the vein was played out and the town was essentially abandoned, as is. The national park service is slowly restoring the buildings.

Very close by the mine there are two glaciers.  The mounds of dirt in this picture are actually part of the glaciers that have been coated with enough dirt that you can’t see the ice anymore.

A couple of miles down the trail the dirt disappeared and ice took its place.  This is where we headed. We took a half day guided glacier hike on Root Glacier.  If you enlarge the picture you can see the people on the glacier.









Before we hit the ice, we put crampons on our hiking boots.  They are similar to old fashioned roller skates, but with spikes instead of wheels.













Paul and I were the only two on this trip, other than our guides.  4 would be the maximum allowed, per guide.  Killian showed us how to walk with the crampons and sure enough, we could even walk straight uphill!
Killian is a recent college grad with degree in environmental science and a passion for the outdoors, and he has tons of knowledge to share.

There is more to see on  a glacier than I thought. Small blue puddles….

and meandering rivers, with multiple waterfalls and tunnels.  It reminded me of a Disney World ride.

It’s definitely not as flat as I would think.

In fact, there were all kinds of hills and nooks and crannies to explore. We hiked on the ice for about an hour and a half, which made our hiking day about 6 miles long. We were really tired by the end of the day. 
Using  crampons added a new element to the hike.
You can rent crampons to hike glaciers by yourself, but I really felt that we wouldn’t have found all the neat features we saw if we hadn’t had a guide, so it was worth the money to me.

On the way back down McCarthy Road, headed up to Anchorage, we stopped along the river at a popular fishing spot.  These people are using fishing wheels to scoop the salmon out of the river.  There were dozens of sea gulls and Bald Eagles feasting on the leftovers.

It was one of those times where I wish I had a better camera (an enough knowledge to make a better camera worth the price!).

It was fascinating watching the every day lives of these birds for an hour or so.

 




 

Valdez Today (06-30-14)

The only road in and out of Valdez is Thompson Pass.  On our way into town, we slowed down and enjoyed the view.  Wellington Glacier is one of the main attractions along the roadway. 

Thompson Pass is a slight gap in very huge mountains, so a road was built through it to reach Valdez. Not that the Pass is a balmy drive in the Bahamas-Valdez is the snow capital of Alaska-its one of the snowiest spots in North America. Record snow fall amounts for Thompson Pass  include 974 inches for the 1952-53 season, when it snowed 298 inches (24 feet) in the month of February alone.

One of our first stops was the Elks lodge- its getting to be a habit! The bartender told us about a short trail that goes up a small hill in the middle of town.  We checked it out on our way home and had quite a view.

The following day was our all day excursion to Meares Glacier. The boat we were on had very comfortable seating, both inside and out.  They served us a nice lunch and the captain did a great job of narrating during the day.






Anytime there was wildlife to see, he stopped the boat.  We saw humpback whales 4 times, and each time we watched them for quite a while.

Just the views made this trip worth it, but we also saw harbor seals, sea lions, sea otters, porpoises, eagles, and humpback whales.  The only thing we didn't see was killer whales.

Meares Glacier itself was pretty impressive with a sheer front that stands about 200 feet tall. There wasn’t as much glacier ice as we had seen at Sawyer glacier, so we actually got closer.









On the way home we passed right by the RV park we are staying in.  We had paid a little extra to have a waterfront site.  Our camper is the one on the left.

One night I looked out the window and watched a porcupine walk down the beach right behind our rig.

With rain falling from the sky, we ditched the idea of any hiking in Valdez, but we did go over to the fish hatchery.  It was actually closed due to heavy bear activity, but we never got to see a bear. We saw dozens of Bald Eagles though.

We watched the sea lions come in close to shore to chase the salmon.

The salmon would literally jump out of the water trying to escape the sea lions, but they weren't always successful.

Once he caught something, the sea lion would head back out to deeper water.

Pretty soon it was a free-for-all as the birds tried to steal the fish from the sea lion.  We had a really great time watching for a while, even though we had to have the umbrella to protect the camera.

We drove by again on our way out of town but the tide was out so the show wasn't happening. Just a bunch of eagles sitting on the mud flats. 

Tracy Arm Fjord (06-19-14)

We spent a fair amount of time researching potential day trips to take in Juneau, and the boat trip to Tracy Arm Fjord topped our list (not coincidentally it was at the top of Tripadvisor’s list too).

A fjord is a deep sea inlet, usually carved by glaciers. They are characterized by steep walls. We boarded the 56’ Captain Cook at the port in Juneau, at 7:45 AM for a 4 hour ride to get to the Tracy Arm Fjord. This will be an all day excursion.

Before we even left the harbor the captain stopped the boat when we all pointed to what we thought was a struggling Bald Eagle in the water.  We were sort of right.

The Bald Eagle was swimming! The captain explained that when an eagle swoops down and catches a fish, he will NOT let it go- not for any reason.  Even if the fish is too big for him to carry.  Instead, he will swim ashore with the fish in his talons. According to Steve, the captain, the eagle will drown before dropping its prey.  None of us had ever seen this behavior before.

Soon thereafter we stopped again- this time for a small group of three humpback whales. We saw a few tail flips but not much else.  They were pretty close to us though.

After a few more hours we made the turn into the fjord and saw our first iceberg. 

This one was a bonus because it had a Bald Eagle sitting atop it.

As we moved deeper into the fjord, more icebergs began appearing. I won’t lie, it was pretty exciting!

With steep walls surrounding us, there was no shortage of waterfalls.

The harbor seals were sunning themselves on the icebergs.

90% of an iceberg sits under the waterline, so maneuvering around them may not be as easy as it seems.

Soon there were so many icebergs  the captain slowed the boat to a crawl.

It seemed that we were surrounded by ice and harbor seals.  The seals come here to have their pups because Orcas don’t like icebergs so they don’t come looking for them here.

Sawyer Glacier was very impressive when it came into view.  It was even more impressive when we learned that the forward section is 200 feet thick and the back section is about 600 feet thick.  That does not include the 800 feet that sits beneath the surface of the water.  Wow.

The icebergs appear blue because the ice is so dense, when light hits it, most of the colors in the spectrum dissipate, or are absorbed.  The only color that is left for us to see is the blue.  We were so glad we picked the only sunny day to come and view this beautiful phenomenon!

The color was stunning!

 
 

The weather was awesome, with partly sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s, for the most part. It felt cold when the boat was moving, and when we were in and among the icebergs.  You could definitely tell who is from Alaska.  The captain was in short sleeves most of the day.

This is the only good weather we've had since the day we got here.  More on that later.

One of the awesome phenomenon to witness is the calving of a glacier.  Small or large pieces fall off into the water.  We were able to see several pieces calve off, and even though they looked pretty small, we were told that the smallest was bigger than a car.  A few seconds after they hit the water, a huge ”boom” is heard- similar to a crack of  thunder. Pieces that fall from above splinter, and do not make icebergs. Only the pieces that calve off from below the water usually form icebergs.

We spent an hour or so watching the glacier, the icebergs, and the wildlife. 

Eventually it was time to start the 4 hour trek back to the dock.  We didn't stop to see anything on the way back.  Many of us saw an Orca swimming near shore, but he wasn't breaking surface enough to get a good look.

As for the rest of Juneau…..that will be the next post….