Sunday 10 September
We woke this morning to some wonderful news! Simon and Tracey have been travelling in Iceland and Simon had chosen a beautiful location there to propose to Tracey – and she said Yes! We are so happy and absolutely delighted, so once we’d woken up properly and dressed we Facetimed them to give them our congratulations. A very international engagement!
After that very exciting start to the day we breakfasted and packed up and left for our drive back down south. We were covering the same stretch of road that we had driven a few days earlier but the weather was so much better today! We could see the peaks with their first snow of the season, which we have learned is called the “Termination Dust” – the first dusting of snow of the Fall which marks the termination of summer. Alaska is one of those places that really makes you realise how impossible it is for a camera to really capture the grandeur of some scenery. The mountains are larger and the scene just so much more spectacular than you can capture in a photo – but we have done our best.
When we stopped in this time at the North Denali viewpoint we could see her nearby peaks but Mt Denali itself was still hidden in cloud. Then some miles down the road we stopped in again at the Denali south Viewpoint and we could see just a little more of her. If you travel to Alaska you learn that one of the bucket list experiences is to see Mt Denali. She ( everyone calls her “she”!) is very shy, she is so tall that she creates her own weather and most of the time is wreathed in cloud. So I was excited to see a teeny part of her. 7 out of 1 days the mountain is hidden so they say that anyone who catches a glimpse of her is in the “30% club”
I asked Neil if he thought our tiny glimpse counted and he was dubious but I was happy to call it a win. However we had better in store! You may recall that we’d not bothered to stop in Talkeetna on our drive north because the weather had been miserable. So as today was so sunny we detoured up the spur road again to take aproper look. As we approached the town we suddenly got a perfect sight down the road at Mt Denali, out of the clouds and glowing white in the sunshine! We stopped in at the same viewpoint we’d tried the other day, this time with a much better result. The area was full of cars, buses and people exclaiming at how lucke they were.
Talkeetna was an interesting little town, it reminded me of Berrima in the NSw Southern highlands but with a rougher, more rustic edge. We walked down to the river to catch another glimpse of Denali and then wandered up the town stopping in at various arts and crafts stores.
We snacked on some of our food stash and drank a thermos of coffee for a very light lunch at the Talkeetna park before continuing on down south. As we approached Palmer the weather started to close in and as we turned west for our drive up the Glenn highway to “Glacier View” it started to get wetter and wetter. However, even in the rain the scenery along this strecth of road was fabulous, and different to what we’d seen before.
We were booked for the night at a little self contained cottage which overlooks the Matanuska Glacier. Matanuska is of Alaska’s most accessible glaciers,a stable 27-mile long river of ice flowing from the Chugach Mountains almost all the way to the Glenn Highway. With a 4-mile wide terminus visible from the road. it was the strangest glacier I’ve ever seen as the view we had of it was just a long river of ice flowing along at ground level.
When we finally arrived at Tundra Rose Cottages we were delighted with our cute little log cabin. It was warm and cosy inside and had a lovely deck with a view overlooking the glacier. We didn’t let the weather stop us from sitting out there ( briefly!) to admire the spot.
We’d stopped at a supermarket in Palmer to buy provisions for tonights dinner as there was nowhere toeat nearby. With the dingy weather we were glad to eat in.
Monday 11 September
It rained steadily overnight and was very cold, we were glad of the little gas fireplace that kept the cabin toasty warm. While we ate breakfast we realised that there was a mix of rain and snow falling, but the snow melted as soon as it hit the ground. The plan for today had been to go for a 2 hour long guided hike on the glacier, equipped with spiked shoes and walking poles. However, the weather was just too daunting, we were’t keen on being freezing cold and wet for 2 hours so decided to give it a miss. instead we packed up and headed back to Anchorage. Still drizzly when we arrived we decided to visit a couple of shopping malls to see if we could find any bargains but the shopping is pretty thin on the ground in Anchorage! Luckily the weather had finally started to improve so we drove down to Earthquake Park on the shoreline near the airport.
The Great Alaskan earthquake ( also called the Good Friday Earthquake) was a megathrust quake that began at 5:36 P.M. on March 27, 1964. It had a magnitude of 9.2, making it the second largest earthquake on record. Lasting nearly four minutes, it was the most powerful recorded earthquake in U.S. and North American history. It caused extensive damage throughout southeast Alaska and caused an entire ( populated!) area of the Anchorage coastline to slump dramatically. The park has been established in the area affected , the peculiar rippling hills in the forest are evidence of the massive earthquake.
On our walk along the path in the park we met an older chap who was riding his bike along the path, very friendly and very keen to engage us in conversation. He was impressed that we were touring Alaska in a car rather than on a tour and suggested we drive up to the Glen Alps Trailhead area as we’d see some great views. I’d had this on my plan of possible things to do in Anchorage so we decided to head on up. It’s quite a climb up into the hills ( my ears were popping!) but the view from the trailhead was spectacular. You could see for miles! As we walked back down to the parking area we saw someone launch their hang glider from the top of Mt Flattop above us and sail down to the top of the observation deck that we had just left.
By now it was after 3 so we decided to head to the hotel to check in.The Lakefront Anchorage is in a lovely location on Lake Hood, the location of the Anchorage Seaplane base. Lake Hood Seaplane Base started out as two smaller lakes: Lake Hood to the west and Lake Spenard to the east. Back in the 1970s, the state began dredging out a canal in between the two to create seaplane takeoff and taxi lanes. Today, Lake Hood is host to nearly 200 daily operations and has become the largest and busiest seaplane base in the world! We sat out on the hotel deck to enjoy and drink and eat dinner and watched the seaplanes come and go.
After dinner we decided to catch up on some laundry and our blogs and could get our bags organised ready for our flight to Seattle tomorrow.
Alaska has been wonderful! People often ask me what is my favourite American state and I’ve never been able to give a definite answer… but Alaska would have to be way up there. Many other states have beautiful scenery but here there is just SO MUCH of it, and it’s on the grandest scale. We are so glad we decided to add the land roadtripto our cruise. The cruise was great and we enjoyed the ports and, of course, the two glacier sea days. However, having seen the scenery at Kenai Fjords, The roads up to and through Denali National Park, along the Glenn Highway to Matanuska and even just driving up to and beyond Anchorage – we both agree that if we’d only done the cruise we would have only seen a fraction of what the state has to offer. To be honest, I think we have still only seen a fraction! – The Gates of the Arctic and Wrangel-St Elias are two enormous National parks where the scenery is reputed to be mind blowing. So maybe we will have to come back some day!