The End ----

I've reached the end of our trip to a small corner of our largest state.  The last afternoon we drove back along Turnagain Arm toward Anchorage International Airport and a flight home.    As with the rest of the trip, we had a few surprises as we drove the Seward Highway.

Turnagain Arm

Low Tide

The Seward Highway follows the mountainous coastline.  All along the way we were treated to spectacular views of Cook Inlet, where mammoth sloping mountains abruptly rise precipitously from this four-mile-wide bay.

It was low tide when we stopped at one of the many overlooks.  Turnagain Arm boasts the second highest tides in North America after the Bay of Fundy. These tides, which can reach 40 feet, come in so quickly that they produce a wave known as a bore tide. Adventurous kayakers and surfers have taken to riding the tide as an extreme sport.

One of the nice surprises we were treated to that day is we pulled over at the best place to observe the bore tide about 20 minutes before it came it.   We even saw what we think were Mountain Goats high on the side of the mountains.   We think that is what they were, but they were really too far away to be able to know for sure.   This stop and bore tide was completely unplanned, at least by us.   God may have had this in mind for us all along.

Bore Tide

We hung out with several others waiting on the tide to make it's scheduled appearance.  About 5 minutes before it was to arrive people start exclaiming "there it is!".   The tide wave was high enough that we could see it long before it got to where we were waiting.   As it got closer there was no mistaking it.  

The height of the tide is dependent on the phase of the moon.  We were there for a medium high tide that was still very impressive.   It was fun watching it come in.

A little way down the highway we stopped at another roadside pull off.  There was a pretty little creek that flowed through the woods and emptied over a waterfall into a small pool before flowing into Turnagain Arm.

 We knew we were in a good spot when a group of photographers on a tour came down the hillside to their van.  The group was led by a guide that was obviously taking them to some of the best spots to photograph.

Before we got back to our car we looked out across Turnagain Arm and saw the setting sun was painting the clouds into a pleasant warm tone.  The tour group was pulled over at the bottom of the hill doing the same thing.

Sunset Painting The Clouds

We got in the car and headed toward Anchorage thinking that was the end of the day.   Just a few miles down the road we saw many cars pulled over on the left and people out taking pictures out in Turnagain Arm.  As we pulled over I saw some movement about a dozen yards from the shore.  It was a Harbor Seal swimming close in.   But no one was looking at the Seal.  Instead they were looking and pointing at this.

Beluga Whale Breaching

A pod of white Beluga whales were following the tide up Turnagain Arm.   Photographing these whales was a real challenge.  The Beluga lack a dorsal fin, which made them blend in and hard to spot. They are only above the surface for a few seconds before submerging again after grabbing a quick breath. Dusk was fairly far along and there was little light to work with.  My photographic style must of looked like I was shooting popup targets in an circus arcade.  Back and forth, trying to focus and shoot before the whale was gone. In the end I didn't get a great photo, but we have great memories.

Sunset

Before jumping back in the car I used my long 420mm telephoto lens to shoot down Turnagain Arm to Cooks Inlet, the snow covered Alaska Range and Fire Island.  Fire Island is a 5.5-mile long island near the head of Cook Inlet.  You can see the 11-turbine, 17.6-megawatt wind farm located on the island.  This was the last photo I took on the trip.

We spent 14 days total door to door and only covered a very small area.   If you have stuck with me you have been subjected to 25 blog posts describing what we did on our Alaska vacation.  Even if no one reads these posts, I have enjoyed reliving the trip through photos and stories.   Alaska had been on our bucket list for a while and we wanted to hit it while we can still go on some of the longer more adventurous hikes.  After returning, it's still on our list.  There are many more places to visit and things to do.  We'll be back in a few years.

Crow Creek Gold Mine

OK, I was going to make this my last blog post about Alaska but I have too many photos to share in one post.  This will be the next to last post.

The Crow Creek Mine is just outside the town of Girdwood a few miles up a dirt road.   The Winner Creek flows through and it's not too far from the end of the Winner Creek Trail we hiked the day before.  We got to spend a couple hours there and had a great time meeting the owner and some of the people who worked there.  They were busy taking down a tent, lights, chairs, and tables after a wedding.   Turns out having your wedding at a historic gold mine is pretty popular in Alaska.

We also learned that the owner is a musician and loves bluegrass music.  When he learned where we were from he asked about ETSU and their Bluegrass Degree program.  People all the way in Alaska know about ETSU and bluegrass.

A young lady was there helping take down the lights.  When we got there she told us all about meeting President Obama a couple days before.   Her brother-in-law is in the Secret Service and got her in to the group that greeted The President when he arrived at the Anchorage airport.  She said she shook his hand and started to blubber like a little girl.   It was fun to hear her story and see how excited she was.

Rather than tell you about the mine, I'll use the owners description from their website -

There's gold in that stream!

"Established in 1896, Crow Creek Mine was one of the largest producing hydraulic placer gold mines in South Central Alaska and today is Alaska’s most popular recreational gold mining area. No exact records are known  that tell the true tale of exactly how much gold was taken from this mine, but estimates put it around 700 ounces a month during peak production. When the commercial mining operations came to a standstill around World War II, many believed that more gold remained in the creek than had ever been mined out of it. The Toohey Family, owners/operators since 1969, strive to preserve not only the rich history and beautiful natural scenery of Crow Creek Mine, but also the gold resources within its claims so that many for years to come can experience the same thrill that the prospectors enjoyed when they first arrived at Crow Creek. Nestled among the Chugach Mountains, Crow Creek Mine offers a unique blend of historical buildings, antiques, rare mining equipment, beautiful gardens, amazing wilderness scenery, hiking trails (including the Historic Iditarod Trail), and access to the explore the mines’ original claims. These claims are still producing gold to this very day and with a little work and a bit of luck, you might be quite surprised to find that you too can catch “gold fever”."

Dinner At Crow Creek Mine

This is not your typical tourist "pan for gold" attraction where they might put some small nuggets in a stream.  It is a real working gold mine.   The owner told us about several people who either make a living or supplement their income by panning for gold in the creek.

When the mine was in full swing they used high pressure water to blast away the rock and soil and direct the sediment to a sluice where the gold was separated.  They blasted away whole hillsides and created a man made canyon.   Here's an illustration from wikipedia that will give you an idea of what this looked like. They had one of the old water canons there but I didn't think to get a photo.

We didn't pan for gold, but we did find some fun photographs in this historic site.  I love old rusty, decaying stuff and this place had it in abundance.

The owner loves flowers and decorates the area with a variety of flora. He had already begun winterizing and had taken many of his plants to a greenhouse to live out the winter.   They live here year round, but it does get a bit harsh.  He told us they can get 20 feet of snow!

Old and New

Most of the old building were originals from the end of the 19th century.   They were fun to photograph from the inside and outside.

Reflecting Pond

He had a couple old trucks out on the grounds.  You can see the old Ford pickup reflecting in the pond.

A fun place to stop and visit.  If you go, check them out.

Girdwood and Iditarod Trail

On the last night of our vacation we splurged and stayed at the Alyeska luxury resort in the town of Girdwood.   We enjoyed every place we stayed on our journey.  Each one was different from a B&B in someone's home to waterfront cabins and a hillside lodge in Denali.   This night we were going to relax in the saltwater hot tub and enjoy a different kind of accommodations.

The town of Girdwood was originally founded as a supply camp for gold miners with claims along the creeks feeding Turnagain Arm.   It was originally called “Glacier City” for the seven massive glaciers that rim the surrounding mountains.

Seven Glaciers Restaurant

The town had to be moved 2.5 miles after the  1964 Good Friday earthquake, when the land under the original townsite sank into Turnagain Arm, putting much of the town under water.

Today Girdwood is a ski resort and the Hotel Alyeska is at it's center.   Looking out our room window we cold see the tram taking people up to the mountain top to hike, ride mountain bikes down, or eat at the Seven Glaciers Restaurant at the top.

The resort was well landscaped and there were numerous flowers all around the outside of the hotel.  I had a little time and took these two.   The ski lift chairs had water filled blue plastic barrels in the seats to test the mechanisms before winter and the ski season.   The yellow flower was in the sun and the building wall behind it was in deep shade.   Really makes the flower stand out against the black background.

There are several hiking trails and we took the Winner Creek trail.

Winner Creek Trail

While not on hotel property, I think this trail benefits from being very close.   For the first half mile or so the trail was wide, flat and had many boardwalks to protect sensitive plants.   The further from the hotel we went, the less it looked like something from Disneyworld.

At about 2 miles we reached  Winner Creek where this very substantial, yet broken, bridge crossed the creek.  We found that the bridge is there for snowcat drivers to cross in the winter and is not the trail crossing.   That's me in the red jacket taking the photo below.

Snowcat Bridge

Winner Creek from Snow Cat Bridge

Rock in the Creek

I find picking out small parts of a scene can result in some interesting photos.   In this case, I picked out this rock with moss and a couple leaves on it.  The water was streaming around but not over the rock.


The trail joins or is part of the Iditarod National Historic Trail, which commemorates a 2,300-mile system of winter trails that first connected ancient Alaska Native villages.  The Iditarod trail opened up Alaska for the last great American gold rush, and now plays a vital role for travel and recreation in modern day Alaska.

Over 1,500 miles of the historic winter trail system are open today for public use across state and federal lands.  The trail is best known today for its annual Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Race participants and their teams of dogs spend up to 15 days mushing 1,000 miles from Anchorage to Nome.

Iditarod National Historic Trail

At about 3 miles we reached the Winner Creek Hand Tram.  Described as a "very Alaskan way to cross a creek", the tram is basically a metal cage suspended by steel cables across the creek.   One or two people can pull themselves across high above the creek.   We went across and back.  Pulling is harder than it looks.

Winner Creek Hand Tram

 We crossed high above the creek.  Lower down were the remains of earlier trams.

Check out our shadow

This was an easy enjoyable hike and I recommend it.  Most anyone can make it to the hand tram.   The trail continues on to the Crow Creek Mine Road.   We visited the Crow Creek mine later in the day.  More about that in the next post.

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

Black Bear

I gave you a little teaser yesterday with the close up photo of a grizzly bear.  No, we didn't encounter the bear on a hike in the woods.   The bear was one of several at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

One the Seward Highway between Portage and Girdwood we found the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.    AWCC takes in injured and orphaned animals and provides spacious enclosures and care. Animals that cannot be released into the wild are given a permanent home at the center.  Others are released back into the wild.

We visited the center by walking around and watching the bears, bison, caribou, fox, and porcupine.   It was the first porcupine either of us had seen and I can't say that we saw much of him.   He was mostly sleeping and poked his head out once to look around.

We arrived just in time to catch the end of the bear feeding.   The center has built a high boardwalk above the bear habitat and the bears were out for dinner.   There were several grizzlies on one side and black bears on the other.  We didn't get to see bears close up in the wild so this was the next best thing.

Gotta Love That Face

Prior to the 20th century, Wood Bison inhabited Alaska and northwestern Canada for thousands of years. They disappeared from the state within the past 200 years, likely from a change in habitat distribution and effects of unregulated hunting. They were declared extinct in 1941 but a small herd was discovered in Canada in 1957.   The AWCC has maintained and grown a heard  since 2003.  In July of this year they released the latest of 130 Wood Bison back into the wilds of Alaska in and effort to restore the herds.  Most are wearing radio collars so they can be tracked and monitored.

Wood Bison

One of the more animated animals there was a Red Fox.   He was curious and seemed to want to know what we were up to. He was constantly moving around but would stop and look at us, giving me a great opportunity for a portrait shot.

Red Fox

Although we had seen several Moose on our first day in Denali, we enjoyed watching this big guy.    

Bull Moose

They also had a few birds of prey in one area.   Adonis arrived at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in 1995 after being shot.  His left wing required a full amputation as a result. Even though it is illegal to harm an eagle under the Bald Eagle Protection Act, an estimated 2,000 – 3,000 eagles are shot or injured in the United States each year. Since Adonis cannot fly, he has found a permanent home  at the AWCC.

Adonis

If you are traveling between Anchorage and Seward be sure to stop off for a couple hours and visit the center.   It's a great way to experience Alaska's wildlife up close.  They are a non-profit so you might want to consider a donation as well.

What are we up to tomorrow?   Here's a hint.  

Your Chariot Awaits

Portage Glacier and The Strange Little Town of Whittier

Peaceful Scene

Portage Glacier

We didn't take a glacier cruises in Kenai Fjords National Park but we did get to take one on an inland lake.  

Near the road to Whittier is what’s left of Portage Alaska. The community at the end of Turnagain Arm was home to almost 100 residents until the 1964 Good Friday earthquake caused the shoreline to drop between 6 - 12  flooding the town and surrounding area with salt water. All that remains of the original village are a few structures sinking into the nearby mud flats and scattered stands of dead trees.

Portage Glacier

The Begich-Boggs Visitor Center was built on the shore of Portage Lake.  It is a very nice place to stop with interesting programs and displays. What it doesn't have anymore is a view of Portage Glacier.  Portage Glacier is in retreat, and is no longer visible from the center’s observation decks and telescopes.  To get up close to the glacier, we took the hour-long sightseeing boat cruise on Portage Lake.

The skies were clear and the sun was very bright the day we boarded the MV Ptarmigan to tour across the lake to the glacier.  When we got close we saw that the sun was shining through the glacial ice highlighting the blue color of the ice.

Portage Glacier got it's name because it is on a portage route between Prince William Sound and Turnagain Arm. Hundreds of years ago the glacier filled the entire Portage Valley, a distance of 14 miles, and was connected to what are now five separate glaciers.  Walking across the glacier was the best way to cross.

Portage Glacier

While on the boat June noticed a few very fit young men on the boat.   She leaned over and whispered to me "those guys are packin!"   They also had Secret Service patches on their jackets.   It was the afternoon after President Obama had been in the area.  We decided they were taking some personal time and visiting the sites.   It was probably the safest place to be that day.

Waiting Our Turn

Whittier Alaska

After we left Portage Lake we headed toward the town of Whittier.   During World War II the United States Army constructed a military base, complete with port and railroad  near the Whittier glacier. The spur of the Alaska Railroad was completed in 1943 and the port became the entrance for United States soldiers into Alaska.  This base eventually became the town of Whittier.

Until 15 years ago the only way to get to Whittier in winter was by boat.   In 2000 Alaska converted the World War II rail tunnel to handle cars, as well as trains.  At 2.5 miles long the tunnel is the longest combined car - rail tunnel in North America.  I din't even know there was such a thing until we drove it.   It's still a rough tunnel with rock walls just wide enough for the railroad.  Driving the tunnel is an experience.

Cars can only cross once an hour in either direction and the tunnel has to be aired out after each trip.  The tunnel actually closes at 10:30 at night.  You don't want to come home late!

Perhaps the strangest thing about Whittier is most of the town,  including its hospital, school and city government, functions within one self-sufficient structure: a Cold War block structure that dominates the town.   The building seems so out of place at the edge of a small fishing village of 200 people.  It just doesn't belong.

Buckner Building

When it was built by the Army, the 14-story Hodge Building (now Begich Towers Condominiums) contained 150 two and three bedroom apartments plus bachelor efficiency units. The new Whittier School was connected by a tunnel at the base of the west tower so students could go to school in short sleeves on the very worst weather days.  That arrangement is still in place today.  Residents can stay within the warm confines of the buildings without having to go outside.

The other structure, the Buckner Building, was completed in 1953, and was called the "city under one roof". The mammoth, sturdy structure had  a movie theater, a bowling alley, and a jail. The military has long left and abandoned the building to the harsh Alaska weather.    

I would love to explore inside that old building.   Urban decay photography is something I'd love to try, but I'm just not much into breaking and entering government property.

Abandoned

We wandered around town for a while and soon realized that as a destination, Whittier is a bust. We were soon back in line to drive the 2.5 miles through the tunnel to the other side of the mountain.


In the next installment we make our way to the town of Girdwood before heading back to Anchorage.   Be sure to come back and read about bears, moose, elk, porcupines, and beluga whales.

A Couple Days in Seward Alaska

View From Seward Byway

The town of Seward Alaska was about 20 miles down the Seward Highway from our little cabin on Kenai Lake.  We made that trip two or three times.  It's a beautiful drive passing by mountains with hanging glaciers, lakes, streams, and miles and miles of evergreen trees.

Starting in Anchorage, the Seward Highway snakes around the coastline through the Kenai Peninsula for 127 miles.  The highway was designated a National Forest Scenic Byway by the U.S. Forest Service on September 8, 1989. Later, the State of Alaska added it to the State Scenic Byway system on January 29, 1993, when the Seward Highway was named an All-American Road as part of the National Scenic Byway program by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. This is not a road you take to get to a destination as quickly as possible.  There are numerous interesting places to stop and enjoy along the way.   If you go, take your time and enjoy the ride.   I'll be sharing more sites from the Seward Highway in the next couple posts.

For most of the drive you'll not find the typical tourist businesses along the way.   There are few hotels or restaurants.   Along the highway we ate at the campground restaurant in Moose Pass (population 200) and at the Exit Glacier Salmon Bake.   Despite what their sign says, the Salmon Bake is a great place to stop and eat.

Who could resist this kind of marketing?

It's also an interesting place to take photos.  They had a collection of interesting old stuff outside, including this boat and truck.  I doubt the truck still runs and the bottom of the boat was rotted through, but they make interesting subjects.  

The inside of the restaurant is a collection space for all kinds of interesting old stuff.  No camera shots from the inside.  After climbing the Harding Icefields Trail we were more interested in eating than taking pictures.

We didn't get to see sea life on the planned sea kayaking trip so we did the next best thing and visited the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward.   Alaska’s only public aquarium and ocean wildlife rescue center is located right on Resurrection Bay.  Inside we were able to have close encounters with puffins, octopus, sea lions and other sea life.

Puffin

The puffins were especially fun for us to watch.  They are comical birds.  One in particular would get in the middle of the pool and swim around and around in circles.   Unfortunately, they were in a glassed in enclosure and the glass was not real clean on their side.  I didn't get many good pictures of them, but we sure did enjoy watching them waddle, swim, and dive deep under the water.  If you are in Seward, take a few hours and visit the center.

On August 30 we took a hike from Seward to Tonsina Creek, a scenic 3 mile trail that takes about 1 hour in each direction.  The trail starts in a camping area about 100 feet above Resurrection Bay. The first half of the trail is wide and pretty much up hill.  There were trees across the trail in several places, having been blown over by the recent high winds.   Our destination was Tonsina Creek that empties into the bay so the second half was all downhill, reclaiming all that elevation we gained in the first half.

Tonsina Creek

Swimming Up Stream

The final decent is over a series of boardwalks placed in a zig zag switchback pattern ending at a foot bridge over Tonsina Creek.  The Seagulls were there because the creek was full of Salmon attempting to swim up stream to spawn where they were born. The photos have an abstract artsy feel.

There were almost as many dead Salmon as there were live ones.  The birds seemed to zero in on a section in the fish's tail, pecking a hole and eating what must be prime eats for Seagulls.

It's A Struggle

It was low tide when we were there and we were able to walk out on what is the bottom or the bay at high tide.  At one point we are walking through a grassy area and came upon a dead Salmon on the trail, left there when the tide went out.

Resurrection Bay

The rhythmic waves in the bay had created ridges in the sand.   They seemed to be reaching for the mountains on the other side of the bay.

Patterns In The Sand

Seward is a destination for cruise ships in Alaska.  There were two in port that day and both left while we were exploring Tonsina Creek area.   Neither ship was huge.  I doubt the bay, port or town could accommodate a mega cruse ship or the hordes of people that disgorge all at once.

Holland America Zaandam

Tomorrow we leave Seward and head back north, stopping for an inland glacier cruise and a visit to the unusual little town of Whittier.