Sent on May 31, 2003 from Fairbanks, Alaska.
1. Fairbanks. Is a typical US city, parts of it nice.
Gasoline prices are $1.75 per gallon for regular unleaded,
still much better than in Canada. All else is also
costlier than on the mainland, including hotels. The
equivalent of a $35 Motel 6 here is about $70. I stayed at
the Billy's Hostel for $22. For food, try Sam's Sourdough
on University Ave. I heard that it was rated as one of the
Mom and Pop restaurants in USA by the New York Times. For
smokers the news is bad. A pack costs $4.45, the highest
but in Norway ($6 per pack).
2. Arctic Circle. Arctic Circle is the imaginary line
where the Sun never sets during the Summer Solstice (June
20-21), and never rises during the Winter Solstice (Sep.
20-21). I took the tour Drive-only tour by the Northern
Alaska Tour Company (Tel: 800-474-1986 or 474-8600 local)
for $129, starting at 6:30am, back at 10:30pm. I recommend
the tour or one of the costlier versions. Mine included
drive along the Dalton Highway to the Trans-Alaska
Pipeline, picnic at the Yukon River, walking around the
tundra, and generally a good view of the landscape. And
you receive an official Arctic Circle Certificate. I had
crossed the Arctic Circle in Narvik, Norway, but here I
decided to add a guided tour.
3. My Alaska and beyond plans. From here I will drive south
toward Anchorage, passing (150 miles south of Fairbanks)
one of the largest and most beautiful national parks in
USA: the Denali. I will spend a day there, then continue
south to Anchorage and west to Homer for a ferry to the
Kodiak Island, perhaps also to the Aleutian Islands, if I
can find a return ferry the next day. This still leaves
perhaps a day at Anchorage and Valdez nearby. Then I must
drive back thru Whitehorse, Canada (nearly 1,000km) to
reach the southern parts of Alaska: Skagway, Haines, and
Juneau, to do some things there, like taking the
narrow-gage train in Skagway. Then I intend to take a
ferry from Haines south to Juneau, probably get off there
for a tour of the glaciers, get back on another ferry south
to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and from there drive
south to Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and Victoria and
finally reach USA mainland at Washington. From there I
have 1,000+ miles drive to my sis in Los Angeles where I
will take a break before continuing to Mexico, Guatemala,
and Belize (former Mayan lands) . . . Finally I intend to
take the Yucatan Express ferry from Mexico across the Gulf
of Mexico to Tampa, Florida, and drive the final 5 hours to
Miami, to complete the circle of North America. Neat ha?
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Sent on June 4, 2003 from Skagway, Alaska.
By the way, I have very nice post cards and photos of this
trip. Upon return, I will submit this trip to the Miami
Herald Sunday Travel section. I don't think anyone else
has circled the entire North America in one shot; the trip
should be of interest to many, especially with hints as to
what and where.
I am typing this at an Internet cafe in Skagway, in the
southern panhandle of Alaska, which can be reached by road
only from Yukon, Canada. In one hour, I will get my ferry
ticket to Juneau tomorrow afternoon; at 12:45pm today, I am
on the narrow-gage train (round-trip) to White Pass: $82.
I'll do the saloons tonight; will camp in my own tent at
the camp site on the eastern end of this small and very
quaint town.
Huh, I did a lot (and drove a lot) since last report. Let
me give you the highlights.
1. The most scenic mountain roads (here or anywhere).
1) 150 miles from Whitehorse, Yukon to Skagway, Alaska.
If you arrive in Skagway on Inside Passage on a ferry, take
2 days off. DAY 1 = rent a car and drive leisurely (3
hours) to Whitehorse and back. DAY2: Take the narrow-gage
train to White Pass the next day, enjoy the saloons, etc.
at night.
2) 150 miles from Anchorage to Seward on the Kenai,
Peninsula. Fly to Anchorage (a much bigger city than
Fairbanks), rent a car at the airport, ask for the Seward
Expressway--there is also the OLD Seward Rd--150 miles west
to Seward. It joins Rt. 9 after about 50 miles and after
another 50 miles Rt.1 to Homer separates from it. This is
one of the most scenic roads I have ever traveled on,
including the one north from Banff. The 1st 30 minutes is
like being on the Coastal Route from Santa Monica north
thru Malibu. The mountains next to the road are almost
exactly the same: they literally drop next to the highway.
Next to the highway (on your right) are train tracks, and
then, like in Calif., there is the sea, in this case the
Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet. But there is one more
element that makes this route really gorgeous: snow-capped
mountains across the sea, about 1km away. Then, the roads
goes inland, the mountains framing both sides. Then comes
the town of Seward, surrounded by the water that is
surrounded by more snow-capped mountains.
a) Exit Glacier. The (Herman Leier) road to Exit Glacier is
right before you enter the town. It is 9 miles, followed by
a .6-mile walk thru very nice vegetation--Sitka alder,
leather-leaf willow, Sitka fur-conifer, and black
cottonwood--and walkways. You can literally sit on the
glacier.
b) Dog Sled Ride. The road to the dog sled ride is right
after you turn to this road, a dirt road that takes off
immediately to the right. The rates are the cheapest I
have seen in Alaska: 1.5 hours for $39, the most reasonable
rate I have seen or heard of. (Idida Ride:
800-478-3139/307-224-8607)
3) Banff to Jasper, et al. in the previous report.
4) Glenn Highway (Rt.1) Northeast from Anchorage to
half-way to Glennallen, until you pass the Matanuska
Glacier.
5) The 20 or miles on Rt.4 from Thompson Pass to Valdez.
The ferry from Valdez to Juneau operates only on Fridays,
every 2 weeks. So
2. Animals. I saw more of them in Yukon than in Alaska,
first elk in small groups, then moose (1, 2 or a group of
3), then black bears (6), and a mountain goat high on top
of a cliff. They are along the road side in the mornings
or late evenings, for example driving north from Banff to
Jasper, to Prince George to Dawson Creek. (The bears raise
the question: "how far from the car and road will you walk
to take a piss?")
3. Should you drive to Alaska? The answer is no, unless
you love driving and don't mind generally bad roads and very
long distances. In May and June (and probably beyond) the
roads are being fixed, and starting in early June, the
horde of campers start to flow and congest the roads and
crowd the scenery. Visit Alaska as I proposed under scenic
roads.
3. General Info. I drove Fairbanks south to Denali
National Park, south to Anchorage (scenic road, more so
than driving north on the same), south then west thru the
Chugach National Forest (gorgeous) to Seward on the Kenai
Peninsula, then to Homer on the other side of the Kenai.
a) As for the Denali Park, you can drive in only about 15
miles. Only park buses are allowed further in, for a fee.
From what I have seen, I felt disappointed as I was at the
Kruger Park in South Africa. There are not enough animals
in the park. I have seen a bus-load of visitors gazing for
15 minutes at a lonely caribou grazing 150 yards away.
Give me a break. You can see those images much better on
the National Geographic on TV.
b) Portage Glacier/Lake & Whittier. I returned by the same
road to Anchorage. About 30 miles before Anchorage, there
is a road to Portage Glacier and then Whittier, Alaska, all
about 13 miles. Before entering Whittier, you must pay a
$12 fee for the 2.5-mile tunnel, said to be the longest in
North America. There is not much in Whittier. BUT you can
take half-day cruise of the Prince William Sound from there
for $59. (Major Marine Tours: www.majormarine.com,
800-764-7300 or 274-7300 in Alaska.) And at 2:45pm every
day, there is a ferry to Valdez (for $68, car for $78) thru
Prince William Sound (of Exxon-Valdez fame).
c) The Yukon River is the big river in Alaska and Yukon.
There is also the Nenane which you will cross several
times. Beyond these, there is in some form everywhere.
d) Desert in the Making. If you recall, while crossing the
Atacama Desert in Northern Chile, I had mentioned the huge
"static" sand dunes, that is weather and erosion crumbling
the rocks to sand. I saw the same in Whitehorse, Yukon
first then in different parts of Alaska. The ones here are
nowhere near the size of the mountains so affected in
Chile; they are more like hillsides here. The only thing
in common at these 2 localities is the extreme weather
where temperatures fluctuate from -64F to +100F, the
constant compression and expansion, icing and melting, the
windy conditions . . .
e) Permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, decides how
tall and big the plants get in such regions. Up north, you
will see spruce trees shrink drastically in size (very
thin, short, and bush-like) eventually way to the very
hardy willows et al. of the tundra.
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Sent on June 9, 2003 from Juneau, Alaska.
I began typing this at the library of the University of
Alaska Southeast in Juneau, probably the most beautiful
small campus in USA, right on the Mendenhall lake, with the
glacier by the same name and the snow-capped mountains
surrounding it visible from the entire campus. Sunday morn
at 8:45am, I will be on the ferry to Prince Rupert, thus
sailing thru this very scenic part of Alaska and North
America.
1. Vocabulary. You should all check an online dictionary
for the words archipelago, fjord/fiord, sound, inlet,
passage, strait, canal, causeway, continental-divide. Most
people do not know for sure what these represent,
differences between them. Then, after you are sure you
understand the meanings, consider if the Philippines
islands, for example, do qualify as an archipelago, if as a
fjord, and if not, why not.
2. Roads in Alaska. There are very limited number of roads
in Alaska. This means major portions of the state are
reachable only by air or water. For example, there is no
direct road connection from Anchorage to Juneau. You must
go 100s of miles out of your way to go back to Yukon to
enter this part, Southeast Alaska. The road after exiting
Alaska proper either goes to Haines or to Skagway. Indeed,
even Haines and Skagway, although they are only 10 miles
from each other, are not connected. It would take you
several hours by road to go from one to the other, which
the ferry does in one hour.
3. Fjords around the World. There are 3 major fjords
around the world: 1) on the Atlantic coast of Norway, 2) on
the Pacific coast of Patagonian Chile, and 3) the
North-American fjords, which are the longest and most
elaborate. Indeed, almost the entire length of the Pacific
North-America, from Washington state to the end of the
Aleutian islands is a fjord. (I have seen the one in
Norway in 1999, the one in South America in April this
year.) There are also a few smaller fjords, like the one
around the western parts of the South Island of New
Zealand--which I have visited early in 1999.
4. The Inside Passage is 400 miles long and 125 miles wide,
as the bird flies. It traverses the southern portions of
the North-American fjords on the Pacific coast, starting in
the South from Bellingham, Washington, to Prince Rupert,
British Colombia, to Juneau, then to Haines and Skagway,
Alaska. This is the most popular route, and of course, I
could not skip such an important geographic feature. It
cannot be experienced by road; it has to seen from a ship
or ferry. This entire stretch is the Alexander
Archipelago, with many sounds, passages, inlets, what have
you. The water distance from Skagway to Prince Rupert is
about 600 land miles, which I added to the distance I
traveled, though it was on a ferry. The Inside Passage is
a MUST for anyone who claims to be a traveler. The scene
is as captivating as only a fjord can be, with icebergs,
glaciers, islands, and intricate shorelines all interwoven
into one very picturesque continuous setting. There are
also tropical equivalent to this, for example in the
Caribbean, say taking a boat from Tortolla (British Virgin
Islands) to St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands), thru turquoise
waters.
5. Tongass National Park. Is the largest temperate rain
forest in USA covering some 17 million acres on the
Northwest of North-America. It reaches from north of
Skagway, Alaska all the way south to British Columbia.
6. MUST DO. All North-Americans owe to themselves to take
the Inside Passage ferry (or cruise-ship) at least once in
their life-time. It is unique. In fact, visiting Alaska
without this, and skipping Juneau, is like visiting Turkey
without seeing Istanbul, Hong Kong without climbing to the
Victoria Peak, Jordan without Petra. It would not be the
same. The ferry terminals all full of brochures of all you
can do at any one destination along the way. Here is the
address where you can get info online:
http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/index.html
For Southeast Alaska, I picked Skagway as my starting
point, Juneau as stop-over, Prince Rupert, BC as the end
point, so covering half of the Inside Passage, and allowing
myself to see this land also from ashore by driving from
Prince Rupert south to Vancouver, taking an excursion to
Victoria and Vancouver Island, then heading south to
Seattle, because I have a car with me.
In your case, consider the following options, one of which
requires a car. Note that, you can book passage only
without the cabin. (For those who bring a car along, NO,
you CANNOT sleep in the car or camper.) There are
reclining seats on the ship, and after 8pm, you can roll
out your sleeping bag in the movie salon, for example. In
the dining room, a cheeseburger costs $7, so a meal about
$10. Bring along peanut butter and jelly and a loaf a
bread to cut down on costs, if you like. There is coffee,
etc. on board. Have rolls of film with you, and something
to read, just in case. They do show movies.
a) Grand Tour of Alaska. Arrange flight to Fairbanks,
return either from Juneau or Seattle, Washington, depending
how much of the Inner Passage you want to do.
a) Get a one-way air ticket from where you are to Juneau,
return from Seattle, Washington, allowing at least 3 full
days in Juneau (see below). Then take the 3-day ferry to
Bellingham, Washington to cover the entire Inside Passage.
(Of course, there are also things to do in Seattle, like a
ferry to the Puget Sound, a drive east to the Cascades
and/or south to the Olympic National Park and the Hoh rain
forest . . . but this is about Alaska.)
b) Get a round-trip air ticket from where you are to
Seattle, connecting (bus?) to Bellingham, Washington 25
miles north. Then take the (2-day) ferry from Bellingham
to Prince Rupert, BC and return the same way. You will see
the southern portions of the Inside Passage this way.
c) Fly round-trip to Juneau; do the itinerary below there
before taking the 1-day ferry to Prince Rupert and 1-day
back. This is less than option 2, BUT it covers very
intricate shorelines, why I am doing this option without
the return part. (And lets face it, I have seen 2 dozen
glaciers in the last two months, both in North and South
America, several others around the world.)
d) In Juneau:
DAY 1: Enjoy Juneau; walk around the waterfront, visit the
city and state museums, take the tram to Mt. Roberts, see
if you can find a real bordello--Ah, progress . . . DAY 2:
rent a car and drive 34 miles (road ends) to north of
Juneau, enjoying the Tongass temperate rain forest around
you, incredible scenes to the side with water (West), and
the Mendenhall Lake and Glacier on the other side; visit
the university campus along the way. DAY 3: Tracy Arm ($99
full-day boat to the ice-fields). DAY 4: An optional
helicopter ride or a boat tour to the Glacier National Park
nearby.
7. Klondike Gold Fever. I forgot to mention that most of
Alaska owes its growth to the gold found in the Klondike
mountains in Northwest Yukon in 1890s, which went bust a
few years later. The history of that era is now
encapsulated in Dawson City, Yukon in Canada, the highway
from which west is the second entry point to Alaska. That
road also goes to Fairbanks. Even Skagway, so much south,
served during the gold rush, where people got off ships at
the harbor here and then climbed the steep White Pass to
move up to Yukon. They say some 3,000 horses died in this
effort, carrying huge loads.
8. Of the 3 village-like towns, Banff, Seward, and
Skagway, Banff is the most elegant and classy, designed
like a European alpine village, including the architectural
look of many of the buildings. Seward is a neat fishing
village that caters also to the many fishermen who come
there for this. Skagway's history was such that it "mined"
the gold miners, now tourists. It is designed like a town
of the American West. But there is lots of substance to
the town too. For example, I have seen 4 large ships at
the harbor right next to the docks. Even a big
city--winter population here is 300, summer about
5,000--would need an elaborate infrastructure to service
these ships all at once and also entertain all the visitors
who come ashore. Then there is also the train service
here, including 19 Diesel locomotives that are maintained
by magical engineers. The trains go every-which way. So
driving from Whitehorse, Yukon to here--the distance is 113
miles, by the way, NOT 150--you do pass the SAME White Pass
that the train does for $82 round-trip. So you CAN skip
the train ride if you wish. In my case, I wanted to be on
that train for years now and took it. And the scenery is
somewhat different at times, entirely new at other times,
since the tracks do not follow the road, indeed are on the
other side of the climb. I came to Skagway under the
Midnight Sun, and wanted to re-live the scenes also in
daylight. So I did.