June 27th 2006
Our flight to Anchorage was in the afternoon. Got off from work around 11:00 am and a good friend dropped us off at the airport by noon. We reached Anchorage at around 8:00 pm Alaska time (4 hrs behind Detroit time). Alaska is full of mountains. We started seeing the vast expanse of mountain ranges from the plane. It looked beautiful seeing the snow capped mountains. On arriving at the airport we had a courtesy shuttle waiting at the airport to drop us off at the hotel.

We had Chinese Fried Rice and Noodles for dinner and before we slept just looked at the window and the sun was still shining bright even at 11:30 pm !!! According to the localities the sun sets only at midnight and rises again in couple of hours in summer.

June 28th 2006
We picked up a rental car from the airport and drove to a coastal town called Seward. Before going to the airport we had continental breakfast offered by the hotel. We had toast and orange juice and headed towards our seeing our first day in Alaska.

The drive from Anchorage to Seward (New Seward highway) is designated as a scenic byway in America. It was indeed very beautiful.. huge partially snow capped mountains with sparkling rivers.

There are a few roadside glaciers in Alaska that are accessible by road. On reaching Seward,we drove to a roadside glacier called Exit Glacier. We had to hike couple of miles to reach the glacier. The glacier has been receding so badly that some people were telling us that earlier (may be 20 yrs back) it seems people could touch the glacier as they walked past it. Now we can only see it at a distance. Effect of global warming ???

It was almost 3:00 pm by this time and we were very hungry. So, headed towards the town and started searching for a place that had something vegetarian.. After searching couple of places we found a Greek restaurant and I ordered a Pita wrap and Deepak ordered a Veggie Calzone. Food was very good but very expensive.

After having a good lunch, we went around seeing the town and I wanted to sea kayak in the evening. Deepak was not interested and so I made a reservation and luckily there was one spot in the guided sea kayak tour. We had a guide and there were 6 people (2 in each 2 person kayak). It was a real good experience venturing into the sea with small waves splashing as we kayaked. The tour was for 3 hrs and I returned back with the group at around 10 pm.

We had a reservation in a Bed and Breakfast home for the night. The hostess was very nice and her home was very beautiful. She was renting out the lower portion of her home. We spoke with her for some time and then called it a day.

June 29th 2006

We got up around 6:30 pm and since we were in a B&B we didn't have to worry about the breakfast. The hostess had told us the previous night that she could make either omelets or pancakes or French toast. We opted for French toast with orange juice. She also had papaya and some kind of melon along with the toast. Breakfast was really very good.

We were heading to a remote coastal town called Whittier to see glaciers. The drive from Seward to Whittier was around 2 hrs. It was pretty cloudy but the drive was still good. In order to reach Whittier one needs to take a tunnel (It is supposed to be the longest tunnel in North America) from Bear Valley. The tunnel is used by both trains and cars and it is single lane. So, they have certain scheduled timings when cars are allowed. Fortunately we reached at the right time and were allowed to go after paying the toll.

In Whittier we were taking a glacier cruise and it was to start at 1:15 pm. The weather in Whittier was very cloudy and it was raining on and off. Whittier is a very small town on Prince William Sound surrounded by Chugach Mountains. Prince William Sound has a shoreline of around 3,000 miles and has numerous glaciers. The cruise had a ranger who was telling us how glaciers are formed and the history of the region. On the way we saw Bald Eagles, Sea Otters and Seals.

We were heading towards Blackstone Bay to see the glaciers. We saw few glaciers but the most interesting thing is to see them calve. Calving occurs when parts of the tidewater glacier breaks off and falls into the sea. They make loud roaring nose as they fall into the sea and it is very impressive to see them calve. Glaciers absorb all the colors of the spectrum and reflects only blue and hence they have a beautiful blue color associated with them. On the way back we could see many waterfalls created by the melting snow on the mountains. We had Fried Rice packed for lunch in Whittier and we had the same on the cruise. The cruise lasted for 5 hrs. We were back in Whittier by 6:30 pm.

The place we were staying tonight was a small family run motel. The room was pretty good. We had pizza for dinner and slept early as we were planning to leave early the next morning.

June 30th 2006

We got up as planned and headed towards the Motel's Cafe for breakfast. I had waffles with hot chocolate and Deepak had Veggie omelet. Breakfast was excellent and slightly heavy... :)

The weather was getting bad. It was very cloudy and had started raining. I was a bit disappointed as I had plans to visit a place called Girdwood (around 10 miles from the motel). I was planning to take a tram up to Mt.Alyeska to see the view of the surroundings from a mountain top.

Anyways after deciding not to go to Girdwood because of the weather we started driving (on George Parks Highway) to Denali National Park. The Park is around 5 hrs drive from Anchorage. As we started driving we were flipping the radio stations to hear some morning news and I did not take much time to doze off. :) Lucky me as I was not driving (and didn't have any intentions either.. :) ) As I slept Deepak was trying to keep himself awake and was constantly waking me up.. :(

There are couple of scenic points on the highway and on a clear day from these spots one should Mt.Mckinley, the tallest peak in North America. We stopped at these so called scenic points but could only see part of Mt.Mckinley.

Our cabin was around 10 miles south of the Park Entrance. So, we decided to check-in to our cabin and then head towards the park.

We reached the park at around 4:00 pm. On arriving in the park, we decided to go hiking. We went to the visitor center and got some maps. We were very hungry and so went to the Park Cafe and had Vegetable Panini. Food was excellent. Before hiking we saw a film about the Park.

We started hiking around 5:30 pm. There are a few established trails near the entrance of the Park. There are no established trails inside the Park. We have to make our own trails inside. We hiked the Taiga trail and Horseshoe Lake trail. Near the Horseshoe lake we saw a Moose and a Beaver.

By the time we were done hiking it was around 8:00 pm. We wanted to get back near the cabin and get some dinner. There was a restaurant near our cabin and Deepak ordered Veggie Tacos and I was not very hungry. But, I ended up having chocolate and vanilla swirl.. :)

We were told in the visitor center that inside the park food/water would not be available. So,we needed to carry everything on our own before going inside the Park. While ordering dinner we saw in the menu that the restaurant was offering boxed breakfasts and boxed lunches. So,we decided to order them for the next day. I got a bagel, a fruit and orange juice for my boxed breakfast. Deepak decide to have buttermilk pancakes. For my boxed lunch, I had a Vega sandwich, a fruit, bottled water, chips and crackers.

We were quite tired after a long day and also had to get up early the next morning. So, we slept by 10:30 pm.

July 1st 2006

We got ready by 6:30 am and went to pick up our boxed breakfast and boxed lunches. We had made a reservation for the shuttle bus to take us inside the Park at 8:00 am. We were told to be in line for the bus by 7:45 am. It was very cold and windy in the morning. I was thankful that I had read in few places before arriving in Alaska that it is very essential to dress in layers irrespective of the season.

Private vehicles are allowed only for 14 miles inside the Park. The first 15 miles of the park is paved.The rest is all unpaved. To get beyond 15 miles into the park one has to board either a tour bus or a shuttle bus. Although in the Fall season, there is an annual road lottery wherein the park service allows 400 cars to drive the length of the park road a few days each September.

Our shuttle bus was quite full in the morning. When going on a shuttle bus it is not compulsory for the driver to give any commentary about the place but mostly all drivers give commentary as a courtesy. Our driver was pretty good in interacting with us. Denali Park is around 6 million acres. The buses have different destinations to go inside the Park. One can go either to Savage River, Igloo Creek,Fish Creek,Wonder Lake, Kantishna. Our destination was Fish Creek, 62 miles into the park. It usually takes about 8hrs round trip.

After getting on the bus everybody was glued to the windows waiting to see wildlife.We saw some small streams of water that were glacier fed. It looked very murky due to the glacial silt.

The bus ride was very scenic and extremely beautiful. My bible for the trip preparation was Frommer's Alaska by Charles Wohlforth. The book was extremely helpful in planning the trip. In the book the author has recommended sitting on the left side of the bus on the way to the park. And indeed this was very valuable as we saw some spectacular scenery.

Half way through we saw many Caribous, Dall sheep. In Denali a pair of binoculars is a must. Thanks to Deepak's colleague we had one. Without one, Dall Sheep look like white dots on the huge mountains. We hadn't seen any bears yet and it seems as though a trip to Denali is not complete without seeing the huge Grizzlies. Just when we all were getting anxious whether we would be lucky we saw 3 Grizzly bears, a mother with two cubs. They were pretty close to the road. So,we got a good look at them.

We reached Fish Creek by noon and while returning back we had a lunch break for 45 minutes in one of the rest areas. We both had lunch and were appreciating the scenery surrounding us. It was around 12:30 pm and it was still cold and windy.. After the lunch break we saw 2 more Grizzly bears along with Arctic ground squirrels. The weather in Denali is very unpredictable. By afternoon around 3:00 pm it became really very hot. We reached the park entrance around 4:30 pm and since we still had lot of time till dinner we decided to go hiking again. We hiked the Meadow View trail and saw some amazing scenery.

After hiking we were quite hungry and so headed back near our cabin saying good bye to Denali. For dinner I had Veggie Tacos and Deepak had Pasta. Surprisingly Deepak wanted to have ice-cream !!! So, we had a Chocolate Sundae with Caramel and Hot Fudge ..Yummy.. :)

The next day I was planning on a flight seeing tour in Talkeetna to see Mt.Mckinley. We could not see Mt.McKinley from Denali Park as it was covered with clouds most of the time. After dinner I made a reservation with Talkeetna Air Taxi for the next day.

July 2nd 2006

We were driving south towards Anchorage to a place called Talkeetna, midway between Anchorage and Denali. It took us around 2 hrs to reach there.

Our flight seeing trip was at noon. Our flight was a small plane that accommodated 10 people. The trip was for 2.5 hrs. We flew over the Alaskan mountain range seeing the mountains and glaciers.

After an hour of seeing the mountains from the plane we landed on a glacier at the base of Mt.Mckinley. It was an awesome unbelievable experience surrounded completely by snow capped mountains.. The pilot told us that we were standing on 100 feet of ice covered with 10 inches of snow !!! Here also most of the glaciers have been receding pretty fast. We were there on the glacier for around 1/2 hr. Surprisingly on the glacier it was not one bit cold !!! On the way back I started to feel a bit queasy and was almost ready to throw up.. :(

Once we landed, we headed straight towards the downtown area and checked out a few places to eat. Both of us had full Veggie sandwiches for lunch and then I had Rocky Road ice-cream for dessert. After relaxing a bit we went shopping. The downtown is very small with few shops. The shops had lot of authentic woolen sweaters, jackets. We ended up buying some souvenirs for ourselves and couple of other friends.

It was around 4 pm when we left Talkeetna. We were driving towards a place called Matanuska Glacier, 1.5 hrs north-east of Anchorage on the Glenn highway. Glenn highway is another very scenic highway with full of winding roads and beautiful meadows.

But, the drive was pretty tiring. It was like driving in the Ghats section in India. I got to enjoy the scenery more than Deepak.

We reached our lodge around 7 pm and the area was quite remote. Matanuska Glacier was only 5 minutes drive from our room. The view from our lodge room was spectacular. We were tired and didn't feel like hiking to the glacier. We just relaxed and I had salad and Deepak had Vegetable Chimichangas (Deep fried burritos).

I was feeling sad that the trip was coming to an end and it seemed like the whole trip was over in a flash with all the planning I did for months..

July 3rd 2006.

On the last day of our trip we were driving back to Anchorage. We started around 8:00 am and both of us were not very hungry and hence skipped breakfast. We reached Anchorage at around 10 am and parked our car in Elderberry park where we were going to hike. Before hiking we had to eat and so we went to the visitor center to get a list restaurants. I knew there were 2 Indian restuarants in Anchorage. But, we found out that they were very far from the downtown and so didn't bother to go. Deepak wanted to eat some Thai. We didn't find any in the downtown and ended up in a Chinese restaurant. Sadly, the food was the worst we had had in the one week we were in Alaska. We had never had such bad Fried Rice and Lo Mein. Anyways after filling our stomach we went around the downtown. We went and checked out some souvenir shops and I bought a small glass wall hanging. We then started hiking on the "Tony Knowles Coastal Trail", one of the many popular trails in Anchorage. The trail goes around the Knik Arm and Cook Inlet and ends in Kincaid Park. We went around 5 miles round trip and it was 4 pm when we reached back to Elderberry Park. We had to return the rental car before 6:00 pm. We drove back to the airport, dropped off the rental car and went straight to get our boarding pass. Unfortunately we didn't find any vegetarian near our gate terminal except for some Cheese Pizza. Forcibly we had to have that and were waiting for the boarding call.

After we boarded the plane we said one final good bye to the wonderful trip we had in Alaska and hoping we would return some day to see the beautiful state again.. :) We landed in Detroit the next day at 11:30 am and a good friend picked us from the airport and even invited us for lunch. Our friend's wife Aruna is a very good cook and she had prepared Chapatti with three kinds of vegetables, rice and carrot halwa with ice-cream for dessert.. We had the delicious food as we told them our trip tales.. :)