Here is a note and some pictures from Elize Van Zandt about her and Liza Bliss' trip to Dinali.
Liza Bliss and I are back from Alaska and happy to be home. I missed the sun and the warmth! It was partly to mostly to completely cloudy and raining the week I was there. The only glimpse of Denali (McKinley to non-Alaskans) I had was the very top peeking over mountains as we made our way back from Savage River on Thurs. That said, the scenery was magnificent, with awesome mountain ranges (even without Denali ) surrounding both the great valley of Denali NP and Resurrection Bay by Seward, where we did a ½ day cruise. Actually, Denali NP consists of 6 million acres, with the main section of 2 million acres in the middle (where we were). We hiked in forests (too many trees to suit me) and tundra, which I loved. I loved the contrast between the vast mountains and distances, and the small wonders that were the tundra plants. There were more and more varied flowers here than in the forest—the tundra reminded me of the desert, with plants that had special adaptations to survive. We had an up-close moose and 2 babies sighting, and saw caribou, Dall sheep, and a mother grizzly and her 3 two-year old cubs from a distance. I learned that reindeer are domesticated caribou, and that Santa’s reindeer must be female, because by Christmas, the males have all shed their antlers. Elderhostel proved a great way to go—a good balance between doing and learning. We had a fabulous speaker, Nan, who knew everything about the natural side of Denali, and she also led us on a Savage River hike and helped in the identification of the flowers. Liza and I skipped a scheduled hike on Thurs. to go back to Savage River so we could take our time with the plants. And, by the way, the food was terrific too.
In Resurrection Bay we say otters floating in the frigid water, humpback whales (I only saw one of them), puffins and kittiwakes, bald eagles, and a glacier in Kenai Fjords NP. This park is mostly inaccessible by foot—a land of high mountains and glaciers—sort of like Glacier Bay, so our glimpse by boat was a close as we got. We also got off on Fox Island and had a salmon-bake lunch. Some people got off there to join a sea-kayaking expedition—I can’t even imagine it. It rained on us most of the day on the boat and was extremely cold. But both of us loved being on the bay. The train ride back from Seward through Turnagain Pass and along the Turnagain arm of Cook Inlet was very spectacular—a black and white land of snow, glaciers, waterfalls and dark soil slowly emerging from the grip of winter. Most of my photos from the train are blurry, from both the train’s motion and from the raindrops streaking the windows.
We did get a chance to go through the museum in Anchorage —a wonderful exhibit of contemporary native Alaskan art and an exhibit on raptors were the high points. We also saw some paintings by Rockwell Kent done when he stayed a winter on Fox Island, so it was fun to visit the island and see what he saw—and as cold as I was in summer, he must have been a much hardier person than I could hope to be. All in all, a very satisfying trip—but I’m glad I don’t have to live there.
