Cooper Landing, Whittier, Valdez, Haines, Skagway

August/ Sept 2009.   At Cooper Landing, Alan took a guided float trip on the Kenia River, a world-class trout fishing experience.  In this river, you are allowed to keep fish under 16" (and there aren't many that size) so it is all catch and release.  He not only caught 2 nice trout but witnessed fishermen along the shore fishing side by side with a grizzly.

Whittier

On our way to Whittier, we camped at a US Forest camp beneath some glaciers.  In the morning, we hiked along a stream loaded with spawning salmon.  Found a lifetime supply of fire starters, otherwise know as moose poop, and also spotted fresh piles of bear scat, but no critters.  The entrance to Whittier is a single lane 2 1/2 mile tunnel through a mountain, with a track that also accommodates a train.  The town (pop. 120) overlooks Prince William Sound.  As you sit along the tranquil green water,  it feels like you are sitting in a postcard.  Idyllic.  Took a 3-hour ferry from Whittier to Valdez.  The highlight was passing the Columbia Glacier, which was depositing hundreds of small icebergs into the Sound.  An eerie but beautiful sight accented by the low dark clouds of the day.  We saw the marker on the reef where the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989 occurred.  the oil spill killed tens of thousands of birds, an unknown number of fish, sea lions, and seals.  Upon approaching Valdez, there is over a mile long area along the shore, where the Alaskan pipeline ends and the storage and refinery areas begin.  Once in town, the oil processing area is not visible.  The harbor opens out to the Sound and is ringed by mountains.  Fishing, for salmon, in particular, is a big industry in this area.  Walking along the harbor the following day, fishermen were cleaning silver salmon by the wheelbarrows full.  Rain, rain and more rain in Valdez, so we decided to move on.

Wrangel-St. Elias National Park

Wrangell-St. Elias Natl. Park was our next destination.  The main visitor center, located in Copper Center along Richardson Hwy., was along our route and provided maps.  A second facility, Kennecott Visitor Center, is located at the end of the 59-mile drive on McCarthy  Road, but then you need to hike an additional 5 miles or pay the $5 one-way shuttle fee.  Kennecott was a historic mining and milling town.  Only two roads exist in the park, McCarthy and the 42-mile Nabesna Road.  Both are gravel and can be challenging, with Nabesna sometimes requiring a higher profile, 4WD vehicle.  Interior access is primarily by backpacking, plane or boat.  Driving 18 miles in on McCarthy Road, we spent the night camped at an overlook.  Vast, lonely and splendid.  Immense in every sense, this park is truly breathtaking.

Headed back into Yukon, and discovered Tachal Dhal (Sheep Mountain), over one hundred Dall Sheep dotted the face of the mountain.  A special experience to watch them playing and grazing on the mountain sage.  The highway meandered back into Alaska and our next destination,  Haines.  Hit the jackpot with the eagles and grizzlies.  Both were totally oblivious to us, intend on their hunting.  At times we were less than 30 feet from the grizzlies.  They were small females (300-350 pounds).  We would not have been so brazen if they had been 1000 pound males.  It was a thrill to watch the grizzlies romp through the river to pounce on the salmon.  Definitely our ultimate wildlife experience.

We took a ferry to Skagway the next night.  This town is the starting point of the White Pass Trail with nearby Dyea being the start of the Chilkoot Trail  Skagway is now a tourist town but many of the old buildings from the gold rush days have been renovated by the US Park Service.  We had planned to hike a portion of the Chilkoot Trail (the full trail is 33 miles) but the rain has not stopped since Valdez and we are wimpy wilderness explorers.

Alaska is a state of superlatives.  The tallest mountain in NA, Mount McKinley at 20,320 feet; the largest national park and preserve, Wrangel-St. Elias at 13.2 million acres; the biggest glacier field in NA, Malaspina at 1500 sq. miles (or bigger than the state of Rhode Island).  There are 3,000,000 lakes and countless waterfalls.  The wilderness is vast and awe-inspiring.  And then there is the food.  We travel by our stomachs most of the time.  We have experienced the ultimate oysters from Kachemak Bay and the tender, buttery razor clams from the Clam Gulch area.  In Valdez, we purchased Dungeness crab and Alaskan king crab which were the epitome of what crab should be.  Alaskan scallops were tender and sweet and will now be the scallop that we will compare all others to for the next 20 years.  Maybe we get a little too excited about food,  it's a miracle we both don't look like manatees.