Exit Glacier

It was a little sad to see the Exit Glacier near Seward in its shrunken state. It's receding so quickly that the path has to be extended every year to reach it. How many years till it recedes all the way up the mountain...

Do you know Juneau?

Having spent a few rainy days exploring Alaska's capital I grew very fond of the place.

The main street alongside the cruise ship berths is a Disneyland of souvenir shops, designed to ensnare well funded passengers onshore for the day. The place is buzzing when ships are in town, but when they all head back onboard at their teatime, it's deathly quiet. And the season is short. By mid-September, most of the tourist traps shut up ahead of winter, and many move south, following the big ships to the Carribbean.

Above town the suburbs are full of quaint wooden houses on the sides of mountains.

Driving from town to the airport can be an adventure. Bald eagles sit on the lampposts, and on one occasion, our taxi driver said that he saw two bears wrestling in a field beside the road, just minutes before he picked us up. We returned a bit late but they'd moved on by then.

Whittier Sea-Badger

The tsunami-prone town of Whittier was a perfect stop for one night. The thrill of potentially seeing a monster wave was enough to keep me awake all night. But there was also the treat of a walk along the spit, and finding a sea otter floating a few metres offshore, munching on some shellfish.

Even Crazier Sheep

Click on the picture below to see the ridiculously steep sheep trail seen as we flew back to Glenallen.

And here are more of those Mordor-like ragged peaks.

In a Reality Show

Visiting the old frontier town of McCarthy was intriguing, but even more so a few days later when I saw it was the setting for a reality tv show "Edge of Alaska". The residents are very hardy folk, surviving the harsh winters without electricity and being cut off from the outside for long periods. Packs of wolves often kill pet dogs, and folk are often out hunting their own food.

Fun Guy

A Kennecott toadstool.

Exploring Kennecott

The ranger led me around town. Ahead is the 14 storey concentration mill, the most ridiculous wooden structure I've even seen.

Abandoned Copper Mine

Near Kennecott are several more abandoned copper mines. This one was perched precariously on a mountainside.

Middle Earth

These ragged peaks remind me of Mount Doom.

Kennecott Glacier

A light plane took me to Kennecott, the old copper mine high up on the side of a mountain. This is the view en route. This is on the edge of the largest glaciated area in the world, outside of the polar region.

Summer Colours

As pretty as a painting, this is the Yukon not far from the Alaskan border.

Rugged Up

This goat is sufficiently rugged up to survive the harsh Yukon winters.

Foxes and Wolves

Again from the sanctuary near Whitehorse, an Arctic fox and a red fox.

More Whitehorse Non-Horses

The brown blobs in the distance are enormous bison.

She's happy to see me. 

Arctic Critters

These little rodents from north of Whitehorse in the Yukon are perhaps ground squirrels. But who can say for sure?

One Fine Day

Most of my first fortnight in Alaska and the Yukon was under rainy skies. But it did clear up for one day in the Yukon, allowing glimpses of the distant mountains.

Top of the World Highway

The road from Tok to Chicken in Alaska is known as the Taylor Highway, but is more accurately nicknamed the Top of the World Highway. Although we weren't allowed to take our rental car all the way to Chicken (since we couldn't take the unsealed section), we did have time to drive a few hours along it. Despite it being August, the autumn colours at this altitude and latitude were already evident.

Crazy Sheep

Click on this photo to zoom in and you'll see the crazy dall sheep on the side of this mountain in the Yukon. At the ranger station, they had set up binoculars and telescopes to allow us to view them from a distance.

Chocolate Moose

Heading east into the Yukon, moose families were seen crossing the road.

Still in Fairbanks

Below is the main shopping centre in the city centre, with its 21 shops, restaurant and fountain.

The sign indicates this is or was a motel.

Fairbanks Timewarp

Visiting the northern city of Fairbanks was a journey back in time. Buildings were out of the 1960s. Even the poshest hotel in town was straight out of the 1970s, with its posh restaurant having a menu seemingly unchanged since that decade.

Musk Oks

At a university large animal research station, we met a musk-ox, standing in its water trough to keep cool on a warm 10 degree day.

Bus

Taking the National Park ranger tour on their ancient bus was the only way into the park. They even supplied us all with a lunchbox, with nuts and beef jerky.

Caribooo !

And here's a Denali caribou.

Denali National Park

On day 2 of my Alaskan roadtrip, I reached Denali National Park. The landscape was stark and barren, but the lack of vegetation did allow frequent wildlife sightings. Here a golden eagle swoops on a grizzly bear.