Girdwood/Alyeska
We left Denali on June 21, Kristen’s 40th birthday. That day, the plan was for a ~4hr drive down to Girdwood, to stay at the Alyeska resort. To be clear, Kristen planned it this way!
We went for a birthday trail run in the morning, then checked out of the hotel and started the long drive South. Denali was in the clouds all day, so we did not get any more views. We did stop at a coffee kiosk, though.
Coffee kiosks are abundant in Alaska. It seems like in every parking lot, there is a tiny hut serving coffee. One of the locals told us that Alaska has the highest per-capita consumption of both coffee and ice cream of all 50 states (based on my research, they’re actually #2 or #3, but Alaska does have the most coffee shops per capita, and spends the most $ per person on ice cream due to the cost of dairy).
When we got South of Anchorage, the views changed into something we hadn’t seen all trip. Steep mountains came straight down to the water, fjord-style. Every valley seemed to have a cirque glacier in it. There were trailheads in the Chugach State Park all along the road, and the terrain looked beautiful.
After arriving at Alyeska resort (where we would spend 2 nights at the “fancy” lodging in celebration of Kristen’s 40th), we went out to dinner at the best restaurant in the valley. Kristen and I went for a couple of trail runs in the rainforest near the resort, as well, which is very nice.
The next day, we went for a family hike at Crow Pass. This was one of the best hikes I’ve done in years. It went through multiple types of interesting terrain: starting in an alder forest, opening up onto talus slopes, then steeply going up along a waterfall up, across a small snow field and over a river, up to a high pass in a glacial bowl. It was about a 2,000ft gain over 3 miles, and both Sylvia and Soraya made it up all the way! We also saw a large group of mountain goats, including some baby goats, which is apparently called a nursery.
That evening, Grandma, Papa, and Cara took the girls, and Kristen and I went to the Nordic Spa (a recommendation from our glacier guide), which was a lot of fun. I wasn’t a huge fan of the cold plunges, but the hot tubs and saunas were great.
We had intended to take the tram up to the top of Alyeska, but it was cloudy, so we decided not to.
The following morning, we checked out and went exploring. First, we went over to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center to see some rescue grizzlies, caribou, arctic foxes, owls, and more. Since we hadn't yet seen any grizzlies, this was a treat.
Cara had looked at the map and saw a small town called Whittier over on the ocean, and thought it might be cool. They’d gone the evening before to see, and it turned it out would be a great place to stop. There is a single-lane, 2.5 mile tunnel leading through a mountain to get there. They control traffic based on time: incoming traffic gets 15 minutes starting at X:30, outgoing traffic gets 15 minutes at X:00, and trains get the rest of the time.
The town of Whittier was interesting. It’s one of the wettest places in the entire US, and has a permanent population of maybe 200 people, almost all of whom live in a single apartment building. It has a small collection of shops, and is the kind of place where, if you want a coffee, you may need to go find the woman that runs the cafe because she’s hanging out at the fish packing shop next door. The town is incredibly pretty in its location within a fjord, and we are glad to have visited.
The town of Whittier. Everyone lives in the building on the left.
Cara also found a quick hike to Byron Glacier for us to do, which was a fun introduction to the kind of maritime glacier hiking we’d be doing down by the coast.
Seward: Arrival
Seward would be our longest stay of the trip: 6 days.
A note on the lodging here: everything was booked up when we went to plan the trip. Our family was lucky to get a small AirBnB, but Grandma/Papa/Cara booked a place that looked a bit iffy, because it was the only place with any vacancy. And it was more than iffy, with a weird smell that was triggering asthma issues, and problems with general cleanliness. Luckily, they were able to book at Seward’s apparent hotel of last resort, the Windsong Lodge. This place seems to cater mostly to tour groups, and because of that, will often have the odd room or two available if you’re in dire need on short notice. And they know it, and they’re going to make you pay for it.
We did not plan much for our time in Seward, except for a Kenai Fjords National Park tour on Saturday. Our only other goals there were to fish and hike.
Kenai Fjords National Park/Harding Ice Field
On our first full day, we went over to Kenai Fjords to do some hiking. The plan was to split up again, like we had done at Denali, but Sylvia was insistent she wanted to do the bigger Harding Ice Field hike. It would be another day of >2,000ft elevation gain and variable terrain. And she made it again!
It was still a bit early in the season for the Harding Ice Field trail, so the trail was packed up with snow above Marmot Meadows, meaning it would be tough going up to the Top of Cliffs viewpoint, and more or less impassible to the top without micro spikes. We weren’t sure how far we’d get, and it was pretty slow going at first, as the bottom of the trail is basically just steep switchbacks in the forest.
At Marmot Meadows, we ended up continuing on, and almost abandoned when the snow pack got extra steep and slippery, but made it to the lookout in the end, for INCREDIBLE views of the ice field and Exit Glacier.
On the way down, everyone wanted to try glissading down instead of hiking, which turned out to be fun and hilarious.
Our hike ended up taking ~6 hours or so, start to finish, and we got down after 9pm (though with the sun, it looked no later than 5pm). Meanwhile, Grandma and Papa did the Exit Glacier Lookout hike, which they loved.
Russian River Salmon Jumping
The next day, we woke up pretty late on account of being destroyed from a long hike. At lunch the previous day, we’d met an eccentric woman who called herself Feral Gigi, who gave us good ideas on activities to do. So we decided to take her advice and drive up to Cooper Landing, about an hour away, to try and see some salmon jumping up a waterfall.
We hiked into Russian River Falls, about 2 miles flat-ish each way, and were wowed by the salmon fighting the current to make their way upward! Most were unsuccessful, but some made it up a notch. We spent an hour or two watching the fish, and watching some anglers try (and mostly fail) to snag some salmon downstream, then headed back home for some sleep.
Fishing
The next day, we went for a run/hike out to Lowell Point, and then went fishing. This is one where we wish we’d booked ahead of time. We tried to get a fly-fishing trip on the Kenai/Kasiloff/Russian rivers, but every guide was booked solid. So we had to settle for a rockfish charter into Resurrection Bay (right out of Seward), with me, Kristen, Papa, and Cara. The girls stayed with Grandma and went to the Seward Sea Life Center (like an Alaskan Monterey Bay Aquarium).
Fishing for rockfish isn’t nearly as exciting as for trout or salmon, but we still had a nice time in the boat out on the bay, with amazing views. We netted 5 fish, with a yield of 9 pounds of fish to cook. We took 3 home that night, and Cara had the other 6 packed and frozen to take home. I made a rockfish curry, which turned out really great. Fresh rockfish has a kind of sweet flavor, with firm, flaky flesh.
Kenai Fjords Cruise
On day 4 in Seward, we had our one pre-booked activity: a 6h cruise to a tidal glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park, departing from Seward, on a Major Marine catamaran. After doing a quick hike/run that morning, we had some lunch and got ready for the 3pm cruise (again, it ended at 9pm, but it just looked like daytime).
This was one of the highlights of the entire trip.
The cruise functions as a wildlife sightseeing tour, land sightseeing tour, and glacier sightseeing tour. You don’t know what you’re going to get on any given day. We got lucky.
We saw: 6 humpback whales, 2 orcas, Stellar sea lions (larger and different than California sea lions), harbor seals, bald eagles, and tufted puffins. The real highlight was 4 humpbacks collaboratively hunting fish, in what’s known as “bubble net feeding.” This is where one whale goes down below a school of bait fish, blows bubbles in a spiral around the school to confuse them and tighten them up, then another whale makes specific calls to confuse them further, then all the whales swim up through the school with their mouths open.
Bubble net feeding is a learned behavior. Some whales in Southeast Alaska figured it out at some point, and then as some of them migrated around, they taught other whale populations how to do it. Super cool.
The way to watch the feeding is to watch the seagulls. When the whales come up to feed, many bait fish are stunned at the surface, so tons of seagulls will swoop into gobble them up. As such, the seagulls anticipate the whales coming up to the surface, and act as an indicator we could use to know where to look.
We also got very close up to the Holgate and Surprise glaciers, which were totally awesome in their size and scope. Basically we were face to face with a 50 foot tall wall of ice that took up your entire field of vision.
These cruises are expensive, but worth it.
Last Day: Exit Glacier
On our last day in Seward, we decided to go back to Kenai Fjords and do the Exit Glacier Overlook hike all together. There is also a braided river outwash area, and the kids LOVE playing in river beds, it turns out.
When we were getting ready to leave our AirBnB, I noticed that our door code had stopped working. As it turns out, we’d made a mistake and forgotten to book the final night, so we did not have lodging that night. We checked around, and everywhere was booked up. All except ... the hotel of last resort, the Windsong Lodge. So we quickly packed up our stuff and headed over.
Anyway, we went out to the park, and Kristen and I tried to do a trail run up Resurrection River Trail, but it was pretty narrow and overgrown, so we abandoned that trail and drove up to the visitor’s center. We ended up looping the Exit Glacier trail, eventually linking up with the rest of the family. We got some good shots of the whole family together at the glacier!
That evening, Papa took us out to his (new) favorite restaurant in Seward, Ray’s, and we had a goodbye dinner in celebration of an amazing trip!
