Alaska wrap-up

I started writing this on my way home after 24 hours in LA – what a stark contrast this was to Alaska. LA was very hot, crowded & busy, with people focused on getting from one place to another, in cars, horns honking, on bikes, and walking (ear buds firmly in place) along the streets near Venice Beach.

Alaska was so much more laid-back and relatively uncrowded. People seemed more aware of what was going on around them, whether they were tourists or locals, and were mostly friendly & helpful.

With my flight back to Australia behind me, and work proceeding at a comfortable pace, it has been a good time to reflect on the 2 weeks I was away.

Alaska is huge and spacious, and although I managed to experience two very different areas while I was there, I’ve only seen a very, very small part of this state. The climate differed quite dramatically from place to place. In Anchorage it was coastal forests with cold climate vegetation that was predominantly green – it was great to see “locals” bringing colour close by, filling pots and baskets with bright flowers that will last the summer, and then die off as autumn and winter descend.

I had flown to Anchorage during our winter & their summer solstice, and then travelled north to just south of the Arctic Circle, so daylight was long with sunset around 12:20am and sunrise about 3 hours later. The sky was never fully dark and no stars were visible – but Mt Denali was, and that was a real treat!

Driving north through the Alaska Range towards Denali National Park, the coastal plants changed to Taiga forest (smallish conifers) and fields of wild flowers. The early sections of Denali NP were also Taiga forest, but as we slowly climbed higher and higher on our 7 hour journey to the Kantishna Roadhouse at Mile 92, we saw loads of tundra – vast grassy plains with low willows, berries and other plants that are food for caribou, moose, Dall sheep and bear, and provide hiding places for small animals that are hunted by the golden eagles that soar high above the mountains.

Denali NP is vast, 6M acres/2.4M hectares, giving animals lots of places to hide. But we did see them on the drive in and out, and we saw birds around the Roadhouse, ducks on Wonder Lake, as well as snowshoe hare, a marmot and squirrels – and that was all wonderful.

Juneau, the gateway to Glacier Bay, is a 1.5 hour flight south east from Anchorage and is along a thin edge of land on the Gastineau Channel. The mainland behind Juneau is massive snow-capped mountains that soon become part of British Columbia – the climate is quite different here, largely cool climate rain forest, until you get into the alpine forests in the mountains.

In Glacier Bay and its surrounds, tall conifers filled the mountains down to the edge of the sea with areas of craggy rock formations. This is an active earthquake area due to the “collision zone” between the North American and Pacific plates. We had hoped to see mountains thousands of feet above us, but unfortunately we had low level cloud for most of the time in that area. While it provided opportunities for interesting photos, it was great when it cleared a little and we saw snow-capped mountains in the distance.

When we travelled into inlets, the water, fed by glaciers, was that somewhat surreal aquamarine colour from the minerals. We saw two glaciers, both retreating, one with massive areas of black soil from the dirt along the glacial valley.

Of course so much of what I was hoping to see were the animals in each area – and as I’ve written about in the previous posts, we were in the right places at the right times to see animals ranging from small sea-otters to massive humpback whales, and lots in between – other than mountain goats.

To be able to be with and learn from Art Wolfe and Gav Jecan was a joy and a privilege. They are top, pro wildlife photographers who have enormous experience, enjoy doing what they do so well, and are very happy to share their knowledge. So not only did I learn, but it was fun and valuable, and we were doing all of this in yet another amazing part of our planet.

This was an amazing, unforgettable and valuable experience.