With my brain flooded with information and ideas needing to get absorbed and developed, I couldn't resist a little adventure to see more of Alaska.
The gentle city in the woods
Taking off with the full splendor of gentle Fairbanks below me, we were in the air for only a short 45 minutes. Back on the ground I was amazed at the ease of traveling with my Iphone helping me find places, navigate, and learn more about what I saw. A quick stop in downtown Anchorage let me appreciate the contrast. Skyscrapers hiding giant mountains, paved streets with lounging teens, middle-class Americans crammed in a coffee shop while an older native ambled by outside.
The start of the Iditarod - Big buildings and big mountains - 5 ranges
Taking photos left and right, I drove south on the Seward Highway , a scenic two-lane highway perched on a ledge with mountains on one side and a wide, muddy body of water, the Turnagain Arm, on the other. I was transfixed by the immense snow-covered mountains off in the distance. In contrast to the pointy, jagged peaks and ridges of the rugged mountains, the snow seemed so soft, almost like the chocolate on a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone.
A 127-mile road from Anchorage to Seward! It runs parallel to the Turnagain Arm and is nestled between rugged mountains.
The Turnagain Arm flows into Cooks Inlet which flows into the Gulf of Alaska
One interesting stop brought me up close and personal to bison, moose, and brown bears that had been rescued and were being taken care of by the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.
Wood bison are the largest land mammals in the U.S. The ones at the AWCC are the only herd in the United States.
Moose are the lawn mowers of Alaska. Watch out for them on the road as so far 225 have been killed by cars this year.
The brown bears at the AWCC have the largest enclosures in the United States.
Glad to have a fence separating me from three 8-foot brown bears, I was mesmerized by their slow, lumbering gait, their long, vicious claws, and their cute, fuzzy faces.
They are cute but huge!!!
Another amazing stop was a cruise aboard a high-speed catamaran, the Klondike Express on Prince William Sound.
Getting ready to board the Klondike Express
I don't know if I have words to describe this experience. Picture a vast, blue lake, at times so big that you feel like you're at the edge of the world. Tall rugged mountains surround you. They are mostly brown but green at the bottom; trees cover the bottom like a thick beard on a man's face. The jagged edges of the mountains are generously smothered over with a smooth, thick, blanket of snow. At times you feel tiny in the vast, open space and at other times you feel wedged between two walls of mountains that seem to hug you.
The Exxon Valdez ran aground here in 1989.
The catamaran races over the water. In spots otters, not two or three, but dozens and dozens peek curiously at you from behind bellies laden with baby fluff balls before they anxiously paddle away in droves.
Over 100,000 sea otters call Prince William Sound their home.
It gets even better. You start to see white dots floating in the distance. As you get closer, you feel more and more like you're in a giant margarita or slushee as the mini icebergs called bergy bits or growlers surround you. We crunch over the little icebergs but the captain pushes on.
Surrounded by icebergs we got up close to the glacier. Can you tell it's blue?
Now the gentle smooth slopes of white in front of you start to show cracks and they turn into messy, jumbled up blankets of sharp fissures and boulders. It looks like someone opened a gate and the sleek sheet of snow tumbled down, breaking into thousands of pieces that scatter in all directions. It's a glacier.
The catamaran plunges on and the ice of the glacier shines blue. We slow to a gentle drift as we get even closer and all 150 passengers are spellbound as cameras click like mad. The stillness is punctuated with loud roars and cheers as chunks of ice calve off and thunder into the still water below.
Alaska has over 100,000 glaciers.
Captivated by calving icebergs, people snapped away.
Enthusiasm is in the air as passengers are amazed by the show of nature.
Alaska's glaciers cover 29,000 square miles. There are 30,000 square miles of glaciers in the entire U.S..
Nature is magnificent.
10% of the Earth's land area is covered by glaciers. (6 million square miles)
The captain offered periodic explanations and stated that 95% of Alaska's 100,000 glaciers are retreating. "There is no question of climate change" he exclaimed.
On a brighter side, bald eagles are plentiful here, though not as plentiful as the Kittiwakes!
Over 7,000 bald eagles inhabit Prince William Sound. Can you see this one?
Kittiwakes are the most prevalent birds at Prince William Sound. Over 5,000 nest in these cliffs.
This Tunnel opened in 2000. Now it's open every hour for 15 minutes in one direction and 15 minutes in the other. We had to race to make it both in and out.
Sad at having to leave the glaciers and the magificence of Prince William Sound, I made my tunnel and headed to my next adventure - a stroll on an actual glacier!