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Into Alaska On The McKinley ExplorerBy Walter GlaserI Many people think of cruise ships when they think of Alaska, but we had opted for a fascinating train trip that runs north from Anchorage to Fairbanks, a town that had boomed during the gold rush days, been kept active by military spending in the ‘Cold War period’ after World War ll because of its proximity to the Russian bases in Siberia, and subsequently by the wealth generated through the Alaskan oil discoveries. Transversing Alaska on the McKinley Explorer is one of the great train journeys of the world, and takes the visitor through Denali, the largest National Park in the USA. What makes this train journey so spectacular is the completely unspoilt Alaskan wilderness and the stops where one has the opportunity to explore, rather than the train itself. The latter is comfortable, enjoyable, offers wonderful facilities, and can be enjoyed in several ways. Though you are on the same track, and pulled by the same engine, you can either travel in a standard Alaskan railroad carriage at a lower budget price, or join the special luxury carriages known as the McKinley Explorer --- and that is what we had decided to do.
Our double-decker carriage featured spacious armchair viewing and pampered luxury on the top deck with elegant, comfortable dining areas for the train’s excellent meal service situated below. The train is far from fast – you can cover the distance more quickly by car – but on a train journey like this, ‘slow and easy’ is the best way to go if you want to truly enjoy and absorb the fascinating scenery and wildlife that you will encounter. We also took the stopover options – pre-voyage in Anchorage, then in Denali National Park, and finally in Fairbanks. In our opinion this was the best combination for such a voyage. ANCHORAGE
Anchorage offered a ‘small town’ ambience, yet had good shopping, and there were also excellent hotels such as Westmark (where we were staying), a Hilton and a Marriott. Don’t forget to stroll through the city gardens if you are there in summer. The flowers are incredible due to the 20 hours of sunshine a day. But you may, like I did, come across a patch of garden that looks like it has been zapped by a laser gun. If so, the culprit will not be an alien from outer space but a moose! They are free to wander into town and love dining on the flower beds! Our hotel concierge recommended a visit to the Alaska Native Heritage Center as a way to learn about the beginning of settlement here. This was one of the best of its kind we have ever seen. Movies on Alaska’s history, outstanding displays, historical information, native Alaskans giving demonstrations of handicrafts, performances of native dancing, a great souvenir shop – all combined to make our half-day at the Center a most fascinating experience. The next morning we set off on a Gray Line day trip to the Portage Glacier, heading along the coast towards Portage and Prince William Sound. In Anchorage the sun had been warm. Here, though only a short distance from town, the temperature became at least 10° colder, because the as-yet-unseen glaciers were already cooling the air to an incredible degree. The road followed the waterfront, and we had a good view of the effect of the huge tides and the fast waterflows that result. Soon we were boarding our tour-boat and moving off. Just before arriving at the glaciers we noticed a wide red-tinged streak in the water, stretching both ways along the coastline as far as the eye could see. As we moved closer I realised what it was -- the incredible sight of millions and millions of salmon migrating towards their spawning grounds.
I had seen glaciers in Switzerland, New Zealand and Argentina, but the Alaskan ones were simply beyond comparison in grandeur. Wherever I looked, blue-tinted rivers of ice seem to flow into the ocean. Our guide explained that the colouring was caused by the captured oxygen and the filtered light in the ice. Every so often there was a loud crack -- like a cannon being fired -- and part of the iceberg slid into the water. In a word -- breathtaking!!! The next morning it was time to board the McKinley Explorer and to head inland to Denali National Park. When the luxury section of the train is hooked onto Alaska Rail’s engine, it is the ultimate way to explore the Alaskan wilderness while cocooned in total luxury and comfort. Hostesses served drinks and cocktails, commentators gave us a running description of what we were seeing, and when it came to meal times, our gourmet dinner awaited us in the dining section on the lower level of this remarkable train. And there was much to see!!! Caribou – the same animals as Scandinavian reindeer – munched the lush grass growing in the clearings. Occasionally the commentator would point out a herd of deer here, or an American eagle there. We passed flooded rivers and thick forests, patches of bright wildflowers, an ever-fascinating panorama. Though the trip was relatively slow, it provided ample opportunity to admire the pristine scenery all around us. All too soon we were disembarking in Denali where we stopped-over to experience the magnificent Gray Line wildlife tour -- one of the many highlights of our trip. That evening we joined the other guests in a re-incarnation of a wild-west evening that was a load of fun, with waiters doubling up as the singers and actors in the Alaskan wilderness floor show, while a jolly and well-rounded lady played the honky tonk piano. I am not at my shining best early in the morning, and found it difficult to leave behind the warmth and comfort of my hotel bed at the McKinley Chalet Resort just outside the park boundaries. It was a mind-boggling early start -- the tour bus departed at 5.30 am, but with good reason. The long summer days in Alaska, with only two or three hours of darkness, meant that animals began moving around at dawn, so if we hadn’t started early we would not get the best nature-viewing.
A little later the bus again came to a stop as we saw a grizzly bear and its cub playing on the open ground about a quarter mile from the road. I had always thought that grizzlies hid in the forests and were vicious hunters. “Not so,” said Jack, our guide. “Though bears do go fishing when the salmon are running, they also eat berries, vegetation, nuts, roots and almost anything edible they can find.” Then, rounding the corner, we came to a sight to take our breath away. Looming up into the sky was Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America at 20,320 feet above sea level. The mountain’s local name is ‘Denali’, which means ‘The Great One’ in the language of the local Athabascan Indians. Jack informed us that we were extremely lucky to see the snowcap glistening and sparkling in the sunshine, as four out of five days the mountain was hidden by cloud.
There was always something new to discover – grizzly bears, more moose, brown bears and caribou. Yet we had only seen a part of the 37 species that abounded in the park. Those who stay longer may also see wolves, red fox, lynx, wolverines, black bears, marmots and snowshoe hare. By late morning it was time to turn back. The park’s tundra, magnificent stands of blue-green, native spruce forests and the glaciers in the distance, all filled us with wonderment. Denali National Park had certainly worked its magic on us. FAIRBANKSTime to board the McKinley Explorer again, and to continue our excursion, heading from Denali to Fairbanks --- a sector I would strongly recommend to be included in anyone’s itinerary. As our train clickety-clacked across the landscape, I noticed that many of the pine trees looked very stunted. “Permafrost!” said our train-commentator. “If you were to dig down along the trees you would hit ice two feet (60cm) down all year round. The roots can’t get into this, so the trees are stunted”. It was quite a shock when we saw our first houses, and soon we were rolling into Fairbanks station. Here is a town that uses the summer Midnight Sun to full advantage -- if you’ve ever fancied a midnight round of golf this is the place to visit. In mid-summer keep your eyes on the heavens and watch as the aurora borealis, visible here from late August to mid-April, lights up the Alaska sky. Fairbanks is one of the best places on earth to view these northern lights. Winter, however, sees the temperature drop to a minimum of around -60°F, so low that car tyres freeze to the road. But don’t be deterred, as there are still plenty of adventures to experience. From November to early April, Alaska offers consistently good snow conditions for dog sledding, snow-mobileing, cross country and alpine skiing, snowshoeing, and more. Fairbanks also plays host to the World Ice Art Championships each March, when the ice is put to good use by sculptors from around the world as they create larger-than-life ice sculptures. If you require respite from the well-below-freezing temperatures at that time of year, this can be found in the mineral water of several thermal hot springs resorts around Fairbanks.
And then we were flying back to Anchorage on the way home, all the time thinking that Alaska was a land of extremes – but also extremely worth visiting. General Sir William Butler had it right when he wrote, in ‘The Great Lone Land’ (1872), ‘In summer a land of sound – a land echoed with the voices of birds, the ripple of running water, the mournful music of the waving pine branch: in winter a land of silence. Its great rivers glimmering in the moonlight, wrapped in their shrouds of ice, it’s still forests rising weird and spectral against the auroral-lighted horizon, its nights so still that the moving streamers across the northern skies seem to carry to the ear a sense of sound!’ Today’s Alaska is still like that – one of the world’s last great undeveloped and unspoilt wilderness areas. Go there and enjoy it before it is too late! |
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TM
t’s a warm, sunny day in Alaska --- all twenty hours of it
! Because summer in Alaska is quite strange. Only four hours of night, and even
these don’t let it get completely dark. Flowers seem to be bigger, more colourful, and more voluptuous than those elsewhere. “Of course,” an Alaskan
friend had said, “with all that sunlight, for such a long day, what else would
you expect?” And summer is naturally the time to go there. Because in winter one
only gets about four hours of watery daylight, and all those locals who can
afford it head for holidays in Hawaii or Australia. Alaska in summer, however
is not to be missed.
The Explorer rail cars are classically American. Each seats
88 guests and features more glass area than any other passenger railcar ever
built. This allowed us to get fabulous views of some of the most spectacular
wilderness vistas in the world.
Our trip began in Anchorage, Alaska’s biggest city, with a
population of 250,000. Like the rest of Alaska, Anchorage has almost non-stop
summer daylight, and in mid-winter the days are correspondingly long and dark.
This city is driven by the tourism and oil industries. Fishing, mining and
timber are also big, but not so evident. The oil income has been used wisely and
has provided for good schools, attractive parks and fountains, and an admirable
infrastructure. A good way to get the ‘feel’ of the friendly atmosphere of this
place was to first stroll around the town, followed by a horse-drawn carriage
ride which started opposite the Westmark Hotel.
But there was much more. Sea otters looked like they were
smiling at us as they played in the water and climbed on to floating bits of
pack-ice. Giant American Eagles looked haughtily down on us from tall pine
perches. Seals lounged lazily on the pack-ice, hardly bothering to look at us.
And then we came to the glaciers!
Our sightseeing bus climbed along a high road that clung to
a mountainside, which dropped down into a flat valley where the Savage River ran
among small water-washed stones. “Look down there,” Jack, our driver-guide, said
over the loud speaker system as he brought the bus to a halt. We followed his
directions and could make out a herd of moose slowly moving alongside the river.
As we drove further into the park we noticed a pair of
caribou (reindeer) clambering nimbly up the almost vertical mountain-slope
leading to our road. Close up, their fur looked very moth-eaten. Our guide must
have been a mind-reader, because he immediately commented that this is
change-of-season moulting. The caribou, totally fearless, looked us over for a
minute and then moved away.
This city’s first incarnation was as part of the Fairbanks
Mining District. An enormous amount of gold was taken from the Alaskan
goldfields, and we took a great 8-hour stern wheeler cruise on the 20 mile round
trip down the Chena and Tanana rivers, including a visit to ‘gold dredge Number
8’. This tour was one of the best and most interesting imaginable, in spite of
the fact that our miner’s lunch at the dredge was arguably the worst meal we had
in Alaska. If this is what the miners were given for food, it’s no wonder that
their workforce-turnover was so huge. On that day-trip we also visited an
Indian village, watched a husky dog-trainer, saw a float-plane take-off and land
and admired a salmon-preserving demonstration and much, much more. It is one of
the most interesting and varied day-trips we had ever experienced.