MikeFish on the Yukon River, drive through never-ending, inhabited lands. Watch Humpback whales splashing into glacial waters. Breath, touch and feel this unbelievable place on the far reaches of Earth. Alaska, one of the last places few places that you can still call truly wild. The last frontier at its best!
So glad to continue with our story! In our last trip-related post (Mainland Alaska P.2), after crossing the Arctic Circle and camping overnight, we kept driving north in our road-adapted truck aiming to maybe reach the Arctic Ocean shore. We were running low on gas, and the next gas station was over 170 miles north of us. Risking becoming stranded in the Alaskan wilderness, and unsure if we would be able to make it further, we decided to turn back south at Atigun pass, in the Brook’s Range.
Now headed back to Fairbanks while driving back the Dalton Highway, we personally experienced the fine art of rock- throwing at our windshield by huge semi-trucks. We actually got two or three big windshield cracks! We stopped at the Yukon River crossing and tried our luck with our fishing rods there. Later on, while stopping for dinner, we actually spotted a huge black bear roaming in the wild at a distance with our binoculars. We reached Fairbanks at sunset, and had to mention that daylight would not set here until 2-3:00 am. We truly were in the land of the midnight sun! We swapped back into our original rental vehicle and kept driving on State Highway 2, east-bound. Soon after, we could see a big Santa Claus figure next to the road, with a sign that read “welcome to the North Pole”. Just bizarre, considering that the geographic North Pole was actually about a thousand miles / 1600 km. north from there. Nice way to bring tourists to this spot! :).
Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park, Alaska. 2023.
After driving for many hours and for hundreds of miles we stopped and rested at a camping area. We woke up ready to go early the next day, heading back south. I have to mention these wild pink flowers that were ever-present everywhere we went: “Fireweed“, the locals call them. We reached the Wrangell-Saint Elias National park area, where we witnessed astonishing views and an unreal moon rise. We eventually reached the coastal town of Valdez. This gold-rush town was founded by Spanish explorers at the end of the eighteenth century. It was ripped apart by a devastating earthquake during the 1960’s . Valdez is the terminus for the Trans-Alaskan oil pipe, and the site was notoriously famous for one of the worst environmental disasters in world history (travelalaska.com).
While staying overnight in Valdez, we learned that we could take a day cruise into the Prince William Sound and reach the Columbia Glacier, the 2nd. largest tide-water glacier in North America. We boarded the next day, and I’m glad we did. We witnessed sea lions, otters, all kinds of seabirds but, above all, we enjoyed a truly unique experience: Humpback whales diving, surfacing and splashing under and next to our ship, just unbelievable! We were surrounded by small icebergs. Later on, the ship took us near the edge of a huge white-blue wall of ice spreading far into the horizon, the Columbia Glacier. We could hear the calving (periodic collapse of the glacier wall), which sounded like cannon shots. It was a foggy day, but the sight clearly remains as one of the most impressive ever witnessed by the one who writes this.
Me, near the Columbia Glacier edge. Prince William Sound, Alaska.
The following days basically consisted of driving back to Anchorage, the conclusion of our trip. During the flight back to Seattle, shortly after taking off, looking out my window, I could see the greenery, the glaciers, the mountains, the magnificent, vast beauty of this majestic land. I reflected on how fortunate and blessed we were, and the fond memories that were forever imprinted in my mind of Alaska, the last frontier!
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References:
Travel Alaska / Valdez. 2023.
https://www.travelalaska.com/Destinations/Cities-Towns/Valdez
