Alaska – The last American Frontier

Aurora Borealis, Denali, bald eagles soaring through the air, grizzly bears foraging in their pristine environment all evoke images of Alaska - the last American frontier. In September, master cruise counselor Patricia Ellington and I were given the opportunity to visit a variety of sites in Alaska on an organized trip via Holland America Cruise Lines, one of our preferred vendors. We visited Anchorage, Girdwood, Denali, Fairbanks and Seward. What a truly amazing adventure packed in to just nine days.

Anchorage is an active coastal city with magnificent views of the Cook Inlet, the Chugach Mountain Range, and on a clear day Denali and the surrounding peaks of the Denali Preserve.

For fun you can walk, run, roller blade, or ride your bike on the coastal trail that meanders along the shoreline for eleven miles, one way. There are pristine parks, enclosed forest areas, and points of interest dotted here and there along the trail. During the winter the trail is open for cross country skiing! Moose have been spotted along the trail, but we actually saw our first moose along a main road to Earthquake Park. From Anchorage you can go on day trips to visit glaciers or kayak in pristine bays, hiking in the Chugach mountains is also a must.

On the way to Girdwood, we drove along Turnagain Arm where we saw lots of beluga whales. We also stopped by the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, which is located on 140 acres of wilderness and is home to injured and orphaned wildlife. The Center is a not-for-profit company and has been in operation for nearly ten years. Here you can get up close and personal views of grizzly bear, black bear, moose, bison, eagles, owls and Sitka black tailed deer. After a fun-filled day we headed over to the only Conde Nast rated resort in Alaska – the Alyeska Resort.

Staying at the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood was a dream come true. My family has always loved snow skiing and have been fortunate to have traveled to many ski resorts around the world. This resort has been top on my list, especially for my extreme skiing husband. The location is magnificent, the resort is sumptuous and did you know that the restaurant at the top of the tram, The Seven Glaciers, is rated one of the top restaurants in the country? Truly magnificent! In the summertime there are lots of trails to hike, in the winter you have world class skiing – pretty hard to beat which ever season you prefer.

From Girdwood we traveled to Seward and went on a day cruise of Resurrection Bay. This was a blast. We were out on the sea with a light rain, but it truly was one of the highlights of my tour of Alaska because it was an ADVENTURE! We saw lots of Puffin (those cute little birds that look like clowns and can swim as well as they fly), sea otters, endangered stellar seals, lots of bald eagles, fish – no whales as visibility was a bit poor.

After touring the Kenai Peninsula National Park, Girdwood, and Anchorage, we were off to the “Great One,” Denali. We boarded the brand new McKinley Explorer, and traveled about eight hours along a scenic route to the interior of Alaska. We spent two full days at the McKinley Chalets, which is great if you stay outside of the park. Denali is an ecosystem that is intact. The park is vast and wild: six million acres with few established trails and only one road that goes 90 miles into the park. Here the caribou migrate in herds, the wolf packs still hunt, grizzly bear forage in the wilderness without being curious or afraid. What other National Park in America can you travel to and see the wildlife intact without a hint of ruination by societies need to control nature’s beauty and splendor?

The highlight of my trip was witnessing the Northern lights or Aurora Borealis. It just so happens that the months of May and September are good times to view this amazing phenomenon. Imagine a clear cold night, a myriad of stars are out – and as you gaze at the heavens you see a fog like substance start to cover the sky. And then all of a sudden you see hues of green, violet, yellow, and red. The streaks can be stagnant or as in my experience, they can dance across the entire sky. What an amazing spectacle! Only by witnessing this display first hand can you possibly relate to the experience.

Our trip ended in Fairbanks, where we went on the Riverboat Discovery Cruise. Here we were thoroughly entertained by a dogsled demonstration led by expert Alaskan dog mushers. Later, we stopped at the historic site of a Chena Indian village and as a finale we watched the take off and landing of both a bush and a float plane. And, did you know that Fairbanks has the greatest temperature range of any place in the United States, with the highest temperature recorded at 99 degrees Fahrenheit, and the lowest, -61 degrees Fahrenheit. It is here you want to witness the Aurora Borealis – the colors vary from green (which I hear is common) to red (which is the rarest).

So next time you have an inkling to be adventurous, don’t forget that one of the last frontiers in the world awaits you right in your own backyard. Whether you want to experience world class skiing, marvel at creative ice sculptures, cheer on the mushers of the Iditarod races, or be captivated by the Aurora Borealis during the winter or watch pods of orca and humpback whales, catch humongous wild salmon or halibut, witness glacier calving, or go on an adventure cruise during the summer - you will want to Discover Alaska, I guarantee that you will have the trip of a lifetime!