Alaska: Day 4 - Journey to Seward and boarding the Ryndam

We're leaving Denali today, heading south to Seyward, approximately 270 miles long, translating, with rest stops, into a nine hour bus ride.. Our driver was  Dustin, a young man who grew up on an Iowa farm and is in his last year of mechanical engineering at a university in Utah.  Apparently, Holland and Princess cruise lines recruits promising young students, trains them to drive a bus and conduct these tours.  The results were surprisingly good. Dustin was obviously very competent, as well entertaining and enthusiastic.  The nine hour drive flew by, peppered with stories and jokes along the way.

One of our first rest stops was at the Veteran’s memorial, located in the Denali State Park at mile 147.1, between Anchorage and Fairbvanks.  It consists of five twenty-foot panels, representing the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, all of which have been an important part of Alaskan history.  I was attracted to it as my father served as an aeronautical engineer in the US Air Force in Alaska.  He had been stationed in Fairbanks to fly B36 bombers as part of the US Strategic Air Commad during the height of the cold war. 

I was only four years old at the time, and together with mom and my brother, we lived in San Antonio Texas while Dad was away for weeks at a time in Alaska. I was interested to learn there that high mountain search and rescue is conducted by a special branch of the armed forces that also does rescue operations in Afghanistan.

About four hours after we left Denali National Park, we passed through Willow, on the way to Seward.  Dustin, our driver, told us about Willow’s near claim to becoming the capital of Alaska.  Apparently, a debate arose in the 1970's as to where the ideal capital should be.  And so, in 1976, a state-wide vote was held, and Willow was successfully chosen. However, once a more thorough study was done, it was found that it would cost approximately four BILLION dollars to move the capital there.  A vote to approve funding was held in 1982 and was resoundingly defeated., and with it, Willow’s chances of becoming the state capital.

A few minutes after leaving Willow, we entered Houston .  Our guide mentioned that it was first created as a sawmill town.  And, like many other small towns in Alaska, it has its share of colourful characters. This year Houston made national new when the local mayor impersonated a police officer and "borrowed" a police car to drive and drove recklessly to Fairbanks with flashing patrol lights at high speeds so that "he could get there faster".  However, he made a mistake of leaving the dash cam on as he drove, which ended up on YouTube.  The resulting scandal made him an Internet celebrity, and led to his resignation in June this year.

Houston is also the only place in Alaska where you can buy fireworks year round.  Interesting, one of the biggest forest fires in Alaska was located in Houstan and apparently was caused by fireworks--->

About five hours after we left Denali, we reached Anchorage, but only passed through it.  While we did, as our driver and guide gave a few details about the city, and some howlers, just to keep us awake.  For example, we were earnestly told that Conico building is the tallest building in Anchorage, “although I’ve heard the library has more stories”.   Later, we passed by a big balloon covered tent of a building, that, it turned out, was an indoor driving range.  And we learned from our driver that Alaska has a strange rule concerning golf.  Up there, everyone has to wear two pairs of pants when they go golfing.  The reason has nothing to do with the cold, or bugs.  It’s just added protection in case they “get a hole in one”.  Hahahaha...

On leaving Anchorage, we entered a very scenic part of the tour, the 130 mile journey to Seward along the Alaskan coast. Just outside of Anchorage, we passed by a long marsh that extended beside the highway alongside the ocean on the right, until we started ascending into the mountains.  

Apparently, the route we were travelling was voted one of the most scenic drives in the US. I have to agree, some of the views we passed, especially alog the water's edge, was quite beautiful.

Along the way, we passed along glacial silt deposits that empty out into the bay.  The driver told us that the silt extends over a thousand feet deep.  The silt is actually dangerous as the thick mud-like substance can act like guicksand if one were to walk on it.  The fore-tide in this bay is the second largest in the world, second to the Bay of Fundy.  Baluga Point is populated by Beluga whales.  When the road was constructed, found artifacts from all five Native peoples in the region that have hunted belugas for centuries.

Next, we passed by Hope, one of the first towns created as a result of the Alaskan gold rush.  A pretty small town, that a few years ago,  had the first high school graduate in eight years.  We were also told that Hope has 100 historical buildings, “eighteen of them are outhouses”.  Now, that's a small town. 

<--Roads are constantly being maintained during the short spring and summer season

The road into Seward is apparently one of the most dangerous in Alaska for avalanches.   The coastal road reminded us of the Sea to Sky highway... high mountains extending from the side of the road, as we passed along.  “Avalanche Alley”  is an area that is particularly hazardous,  so much so that a walking path was constructed in parallel above the highway that, apparently, helps to block some avalanches from reaching the highway.  In the year 2000, avalanches came down on both ends of the highway, trapping several cars in between until they could finally be removed. 

We then entered the Chugach National Forest, one of the largest national forests in the United states, located about 145 miles from Seward.  Just past it the sign, we saw the effects of a recent avalanche that came down this year, breaking trees and taking out several guard rails. Passed along dead standing trees, and the site of Portage, a town that was totally destroyed in the earthquake.  Residents living there decided not to rebuild, and so abandoned it.  Dustin said that locals call the dead forest in the area, a ‘ghost forest’. He prefers, however, to call it “dog forest” because the trees ‘have no bark’.   Groan, another joke.

As we moved deeper into the  Turnagainarm inlet, the mountains became more spectacular.  Covered in snow, it was apparent that there is much more precipitation here than in the Denali National Forest.  There can be over 100 feet of snow each year on the tops of these mountains.  About an hour from Seward, the weather turned cold and wet.  Apparently, winds in this area can reach 214 mph. It might have been higher, however, when that wind record was made, the instrumentation measuring it at the time broke.

A rest stop near Portege Lake, introduced us to our first ice berg, floating in the inlet off Glacier Bay.   This one, which over two stories high,  broke off Portege Glacier a couple of weeks ago.   Dustin, our driver said that the ice was approximately 88 tons when it broke off the glacier.  When it did, the glacier broke off as a ‘shooter’, a submerged chunk of massive ice.   

If a glacier like this were ever to break off under a ship and rise up underneath it, these chunks of ice would cause major damage.

Minutes after our arrival, a huge piece of the glacier broke off, crashing into the water.  The result which happened just before I managed to get to the beach, is the iceberg in the photos here.

At last.  We've reached Seward and are boarding the Ryndam!   

We checked into a beautiful stateroom on the main deck, then spent the rest of the evening exploring this huge ship.

As part of our orientation, we had to attend a mandatory safety meeting – basically assembling outside on deck underneath our pre-assigned lifeboat.  It was a rather sobering moment as attendants wearing life vests demonstrated how to put them on while the announcer gave a briefing on what we would need to do in case of evacuation. I was happy to see that “women and children first” are still the order of the day – I’m still old-fashioned that way.  Romantic notions of Alaskan icebergs aside, I’ll be quite happy if we don’t have to test out those lifeboats while were here!

And so ends our land journey.  Tomorrow, we begin cruising into College Fjord and across Prince William Sound.