Alaska {❤️15th}

Buckle up. This gonna be looong. Though he’s been dealing with my BS for 20yrs, it’s was our 15th wedding anniversary Wednesday, so last week we spent it driving around Alaska together! We flew into Anchorage and then drove all the places (Seward – Fairbanks) over the next week, basically eating our weight in fish through the state.

Day one we went from Anchorage to Girdwood for a hike, then onto Seward.

Did you even know leaves this size existed? Adam wears a 12 and you can see it’s still much bigger! 😳

Each day we stayed at a different Air BnB along the route he planned. Adam does a WONDERFUL job of planning our trips and takes care of all this shiz cause Mama ain’t got time for dat.

All were cute little cabins in the woods big enough to sleep and shower, though a couple did have a small fridge! This night was absolutely hysterical as we fell asleep and woke up before dawn to the sound of hundreds of acorns and nuts being thrown onto our tin roof from the trees above. Thanks for the wake up call, squirrels and chipmunks! But not long after, the constant thwaps were accompanied with heavy rain and a million barks from the sled dog kennel less than a mile further into the woods. 🤣 Nature, you funny.

Summer and Fall colliding.

Wildlife was scarce but there was a preservation place in Seward we could hike around and see all kinds of animals!

His birthday gifts were brought to you by The North Face. 😬

The bears were down below a bridge, thankfully, cause that guy was a BIG boy.

This guy was in an electric fenced area, but he twirled and smacked this rag like a little kid, quickly tricking your brain into thinking he’s playful and you just want to go play tug o war. Nope, you’ll definitely lose a limb.

Most restaurants had a wall of windows over looking mountains and/or water. Though it was typically gray 24hrs a day, every now and then for a few minutes, the clouds would part and peep some blue!

We learned so many things while traveling but one of the biggest shocks to us was that huskies are NOT sled dogs!? They use their cute faces for billboards but apparently they’re super lazy in real life. These dogs are expected (and want) to run milesssss per day but huskies will get out a mile and full on sit in protest. 🤣 This mushing kennel is run by the Sieve family who is well known for winning the Iditarod race. The stories she told us about breeding in allll types of dogs for specific reasons was super fascinating. She’s like, my grandparents got sick of carrying the huskies back home. 😳

We got some time to play with the youngest pups who were so very sweet. Mostly we just wanted to send pics to our kids who are forever begging for a new dog, to make them jealous. 😬

While they’re very well trained, they were still hilariously full of personality. They took us on a run and half the time they were trying to bite each other or turn around to see us. You can see on the left that one hopped over the center line to get the other dog. 😆 She said it’s because the trail they take us on is very little work and only a mile so they’re bored of it, running the same loop every day, so focus is lost easily.

They were SO excited to run though.

Mama Trilby.

Waiting in line for our cruise tour in a brief sun period!

My friend Zach moved to Anchorage in the spring and upgraded his lenses. He let us borrow his 100-500mm telephoto while we were there, to be able to capture any wildlife we could! THANKS ZACH! Youda best!

With the constant downpour all week, we saw so many rainbows!

Otters flipping and rolling in our wake!

Unfortunately all the big water wildlife had migrated. No whales or orcas to see. 🥺

Bald eagles were all over though. I was actually quite impressed Adam could focus while on the top of the bumpy three tiered boat and through the heavy rainfall!

Sea lions fast asleep and couldn’t be bother by our large boat!

Chunks of glaciers constantly falling off and floating through the ocean! Pretty but also 🥴

We had just ordered dinner at this restaurant and out the window across an inlet about 50yds away, a group of 5 adults gathered with their backs to us looking into the water. Having time to wait, I ran out the side door and yelled, “WHAT YOU LOOKING AT??” They yelled back, “an otter chomping on crab scraps!” Since he would have been MUCH closer than what we saw on the cruise, I ran the other way to the car to grab a cam, then sprint down the long entrance ramp to the marina.

Sure enough, munching away! My friend who is obsessed with otters constantly wants to cuddle them, but after witnessing them chew through bone and shells, that’s a hard pass. They’ll def eat your face off. 😆

On my 39th bday we woke up and drove to this park to hike to the Exit Glacier.

The rain and clouds made it difficult to see the higher we got up but it still was breathtaking to be above the clouds!

If you’ve never hiked serious mountains than you don’t really understand how crazy it is that a foot in front of me was hundreds of feet straight down. Wild.

While you can see the glacier to the left and seems like we were at the peak of the mountain, we still had many miles to go above that cloud. And it looks deceivingly flat, we were always at a minimum of 45º angle.

This was about half way. Since we were going STRAIGHT up steep rocks/switchbacks, we got hot quick and shed layers. A couple was stopped there, exhausted, so we took each other’s pic. We turned to keep going and totally shocked they exclaimed, “You’re going to keep going up?!” “UM ya, why stop now??” My husband knows nothing of anything but nearly a jogging pace so the 10.5+mi  journey that the rangers told us should take 7-8hrs…took us 5. 😑 Something is wrong with him. I was always 10 paces behind yelling, “WHATS.THE.RUUUUSH???”🙄

This little house was around 5,000ft elevation and yet, we still had another 1/2 mi or so up and over to see the top of the Harding Ice Field/ Exit glacier.

By the top it turned painfully cold as we were soaking wet. Adam gave me shit because I chose a ‘water resistant’ jacket over waterproof because of the color. 😆 So his upper body stayed dry while mine was water logged. Meh. Did I learn my lesson? Still no. But my 3 layers underneath definitely weren’t enough.

The clouds came and went quickly. It was a full on, now you see it, now you don’t! situation. Seconds apart.

Marmots were for sure the closest creature we came upon. This guy was so curious. About 10 foot away I thought, I wonder how close he will let me get? Step after step he just tilted his head watching me til finally I could have reached out and pet him. I was so close that my portrait setting on my iPhone told me to step back! I was half expecting him to scream “HEY!” like the popular gif! No such luck.

This cabin was cool as we checked in late at night, it was too cloudy to see any view. We awoke to choppers lifting off the helipad, down at that white yurt and a new beautiful mountain scape!

🎶”It was all yellow!” 🎶 No literally, every.thing.was.yellow.

Every road the whole journey was just like this. Biiiiig yellow trees and mountains.

We learned about the ghost forests along the roads and ocean, caused by the 1964 earthquake, the most powerful in US history. Chunks of ground dropped 10+ feet, sucked right into the earth permanently. When that happened, roots were destroyed by saltwater (because post the terrifying 4.5 minute 9.2 earthquake, a tsunami raged over the towns) leaving whats visible, actually being the TOP half of the trees, dead and leafless. We aren’t sure if this house was also swallowed as a result of the quake or what. Just took a random pull off on the side of the road to capture it.

We detoured through Hatcher Pass to see the tiny red cabins amongst the mountains.

A different glacier view from lunch in Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

A quick stop in Talkeetna on our way to Denali!

This adorable little town was almost 100% closed down for the season! That is one thing we were not prepared for. Alllll of the shops and restuarants across the boroughs were closed the week before or started that week until spring! Cruise ships had stopped, so all the people who lodged in specific boroughs for spring, summer and early fall to work, return home for winter! It made it very difficult to find food some days.

As we zoomed (cause legit never saw a single cop entire week?!) along the the AK3 highway, we came upon this abandoned igloo in Cantrell. It was marking halfway on our journey from Anchorage to Fairbanks but we’d not heard anything about it! My first thought was, what cult started and abruptly ended here? 🤣 We parked and snooped the area to understand what exactly was happening there. About 3minutes into us exploring, we saw this red jeep fly by, hit brakes, u turn, then come back and pull in. Adam and I were like, uhhhhhh.😬 Quickly we realized the girl also just wanted to take some pics and since our car was blocking her shot, I ran back to move it. I laughed like, this is pretty cool, eh, caught your eye too? She said, the story of it is actually pretty wild! In the 70’s someone built this very unique 4 story igloo hotel but it didn’t pass inspection so they just STOPPED. Just straight walked away from the project completely!? With the inside unfinished, you can tell many a teenage parties were held in this structure!

The rock mountain suddenly gained beautiful Fall foliage and the ground surface everywhere became all the jewel tones!

We didn’t pull off a ton but every now and then I yelled, STOP! 🤣 This was one of those times. 🥰 Sometimes God is just showing off, amiright?

I couldn’t get over the red and yellow forest floor and constantly said, “JUST LOOK AT IT!!” Annoyed, Adam would reply, “Ya I know. You won’t stop talking about it.”

We made our way to Healy where the bus from Into the Wild rests outside the 49th State Brewery. We ate there and just like every other meal, the fish was delicious. I had Crab stuffed Halibut on a bed of smashed red potatoes. You know, I don’t typically finish most restaurant meals here, but every plate could have been reused in Alaska, I cleaned it so well. 😬

We hiked Denali, which we learned is actually De-nAL-e, not De-nahl-e, again in the pouring rain. 🤣I’m really glad I chose to go with pink instead of black because that contrast is what I knew I’d want in images! Waterproof, schmaterproof.  Beavers really took over this trail we were on. So many dams and so little trees left around the water’s edge.😳

We spotted an otter rolling in and out of this area! Took some patience waiting for him to pop up and be able to find then focus on him!

Looks like a river rat!

Muuuuuch higher up into Denali, the terrain became beautiful again! I’m sure it’s still pretty when green but we picked a great week to come while it’s all changed!

Quickly the rain turned into snow as we drove up! It was SO COOL! We pulled over and just watched the snow begin to cover it all. 😍

We hiked other trails as far as we were allowed to drive into Denali. Ironically, the ranger said, come back tomorrow, you’ll be allowed to drive as far as the buses, starting then! 🙄 We’d be gone. The picture does this raging river no justice.

What was covered in water droplets miles lower, was covered in snow and ice up higher!

Now this guy DID yell at me. 😆

Over the years we’ve been so thankful our pro gear can handle the elements like this!

On our way to our last stop, Chena Hot Springs, we went to the North Pole!

I totes don’t mean to sound like a Debbie Downer but the city REALLY did not embrace their name. This store and Santa were the most exciting part. There was a lovely Santa and Mrs Claus inside to meet as well. Sure lamp posts were candy striped but man, the money they could make from tourists if they really leaned into it! Maybe they don’t to keep the small town quiet, but we considered a retirement plan of moving there and making it so much more exciting.😬 We did drive around the local Wendy’s (which we quickly noticed there was barely ANY fast food anywhere in Alaska) just to send an image to Adam’s coworkers. Now that he’s the Design Implementation Manager over the Wendy’s account, he thought it was fun to show them there was in fact, a Wendy’s in the North Pole. 😆 Of course we even drove around the building to make sure all the artwork he’s overseen was correct too. 🤦🏼‍♀️

In Chena Hot Springs they had an Ice Museum. It was 20º inside and you can see all the people at the bar, casually enjoying apple martinis out of ice glasses to warm them. The two of us non-drinkers zipped in and out like, this is cool, now can you let us out the secured double entrance doors now? 🙃

We traveled well over 8 hrs to get so far North to have our best chance at viewing the Aurora. It was our FIRST day of mostly blue skies, which gave us a really great opportunity to see them!

As we approached, a bunch of cars were pulled over. That was a thing all the time when wildlife was spotted. It was like none of us tourists had every seen a dang wild animal before! 🥴 Anxious to get a look at what it was, we pulled over and ran to the view of the water. OH MY GOSH! Brown fur, a hump! A GRIZZLY! FINALLY!

Nope. Another cow moose. 🙄 I had no idea moose could keep their heads under water for nearly a full minute?!

All over we were fascinated by the trees that swayed over like palm trees. Many of which weren’t even tall, their sideways slumps were often way more dramatic than this, sometimes a full arch!

Seriously, it was all yellow!

After another filling delicious fresh fish meal, we chilled in the hot springs for the next couple hours. It’s just like others where some areas feel like a normal jacuzzi but as you move around you’ll find a VERY hot spot like it’s trying to boil us into  tourist soup.

Unfortunately, against my efforts of waking every 45min to run outside and check all views of the sky through the night, the clouds came again and diminished our chances of the Northern Light visibility. 🥺 WOMP.

What its like traveling with photographers. We see something, you best move out of the way or the lens will hit ya. 🤷🏼‍♀️

It was a lonnnnng journey back to Anchorage, fly out at 1am and we DID get to see the Aurora from the plane! Though way less exciting nor photogenic, we at least experienced them!

Also, one of the craziest things we learned is that almost 100% the people we spoke to whether in hospitality or general resident, were all AK transplants! The natives are there, just acreesss off the beating path, which is hardly even beating at this time of year! Every single person was from another state, moved there for an off the grid, wonderfully slower paced life. I had no idea that was a thing, but I totally get it. Just on the planes to and from, airport conversations were all about passengers going there to check out which borough they were moving to. The few natives we did finally speak with, were grabbing To Go at a tiny restaurant in the middle of nowhere and they told us, there’s actually like 400 of us that live in this borough! (Funny cause that’s nearly just our subdivision) We were looking out the window like, but where? 😳 There wasn’t even roads that came off the mountain lined highways?🤣

We loved our time there, albeit, very very wet, but it didn’t dampen our moods at all. It was SO much like Iceland in every way, as we expected, except we hiked Iceland during full daylight days versus Alaska having comparable to Midwest “sunset” hour. I’d say between the two, Iceland was more of an adventure, but I’m glad we still went here. And I think the lack of tourists, plus Fall colors, trumped the absence of summer wildlife in the water. I don’t know, too many pros and cons to the seasons! We could have spent so much more time exploring but ya know, kids, life, work. Sigh. 😬 Let it also be known, our kids gave no shits we were gone. Couldn’t even get the boys to talk to us while Nori would face time us!🙄 I guess you could say they were enjoying the attention from Aunt Dale! Thanks for loving them while we were gone! Anywho. If you made it this far, congratulations! You win…nothing. 😆 Heart, Melanie & Adam