Finding Alaska

“John Muir, the famous naturalist, wrote in his journal that you should never go to Alaska as a young man because you'll never be satisfied with any other place for as long as you live. And there's a lot of truth to that.” - Tom Bodett

Some vacations help you escape, some help you find yourself but only few help transform your life completely. Alaska was that vacation for me. On April 4, 2018, began the most memorable and exciting trip of my life so far. I, along with my husband and four other friends, went to Fairbanks, AK from San Jose, CA. We reached Fairbanks around midnight, checked-in to our hotel and slept after the exhausting 8 hour journey. We woke up just in time to make it to the hotel cafeteria for the complimentary breakfast. All packed up and ready for our first Alaskan adventure- a guided 14 hour round trip to Arctic Circle. The tour started around 1:30 pm and the first stop was at the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. Even if history doesn’t intrigue you, the ethereal, glowing white appeal of this place was enough to make us all smiling and posing for some great pictures. 

We had another quick pitstop after which there was no halt scheduled for the next 150 miles or so on the very famous Dalton Highway (famous if you follow articles like most dangerous roads in the world or USA). As time passed by, some of us took that much needed power nap, while some were lost in the serene tranquility of the abandoned, vast land covered with only snow and broken trees. It was difficult to find any life other than the drivers of trucks passing by the oncoming traffic. Calling it “traffic” would also be wrong. Actually we did manage to spot a distant bird that flew away so quickly that we couldn’t even confirm if it was really a bird. After about an hour, we made it to Yukon River which was the penultimate point before- Arctic Circle. Our tour guide was kind enough to stop at the only lodge we saw on this entire stretch. The lodge was a nice, cozy place with neat and clean restrooms, also considering that we weren’t going to find another one of these lodges (or restrooms) for the remaining 100 miles of our journey, all of us grabbed the opportunity to make full use of the restroom.

The next half of the trip to Arctic Circle was expected to be quiet and pretty low-key except we saw something none of us had ever before. Extremely heavy winds carried away dry snow from the road in front of us. We drove past, what resembled like clouds on land, in complete awe of this spectacular sight. Here I must acknowledge our fearless tour guide for driving well even under such severe, unforeseen conditions.

After about half an hour of this craziness, we reached Arctic Circle, the most secluded place I’ve seen in my life. I'd never witnessed anything quieter than this place. And colder too. It must be -40 degrees out there and the chilly, heavy winds made it worse. The winds were high enough to carry a child or a skinny, underweight person with them. Please do come prepared for such extreme weather conditions if you’re planning to take this tour. After a few pictures, we started our journey back.

We stopped around midnight in the middle of nowhere to witness the miracle called “Northern Lights”. We sat there in complete darkness inside our car for around 20 minutes, finally spotting a 180 degree band of white light in the sky but that's it, and we all wondered if that's all, we’re going to see tonight. Disappointed, we decided to continue our journey back. The moment we left, one of my friends pointed out a greenish light in the sky from the window of the car. We stopped again and this time our eyes were really relished with the sight of Aurora and its dancing patterns. We kept gazing at one of nature's most astonishing phenomenon for about half an hour. We reached our hotel around 5 am.

Ready by afternoon, our super energetic group was all set for another long night of Northern lights viewing at Chena Hot Springs. This time we didn't book a tour and rented a car instead. But you must keep in mind that this was early April and snow had begun to melt on the roads. Fortunately some of us, in my group were really good drivers and we didn't face very difficult road conditions on our way. After taking few pit stops for pictures, we headed straight to the Ice Museum. It was a small, yet artistically designed structure. On an average, you could easily spend an hour here. There were few small caves along with a bar inside the museum so you'd have enough to keep you busy. After doing some souvenir shopping, we settled down for a sumptuous meal.

It was around 10 pm when we came back to the cafeteria which was open all night and there was a room designed specifically for viewing the Northern Lights . If you love board games or card games, make sure to bring them along, you'll have plenty of time to idle away while waiting for the arrival of the magnificent Northern Lights. Around midnight we started taking turns to go outside and look for any sign of lights in the otherwise pitch dark sky. It was super chilly, we were glad we carried the blankets from our hotel room this time, after facing the extremely cold temperatures of last night. Around 1 am we spotted a grayish, silver band in the sky similar to the one we saw yesterday. The northern lights finally appeared after half an hour more of waiting. We stayed till around 3 am capturing their glory as best as we could through the lens of our DSLR. Bidding a final goodbye, we made our way back, contented and satiated, having seen the Aurora, not once but twice.

The next day began rather early, as we had to board a flight from Fairbanks to Anchorage- our next destination. We got breathtaking views of Alaskan peaks from the sky which was like an added bonus, the flight was pretty short though, it took less than an hour.

Anchorage is a fairly big city compared to Fairbanks and you can easily tell that as soon as you head out of the airport. We found an Indian restaurant and decided to start the second half of our trip by gorging on some good food. Unfortunately, the food wasn't that great for us which might also be because our expectations were slightly higher as we live in the Bay Area, California where you can easily get some amazing Indian food options. Next we headed to Alaska zoo and honestly, you can go see the polar bear and moose, but apart from them, almost all other animals appeared weak and lethargic. I still cannot get over the sight of a severely lanky, malnourished grizzly bear. My five cents- go to the zoo only if you have no other activity planned for the day. The next stop was a sunset point just near the Anchorage airport. After all the touristy things, it was time to fill our tummies again, although most of us weren’t hungry. We went to Moose’s Tooth, a restaurant-bar, in the downtown area. We talked to few locals there, who were very friendly, the place itself had that feeling of a small town pub where everyone knew everyone. Finally we came back to our Airbnb home and slept like babies.

We woke up early for our trip to Spencer glacier, Girdwood. We got bread, milk and cookies from the supermarket the day before and our wonderful Airbnb hosts also kept the refrigerator loaded with cheese, butter, juices etc. So we had a quick breakfast at home before leaving. When we arrived at the Spencer glacier meeting point, our tour guide was already waiting for us and to further test his patience, we took around forty-five minutes to try on the snowmobile gear. The tour package provided everything- snow pants, helmets, caps to be worn underneath the helmets, gloves, heavy jackets, and snowshoes. We booked tandem snowmobiles, we weren’t sure if we could each do 3-3.5 hours of snowmobiling without getting exhausted. But it turned out pretty easy actually and 3 hours was the duration of the total round trip so it was essentially only about an hour and half drive per person. And the frozen lake, with breathtaking views of snow capped peaks surrounding us, made the ride very enjoyable. Throughout the drive, I was smiling, I kept thinking if anything could be more mesmerizing than this. I just felt blessed to be there at that moment.

Then after few miles of drive, we saw the shiny blue gigantic blocks of ice. At first, I wasn’t sure if this was that glacier everyone kept talking about, I was just amazed. It looked so surreal. We were fortunate to witness the mighty Spencer glacier in its extremely pure form. There was not an ounce of sand or dust on it. And the colors varied from pure white to shiny blue. We couldn’t go inside the caves though, as the lake had started to melt around the glacier and our tour guide advised us against it. After multiple rounds of photoshoots, reluctantly, we left the glacier.

We were back from the tour by 4 pm and decided to go to a ski resort after that, we weren’t really interested in skiing, so we just took the gondola ride to the top. We spent some time watching the skiers there. It was a delight to watch some people ski so nicely. I know I can never ski that well at least not in this life, which might be why, the ease with which those people skied, combined with the stunning views of the valley, seemed just magical to me. If it were up to me I could stay there till midnight but the cold would be just too much to bear. After satiating our empty stomachs and hungry souls, we started the journey back to our airbnb.

The last day of the trip began early again as we had booked another guided glacier tour, this time on foot. Matanuska glacier is the largest glacier accessible by car in the United States - a fact I came to know only when I started writing this blog. It was a 3 hour road trip from Anchorage. Matanuska glacier is on an elevation so the roads were a bit curvy. Two of us including myself, felt dizzy and nauseated throughout the journey. We reached there around 20 mins late (as usual). We were given anti-slip ice cleats to walk on the snow, but we didn’t require any snow pants or proper snowshoes as per our guide. And so began the trip to a vast region of snow, full of glaciers of every shape and size that you can possibly imagine.

We started walking on the snow thinking it is way too easy but realized soon enough that's really not the case with frozen lake walk. You can easily slip or land your feet into puddles of melting snow if you’re not careful. Since it was April, some of the lake had started melting so we couldn’t enter few of the glacier caves, mostly because our guide didn’t allow us. And no matter how compelling it might sound, you simply cannot do this tour without a guide. One wrong step and you could find yourself in an icy thick mass of snow with no signal or network to call someone for help- for about 25 miles of this place. Even while walking along with the guide, one of my friends accidentally landed his foot in the icy water hiding beneath a thick covering of snow.

After walking for about half a mile, we finally went inside an ice cave that was still in solid state. Glowing in the sunlight, it looked so divine with its wavy patterns and curves, comparable to the Upper Antelope Canyon., but with a layer of icicles on its boundary. The same friend who had stepped his foot in the icy water, was also hit by the pointy icicle just saving his eye. Talk about misfortunes!

Finally after several pictures, videos, and glacier sand given by our guide to us girls, apparently the glacier sand is good for skin, we finally walked back. The walk back was even more struggling but definitely less scary by then. It must have taken us around 2 hours to complete the round trip. Upon reaching to the tour’s visitor center, some of us changed our socks and bottoms as we got wet from the snow so it’s probably useful to carry a spare change of clothes here. Once the tour finished, we didn’t have anything else planned for the rest of the evening and we still had around 6 hours to our flight. After a relaxing dinner in Anchorage, we spent some time at a souvenir shop, styled like Willy Wonka Chocolate factory. We ended up buying more than we intended to which is what happens most of the time anyway, but the store did have a wide collection of antiques, magnets, woolens and decorative items. It was now time to bid adieu to this unforgettable city.

Around 5 months later, I still miss Alaska. Something inside me has transformed completely, in a sense that it made me more appreciative of things. Most of the places I visited in Alaska were serene, peaceful and mostly kept as they should be by humankind, which is what I feel so optimistic about. This gives me hope- that we can still save the world, save nature and find ourselves. It is places like Alaska that help you find your purpose, the true calling of your soul. But no amount of pictures, articles, blogs or videos can do justice to its beauty. So just go and witness the magic while you still can. As far as I am concerned, I am for sure, going to Alaska again, some other season, some other year hopefully sooner rather than later. After all life is nothing but One Big Voyage!