Jenni

On Monday, we went to Colorado Springs to see the Garden of the Gods, and do some more hiking.

garden of the gods, with pike’s peak in the background

ROCK SHADOW

We went to pay our regards to the hockey arena (for Stephanie’s WCHA-pride’s sake), the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, and Shepler’s, where I bought some superhot urban cowgirl boots. You know how I know they’re awesome? Gay boys love them.

We headed towards the airport with what we figured was plenty of time, only realized it was something like 60 miles away. Why is everything so distant in Denver? It’s crazy. Anyway, we managed to get there on time, and ended up on the same unairconditioned plane. Dear Northwest Airlines: you had an entire weekend to fix that thing. Hello?

Wendy dropped me off at home, and I hopped in the car to go to work. I got home after 12:30am. I may have been a little angry about that. Don’t tell the Dalai Lama.

[To view the entire Flickr photoset from this trip, go here.]

I spent Friday afternoon at happy hour with Matt, who dropped a very-tipsy me off at the airport; I proceeded to board the plane and partake in Northwest Airline’s free booze, because I consider it my duty to exploit them as they exploit me. I’d been upgraded to first class on three out of my last four flights. How awesome is that?

I arrived in Albuquerque after 11, and walked over to the car rental place. They handed me keys and I sleepily rolled my suitcase out to the lot. I was confronted with a giant white minivan, so I sleepily rolled my suitcase back inside. I asked the guy behind the counter, “Do you have anything smaller? I drive a MINI!” He said no, that was all they had left.

I named my minivan ‘Cracker’.

I got up very early and headed up to Taos Pueblo. It’s not very far, but it’s a small two-lane highway through the mountains. You go through the town of Taos, and the pueblo is a few miles up on the right.

san geronimo chapel

The pueblo is amazing, and still very active. I went into several shops and all the shopkeepers wanted to talk about where I was from, and what I thought of the pueblo.

taos pueblo

cemetery with ruins of old st geronimo church

making fry bread

I bought fry-bread from a table in the center square and wandered around getting crumbs all over myself. After a while, I decided to head west to the bridge that crosses the Rio Grande, because the gorge there is spectacular.

rio grande gorge, looking south

cracker

From there, I headed back towards Taos to see the town. It’s very cute, and is full of art galleries. I wandered in and out of shops, then decided to check out the Kit Carson museum. I was the only one in the place, and felt bad for the ladies working there. They were very enthusiastic.

kit carson

Just south of Taos, in Ranchos de Taos, is the Mission San Francisco de Asis. It was one of Georgia O’Keefe’s favorite subjects.

mission san francisco de asis

I took the high road back toward Santa Fe. The northern portion of it goes through Carson National Forest, and it’s beautiful. I came upon the town of Las Trampas and found the Mission San Jose de Gracia. It’s under renovation, and all the workers there were really friendly.

adobe

A giant storm hit just as I was leaving Las Trampas, and I thought the hail was going to shatter the windshield. I’m not sure I’d have minded too much in Cracker, except for my stuff getting soaked.

I came upon Truchas, a tiny artist village in the mountains. I thought I was going to drive off the edge of a cliff, the roads are so narrow. Most of the shops were closed at that point, but the scenery was amazing.

Nearing Santa Fe, I found myself in Chimayo. I may never be the same.

mini chapel at el santuario de chimayo

The Santuario de Chimayo is one of those places that fascinates and terrifies me at the same time. According to legend, it is the home of healing dirt; those who take it with them will be cured. It’s chock-full of creepy artifacts.

the canes of the healed

holy dirt

el santuario de chimayo

Out back, the yard down near the river is full of prayers, testimonials, photos, makeshift crosses, and rosaries. People leave mementos of their family and friends, asking for them to be cured. The result is a collage of desperation.

I did not try the holy chile.

I headed back into Santa Fe and stopped for a very late dinner at Cafe Pasqual’s. I sat on the second-story balcony with a margarita, overlooking the Plaza. After an awesome dinner, I headed back to the hotel.

On Sunday, I decided to drive up to Mesa Verde. While I tend to visit Colorado fairly often, it’s in a part of the state that’s hard to get to. Of course, it was hard to get to from Santa Fe, too. I didn’t find that out til later.

i’m a nerd who gets excited about things like this.

It took me at least 5 hours to reach the park, though it’s only 280 miles. There are a lot of narrow, winding roads involved, but it’s worth it because it’s very picturesque. I stopped in Durango and then rushed as fast as I could to the park entrance.

I had contracted a killer cold on the flight out, and the vast quantity of medication I was consuming did NOT help with the hiking at that altitude. I felt out of breath very quickly. (I have a flask and shotglass from Denali with the geological survey marker for Mt. McKinley. These things excite me a lot.)

looking south toward Shiprock

I went to the visitors’ center to get tickets to tour the cliff dwellings. I picked Balcony House, because it was described as most difficult (for altitude and climbing through narrow passages). They had a little demo tunnel you could crawl through to see if you’d fit. Awesome.

ladder to balcony house

The ladder-climbing wouldn’t have been scary if it weren’t for the fact that we were already far up on a cliff wall. The altitude makes you dizzy.

The park ranger gave us a tour of the cliff dwelling. It’s kind of amazing to think that people could scramble all over the side of the cliffs like that, and live in such tiny compartments.

kiva

leaving balcony house; adults have to turn their shoulders at the end or they get stuck!

I drove around the rest of the loop and stopped at the overlooks to see the other cliff dwellings.

cliff palace

Leaving the park, I decided to drive through Durango to see the town. It’s super-cute, and was overrun with motorcycles. Also, there was a very brief snowstorm on the way there. My first snow of the season wasn’t even in Minnesota!

The drive back to Santa Fe seemed to not take as long, despite getting stuck in long lines behind bikers. I wasn’t in a huge hurry, anyway.

sunset near ghost ranch

I got up very early again, in order to get to Bandelier National Monument right as it opened. So early, I saw the sunrise.

You have to drive through Los Alamos to get there, and you can see the lab at several points along the way, but can’t really get close to it at all.

satellite dish at los alamos national laboratory

I got to the visitor center an hour before it opened, but the park grounds were open for hiking. There was one other car in the lot, but I didn’t see another human being for at least two more hours. I felt like I had the place to myself. And as we all know, hiking alone in the middle of nowhere is SMART.

anasazi village ruins in frijoles canyon

This is tuff, a stone made of volcanic ash. It’s fairly easy to break down, which is why the native people here built cities into the sides of the canyons.

inside a cliff dwelling. the hole may have been some kind of clock.

I like any national park where they cater to my need to climb on things.

petroglyph (the rows of holes were for support beams)

former cliff dwellings

original cliff wall painting

I decided to take the Frijoles Canyon Trail back to see the ceremonial cave. It was only a mile or so more. I was a little concerned about being the only person in the park, but it wasn’t like I was going to skip it.

not a huge deal except for the fact that you’re already 7,000 feet above sea level.

I have pretty bad vertigo. I also have a serious case of determination (others call it ‘stubbornness’), and that always wins. I climbed up the many ladders to the ceremonial cave, and was there totally alone. It was an amazing feeling, except for the nagging guilt over what my mom would do if I disappeared.

ceremonial kiva

The kiva had a ladder, which obviously meant I was supposed to climb inside. The top was covered except for a small hole. I stood there and stared at it for a very long time before finally deciding I had to descend in the darkness. It was scary, but there was nothing in there but me.

from inside the kiva

I climbed safely back down and hiked back toward the visitors’ center. Once I got back near the main portion of the park, I started to see other people. I had survived!

I got back on the highway and headed south to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. It’s between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and the entrance to the park is a ways off the interstate. The last portion of the drive is a 5-mile gravel road. The park is very new, and obviously not yet equipped with the usual facilities. The gravel was very rough and ridged, which meant I could go about 10mph at the most. I thought Cracker was going to rattle apart. It was jarring, to say the least.

There were a ton of cars in the parking lot, which surprised me, because it was so remote. There was a parking pay station and pit-toilet restrooms with no running water. It was then that I realized I had about 2 ounces of water left in my bottle, it was well over 90 degrees in the desert, and I was half an hour away from the interstate. And I thought hiking alone at Bandelier was stupid. Since the trail was only a mile long, I decided to run as much of it as I could, and hurry the hell back out of there.

i love the wildflowers in the desert.

formed when the ‘cap rock’ is of harder material than the volcanic rock underneath,
and they erode into peaks. they have these in cappadocia, too.

I rationed my water, rushed back to the car with the empty bottle, and drove out of there as fast as I could, feeling like I was going to dehydrate to death. Cracker miraculously stayed intact, and I made it back to the freeway. After ten long, painful miles, I found a rest area. I discovered that the drinking fountains and pop machine were broken, so I took my bottle into the bathroom and filled it. It was the worst-tasting water I’ve ever had, and I was pretty sure I was going to get some kind of bacterial disease. I didn’t really care.

At that point, it was still only lunchtime, so I headed back to explore Santa Fe. I’d been there once before, and loved it a lot. I stopped for lunch at a little outdoor restaurant called the Atomic Grill. After that, I wandered.

palace of the governors

st francis cathedral

the loreto, home of the ‘miraculous staircase’

san miguel mission

“ring the bell of san miguel, and you’ll be called back to santa fe.”

purported to be the oldest house in america. next to san miguel mission.

hotel la fonda, traditionally marking the end of the santa fe trail.

I did a lot of shopping on the way, necessitating more than one stop at Cracker. Man, they have a lot of great shopping in Santa Fe. In the late afternoon, I decided to head down and see more of the sights I had passed on the way through a few years back, along the turquoise trail.

chapel near golden, new mexico

I stopped to see several sights, then shopped at several cute little galleries in Madrid. I’d have stayed longer, but they were starting to shut down. On the way back northward, I pulled in to witness something that looked kind of terrifying from the road, and turned out to be even moreso than I’d imagined: TINY TOWN.

Everything in the place was broken, rusty, dangerous, creepy, or all of the above. I could’ve stayed all day being horrified, but I was convinced I was being watched. There was an old trailer parked on the site, and I could hear noises inside it. I kind of wanted to know who was the crazy genius behind Tiny Town, but mostly I did not. I was too scared to even take a photo of the trailer, lest I get a shot of the owner running out with a knife.

no kidding.

i had to leave a note, of course.

I hightailed it out of Tiny Town and drove a few miles up to Cerillos. It’s a very small town, and the main street has been used as an old west movie set more than once, most notably in Young Guns. There are signs all over the mostly-boarded-up downtown about it.

log jesus in cerillos

I drove back up to Santa Fe in time to climb up the hill to the Cross of the Martyrs to watch the sunset. It was beautiful.

On the way down the hill, there were a couple homeless guys sitting on the wall, asking people if they could have ten bucks to go get drunk. I reached in my pocket and pulled out a $10 bill and handed it to him, thinking, ‘what the hell, at least he’s honest.’ He said thanks, then looked at it and yelled, “DUDE, she actually gave us ten bucks! Let’s go!” The other guy said, “Lady, will you marry me?” I politely declined and laughed my way back to the car. They passed me a minute later, headed to the bar.

I checked out of my hotel in Santa Fe and headed back toward Albuquerque. On the way to Petroglyph National Monument, I saw many, many hot air balloons taking to the skies.

I was the first person to reach the park, and the gates to the trails was still closed. I swung by the visitor center and talked to the very friendly park ranger for a while before heading back to see petroglyphs.

cracker, alone in the parking lot.

giant creepy millipede!
Note to self: hiking in flipflops is dumb. Why do you do it when you have good hiking shoes?

I headed towards Albuquerque’s Old Town, to the National Atomic Museum, because I have a huge fascination with everything atomic-age and cold-war related. I was greeted and checked-in by the cutest old man ever, who stopped just short of giving me a personal tour.

the flag that flew at the trinity site

formed by the first atomic blast, it’s caused by the sand melting and fusing.

fat man

brick from ground zero at hiroshima

I left the museum and went to wander around Old Town until my flight. I picked up a bunch of tacky joke-souvenirs for the folks back home, and then found the greatest store on earth; it was full of Dia de los Muertos decor. Upon leaving, I had to completely repack my bag to fit it all in there.

I hopped on my plane at 2:30 that afternoon, and was happy to say goodbye to Cracker and join my homies for happy hour back home.

Thursday night, Kaye joined la familia in celebrating Claudia’s birthday, and then we went to the airport together, but for different flights. I managed to have found one of the only on-time planes to Chicago, but she and Mollie were not so lucky. The guy in the seat next to me on the flight offered me his finished novel halfway through the very short trip; it was curled and puffed up to twice its normal size because he got to the most exciting part while on his boat, jumped in the lake, and the book followed him in. He was crabby about the fact that he had to take a hiatus from reading to let it dry out. We exchanged travel notes (he’d been to China recently, and I’d been to Alaska), and he said he’d look for me at Lollapalooza on Saturday. Um. Sure! I hopped the blue line with a crowd of other festival-bound folks, none of whom seemed to have a clue about Chicago and spent the whole ride worrying about where to go. I realized I must be a seasoned traveler, since I never really have any concerns about finding where I’m supposed to be: if I don’t know, that’s what people are there for. I exited at Division and heard Lauren yelling, “There she is!!!” even before I saw her.

We stopped at her place long enough to drop my stuff off and toast to Minneapolis with her roommate, then headed over to Louie’s for karaoke with her new cute punk-boy pal and his North Carolina friends who were also in town for Lollapalooza. It was SO FUNNY, and, due to the house drink known as the ‘blue motherfucker’, SO DRUNK.

kevin and roy singing karaoke at louie’s

We reeled home in hysterics at 2am, and I slept in my clothes.

Friday morning, I have no clue how Lauren got up and went to work, but she managed it. I slept in, spent time in the bathroom with Joe (I love that cat), talked on the phone a lot, then headed downtown to meet Kaye and Mollie. We headed into Lollapalooza, and the rocking commenced.

panic! at the disco

kaye and mollie stretching

raconteurs

My favorite bands that day were Panic! At the Disco (which featured burlesque dancers), the Raconteurs (because I love Jack White as it is, but Jack White in a southern-rock band? Drool.), and the Violent Femmes, because everyone loves the Violent Femmes. Afterwards, we met Lauren by the Bean in Millennium Park, and she and I headed to dinner at Bandera, a restaurant far too fancy for our dress (and my smelliness), but who cares?

Afterward, we met up with a dude named Walt at Watertower Park, stormed through the crowds of date rapists lining the streets of Chicago, and hopped a bus to what Lauren promised to be the most annoying hipster bar in town, the Rainbo Club. She was right; we couldn’t move more than ten feet from the doorman, it was so crowded. And smoky. And pretentious. We actually talked to a few dudes who were pretty funny, but not funny enough to make us stick around longer than a drink. We bailed around one o’clock and headed off to find another spot, finally deciding on Subterranean, when Lauren ran into a friend of hers nearby. We hung out with him for a while, then headed home.

Lauren and I got up Saturday and went to have brunch at the Bongo Room, which was excellent. We also bought me some sunglasses, which I still have to this day. That’s a new record, and I probably just jinxed it.

me in the bathroom at the bongo room, with amazing sunburn.

We saw several shows Saturday, but the one that I’d have paid the entire ticket price for was Lyrics Born. Mollie and I got there early to get a spot near the front, ending up about three people back.

lyrics born. i love this man.

By halfway through the show, I was against the railing, and totally fucking thrilled about it. I emerged from the show drenched in sweat and gasping for air, my camera chock-full-o-videos that I should probably post somewhere to share the awesomeness. Afterwards, I stuck around for Blackalicious, and was surprised at how much of their music I still knew. I was also giggling inside at the conversation the kids were having next to me: they basically discovered hiphop that day.

blackalicious

I met Kaye by a pole for half of the Dresden Dolls, and then took off on a mission: to get Lauren at the station and go find a little bit of Minneapolis in Chicago. She told me to hop in the last car so she could find me at the Damen stop, only I got turned around and got in a car very near the front instead. At each of the next four stops, I’d hop out of the train, run as far as I could before the doors began to close, and then hop into another car further down the line. I really hope no one knew what I was up to, because it was comical. But I did finally achieve the last car, met up with her at the correct stop, and we were on our way to the Abbey Pub to see P.O.S..

We got there early enough to get dinner, including curry fries, which are good enough to fantasize over, oh my god. We heard the sound check finish, the side door opened, and P.O.S. walked in. I almost peed my pants with excitement. But of course, there are like two people in the universe I’m too intimidated to talk to, and he’s currently one of them. We met some boys in line who were excited that I was from Mpls, and one of them was convinced he’d seen me at shows, so we compared notes. We went in and talked to Sims and Cecil Otter at the merch table about Hiphop and Harmony and Lollapalooza, and then the COMPLETE AWESOMENESS OF THE SHOW BEGAN.

the aristacats

mictlan

doomtree!

p.o.s.

artist outside the show

It was so great I can’t even really describe it, except that it involved a lot of yelling and dancing and jumping around and whiskey and picture-taking, many of which you will find in the usual place. I have more videos as well. P.O.S. rocked our pants right off, and I daresay Lauren the punk girl might even be a new hiphop convert. At least a little bit. After the show, we went back and talked to them some more, I was still too intimidated to do much but shake P.O.S.’ hand, we met Psalm One, and some people left with my number we can hang out when they’re in town for Atmosphere at the end of September. All in all, the best show ever, yet again.

lauren

We hopped a cab back to Lauren’s neighborhood and stopped at 7-11 for large bottles of water, which shared the bed with us that night.

Sunday morning, we got up and went downtown to Millennium Park to take about 400 photos of the bean, aka the Cloud Gate. I could probably stare at that thing all day. We sat and watched the kids in the fountain, then wandered back into downtown to find food. We found Kaye and Mollie there, so I headed back to Lollapalooza with them.

I was very excited to see the Hold Steady with their many many Minneapolis shout-outs (and also the fact that Craig had shown up to perform with P.O.S. the previous night at the Abbey). My second-favorite show was Queens of the Stone Age, although the Kids from the School of Rock kicked ridiculous amounts of ass for being so young.

the hold steady

In the evening, Lauren and I went to Piece (aka the Luce of Chicago) for dinner, and for a short while it seemed like a really great idea to go out after that; however, by the end of dinner, we were both dragging. I was sore from the walking, the rocking, the sunburn, and the general awesomeness. We went back to her place to hang out, and then I passed out hard.

On the flight home Monday, reveling in another first class upgrade with my legs curled underneath me on the seat, having survived a very large drop over Lake Michigan which went unexplained by the cabin crew but did not leave us entirely unrattled, I was peering down at the immense patchwork of farms in Wisconsin, remembering that I leapt headfirst towards that the other week wearing nothing but a hot guy with a parachute, and I was a grinning fool. And then I realized that for the rest of my life, I’ll always have had more takeoffs than landings.

I think that’s a really beautiful metaphor.

[If you want to view the entire Flickr set from this trip, here’s the link!]

Stephanie and I hopped on a plane to Anchorage at 5:15pm, after the longest day at work, ever. The flight was uneventful until we flew over Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. The mountains were incredible.

We arrived in Anchorage around 8:30pm, and got our rental car, which we promptly named Captain Morgan (we’d have named him Captain Cook in honor of Alaska, but we’d already used that name in Hawaii). We found our hotel and checked in at 9:30, then followed the front desk lady’s directions to the Glacier Brewhouse. We were dazed by the time we got a table, due to the time difference; it was after 1am for us. I had a peach mojito and medium veggie pizza, both of which were excellent.

We got back to the hotel at midnight, and it was still light out. That didn’t impede our sleep much, though; we were exhausted.

We awoke at 5:30am (which happily felt like sleeping in), and checked out of the hotel. We got us some Starbucks downtown, then stopped at a supermarket for the supplies we felt might be hard to come by in Denali. They were playing Don’t Stop Believin’ over the loudspeaker, just for me. I also stocked up on decongestants, because I’d stopped being able to breathe since we’d gotten to Alaska.

We were well up the Parks highway by 8:30am, passing through the few suburbs of Anchorage, and then out into what felt like the middle of nowhere. It looked kind of like northern Wisconsin for a while; pine trees, cabins, and the occasional tavern. We stopped at Montana Creek to look around and climb under the railroad trestle, then headed to Talkeetna, a little town about 15 miles off the highway. It’s reportedly the model for the town in the show “Northern Exposure”.

talkeetna mermoose

Talkeetna is ridiculously cute. It’s all outfitters, gift shops, a famous old general store, and restaurants. Everyone is friendly. We wandered around a bunch of artsy little shops, stopped to talk to Stubbs the cat, the mayor and mascot of Talkeetna (as one of the locals informed us), and walked up to see the depot where the Alaska Railroad pulls up along the Susitna River.

this tiny airport is where almost all Mount McKinley/Denali climbing expeditions begin.

stubbs!

We had lunch out on the patio at the West Rib Pub, then wandered around the town some more.

We went back out to the Parks highway and continued towards Denali. We stopped at a few overlooks in Denali State Park, where we encountered our first bear warning signs, and got our first (very limited) view of Denali.

in denali state park

my obligatory sideview photo

We reached Denali National Park around 6:30pm, and drove up to our hotel, located in the little community across the highway from the park entrance, which doesn’t even have a name; directions are given based on the mile marker on the Parks Highway.

The Denalis Crow’s Nest was spectacular. It’s a bunch of cute little cabins lining the side of Sugarloaf Mountain. Ours was on the fourth tier at the far end, with a great view of Mount Healy and the park entrance. It was set up like a rustic hotel room inside, and had a couple of chairs and little table out front on the deck. We couldn’t have picked a better place to stay.

the denali party cabin (ours is the last on the left)

We unpacked and went downstairs to the Overlook Bar and Grill for dinner. We sat on the patio drinking girly drinks from milk bottles and staring at the park. It was kind of hard to believe we were actually there. After dinner, we went up and sat on the patio, reading. We had trouble deciding when to go to bed, because the sunset never actually happened.

We woke at 6:15am. Though it had been light all night, we slept fine. I was not particularly enjoying my cocktail of decongestants, however. I didn’t feel sick otherwise, I just couldn’t breathe.

We drove into the park and followed the signs to the Wilderness Access Center. Because the buses fill up fast, you have to get their early for tickets. Thankfully, they also have a little coffee counter with breakfast food and snacks, and a decent little store with supplies. We stocked up on snacks and boarded the first bus to Kantishna, the furthest point on the park road.

Our bus driver was Mike, and he told us his wife worked as a driver, too. In the off season, they taught English in Mexico. The vehicles are old school buses fitted with seat belts and gear racks overhead; they’re not terribly comfortable for a several-hour trek, but you kind of don’t notice when you’re in the middle of such an amazing place.

The bus stops at each point along the way. A few of the stops are just for campers. Others have overlooks and very basic restroom facilities. By the time we got to Polychrome Pass, we were very cold. There’s nothing like using a pit toilet with freezing air blowing out of it.

me at the polychrome rest stop

grizzly triplets!

The bus stops for wildlife sightings, and I started to believe the description I’d originally read: a drive down the park road is like a safari. We saw several grizzly bears, moose, dall sheep, and caribou. The driver just stops in the road and everyone creeps very quietly over to one side of the bus to take pictures.

shuttles at the toklat river station

toklat river

We also learned all about glaciation and the geology of the area from our driver. That stuff makes the nerd in me very happy. I do love me some braided streams.

It was overcast all day, so we could only occasionally see bits of Mount Rainier. We were told it’s only fully visible for a few days during the summer; it’s so huge, it creates its own weather system!

wonder lake

We reached Wonder Lake at 2:15pm, and had only two hours to hike before we’d have to catch the last bus returning to the Wilderness Access Center. Wonder Lake was incredibly serene and untouched, despite the clouds of mosquitos. One thing we heard over and over about Denali? Bring heavy-duty bug spray. This advice is not to be taken lightly.

We took the McKinley Bar trail, a narrow path leading down a hill from Wonder Lake and into the basin below. We crossed a few rivers on plank bridges. We didn’t see any other humans at all, though we could occasionally hear a shuttle on the park road off in the distance. We made a point of talking loudly in case there were bears around. I had a bear bell, but it’s mostly intended to remind you to make noise.

hiking on glacial moraine: permafrost covered in grass and moss

on the mckinley bar trail

It was mindblowing, being out in the middle of nowhere like that. I’ve never felt such a sense of complete wilderness, and vulnerability; there’s no question that nature is in charge in Denali.

wonder lake: mile 85 on the park road (a 12-hour roundtrip)

We hiked back up to the bus stop to catch the last bus from Kantishna. It was driven by the crabbiest woman ever, who opened the door and shouted, “DARLENE’S BUS!” We would hear that at least 40 more times on the several-hour journey. At one point, she yelled at me because she could hear my bear bell rattling. I didn’t even hear my bear bell rattling.

denali traffic jam

Near Polychrome Pass, we came upon a grizzly bear walking alongside the road. When we stopped, he came all the way up to the door of the bus. I was standing in the front, probably 4 feet away from him. I was, in fact, a little nervous about that. Further down the road, we watched a moose family.

moose family!

It was a quicker return to the Wilderness Access Center, because we didn’t stop to see things, just to use the bathroom occasionally and to pick up hikers along the way. We got back around 9pm, which made the entire trip about 14 hours total.

We had to do some searching for dinner, and finally settled on the Nenana View Bar and Grill at the resort across the road from our party cabin. It was far too fancy a place for us to be in dirty hiking gear, but we didn’t care. We had pizzas and chatted with our awesome server from Bulgaria. When she found out we were from Minneapolis, all she could talk about was going to the Mall of America!

Monday morning, we took the park shuttle from the visitors’ center to the dog kennel, where we got to meet the dogs, and see a sled-pulling demonstration. It was kind of rainy, but the dogs were raring to go regardless. They were probably wishing for snow.

denali sled dog kennels

sled dog demonstration

We rode back to the visitors’ center and shopped (A LOT) at the store. We bought a bunch of postcards and then went to eat in the cafe there so we could fill them out. Fyi, the restaurant in the park is surprisingly good. Spectacular dining is hard to come by in that area, since your options are so limited.

We dropped our cards off at the post office, the headed over to the Horseshoe Lake Trail. It was kind of cold, but the rain gear we had was very sufficient. My waterproof jacket from REI was an excellent investment.

horseshoe lake

The mosquitoes were terrible, but we were well-protected. On the trail, we saw woodpeckers, and these strange burled trees. Even on one of the more popular trails, we hardly saw any other people.

We hiked back up to the road and drove the 14 miles down the park road to the Savage River bridge. It’s the farthest private vehicles can go into the park; after that, you have to take a shuttle bus. We headed down the trail to the north. For about a half-mile, it’s paved, and then it becomes a narrow path heading into the canyon.

savage river

glacial runoff entering the savage river

We saw tons of ground squirrels, who let us get very close so they could yell at us, and dall sheep up on the top of the surrounding hills. Glacial runoff was melting into the river, mixing clear water with silt from miles away. We hiked over shallow streams and waterfalls, occasionally wondering how the hell we were going to make it back. Also, I peed on a peak overlooking the river. I rule.

We ate lunch on the trail, then headed back to the bridge. Near the road, we encountered a family of ptarmigans. I love those birds! They’re like Alaskan quail.

We drove back up near the visitor center to see the train trestle, then went down to the station. There was a train sitting there, and we resolved immediately to return to Alaska, and travel by rail.

alaska railroad trestle

We decided to drive to Healy in search for Independence Day party supplies and food for dinner. There was a little convenience/liquor store combo on the corner of the Parks Highway, so we turned off and thought we’d drive into town to see what else was there. A few miles down the road, we realized that was all there was of the town. We turned around and stopped at the store for snacks and liquor. We then headed back to the park entrance. After checking several restaurants (all of which were insanely crowded), we decided to just go back to the same place as the previous night.

We realized that the crowds were because the cruise people had just arrived on the train. There was a long line there, too, but it wasn’t as bad as the rest. We had pizzas and devised our new travel motto: have fun, be awesome, don’t die.

Words to live by.

We got to sleep in on the 4th of July, getting up shortly before 8am to make the 9:30 bus to the Toklat River station. It was clearer, with no sign of rain for once. We called home to reassure my mom that we were alive, then went to the visitor center for coffee. The girl there remembered me, which of course meant we were already regulars.

morning fog

Our bus driver, Rich, was great. He had a story about everything, and went around the bus asking people where they were from. He talked about the moose rut and sports with equal amounts of enthusiasm.

mom and baby bear

polychrome pass

We rode to Polychrome Pass, and decided to hike from there. We talked to Rich about the routes in the area, which were all really just game trails. The paths on top of the pass were really muddy, so he suggested we grab a shuttle back to the Toklat River instead. We started hiking down the pass, being sure to talk loudly. We’d just seen bears nearby.

from polychrome pass, with glacier!

A bus came by about 20 minutes later. We flagged it down and asked to be let off at the bridge on the Toklat River. There was an Amish family on the bus, which I found immensely fascinating.

snowmelt water mixing with glacial runoff in the toklat river

We found a driveway near the bridge, and hiked down to the river. The Murie Cabin is there, and rangers use it as a research outpost. It was kind of creepy, with nails sticking out of it to keep bears from chewing their way inside.

murie cabin

Behind the cabin, there was a port-a-potty. This was a big find, obviously, because facilities are so rare, especially clean ones with toilet paper. I was freaked out at being in the middle of nowhere, though, so I left the door open and talked the whole time. It’s not like anybody was going to accidentally come across me there in the bathroom.

We hiked along the little tributaries to the river, looking for places where the ice was still packed enough to be able to walk across. We were moving pretty slowly, always keeping an eye out for animals; the rushing of the nearby river was so loud that we wouldn’t hear a bear, and it’d be unlikely to hear us. You know what’s really rattling? Knowing that you could seriously be in danger of a bear attack. That’s not something you’re often concerned about.

On the banks of the Toklat River, we sat on the stones and ate lunch. Being there is something I’ll never forget.

We walked back up to the park road, with magpies following us and yelling the whole time. We saw wild hares all over in the brush. Heading up toward Sable Pass, we entered a restricted wildlife area, which meant we had to stay on the road lest we be eaten by things. That’s how I interpreted it, at least.

notice that the sign is all chewed up by bears.

Part of the way up the pass, a bus came along, but the driver said it was out of service, and another would be along shortly. We were fine, though; the nice thing about hiking in the mountains in Alaska is it’s not like, say, the Rockies. You’re only at 4-5,000 feet, instead of 14,000. Easy! We were just constantly on the lookout for bears and wolves. Another bus finally showed up, and it was full of very tired-looking people from Wonder Lake.

The driver of that bus, Brad, was talking about some of the other sights in Alaska. The one that excited me most, and the main one I intend to go back for, is the Valley of 10,000 Smokes. It’s a valley that’s buried in 700 feet of ash from a volcanic eruption, and you can hike in it.

We got back to the WAC around 5pm, had dinner at the visitors’ center, did some souvenir shopping, and then decided to drive back along the park road to see if we could find any more animals. Not only did the sun come out briefly, we saw a wolf! We turned around at the Savage River and headed back to the park entrance, stopping at the mercantile for breakfast supplies for our drive back to “civilization”.

i thought this was far funnier than stephanie did.

at the park exit

We went to our cabin to celebrate the 4th of July on the deck with the beverages we’d acquired in Healy. We realized that fireworks wouldn’t really work very well in Alaska that time of year, because it doesn’t get dark.

We were in bed by 10, but I set the alarm and got up at 2am to get this picture:

2am in denali on the 4th of july

You don’t really have trouble sleeping when you’ve been wandering in the wilderness all day, however.

We got up, checked out of our awesome party cabin, and headed back south. We saw a moose crossing the highway with two babies along the way. Traffic sucked in Wasilla, so we got to Anchorage around 1pm.

the igloo

We stopped for food and a memory card for my camera (apparently Denali is photoworthy?), then continued toward the Kenai Peninsula around two.

leaving anchorage: turnagain arm

The highway takes you along Turnagain Arm, part of Cook Inlet, then heads south. The landscape changes quickly; it’s all bridges and streams, and mountains covered in pine trees. The rivers were turquoise, and reminded me of Montana.

canyon creek

kenai lake

sideview: kenai peninsula

It also became very clear and sunny for the first time since we’d gotten to Alaska! We stopped a few times along the way to look at lakes and mountains, then reached Seward and checked into our hotel around 4pm.

small boat harbor, seward

One of the very awesome things about Seward is that everything is walking distance. We went down to the harbor and wandered in and out of the shops.

tsunami!

There were a bunch of fisherman on the docks, butchering fish. As they removed the heads and innards, they’d drop them through a hole in the pier into a waiting barge. The barge would take them out into Resurrection Bay and dump the guts; it was pretty much the seagulls’ best day ever.

The only way I could even stand being around the shark heads was by looking at them through the viewfinder. Shudder.

a barge full of fish heads and guts

seward harbor

We went all the way out onto the breakwater, then decided to head into the cute little downtown. I loved Seward immediately.

downtown seward

puffin!

As we wandered, my head began to hurt worse and worse. I realized that I was extremely dehydrated, so we stopped into an ice cream shop for water. We decided to go back to the hotel and drive to the store for food, because neither of us felt like dining in another restaurant that night. We got monstrous salads at the Safeway, and had dinner on our beds at 9pm. I was asleep by 10.

memorial to the kid who created the state flag.

We walked down to the harbor from our hotel, checked in for our Kenai Fjords cruise, and went to a nearby bakery for oatmeal and coffee. We had some time to kill before the boat left, so we shopped. I fell in love with Helly Hansen, and bought a bag I’m still using for my overnight gear every day.

We had assigned seats on the boat, and were paired with an Indian couple from San Francisco who were fascinating. Right as we left the harbor, we had our first wildlife encounter: otters gettin’ it on in the water.

sea otter lovin’

sexy in raingear

The ship took us out of Resurrection Bay and into the Gulf of Alaska. We’d taken Dramamine because of the many warnings to do so, but I felt we probably didn’t need it. It wasn’t rough at all, just very damp and cold. In the gulf, we saw whales!

whale spout

We then headed into Aialik Bay to see the glaciers. The water was an amazing color, more like what we’d seen in the Caribbean. I didn’t expect that in Alaska.

three-hole point (supposedly the most-photographed item in alaska)

holgate glacier

Seeing glaciers up close was nothing short of mindblowing. We were still a half-mile away from it, but it seemed like we were right up close. It’s just a gigantic, blue wall of ice, and it thunders. I couldn’t believe it. Something else I didn’t expect? That we’d actually see it calve. It happened several times while we sat there watching; once it sent huge splashed up in the air and rocked the boat quite a bit.

holgate glacier calving

The water was full of ice chunks from other pieces breaking off, too. Some of them looked like little icebergs floating around.

We left Aialik Bay and headed out to the Chiswell Islands, part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. To me, this meant one thing: PUFFINS. I’d seen them floating around in the water, but hadn’t seen them up close yet.

chiswell islands

sea stars

PUFFINS!

We hung out watching the puffins for a while, then went around to another island to see seal lions. They’re pretty much just like my cats: lazy and noisy.

sea lions

gulf of alaska

We had dinner on the way back, and spent a lot of time chatting with our tablemates. On the trip, we’d seen a ton of wildlife: baleen whales, humpback whales, porpoises, puffins, cormorants, bald eagles, a black bear, sea lions, harbor seals, and otters. Honestly, the puffins affected me more than the whales. I just like them a lot.

We got back to Seward Harbor around 7:30pm, and the sun was still shining. We walked back to the hotel, then downtown, and decided on Christo’s Palace for dinner. We had pizza and a couple blue glacier martinis, which turned out to be very strong. I giggled the whole way back to the hotel.

We got up early on Friday, went to Safeway for the essential caffeinated beverages, and headed over to the other side of the Kenai Peninsula. We drove through Soldotna, which was a fairly large town for the area, and headed up to see Kenai. It was very run-down, but the buildings were amazing. I loved the Russian Orthodox churches, and the shoreline.

russian orthodox church in kenai

We went back to wander around Soldotna for a while. The visitor’s center was really cute, and we learned all about salmon fishing. We shopped at the little mall, then went to Charlotte’s Cafe for lunch. They only had 4 things on the menu, and all of them looked amazing. I loved our server a lot. Come to think of it, everyone in Alaska was ridiculously friendly.

We drove back toward Seward, stopping a hundred times along the way to take photos. The tiny town of Cooper Landing was my favorite. We then headed up the road toward Exit Glacier, another portion of Kenai Fjords National Park.

the road to exit glacier

exit glacier

This time, instead of taking a boat to see a glacier, we could actually walk up to it. If you get there early enough in the day, you can take an hours-long ranger-led hike onto the glacier and ice fields themselves. We had decided to save the crampons til next time; we wanted to see as many things as possible.

We hiked up to the overlook, then down to the river below. We were well-acquainted with glacial geology by then, because we’re nerds. For once, it was actually warm outside!

sign marking the glacier’s location in 1926. it’s at least half a mile from there now.

We did a lot of hiking in the river valley, spent some time at the visitors’ center, then headed back into Seward around dinnertime.

We had dinner at Yoly’s Bistro, then went to stock up on souvenirs at the many, many shops downtown. Laden with bags, we ended up at the ice cream shop. I got a coffee there, and yet somehow still managed to crash around 10:30, to the sound of a cruise ship pulling out of the harbor.

Saturday morning, there were brand new cruise ships in the harbor. Sadly, we checked out and headed back up the Kenai Peninsula. We decided to take a short side-trip to see Hope. We liked the name.

hope

Hope was a ridiculously cute little town, and from the looks of it, completely deserted. That wasn’t true, exactly, it just had the feel of a ghost town. Everything was closed, and the only movement was around one trailer down by the waterfront. There was obviously a lot of regular camping there, because there were weird piles of abandoned stuff around campfires. Like this engine, for example.

I was on the verge of peeing my pants, nothing was open, and it was far too light out to go outside. Instead, I visited the most terrifying handicapped port-a-potty in the universe. I’m still scarred.

Near Turnagain Arm, we encountered a lot of traffic for Alaska. We didn’t really mind, considering the scenery. We slowly made our way into Anchorage, and had lunch before checking back into the same hotel as before. This time, there were cops in the lobby, evicting a guy who’d apparently made himself too-much-at-home.

We headed downtown to wander and shop. It was gorgeous outside, warm enough that we didn’t even need to wear jackets. I bought about 50 hoodies (or so it seemed), and a bunch of stuff for the friends back home. We headed down to the Saturday Market (I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I have a deep, burning love for open-air markets in other cities), and wandered around the booths. I discovered the ak starfish company and swooned.

Once I was done buying half of Anchorage, we got in the car and headed to Earthquake Park, near the airport.

anchorage from across cook inlet

The park had an impressive memorial and intepretive site dedicated to the 1964 earthquake, and great views of Anchorage from across Cook Inlet (we were told that on a clear day, it’s even possible to see Denali from that point). We walked a mile or so down the hiking path, then decided to go see more of Anchorage.

We went to a pizza place for dinner, then to see the Captain Cook monument. I liked him because he’d been our first rental car’s namesake in Hawaii. Also, I like seamen.

captain cook monument

We parked down near the Alaska Railroad station and walked to a bridge over Ship Creek to watch the salmon fishermen. Coming from a decent-sized city, it was kind of scary to think that people would eat fish that were in a city river. Then again, they were coming right out of Cook Inlet.

salmon fishermen at ship creek

Also, I learned the five types of salmon, and how to remember their names, but i won’t tell you the trick: pink, silver, king (chinook), sockeye (red), chum (dog).

A train was arriving as we walked back, so we went down to see it. Half the cars were owned by Holland America. There’s something so amazing about the trains there. I really want to do that next time, and maybe stop along the tracks and see if I can hail one. Yeah!

We went back to the hotel to pack for the flight and chill before leaving Alaska. We may have had a little party involving our leftover booze from the 4th of July. I discovered mushrooms growing in the bathroom, and didn’t really mind at all. We went to bed around midnight, and it actually looked a little like the sun might set for once.