Website Home (Menu del Dia)

Alaska Vacation Travelogue

 

Anchorage
[index]
The Arctic (Kotzebue and Nome)
[index]
Anchorage to Denali National Park
[index]
Denali National Park Helicopter Tour
[index]
       
Denali National Park Wildlife Tour
[index]
Fairbanks
[index]
Kenai Fjords National Park and Seward
[index]
Seward to Anchorage
[index]

The trip has been divided into eight sections by location. Click a section above to begin exploring.

Alaska is a land of vast and indescribable natural beauty. Experiencing Alaska's beauty can revitalize the spirit and excite the senses. From the geologically active south with its breathtaking peaks poking the sky right to the coast, active volcanoes along the Aleutian chain, the world's northernmost rain forests and glaciers tilling slow paths between mountains and calving into the sea, to the arctic north with vast expanses of colorful tundra, permafrost, summertime midnight sun and wintertime aurora, Alaska's extremes contain many of the world's one of a kind treasures. 

There are vantage points on mountain ridges where one can stand and look across wide plains to distant mountains. On a clear day several thousand square miles can be seen without taking a step, and the blue sky's dome makes it feel like standing in the largest room on earth. Interior Alaska with its varied landscapes, multi-colored tundra vegetation, meandering braided streams and long trip from the lower 48 makes it easy to imagine one has been whisked away to an alien world.

I've been fortunate enough to visit Alaska twice and experienced wonderful weather on both trips.  My first visit was for five days in early September, 1998, and my second visit was for twelve days in late August and early September, 2000. These pictures were taken during the second trip with a Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera and were reduced and/or cropped to 450 pixels wide.

Our trip took us from Anchorage to Kotzebue, Alaska's largest Inupiat Eskimo community, 26 miles north of the Arctic Circle. From Kotzebue we flew to Nome, a gold rush town on the Seward peninsula. Next, we returned to Anchorage and toured the Alaska Native Heritage Center before heading to Denali National Park. From Denali we continued north to Fairbanks, then south to overnight in Anchorage. The last leg of our tour took us to Seward, then back to Anchorage for a fourth and final time before heading home.

Website Home (Menu del Dia)