147 years ago the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for the price of $7.2 million dollars, and the formal transfer took place at Fort Sitka on this day.  Happy Alaska Day!  It only took 92 years after that for Alaska to become the 49th state, proving that glaciers aren’t the only things that move very slowly.

The last post talked about our terrific too-short two days in Denali National Park, and this post will wrap up the last bit of our week long side trip to see different parts of Alaska.It was strange to see so much fall color in the first few days of September, but fall is a very short season in the interior.  “So much fall color” is relative since the majority of the trees are evergreens rather than deciduous.

We took the Alaska Railroad from Denali back down to Anchorage in a “dome car” with panoramic views from every seat.  The train runs at a slower speed – the whole point is to enjoy the ride, and it’s fantastic that the train stops for wildlife sightings.  We spotted a moose cow and calf in a field, and the train not only stopped but it actually backed up to give all the cars a better view.We loved the Alaska Railroad, but we discovered that some trains have dome cars provided by the Alaska RR, and some trains have cars provided by the cruise lines.  We definitely prefer the Alaska RR cars – the commentary was excellent and informative; the cruise ship version was more “rah rah”, pushing fancy drinks from the bar and mindless “entertainment” more than actual information.  We’ll be more careful when making arrangements in the future.

We took an extra day to explore Anchorage – Alaska’s largest city in terms of population – about 300,000.  We wanted to learn more about the infamous 1964 Good Friday earthquake, the second most powerful earthquake ever recorded at 9.2 on the Richter Scale.  The devastation in the city was tremendous, though there was also significant damage and impact for 200 miles around.  In areas to the south the ground fell, while an area near Kodiak Island was permanently raised about 30′, and the port of Valdez was destroyed by an underwater landslide.  Tsunamis from this quake impacted Hawaii and Japan, as well as local towns.  It’s a reminder that Alaska is a geologically active place, and although we haven’t actually felt any earthquakes this summer we did experience one when we were in Haines.  The people in town felt the overnight rumbling, but since we float we didn’t notice until the next morning when our cell phones stopped working.  The quake was centered about 100 miles to the west, and it severed a fiber optic communications cable that serves the northern part of Juneau, Haines and Skagway.  It’s a good thing we’re immune to tsunamis down here in Petersburg!

We heard good things about the Anchorage Museum so we set aside some hours to explore it.  The museum was currently hosting an exhibit called “Gyre” about the horrific problem of plastic trash in our oceans.  It was a very compelling exhibit, telling the heartbreaking story of humanity’s carelessness and callousness in very innovative and even beautiful ways.We wallowed in native culture, amazed at the variety of creations from all the different tribes, particularly those in the northern and interior regions.  In British Columbia and SE Alaska we only see things from the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian tribes so we appreciated their extensive collection.  The museum also had an exhibit of Art of the North in a variety of media – most excellent.  My favorite was a small set of photographs about the Kobuk Valley National Park – an arctic desert 25 miles north of the Arctic Circle.  I love that kind of stark, dramatic landscape and now I have to figure out how to visit such an inaccessible place!

We discovered the Imaginarium on the lower level, unfortunately a little too close to closing time, but we still managed to find some neat science-y things to play with.  You’re never too old to have a happy childhood.

To wrap it all up, we got a kick out of the funky statues just outside of the museum – art meets local wildlife.

Our first day exploring Denali National Park involved a 5am wake up and 184 miles on a dirt-gravel road in a school bus – it was outstanding and we just loved it!  In fact, the only problem was some extreme frustration because there were so many places we wanted to stop and savor the landscape or to get a better view of some wildlife along the way.  We didn’t get back to our hotel until about 8pm so we put the camera batteries on chargers, grabbed a quick bite of dinner, and fell into bed so we could do it all over again.

Our second day in Denali was a bit less structured – we decided to take one of the park buses up to Mile 66 – to the Eielson Visitor Center so we could spend some time hiking.  We still had to get up at 5am in order to catch a park bus that would get us to Eielson early enough to have plenty of time for hiking, and we arranged for box lunches from our hotel since there isn’t anything available inside the park.

An interesting feature of Denali is that there aren’t that many actual hiking trails – rather the park is just open wilderness and you can hike anywhere.  Along the first few miles of the park road there were temporary signs closing that area to hiking because it was moose mating season.  Moose are grumpy and dangerous enough on a good day; I hate to think of how much worse they can be when they’re rutting.  But the good news is that we saw a number of moose……and one was very close to the edge of the road.  (I wonder how thick the steel is on a school bus?)We were most excited about the moose, caribou and Dall sheep since they aren’t things we see down in SE Alaska very often.  We saw a number of brown bears, though they are called “grizzlies” in the interior and they are smaller than the coastal brown bears that we’re used to because they don’t have all that salmon in their diet.We saw a number of Dall sheep up on the mountainsides, though they were usually too far away for good photographs.  This ram came down a bit lower so we could get a better view.  Sometimes it’s hard to decide whether to just look at them with powerful binoculars or try to get a photograph, hand-holding a long lens.  Regardless, any wildlife sighting is a thrill.

We had a number of caribou sightings, and they are impressive with their huge antlers.  One caribou even ran across the road in front of our bus!My favorite was this one, though, silhouetted against the late afternoon sky.  He’s a beauty!We finally got to the Eielson Visitor Center and began to appreciate the views we had the day before.  Our second day was overcast which made the chilly temps feel much colder, and we never saw the mountain (THE mountain) all day.  We decided to hike up the Alpine Trail behind the center, through the high tundra.  It wasn’t a very long hike but it was very steep, climbing over 1000′ feet on a mile-long trail.  We stopped often to catch our breath, but we were lucky enough to hear and then see some little pika – 6″ long mouse-like animals that live in the rocky high country.  They don’t hibernate, so they were very busy gathering food to get them through the long winter.

The tundra seems plain and barren, but there was a lot of subtle fall color in the various plants and the lichens growing on the rocks.  The views along the trail were grand sweeping landscapes, though they would have been even better if we could have seen the mountain from up there.As we got higher up the mountain the wind really made us feel the cold, and we were glad we brought some layers of clothing, warm hats, and gloves.  It was very strange to be standing on snow on August 31st, but that’s Denali.  As of today, the park road is completely closed due to snow, only accessible by dog sled until spring.