Category: USA

Around 10 am, we were supposed to be at the ice hiking office. Moorthy and I were up by 8.
“Man, this pain has got worse,” Moorthy said.
“What happened? You fell at night?”
“No. Yesterday I tripped in Whittier.”
I recalled the incident when he tripped over a cable protruding from the ground. It seemed like an innocuous incident back then!
“I didn’t have much pain yesterday, but today it’s bad. Can walk but steps may be hard.”
Rakesh came down the stairs.
“We’ll get something for breakfast?”
Since Raghav wouldn’t have breakfast, the three of us decided to eat something and be back.
“Let me test walking on the steps.”
And he was wincing in pain the minute he put his weight.
“Let’s have breakfast, and then we can take a call.”
Rakesh drove the car so that Moorthy could rest his knee; we drove back to the downtown area we were in last night and parked over there. There was a restaurant called Zudy’s Cafe that was open, and on the way, we crossed the Alaska Sea Life Centre. I ordered a salmon breakfast sandwich; Rakesh had Belgian waffles, and Moorthy had egg and cheese. There were quite a lot of diners in the place, and some large groups as well. Seemed like a popular morning spot. This setting also had that old-school feeling of the 1980s – nice, quaint cafe.

At 10 am, we were back in our cabin. Moorthy was still in pain, and so we abandoned the hiking plan.
Raghav talked to the operator, but they said nothing could be done.
“Is there some wheelchair assistance available?” 
We knew we were pushing our luck, but no harm in asking. This was meant to be a hike.
“Wheelchair will be available, but can’t be used for the hike.”
“Is there anything else that we could do?”
“There is a flat trail that we can have a guide for you.”
I guessed that it was one of the initial hikes that were listed in Exit Glacier – just that they’d have a person along with us providing commentary. We opted out of that.
“Can you provide a refund?”
“Unfortunately, since there is no time for someone else to fill up the position, we won’t be able to do a refund. And there are no names on the waiting list. But if someone does come, then we’d be able to refund.”
They took only a small group on the hike each day. If no one is already on the waiting list, it is unlikely that anyone will sign up within the next hour.

“I can just wait down while you guys go and come,” Moorthy said.
“But it will be around 5 hours or more, and you’d just be waiting.” We decided it wouldn’t be right – if it were an hour or two, it would have been ok, but 6 hours alone would just be extremely boring.
“We’ll figure out some other alternative.”
“Maybe can get a knee brace. Might help to some extent in reducing the pain and giving support.”
“Any medical shop nearby?”
“I saw Safeway. Surely they’ll have.”
I knew Safeway was a popular supermarket in Canada; I hadn’t seen one during my US trips so far. But then Alaska is bordered by Canada. Moorthy had to return the brace because the size wasn’t right; instead, he got a crepe bandage and tied it around his knee in the car.

We then headed to the Exit glacier hiking operator’s office since it was nearby. The place also doubled as a store, and they had a lot of hiking-related gear available for purchase. We enquired at the front desk about any options we had, but it was pretty much the same as what Raghav had heard on the phone.
“Let’s just go to the exit glacier and see what’s there.”

It was a 20-minute drive to the place – the road runs parallel to the Resurrection river and as you drive down this road you can see what is called ‘exit glacier’ – we had seen some pics online and we could get a glimpse of it from the road itself; the Exit Glacier is part of the Kenai Fjords National Park (it’s a park of some 600k acres – not the type of parks we tend to think of – these are massive areas of the state that are designated as park areas). Exit Glacier is one of the glaciers on the ‘Harding Icefield’ – a large ice sheet that covers a significant part of Alaska, and from this sheet, 40 glaciers flow out (called Harding after the name of the US president who visited it in the 1920s).

And if you are wondering what a glacier is, it is a large accumulation of ice/snow that originates on land and moves down (moving ice). Happening over multiple decades, this leads to glacier ice (with more snow accumulating than melting over these decades). 
https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-glacier

It was 12:30 pm when we landed outside the Exit Glacier Nature Centre. There were ranger-led walks, but we decided to skip that since we didn’t know how far Moorthy’s knee would hold up.
The notice board had a post-it note from 5 days ago about a female bear and her cubs spotted in the area! 
“There are 3 trails – the Glacier View Trail looks ok.”
“Yeah, it says wheelchair accessible as well. Should be flat terrain then.”

Another trail was the Harding Icefield Trail – the board said it was a strenuous, steep hike one way for 4 miles (6.5 kms) with an elevation of 1km. It said plan for 6 to 8 hours! They did mark a couple of points earlier on the trail that could also be used as turnaround points. Seemed an interesting route – you’d get to see what an ice field looks like – from the pic it seemed like you’d see an endless cover of ice under the blue skies on a sunny day.

Seward is about a couple of hours’ drive.
“We are not going to make it in time for dinner. Most places would have closed.”
Our ETA was around 10:50 pm, and if we made it, we might be lucky and find some places that closed only at 11. Unfortunately, we discovered that many stretches of the road were under construction. And similar to the incident earlier while returning from Denali, you had cars lined up waiting for their turn to use the road – and over here we also had a ‘pilot car’ that we had to follow – sort of like the F1 races where you have the safety car come out. When that was on the track, you are not allowed to overtake anyone and have to stay at a speed lower than the safety car. There are two flaggers on either side of the construction zone, and they decide which lane is halted and which is allowed to move. 

The net result was that we reached Seward only at 11:10 pm, and most places had closed. I had snacked on the salmon burger and wasn’t hungry, but our veggie boys had barely eaten anything. As you come down Seward Highway, it takes you to what appears to be Seward Downtown with a cluster of shops, restaurants and bars. There was the Flamingo Lounge, which we decided to check out. We also walked across the street to see if anything else was open – there were a couple of other bars, but they seemed much more inclined to drinks than to food. There were still a fair number of people inside the bars. We returned to Flamingo since it did have restaurant-type seating on one side. The first thing that struck us over here and in the other bars was that the setting gave you this old school vibe – like interiors similar to what may have existed in the 1970s and 80s. It felt cosy. The place was open till midnight. 

There wasn’t much to eat for the veggies – fried pickles (jalapeños), chips and potato fries. Raghav ordered all 3 dishes. For non-veggies, there was fish, pork and reindeer meat available – but again, everything was the fried type that was meant to be sides for drinks. Raghav also ordered an alcoholic cocktail drink, where he asked the bartender to substitute the alcohol! 

We stepped out at midnight, and Rakesh drove us in the direction of our next stay – a cabin in Seward. We had to go back up the Seward Highway. There weren’t many vehicles or people out on the street at this hour, but as we were driving, we saw a cop’s car in the opposite lane. As we went on, the cop’s car turned around and followed us. 
“Slow down,” Moorthy said, and Rakesh pulled over. The cop was coming for us!
So the rule here is that you shouldn’t step out of the car, but hand over your documents to the cop. 
“Where are you from?”
“Coming from New Jersey,” Rakesh said coolly.
“Give all the rental documents and insurance.”
Rakesh handed over the papers.
“Your headlights were not on.”
“Oh, it’s a rental car, and I thought it had come on automatically. Didn’t realise.”
“Where are you coming from Seward?”
“Uh… We were just here at the…” Moorthy tried to step in and answer, but the officer cut him off, “Question was to him. Let him answer. He is responsible for his driving.”
“From Flamingo,” Rakesh said.
“What did you have?”
Moorthy later said that this was a subtle way for them to figure out if you were driving after a drink.
“We were looking for some food. So just had some fries there.”
“Where are you staying in Seward?”
Rakesh gave the place of our Airbnb booking.
The officer did go back to his car to check something and then returned.
“Do you know the speed limit here?”
“No.”
“You are driving without knowing the speed limit?”
Wrong path to go down, and Rakesh quickly corrected himself, “No – I mean it’s 25.”
“And do you know how fast you were driving?”
“I was slowing down to 30. Because I thought it was 35 earlier, and it was 25 in this area.”
“You were going at 37. This is a residential area, and everywhere the speed limit is 25. It’s 6 points for a speeding violation.”
“Sorry. This was my first time, and I was reducing the speed.”
After a brief moment, the officer said, “I’ll let you go with a warning for now. Get a good meal for your family and friends.”
Fortunately, no fine, and Rakesh drove slowly, sticking to the 25 limit. 
“I wasn’t at 37. When I saw him on the other side itself, I had lowered my speed. But problem was that headlights weren’t on.”
With the new car, we struggled to figure out if the headlights were on or not – I even went through the car’s booklet to understand how it worked, but it wasn’t clear.
“I don’t think they will put a fine easily on visitors since they’d want to be welcoming to tourists,” Moorthy said.

We reached our cabin area in a few minutes.
“Which one is it – there are two – the one on the right or the left?”
We were on a road named Blying Sound Dr, and according to Google Maps, we had arrived at our location. We had a door number of 32280, but there were 2 individual cabins a few feet apart, both painted dark blue with red roofs.
“No signs of anyone present in either of the two.”
There were no vehicles either, and both cabins looked identical. After going around both properties a couple of times with our flashlights on, we confirmed which one it was. 

It was a cabin with a second floor, where a couple of beds were stashed.
“Nice setup, but the stairs are narrow. Would be risky at night if someone stepped on it without paying attention.”
And for me, there was a height problem on the 2nd floor – if I stood straight, my head knocked against the ceiling. 

Rakesh stopped the vehicle on the side to give us time to figure out our direction on the map and decide our next destination.
“He’s following us.” Behind us was the same guy in the AWCC vehicle who had asked us to leave the place while we were watching the black bear. 
“He wants to make sure we really leave! Let’s leave and then figure out where to.”
We exit the AWCC road. “Any coffee place nearby?”
“Nothing close by. But there are a couple, 25 minutes or so away.”
“On the way to Seward?”
“No. It’s a detour we have to take.” 
“I’m ok to drive. Just tell me the route.”
“Ok then. And anyway, there’s nothing to do in Seward today.”
“Let’s go.”
On the way, we crossed Portage Lake.
“There’s a scenic point here.”
Rakesh pulled over, and we got out to take a look. It was another amazing location – sunlight beaming down from one side and clouds covering the tops of the mountains on the other. There was an Indian couple in matching green sweaters clicking a lot of pics.
We also took a lot of snaps – especially focused on one person in the group. “These will be good snaps for matrimony websites.”

As we drove towards the cafe, we came to a toll gate – but it was manned, and we had to pay $13. 
“Is this your first time?” the lady staff asked.
“Yes,” Rakesh replied.
“Here you go.” And she handed him the toll receipt and some pamphlets, which Rakesh kept aside in the car. “Go to lane 3 and wait for the green light.”
Rakesh got the car moving, and we saw a bunch of lanes ahead. He went into lane 3, which was empty, and waited. 
“What is this? 6 lanes that go into the tunnel?” There was no other vehicle on any lane, but we still waited as the lady had said. Once the light turned green, Rakesh moved. And the 6 lanes merged into a single lane that entered the tunnel.
“We are going on top of a railroad track!”
“And there’s no other lane. What if a car comes from the opposite side?”
“Or what if a train came from the other side?”
“There is some space on the side.”
“Or Rakesh will go in reverse. Like Tom Cruise doing a stunt drive!”
We were literally driving on top of train tracks in a dark tunnel, which had lighting at periodic intervals. The speed limit was 25 mph, and there was an indicator displaying the speed of our vehicle – Rakesh stayed just under 25. 
“Rakesh is going right through a mountain.”
The tunnel ride was nearly 5 minutes long, but there was finally light at the end of the tunnel!
“We are surely not continuing on the train tracks. It says take left.”
As Rakesh took a left onto the main road, we noticed a long line of vehicles waiting to enter the tunnel.
“They held up all the cars because of Rakesh. A VIP,” we joked.

I later found that the tunnel is called the ‘Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel’ (also known as the Whittier Tunnel). It was built in 1943 by the US Army and served as Alaska’s main supply line during the war. 1941 is when Japan bombed Pearl Harbour; this was constructed after that and provided strategic military benefits. Pearl Harbour is straight down south of Alaska. 

We entered the town of Whittier, and Rakesh parked the car in a parking lot. It was 8 pm. The cafe we came in search of had closed. 
“Let’s just walk around.”
There were a row of shops and outlets – most had closed.

This is a port town, and we saw plenty of boats docked on the water. A lot of scenic views welcome you in Whittier – docks, boats, pristine waters, snow capped mountains, fluffy cotton clouds, sand and greenery.

Moorthy used his pro camera to take plenty of snaps of the scenery and of us. 
“Moorthy, you go. I’ll take some snaps.”
He joined Rakesh to sit on a rock while I clicked. Just as he got up and walked, his foot hit a strong cable that was sticking out of the ground and tripped him over. He went down on his knees on the gravel. Got a little bruise but seemed ok – there are these small incidents that you don’t really think about at that moment but come back to bite you later on.
“I’ve seen that building in some photos before,” Raghav said, pointing to the one building that you’d see when stepping into Whittier – it was a weird multi colored building in white, pink and blue. 
“That seems to be the only building over here where people can stay.”
There was no other structure that looked like a residential place. 
“The whole town stays in one building?”

We later found out it was called the Begich Towers Condominium, and almost the whole town stayed there! 
“This Wild Catch Cafe says open. Let’s check it out.”
Since it was near closing time, they said we couldn’t dine in. We picked some coffee – Kaladi Brothers Coffee (KBC), which we found in different places in Alaska (they are a coffee roaster brand started in Alaska, and we had also seen a couple of their cafes during the trip; even in Jitters, we remembered seeing some connection to Kaladi Brothers). We ordered the mixed berries cheesecake and a salmon burger. We ate in their outdoor seating area. The food was good. 

It was past 9 pm when we exited Whittier.
The lane lights were all red, but another light a little further ahead was green.
“There’s no other car around. Maybe we can go?”
“No – it’s red. We should wait.”
We debated for a while. “Maybe that lady who was there when we came has left, and there’s no one.”
“Can’t be a manual system.”
“But then why is it red for so long even though no vehicles are here and nothing is coming from the tunnel?”
It was a bit of a wait before the signal turned green, and then Rakesh started. That was when we found that the pamphlet the toll gate lady gave us had information about how this tunnel operates.
“That’s why she asked you whether this was your first time here.”
The pamphlet explained the 6-lane system and the rules to be followed within the tunnel. Oh well, too late for us!

Whittier was also marked in some places as the “Gateway to Prince William Sound” – I had never heard the term ‘sound’ before used in the context of a place – ‘sound’ as per the dictionary refers to a wide body of water connecting larger bodies of water. Some operators run cruises from Whittier into Prince William Sound. 

Even though we had seen many scenic sights by now in Alaska, we still weren’t bored of them – if you do visit Alaska, it’s definitely worth a ride to Whittier through the tunnel.

Another set of similar animals were there in the zoo – fox, coyote, wolf – in ascending order of size. The nice thing here was that each of these animals had a name that was mentioned on the boards outside along with a little blurb about it – ex: there were 2 foxes – Storm and Jade; Jade was an orphan picked up by joggers when they realized that there were no signs of the mother around; Storm, on the other hand, was illegally owned as a pet, and thus was seized and brought to the conservatory. 

“Let’s check if the bears are there.”
Using the map, we walked towards the bear enclosure; we saw cardboard cutouts of black, brown and white polar bears.
“Even if we don’t see bears, we can take a snap with these life-size bears!”

Black bears are not all black – they can be blonde or cinnamon-coloured too! Grizzly bears are a type of brown bear; brown bears are about 4 times as heavy as black bears. A black bear has its rump as the highest point, while a brown bear has its shoulder hump as the highest part. Polar bears are even heavier than brown bears – and they are carnivores, unlike the other two, which are omnivores.
The saying about brown bears and black bears has a 3rd part to it as well that made sense now – ‘If it’s brown lie down; if it’s black fight back; if it’s white goodnight.’ 

“Some people are there near the fence – maybe the real bears are visible.”
We went closer and saw not 1, not 2, but 3 brown bears in the vicinity. There was a little pond, plenty of grass and trees within the bear enclosure. A couple of them were walking around, and though they were large, they looked cute. One bear caught something in the water (seemed like a salmon), and it began thrashing around the catch ferociously at the edge of the pond – no matter how cute you think they are, beware their power!

Moorthy captured the whole scene on video.
“Two of them are twins – JB and Patron.”
Their story of how they landed in AWCC was a sad one – a mother bear (called a sow) killed a moose calf in some person’s backyard; the person thought the bear might attack his dog and shot the bear with his gun. But her 10-month-old cubs were in a nearby tree. The AWCC took the 2 cubs in since they were orphaned.
“The other one is named Hugo.”
Hugo was also found when she was less than a year old – a couple of folks while snowmobiling discovered her dehydrated, malnourished, and injured due to porcupine quills stuck on her paws. She was not able to walk or eat and was taken in by the AWCC. All 3 bears were now more than 20 years old. 

“Your video is good to use in National Geography,” Rakesh said when seeing Moorthy’s footage.
We walked along the perimeter fence till the bears disappeared into the grass and trees. JB weighed around 450 kgs as per a board that read ‘sizing up JB’!
“Mission accomplished – we’ve seen bears in Alaska.”

On the other side, there was a vast area where bisons roamed; a few came to drink water from a large tub near the fence and let visitors have a close look at them.
Raghav and I walked further along the outermost road of the conservatory and ended up on a boardwalk – it was called the ‘Turnagain’ boardwalk, and a board explained that we were seeing the point of confluence – a point where multiple modes of transport converged. The Turnagain arm is a water inlet bordered on both sides by land, and at this specific place, it is bordered on all 3 sides. The term itself comes from Captain Cook – he was the one who explored the Pacific Ocean and when they came down this water inlet from the Pacific, they thought they had discovered a route from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean – but coming further down the inlet they found there was no way out and they had to ‘turn again’ to get out – thus the name ‘Turnagain arm’!

In the 1890s, this was also an area for the gold rush – a person was said to have trekked in the frigid cold to lay claim to the land and establish a gold mine (Crow Creek Mine – it’s a tourist attraction now). 
“From the boardwalk, we can see the end of the Turnagain Arm.”
There were a couple of others on the boardwalk – one of them in a wheelchair. After they left, we went to the edge to admire the scenery – a clear day, mountains with snow on one side, greenery on the other side, rocks nearby, and clean water in the middle. And behind us was the farm-like view, with animals roaming about. Picturesque and serene.

Moorthy and Rakesh were driving down the road, and we told them also to check it out. There weren’t many people who came all the way to this side – but it’s definitely worth spending a few minutes here. 
We had just under an hour left before the place would close. We still had a few more areas to cover and walked along while Moorthy drove. 
“On the other side, there’s a black bear area. Let’s go till there.”
On the way, there was a birds section where we saw a bald eagle – story behind this was that it was shot at and lost its left wing before it was adopted by the conservatory. An interesting piece of history was that in the 1920s, it was legal to hunt eagles in Alaska, and the government even paid 50 cents for each dead eagle – the program was started to help protect salmon. More than 120k eagles were killed at that time. Eagle hunting is no longer legal. Owls and eagles kill prey using their talons (claws). 

People gathered around some of the enclosures to try spotting the bird or animal inside.
We then saw the coyote and the wolves.
“The black bear area is supposed to be between these two.”
“Yeah, that’s what the map says. But there’s nothing here.”
We were running out of time as well – down to the last 30 minutes. We went along the path as per the map a couple of times but didn’t find any signs of a bear enclosure.
“Let’s ask a staff.” We spotted one, and he said, “It’s near the gift shop.”
We headed again towards the same side from which we had come. “But we covered this area fully.”
“Yeah. Surely not here.”
Near the gift shop, there was an eatery as well – a grab-and-go place – I paused for a moment when I saw their menu that was displayed outside. One of the items was “reindeer polish” – that’s reindeer sausage. The irony was that just nearby was the reindeer enclosure!

Down to 20 minutes before closure. The map said that there was another black bear enclosure near the brown bear area too.
“Let’s check out that one.”
We hopped into the car to save time. I did want to see the other bears before leaving, but they were not to be seen. There is a boardwalk that runs along the top of the bear enclosure – it gives you a top-down view of some of the places.
“Man, not even one to be seen.”
“We were lucky we saw them when we entered.”
No sign of any movement either. 
“But there are some areas that we can’t see – they must have gone in there.”

Back down below to the original spot where we saw the bears, we saw a couple of ravens (like crows but bigger) eating fish near the pond – this is apparently common, after the larger predator has finished eating, the smaller ones scavenge for any scraps left behind. This must have been the salmon the bear ate earlier. 
“Let’s go to the bathroom and leave.”
The bathroom here was called the ‘bears bathroom’.
“Maybe we’ll see the bear in the bathroom!”
But the place was empty. 
“We should make a sorry face with the staff and hope that they feel pity and take us to show the bear.”
As we came out, we saw a lady staff member in a conservatory vehicle.
“Is there a black bear?”
“Yes. There’s a juvenile. In fact, I saw the bear while driving down now.”
It was 7 pm – closing time. But the staff told us where it was. “I’ll be going back down that side. You can follow me.”
We followed her, and she showed the enclosure – looking at the map, this was called the ‘rotating carnivore habitat’. I guess they used it for different animals during the year! As we walked towards it, another staff member said that it was closing time and we should leave.
“We’ll just see the bear and leave.”
Another family near the enclosure spotted the animal. The bear had stepped outside its wooden cave while two ravens were watching it.

It was 5 minutes past closing time, and the staff came again asking us to leave. We were literally the last group to leave!

A nice set of audio guides for the place: https://alaskawildlife.org/visit/audio-guide/

A lot of the forest that we see in Alaska is what is called the ‘boreal forest’ – there are fewer species here, but the ones that are here (trees and animals) are the ones that can survive in extreme winters with short summers. The trees are spruce, balsam, birch, aspen, etc (all conifers – yeah, takes you back to geography class days!)
For more details: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=boreal.main

Around 10:30 am, we were on our way back, leaving Denali. 30 minutes into the drive, I stopped Moorthy after we crossed a bridge – I remember there being an interesting view around here when we drove past this on our onward journey. This place is called Hurricane Gulch – a gulch is a V-shaped valley. Moorthy pulled over to the side on the gravel, and we noticed there was another car that had parked ahead of us as well. We couldn’t walk on the bridge – it was a highway, and you don’t have a walkway. But there was a side path which went into the woods. We followed it.
“Hey man be careful. I don’t know if there is a path. It seems steep.”
But Raghav went over a hurdle and proceeded down – it’s only a few steps that you can go.
“Come here Ringo,” we heard an old lady calling out to a cute little dog which was on a leash. The view was spectacular – there was a river flowing way down below, woods to our left, the bridge to the right – you never realise how high the bridge is till you look down!

We took a few snaps; the old lady wanted to take a snap with her dog, the bridge in the background. She was old but still firm and steady as she managed the dog with one hand, and she even offered to take a photo of us as a group. Not for those with a fear of heights, but worth a pitstop for the view. The car in front was hers; she was from Canada.

We ran into a traffic jam due to road construction on one lane of the highway (the highway only had two main lanes); so you had construction workers letting vehicles go for a couple of minutes from one side while they blocked the other side, and they kept alternating. This is one of the rare situations in which vehicles can cross the solid double yellow line separating the two lanes. 

“What’s our plan? Straight to Seward?”
“No. We stop first at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Centre. It’s on the way only – after Anchorage. But the last entry is at 6, and it closes at 7.”
My hope was that we’d make it between 4 and 5 pm, so we’d have at least a couple of hours.
“We’ll see bears?”
“Probably, since there are supposed to be some there. But I don’t know if we’ll see it.”
“May turn out to be like Denali.”
“But Denali, also, we would have seen if we went on the trail – that night, there was a notice there which said a bear was seen the prior day.”
“And that hiker who came on our bus the next day also said they saw a bear.”
“If only we had got the bear spray and practised with it, we could have gone on the trail that night.” I did feel quite confident using the bear spray now. 
“The bear spray worked on a different bear!”

Alaskan Gold

After about 3.5 hours of driving, we stopped at the Jitters coffee place (since it was on the way and not much of a detour); picked up coffee and drove along. At 2:50 pm, we were in Anchorage and decided to stop somewhere for lunch. Raghav and Rakesh were the ones who picked the place.
“It’s a Nepalese restaurant. Yak & Yeti cafe.” 
Inside, they had pictures of Tintin from ‘Tintin in Tibet’ – that was, I guess, the inspiration for the name of the cafe. I’m not really sure why Google had this marked as a Nepalese restaurant – the first couple of items on the menu were palak paneer and channa masala, which are typical Indian dishes. But then we did see something called a shapta (pork dish – Tibetan) and a couple of other pork dishes as well – one of them was definitely Indian (it was the vindaloo curry – a dish popular in Goa). I picked a half-sandwich while the other 3 picked rice bowls; ended up being lucky we didn’t do 4 rice bowls since the bowls were fairly large for one person. The food was good – very Indian except for the sandwich.

Raghav had been going through some brochures during the 4-hour drive, and he saw an interesting jewellery shop he wanted to check out.
“If we are running out of time, we can skip it.”
I checked the map, “It’s nearby only. Can quickly stop and go. Let’s keep the cut-off as 4 max, so that we can make it to the conservatory by 5, since it’s a one-hour drive from here.”
Moorthy parked in a slot where we had 10 minutes of parking time available – after that, we would get ticketed; it seemed like the earlier person who paid for parking may have left with some time remaining. 
“Bet that Raghav will finish within 10 minutes?”
“This I think he will because we’ve said there’s the next place that we have to get to!”
I knew of Raghav’s impulsive shopping but didn’t feel he’d exhibit that trait in a jewellery shop.

It was a cosy little shop – he was looking for something unique to get for his wife. He saw a couple of interesting pieces and enquired about the price.
“How many carats?”
“We do jewellery only in 14 carats. In India, you do a lot higher, right?” the staff asked as he took out the items from the display and gently placed them on the glass top for Raghav to take a closer look.
“22 carats,” Raghav said.
There was also an American family in the store; their little kid was gleefully crawling all over the carpeted floor, while the mother looked closely at the pieces, and the dad kept an eye on the kid.
We were out of the place within 10 minutes. “Very expensive compared to India. Can get similar ones in India also. I was looking for something unique to Alaska.”
“On time for parking.”
Anchorage city traffic signal stops are similar to what you find in New York or Boston – it feels like there are signals at very short distances. We passed a brown, low-key building that said “Federal Bureau of Investigation”! They surely didn’t want to be seen as an attraction. 

In 30 minutes, we were racing down our familiar Seward Highway – the same one with the scenic views that we drove on the first day. Only this time, we had to go further, all the way to the city of Seward. We went past the Chugach National Forest and then crossed the town of Portage – wiki describes this town as a ghost town since it was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1960s. 

At 5 pm, we reached the Wildlife Conservatory. This place does have some activities too – but we were late for them – there is a “moose encounter” where you can get up close to Moose and even feed them; there’s the tour where a guide will walk you through the conservatory; there is the black bear encounter (the most expensive ticket, but there is a note which says no physical touching of bears!); and then a bear encounter (to get closer to brown bears). But all of these are limited tickets for a day, and the activities wrap up by afternoon. 
“This place takes in injured or orphaned animals and provides them a place to live.” That’s how this is slightly different from zoos. 
There are also a few free activities during the day, but again, nothing after 5 pm. 
You get a map to the place when purchasing the tickets. You can either drive through the area or walk it out. 

Moorthy drove the car slowly while we stepped out and walked. We landed first in the moose area – there was one moose within a shed that you could see up close. It didn’t seem bothered by the visitors. Next to this was the elk – there are a few of these that may seem similar – moose, elk, reindeer, caribou! An elk is bigger than a deer and caribou, but smaller than a moose. They shed their antlers every winter, and a new set grows in the summer. On the other side was the muskox – has a thick coat of fur; sort of looks like a bison. They herd together when defending against predators, but this becomes a problem with human predators – it made it easy for human hunters to wipe out the whole herd together. This species was wiped out of Alaska by the 1800s, then reintroduced in the 1930s by bringing a few from Greenland – there are about 2500 now in Alaska. The muskox were sitting in the middle of the grassland. The animals did have a fair amount of space to themselves. 

Map of the place: https://alaskawildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/AWCC-Map-Summer-2024-Web-Size.jpg

As usual, it was Moorthy and me up early in the morning by 7 am. And in 30 minutes, we were ready to step out. As soon as we drove onto the main road, we noticed some rustling among the leaves.
“It’s a moose,” Moorthy exclaimed. 
The moose was munching on grass and walking towards the next set of cabins.
I dropped a message in our group for Rakesh and Raghav, informing them that there was a moose near their backyard – but it wasn’t delivered because I didn’t have any mobile network there.

It was quite a cloudy day – the mountain ranges were hidden behind the clouds for the most part, but in some places, you could see them; add to this some purple flowers and greenery on the sides of the highway, and it made for a pretty sight. The morning ride got better as we went further down the highway – there was this point where suddenly the sky was clear – so you had heavy clouds behind you while ahead of you were clear skies. 

We were hoping to find a cafe or restaurant, and we spotted a food truck called Moose’s Brew on the side of the highway – perhaps it was part of the lodge that was behind it, but the board did say open. We went around it once to find the counter. Picked up coffee and some bread. We asked for the wifi password, but the lady wasn’t willing to give it – was weird because nowadays every joint gives you access to their wifi, and that too we were buying things from them as well. Suddenly, she shrieked, “Oh, a spider. Yikes. It’s coming here.” And she shut the window of the counter. 
“Where’s the spider?” I asked Moorthy.
“Don’t know, man. Maybe above the car.”
She opened the window slightly to pass the receipt while she was chatting with another staff member who was inside the food truck. Quite an awkward moment – all for wifi access!

As we turned the car to start our return journey to the lodge, I shouted, “A moose!”
This one was also eating grass and slowly ambling towards the trees. Had enough time to take a snap, but we didn’t get too close to it – just stayed in the car at a safe distance. Not as terrifying as bears, but moose can also be dangerous. We refuelled on the way back, and by 9 am, we were back in the lodge.

“Did you guys see the moose?”
“No. There’s nothing here,” they said, not believing us.
“There was – we even tried messaging you.”
“You can show them the proof of the photo.” But I didn’t have time to take a snap of the first one, so there was no way to prove it. 
“We saw a second one as well. Have proof of that.”

The prep

Folks took turns showering and getting ready before we checked out. And in the meantime, I looked up a few videos and articles on bear spray usage.
‘Don’t fire it in the direction of the wind,’ they would say. But I did wonder that when confronted by a bear, you probably wouldn’t want to turn around and shoot at empty space, hoping the wind will carry the particles to the bear charging behind you! But anyway, for testing, it was a good piece of advice. 

You need to be able to operate the spray with a single hand – which includes taking off the safety clip that’s there on the can (prevents anyone from accidentally pressing the spray). It sort of looks like the Wild Wild West movies, where you’d have Clint Eastwood draw the gun from the holster in a single-handed sweep and fire; you need to do something similar here! 

‘Don’t keep the spray inside your backpack’ – can’t be digging through your bag to find the can while a bear is nearing you!

‘Don’t spray it on clothing’ – unlike insect repellents, bear sprays don’t work the same way – the odour left behind by the spray may actually attract a bear to the place!

I cut open the pack and first tried to pull out the safety clip – I struggled to get it off using both my hands, and this was meant to be done single-handed! After a few times putting it on and off, I got the hang of it—it gets a little easier as it gets smoother. 
“Time to test this.”
“You are going to shoot?” asked Moorthy.
“Yes.”

The action

A few feet away from our cabin and our vehicle, in the middle of the woods, I did the single-handed flick to get the clip off. I confirmed the wind direction and depressed the trigger on top of the can. An orange stream of particles burst forth for a fair distance, with a fair amount of force, towards our vehicle. It was pretty cool.
Moorthy came out to take a video. “Do it again,” he said while standing on the wooden porch and getting his focus right.
I heard Raghav cough lightly a couple of times from inside the cabin. 
Moorthy said, “Start.” And I repeated the one-handed firing sequence like Eastwood. 
“Not much smell?”
“No – slight burning smell. But since we fired in open air, and the wind is going that way, it must’ve spread out.”

I shook the can to estimate how much spray was left— there was still a decent amount inside after a couple of shots. They say when you face a bear, you fire it just for 1 or 2 seconds, and then, reassess the situation; if the bear advances, then repeat again, and you may be able to get 3 or 4 rounds of shots before the can goes empty.

We heard Rakesh cough a couple of times – he was in the bathroom, inside the cabin. I put on the safety clip. As I neared the cabin, I heard Raghav cough, and when I entered, I coughed a couple of times as well. I was at the doorstep, and since I was coughing, I stepped back a bit. Moorthy was standing outside, busy checking out the video recordings on his camera.

Then we heard Rakesh coughing again. Seemed strange. A couple of seconds later, he coughed again harder… and then again… and then we knew there was something wrong – the intensity of the cough wasn’t reducing. And Raghav also coughed, but not as strongly as Rakesh.
“Rakesh, are you ok?”
And in response, we heard coughing!

He came running out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, coughing and struggling to speak. “Burning. Something in the throat. Something is coming inside.”
Raghav peeped into the bathroom, and he started coughing. “It’s inside.” 
A moment later, I coughed, and so did Moorthy.

“Man, it’s the bear spray.”
“You sprayed it inside the cabin?” Rakesh asked, shocked.
“No. I sprayed it there in the open, far away from our cabin. How could that come inside the cabin, and that too, in the bathroom?”
It’s an irritation in the back of your throat.

“The bear spray worked on the bear!” we were joking just yesterday that Rakesh was dressed like a black bear – in a black jacket and black sunglasses.
“Man, it’s the fan in the bathroom. It’s fully in the bathroom,” Moorthy said as he stepped in to inspect. And then he also joined in the coughing.
We switched off everything in the bathroom and stepped outside. 

“It probably was pulling in the air from outside rather than working the other way round.”
“The wind was blowing away, and maybe the particles just got carried away.” Was a bit of a strange path, but possible – the wind stream needed to have veered to the right to carry the particles towards the bathroom.

“Man, how did you manage to stay so long in the bathroom with that?” Moorthy asked him. 
The bathroom was quite suffocating with the strong smell of the chemical.
“I didn’t know. I thought it was some passing smell. Just check if it’s poisonous?”
“No, it’s not from what I’ve read.”

But I still double checked online – you definitely shouldn’t be using this to spray another human, but here, since it wasn’t a direct attack, didn’t seem like it should be an issue. By now, within the whole cabin, we could feel the peppery stinging odour; and with even a slight whiff of it, we would cough instinctively! We had to wait for a while for the smell to disappear. Rakesh’s coughing finally reduced as we spent more time outdoors. 

I felt quite confident now in being able to use the bear spray if required! Just that our friendly bear, Rakesh, had to suffer a bit for me to learn 🙂

Some tips on bear spray: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/species/livingwithwildlife/bears/pdfs/bear_spray_what_you_should_know.pdf

We had time until 9:30 pm, so we went for a walk in the Parks Highway area.
“There are a lot of small hotels to stay here.”
“Yeah, we saw these when we searched. We could have picked one of these – would have had to pick 2 rooms since they didn’t have a large facility for 4. But location would have been convenient.”

Tip: If you visit Denali and plan to spend 2 or 3 days near Denali National Park, this is definitely a better place to stay. There are shops nearby, and within 10 minutes, you can reach the park, helping you cut down on travel time.

Our ATV site was in a town called Healy, which was about a 15-minute drive. Around 8:15 pm, we headed out; our start time was 9:30, but we figured we could check out Healy, since the shops in Denali were closing at 8. Healy is further north from Denali (so it’s Cantwell and then Denali and then Healy). It was a short scenic highway ride. 

The lady staff at the venue confirmed our booking.
“You have some time before we start. You can check out the lake behind. It’s a lovely lake.”
“We go down this path?”
“Yeah, just go down and stick to the path on the left and you’ll reach the lake.” And then she casually added, “There may be moose around.”
“Oh.”
We strolled down the muddy path and landed on the backside of some property. Since the lady asked us to keep to the left, we followed her advice – that led us down a path covered by trees and shrubs.
“This is like a mini trail! Stepping into the wild.”
“We’ve already seen a moose – if we see a bear, then we are set.”
“Rakesh is in a bear-like costume with black and black!”
He was in a black jacket.

Barely 2 minutes down that stretch, and we were welcomed by an amazing sight. For those of you into large jigsaw puzzles of 1000+ pieces, it’s common to see puzzles of a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains, with greenery, a perfect reflection of the surroundings in the water. This was exactly the same – still, calm waters, and we were the only ones here. And for those of you into philosophy, this reminded me of a common analogy about the world being like an illusion – the ‘reflection in the lake’ example. Even the reflection was scenic and looked real.

(click images below to zoom in)

There was a boardwalk that stretched a little into the lake (most likely for boats; we did see a canoe nearby). We spent about 30 minutes out here – taking snaps from different angles to catch our reflection on the water while pulling Rakesh’s leg throughout. 
“Maybe we are on someone’s private property?”
“Maybe. But she told us to stick to the left and we’d be fine.”
If we were on private property, we were in for trouble – in this part of the world, trespassing can even get you shot.
We sat on the beach sand near the shore, absorbing the sights and sounds of nature. No one else around, except some bird or animal chirping nearby. 
“That looks like a hotel, though. Not like a house.”
Seemed like a property with a bunch of rooms – couldn’t see any name board though. And didn’t seem like people were around inside. We talked in a low voice and stayed on. Later, I did find that this was a small hotel – an inn- and it is a place from where you could see the Northern lights above this lake (the Otto Lake)! Would make for quite a view.

ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle) ride

Back in the Denali ATV Adventures site, they let us inside since it was time. The 9:30 pm group gathered together to hear the rules and safety guidelines after picking up our helmets. They had different types of ATVs – single seaters, 2-seaters and 4-seaters. We were on a 4-seater. If you want to enjoy the whole ride driving, then do go for the single-seaters (but for larger groups, availability may be a problem). They said you shouldn’t stop or gun the ATV.
“What’s gunning?”
“Revving the engine without moving and making the whirring noise.”
The fines for damaging the ATV were hefty (went up to $12000) – totalled was another term I hadn’t heard of. Totalled meant that the vehicle was a total loss. 
“Don’t drive slowly. Keep up with the pace of the vehicle in front of you.”
Once we got our helmets, they showed us how to operate the vehicle. There were gears and a reverse option, but the lady said we won’t need to use it. 
“You may want to roll up your pants a bit so that your clothes don’t get wet.”
We weren’t expecting to go through water.

And off we whirred away – there was a staff leading the way up front in an ATV, and then came all the customer-driven ATVs in which we were the last vehicle, and then another staff ATV behind us.
The engines were powerful – we started on the road but soon found ourselves on a narrower, muddy pathway weaving through the trees, seemingly designed just for ATVs. As we went over gravel, I was surprised how the vehicles weren’t tipping over – and we did go over large ones too. I could see the ATV in front of us going at a 30-degree angle.

We had stops along the way; so even on non-single-seater buggies, other folks in the group can switch over to the driver seat. In each stop, the staff explained something about the locality – it added to the experience. 

In the first stop, he talked about Dora – this was really the original Dora and not the cartoon character. She was a woman who hiked all peaks somewhere in the 1910s.
“This is the unofficial state bird of Alaska bothering me,” he said as he tried brushing off a mosquito.
Back in India too we have these ATV rides, but I haven’t seen such elaborate paths where you could drive on for long distances. Over here it seemed like these ATV pathways had been created in many parts of the state. It’s like in certain parts of the US you will find dedicated snowmobiling routes – routes that even go from US to Canada. This seemed almost like that. 

To our surprise, we drove over a small stream, and water passed through the ATV too—it was a fun ride over road, gravel, mud, and flowing water.
Rakesh drove us through the water, and at one point, with the vehicle in front slowing down, he almost bumped into them from behind, but at the last moment, he veered to the right. Somehow, Moorthy managed to hold his camera steady amidst the rocky ride to take videos. 

In the next stop, we were at the base of a large sand dune formation – it seems a few years earlier, a part of the sand dune had fallen and cut off access to this area. They pointed to some trees at the edge of the dunes on top.
“You can see the roots of the trees all meshed together. And there’s one tree being held from falling because of the roots of the other trees.”
Trees helping one another.

The lady guide mentioned about gemstones and picked some rocks to show us which ones were limestone.
“You can write with these on stones like this,” and she used it like a piece of chalk. “You can take some rocks home too. And maybe if you are lucky, you’ll find some gems inside.”
I didn’t take the driver’s seat on this trip – just loved sitting in the rocking vehicle and absorbing the scenery that we were whizzing by. Raghav was the one trying to get to the highest speeds possible on the machine, but was constrained by the pack in front. 

It was 11:30 pm when we were done. By now, everything around had closed, and on our return on the Parks Highway, where we had the row of stores in Denali, just one restaurant was open – Subway. They were open 24 hours. Outside the restaurant was a Subway painted car as well.
We picked up subs to eat in our lodge; a couple of the staff seemed like trainees, with one person supervising and telling them what to put and what to do next. 
“No bears yet. But there are 2 squirrels there.”
They were running around the wooden boardwalk connecting the shops.

While having our sandwiches, Moorthy caught up on the cricket World Cup matches – England had a convincing win, finally after struggling in their earlier games; and South Africa came on the right side of the Duckworth-Lewis system in a rain-truncated match. 
I looked up videos of using bear spray.
“No use of the bear spray,” Rakesh said.
“I’m definitely trying it out even if there is no bear.” And having now bought it, there’s no way I was letting it go to waste.

We saw people hiking close to the Park road – that probably was the safest area for hiking. There are boards in certain places that indicate not to hike for up to 5 miles because it is a restricted wildlife area. The boards state that photography and observation are permitted only from the road, with no hiking off the road. 

The weather change

Otherwise, for the most part, all areas are open for hiking – in fact, it seems that compared to other national parks, this one is where you are encouraged to go on your own path rather than predefined trails – but the predefined trails do help newcomers.

It’s a longer stop for the bus at mile 43, but the rain had picked up. Raghav and I wanted to go on a short hike. And in the visitor centre, they said that at mile 43, there will be a ranger, and there are steps leading down to a short trail. We thought doing a trail in this area would be safer, considering that a ranger would be available nearby. But except for me, no one had clothing for the rain; even Rakesh brought on an extra layer for the cold, but not for the rain. And he was also wearing shorts – not a good choice in windy conditions, especially for a hike. I happened to be carrying my raincoat everywhere, as it was the only jacket I had brought to the US!

“The rain will make the ground slippery too.”
And none of us were in hiking shoes either. We took a few snaps in the place (the East Fork is the name of the river that flows by mile 43) and headed back to the bus. Because of the weather, no one from our bus stepped off anywhere for a hike. Even the family sitting behind us wanted to go on a trail, but they also decided against it. The strong breeze also made it feel really chilly, and everyone was happy to get back inside the warmth and dryness of the bus. 

There wasn’t much commentary on the return ride, but we saw a few people wanting to hop into the bus. These were hikers who had arrived earlier in the day and wanted to catch a ride back to the bus depot. Since none of the passengers inside had stepped out of the bus, there was minimal space in ours – we had to leave behind the folks at the bus stop for subsequent buses to pick them up. There was one solo hiker who got in, and then in another stop, a couple hopped in – they said they saw a few caribou, a couple of moose and a brown grizzly bear at a distance. They did have binoculars, and they even had the hiking poles.
“We hiked up to the top of a mountain and then had to walk one and a half hours to get to the bus stop. And we also had to wait for a bus with empty seats.”

It takes about 4.5 hours to ride up and down the whole route. It’s a nice ride – but the best part of course would be if you did step out and venture into the wild – and this is wilderness for acres. But got to be prepared for it – the right gear (layers for the cold and something for rain), the right shoes and bear spray. Being in a group is beneficial, but there were also solo hikers out here. Mobile tower signals are quite patchy, so you can’t rely on making phone calls in case of any issue. And if you plan to hike beyond mile 14, then you may find yourself in a situation where you have to wait for 2 or 3 buses before you can find a bus with a vacant seat. Bear spray isn’t needed if you are staying on the bus and just stepping out in the designated rest areas. A good set of binoculars would be handy, along with hiking shoes that give you grip on wet terrain. For first-timers, the ranger-led hikes are the best option – and for that, plan for a couple of days or so, as bookings can only be made in person.

Early dinner

Around 4:30 pm, we returned to the bus depot and headed back to the gas station and convenience store area, where a row of shops and eateries was located. We hadn’t had a proper lunch, so the first priority was finding a good place for a meal – it would be an early dinner. 
“There’s a Serbian restaurant,” Raghav and Rakesh picked after checking out the menu online to see if there were vegetarian dishes.
“Moose-aka.”

The outside is a little deceiving – it’s more spacious than what you’d expect; a small bar on one side and a few tables spread across a couple of rooms. Being 5 pm, it wasn’t crowded. The host explained the entire menu and its structure, giving us time to discuss and make a decision. Their service was outstanding – when we ordered a couple of main dishes and said we’d share them, they ensured that they split them up appropriately when they served the dishes. 
“Let’s make our booking for the cruise. Our plans depend on when we get the cruise.”
With patchy mobile connections, we did rely a lot on the wifi provided in many places. Raghav began researching cruise options and exploring other activities we could do.

(click images to enlarge)

Rakesh and Moorthy ordered a couple of drinks (chocolate martini and a mimosa); we did the Mekice (fried bread with a red pepper spread), vegan stuffed pepper (red bell pepper stuffed with fillings and rice), pillici pilaf (chicken pilaf), grandmother’s chocolate cake. All the dishes were good – the pepper spread was unique and yummy. We usually don’t order standard desserts, like chocolate cake, but here, we went for it based on the description in the menu for the grandma’s chocolate cake – and it turned out to be a very different chocolate cake from anything we’ve had because it was loaded with a lot of things in addition to chocolate – brazil nuts, almonds, coffee beans, coconut cream, peanut butter. Bill came to around $150. Good food, amazing service, and uniquely decorated interiors – even their bathroom is styled differently!

We still hadn’t done the cruise booking. But we didn’t want to occupy the seats in the restaurant, and so we stepped out. The restaurant’s wifi worked outside as well for a little distance – Raghav and I sat in the car to make our cruise bookings.
“On the 26th, we can do the glacier hiking. 27th we can do the cruise. Cruise stars in the morning and will be done by late in the afternoon.”
Our flight was on the 27th, late in the evening.

“So in Seward we’ll stay tomorrow night and the 26th night. Check-in on 25th and check-out on 27th,” Rakesh confirmed as he narrowed down the choice of accommodation to a couple of places. After discussions, he made the booking.
Raghav went around checking on river rafting. In the line of highway stores, you had a few of the activity operators with their own stalls as well, so we checked if there was anything possible between now and the ATV ride at night. But the earliest options available were for tomorrow afternoon.
“That would mean we can only leave Denali late in the evening on 25th and so we’d reach Seward early morning of 26th.”
“It’s a long ride too – may not then be able to do much on 26th.”
We dropped river rafting from the list, for now at least!

This really isn’t the way you want to be doing these trips, but in a way, this was fun – no idea where we’d spend the next day or what we’d be doing tomorrow till late at night!

Around 9:50 am, we headed back to our lodge after picking the bus tickets; there is a park visitors fee that is charged as well but since we had paid for this as part of the glacier flight landing, we were able to show that receipt and avoid paying again – that visitors pass is valid for 5 or 7 days; so you can time your activities appropriately. Today was bright and sunny as we returned on the same highway with Rakesh and Raghav. 

Bears

Before returning to the bus depot, we stopped near the Denali convenience store to pick up some water and food. I also picked up the bear spray can. It was about 11:20 am when we reached the bus depot. Folks used the restroom while we waited for the gate to open. I saw a notice that said “Be prepared for bear encounters”. 

Denali is home to both black bears and grizzly bears. Black bears have a flat back, a longer nose, and more prominent ears, while grizzly bears have a prominent hump and a dish-shaped face. Some tips mentioned – bears may perceive us as a threat if we startle them; watch out for bear tracks and poop; give space for bears with a minimum distance of 300 yards which is the length of 3 football fields; if the bear is unaware of you, then take detour and walk away quietly; back away slowly if the bear is aware of you while speaking in a low calm voice while waving your arms above your head; bears that stand on their hind legs are not threatening but just observing and trying to identify you; if a bear approaches or charges at you, don’t run since they can outrun us and don’t drop your pack; bears may charge and then stop some 10 feet away from you or veer off (called a bluff charge); but dropping the pack may interest the bear in approaching you for food; wave arms above your head to appear large and talk to the bear; wait till the bear moves away, and then back off slowly. If a grizzly makes contact with you, play dead – curl into a ball, leave your pack on your back; in the case of a black bear making contact, fight back, it said.

Reminded me of the phrase our colleague told us before the trip – “If it’s brown lie down; if it’s black fight back.” In fact everything on this board was a recap of what he had told us.

Bear spray

A staff member was standing outside the bus, checking tickets before letting folks into the long green Denali Park bus. He said that those with tickets for other time slots can also get in, but only if there is availability after the folks for the current timeslot have boarded. 
“No bear spray in the open. Keep it inside your bag.”
My bear spray was still inside the packaging and not even opened yet!
Someone asked, “Is bear spray just a pepper spray?”
The staff replied, “I had the chance to walk into bear spray while someone was testing it, and I can tell you that it’s not just pepper. And it wasn’t good either. There’s some chemical along with pepper.”

The driver provided commentary as he started the bus.
“There are window seats empty at the back. Folks can spread out and occupy them.”
The bus windows were such that you could open the top part of the window.
“As we go along, you may spot animals. If anyone spots one, then just shout out so that I’ll stop the bus, and everyone can get to see it.”
This isn’t the narrated tour ride, but even here, there was a little narration along the way, which was sort of nice, especially if you are a first-time visitor. There were some Denali stories that the driver recollected, including some that were a reminder to beware of the territory we were in – this isn’t a zoo with animals in cages.
“There was a person who stopped his vehicle to get photos of a moose. And he went really close to get a snap. The moose charged at him and knocked him out.”
Yeah, even moose can be dangerous.

And then we had our first halt. A single caribou on the river – this was the same place that we were at last night, the last point for private vehicles. 
Rakesh said, “It’s like a deer.”
A slightly bigger version of the Indian deer that many of us would have seen in India; these are better adapted to live through the harsh winter.
There’s a checkpoint at mile 14 where a park ranger got in and sang a jingle – a different way to deliver a message on coexisting with nature and not feeding wildlife. The driver said that they also take count of the visitors entering.

In Denali, you will hear about something called the “Pretty rocks landslide”. The Denali park road (the only road running through the park) is about 90 miles long. However, due to the landslide, access is now only available up to mile 43. The landslide has been active for decades, but was so far manageable with road maintenance work that kept happening to ensure the buses could still ply on it. But in 2021 or so, it was noticed that the road in the landslide section was moving more than half an inch every hour! And that’s when they closed off the road. 
Each time the bus stopped, everyone would look around to see what it was.
“There.”
“Where?”
“Over there, just near the trees.”
It was a small bird that had crossed the road along with a bunch of baby birds.
Later, someone shouted to stop. It was a moose – moose are much larger than caribou; they are significantly muscular. But just then there was another green bus coming from the opposite direction – they were even more closer to the moose, and they also stopped since they had spotted it as well. It did hinder our view, and we had to move on.

There was a family of four sitting near us – the parents were elderly, but the woman, I suppose, was a professional photographer. She took some great shots in the short moments that we had, and I would look at her camera’s viewfinder to figure out which direction I should look in to get the view. 
We did carry some snacks and so munched on biscuits and chips throughout the ride.
“If you want to get off anywhere on the way for a hike, just let me know,” the driver announced.

And while hiking, they stressed the importance of leaving no trail, so no food or garbage should be left along the way. 
Denali National Park is some 9000 square miles huge – that’s a lot of territory for wildlife, and so you may not be lucky to see a lot since there’s only a tiny part of the park that the road goes up to.

After an hour into the ride, we had our first restroom break at the Teklanika rest stop – it was a nice breakout area. And Teklanika is a river that flows near this place. What seemed like a bright and sunny day had suddenly turned into a rainy one within an hour! My rain jacket came in handy; not many were prepared for this sudden change in weather and had to run between shelters to get to the restrooms.

The unofficial state bird, the driver would joke, in Alaska is the mosquito! The next and final stop was at mile 43.

It was almost 9:30 am.
“We’ll need time to pick them up and come back.”
“It will take an hour. Earliest bus may be the 11 am one that we can make.”
“Let’s go to the visitor centre also and then take a call. We know the bus timings.”
The centre is a 5-minute drive from the bus depot. 
There were already a couple of people in front of us waiting to talk to the receptionists. While waiting, I noticed a notice on the wall regarding activities for families with kids, along with some goodies and a backpack for them. 
“Are there ranger-led hikes?”
“Yes. We do have.” The staff pulled up a book that had a page for each of the hikes planned for the next few days – the descriptions of the hikes were written by hand; probably the ranger had drafted them.
“Are they full-day hikes?”
“It will take about six hours or so overall, including going to the place and returning.”
“We have to book in advance?”
“Yeah, a couple of days earlier, you can book for them. Needs to be done in-person. Tomorrow’s is booked out. There is availability for Wednesday.”
That would mean June 26th; however, with the hike taking up a significant part of the day, it would mean we could only leave Denali late on the 26th. And the 27th is when we had to leave Alaska, so it would be cutting it too close, considering there was also the cruise. 

Note: Denali is the name of the mountain and this is contained with the Denali National Park. So usually the reference to saying ‘heading to Denali’ means ‘heading to Denali National Park’.

After calling our folks, we decided that the 11:30 transit bus is the safest time to pick.
“We can spend some 20 minutes here before leaving. And then pick them up and come back.”
There were a couple of short movies playing in small theatres just past the reception area, running every half hour. Further ahead was a staircase that led to a floor below, where exhibits explained the park and its wildlife, along with life-size replicas of some animals found in the state.

There was a quote that read, ‘For most of the year, Denali is defined by snow rather than mosquitoes and darkness rather than daylight.’ 

There was a dedicated section on mosquitoes as well – so mosquitoes were common in Alaska. Male mosquitoes transfer pollen from flower to flower (leads to the berries we get) while female mosquitoes also can do the same, but they also need blood to nourish their eggs. The board read, “If she bites you, you become part of the Denali food chain”! Apparently, mosquitoes are also a food source for many birds. Another board read, “The next time you swat mosquitoes, think of the birds and bears that depend on them.”

We learnt that bears used to break cooking pots and cans for food; and so in Denali, they created Bear Resistant Food Containers (BRFCs) in the 1980s, which led to a dip in food theft by bears. It also ensures that the people carrying the food are safe and not attacked by bears that would be attracted by the smell of food.

Everything in nature is interconnected – there’s something called ‘lichen’ – which grows on trees and rocks; it’s a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungus – fungus provides a structure for the algae to grow, while the algae makes food for the fungus! Animals in this part of the world look to consume a lot of protein in the non-winter months; lichen has 5% protein, and caribou (reindeer) produce an enzyme lichenase that enables them to extract the full 5% of protein!  

With a long winter season here, vegetation is slow-growing, and they explained why you won’t see large animals in every corner – they require a lot of food – greenery or smaller animals. 

The Athabaskans were the first inhabitants of Alaska – the first people in Alaska arrived from Asia 14,000 years ago, towards the end of the ice age. The Athabaskans revered bears, believing in their spiritual powers. They were hunted but only after elaborate rituals, and the spear wasn’t thrown at the bear as we would imagine – instead, they would keep it firm on the ground, and the charging bear would land on it. The natives made use of whatever the land provided to improve their livelihood – clothing and sleeping bags were made using animal hides, roots were used for ropes, birch bark was used for canoes and baskets, and animal bones were used for weaving. There was an exhibit explaining how every part of a moose was used for something – even the grease from their fat was used in Athabaskan ice cream! There were exhibits on gold mining as part of the gold rush in the early years – it is one of the tourist activities you will find – companies organising gold panning tours where you can learn how people used to search for gold back then. 

There is also “mushing” or dogsledding in this part of the world – makes the land more accessible in the winter months, with some places even hard to reach on snowmobiles. There are kennels established in Denali Park to provide a stock of sturdy dogs to help the park rangers during their winter patrols and help carry materials. 

You could spend longer in the visitor centre going over the exhibits – it was a nice little set-up that gave a traditional feel because of the materials used inside – a lot of wood rather than cement. 
There was a board outside the visitor centre listing some activities for the day – dog demonstrations, ranger-led hikes (today there were two, one in the morning and one in the evening, and they were shorter than the one scheduled for tomorrow), and a Geo family hour.