Jason and I have been talking about going to Alaska for nearly a decade now. We finally made our maiden voyage to that last frontier. We were there for over a week, and like the foxtrot, our trip went slow, slow and then quick, quick with a diversity of settings and climates.
For someone from a location much closer to the equator, Alaska felt a bit off. The sun never seemed to go up or come down; it just moved in a horizontal line from one side of the sky to the other. Plus, the twilights dragged on forever like a kid that has to be coaxed slowly into bed. The sun’s unwillingness to descend prolonged many of our excursions past when excursions should be prolonged, but more on that later.
We spent our first 36 hours experiencing Anchorage. It wasn’t enough time, but it allowed us to see a sliver of the most populated city in Alaska. In the downtown area, we lunched and shopped before heading to the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Dedicated to preserving and sharing Native cultures, the Alaska Native Heritage Center is enlightening and beautiful in its peaceful, woody spot within Anchorage. We enjoyed dance and drum performances and architectural portrayals of villages from five diverse tribe groups. I made a goal to learn how to pronounce the tribe names correctly of all those represented. It proved a difficult task, but I nearly succeeded.
Afterward, we headed to Chugach State Park, the third-largest state park in the United States. Chugach is just outside of Anchorage. It is easy to access but not crowded. We were hoping to do a longer hike in the park, but the Rodak Nature Trail turned out to be our only option due to closures caused by the Hungry Bears and Upstream Salmon Annual Fatal Meeting. Still, the Eagle River drifted unhurriedly beneath peaks grazed into bristly points by hundreds of slithering glaciers, and we were satisfied.
Before calling it a day, we hiked to Thunderbird Falls, an easy-to-justify undertaking along the Eklutna River. This 200-foot cascade is only partially visible from its trail and viewpoint, but since it merely requires a mile to reach, any complaints are unsound. Admittingly, it did leave me wanting a better glimpse though.
How did we fit these many activities into one day? Well, it’s not that difficult when daylight extends past 10:00 PM. Of course, that means eating dinner at 10:32, which is about when we finally consumed our evening meal. But hey, we could have eaten that meal on the restaurant’s patio without any artificial lighting.
The next day, we were off to Denali National Park after eating donuts, fried halibut, perogies, corn fritters, and fried potato slices at the Anchorage Market and Festival, the state’s largest open-air market. Like the level sun, healthy is a little off in Alaska. Next week, Denali is up.