In August, my friend and I spent a week in Alaska. Anchorage was our base, with plans to explore the city, ride bicycles, climb a mountain, and get out to see some glaciers. We gave ourselves several ways to do the last part: from a plane, from a boat, and from whatever viewpoints we could reach along the way.
Our guiding principle was to do the outdoor activities when the weather allows, and keep museums available for the rainier stretches. It also had a substantial number of restaurant suggestions. Both felt like necessary preparation.
I flew from Kansas City on August 4 and headed home on August 11. Between those flights, we managed to fit in a very different sort of week from my usual routine in Kansas.
Getting to know Anchorage
We started with time in Anchorage itself. Walking around downtown gave us a chance to get our bearings before the longer outings later in the week.
The itinerary included civic buildings, museums, murals, and places to eat. Lunch on the first day ended up being Alaskan Burgers and Brew, replacing the dumpling stop we had originally considered. I like keeping that kind of flexibility in a trip. A list of possibilities is useful, but it does not need to become a set of obligations.
‘Baked Alaska’ ice cream is a fairly good argument for leaving room for unhurried stops between activities.
Anchorage gave us a place to return to each evening, even as the outings became more ambitious. Some days involved walking around town and figuring out dinner; others required an early departure and a carefully timed connection. Having one base for the week helped keep all of that manageable.
Bicycles and the coastal trail
For our bicycle day, the plan followed the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, with places such as Westchester Lagoon, Earthquake Park, and Point Woronzof along the route. Biking offered a way to spend more time outside and see another side of the city at a slower pace.
The most memorable traffic in the photographs has four legs.
A moose and calf near the path made the trail feel very far from an ordinary ride around town. I like the contrast in this photograph: a familiar paved path, the trees on either side, and then two animals that make the whole scene unmistakably different from home.
That was part of the appeal of using Anchorage as a base. We could spend time in the city and still have these encounters with the surrounding landscape. A bicycle, a pair of walking shoes, and a willingness to spend the day outside went a long way.
Flattop in the clouds
On August 8, we headed to Flattop. We had arranged a shuttle and bicycle rental combination, with the middle of the day set aside for hiking.
The photographs tell the story of the change in conditions as we climbed. Lower down, green slopes and stretches of trail were visible behind us. At the top, the view was mostly cloud.
Our notes had mentioned the possibility of a sweeping view from the area on a clear day. The summit photograph is a useful reminder of the words on a clear day. We made it up, but the mountains were keeping most of the scenery to themselves.
There were still things to see close by. Among the rocks, a small furry resident was much easier to photograph than the distant horizon.
I enjoy having both kinds of photographs from a hike: the broad view that explains where you were and the smaller detail you might otherwise forget. In this case, the weather made the second category particularly useful. The fog is part of the memory, too. It would be a very different account of the day if every photograph showed blue sky.
Alaska from the air
The next morning brought a change of perspective. On August 9, we went flightseeing with Rust’s, exchanging the hiking trail for a seat in a small plane.
From the air, the landscape became much harder to take in all at once. Snowfields stretched between dark ridges, and glaciers filled the spaces between mountains. The red wing in the photographs helps give the view a frame; without it, some of these scenes would be difficult to place at any scale.
The previous day, I had been trying to look through the clouds from a mountaintop. Now there were mountains in every direction and more detail than I could fit into a photograph.
We also had time beside the water with the floatplane. The mountains and lake made a very good setting for a photograph together.
Looking back at the flight photographs, I am struck by how much the landscape changed beneath us. The camera roll moves from snow and ice to green valleys, lakes, and winding waterways. Each view could have occupied much more time than we had to look at it.
The aviation exhibits added another perspective to the day. After seeing so much country from a small aircraft, I appreciated the chance to spend some time with the history of flying in Alaska.
Seward and Kenai Fjords
August 10 was our longest planned day out. It began with an early wake-up and a morning bus from Anchorage to Seward, followed by a cruise and an evening ride back. This was the part of the trip for which the itinerary had the most carefully arranged times.
Seward’s harbor was a fitting place to begin. Boats filled the foreground, mountains filled the background, and the day ahead would take us farther into that scenery.
The cruise through Kenai Fjords gave us another way to see the ice we had been looking at from above the day before. From the boat, the glacier rose across the water in a broad, broken wall of white and blue.
Seeing glaciers on consecutive days did not feel repetitive. In the plane, I could follow the shape of the ice through the mountains. On the water, I could look across at its face and see the ridges and fractures much more directly. Having both experiences so close together made each one easier to appreciate.
There was wildlife along the way, too. We were lucky enough to spot a bear crossing a pale strip of shore, a small dark figure against the stones! It was great to see sea lions resting across the rocks beside the water.
The contrast between those scenes is one of my favorite things about the photographs from the day. The glacier fills almost the whole view; the bear is easy to miss until you look closely. The sea lions offer a reason to keep looking at a patch of coastline that might otherwise pass by as part of the background.
By the time we returned to Anchorage that evening, it had been a full day of buses, boats, and looking out at the scenery. The early start had given us a lot to bring back in the camera roll.
Heading home
The week had a good mixture of ordinary travel moments and things I do not get to do very often: choosing lunch, riding a bike, hiking into the clouds, sitting in a floatplane, and standing on a boat in front of a glacier. I am glad we made room for all of it.
Thank you, Max, for sharing the trip with me. Alaska gave us plenty to talk about on the way home, and more photographs than could reasonably fit in one post.