貓鎮的小公寓
Where Hui & Little Cat Dwell

McCarthy Road

Saturday, June 19th, 2005 . Kennicott

Day 7, Healy to Kennicott

靠著各式阿拉斯加旅遊書以及 Simon 的指點, 我們這次出來玩的行程都是自己規劃的.

在出發前我就有點擔心這一天的行程. 保守估計要開十二小時的車吧? 而且這其中有將近兩百英哩 (約三百公里) 都是石子泥巴路.

更別提說, 在我們的目的地只有一家餐廳在晚上七點的時候會提供晚餐.

而在我們出發前, 開始下雨了…

During the whole trip, this day worries me the most. We needed to drive 12 hours, and about 200 miles of them are unpaved road.

Did I mention that there is only one restaurant that serves dinner at 7 in the evening in the town we’d be staying?

And of course, it started raining this morning…
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Denali, on a cloudy day

Friday, June 18th, 2005 . Healy

Day 6, Denali National Park

Weather-wise, we have been very lucky since we arrived Alaska. FIVE sunny days in a row! (after raining for more than a week, as the locals never ceased to remind us.)

So this was the first cloudy day we encountered, though we were still able to see Denali. The guide said from his experience over the past 10 years, there’s only a 20% chance for people to be able to see Denali, not to mention on a cloudy day!

However, wild animals seem to enjoy a cool day like this… Lucky us! since we scheduled the Tundra Wilderness Tour today! ;)

雖然天陰下來了, 我們在 bus tour 的折返點還是看到了四分之三個 Denail. 這是不是比看到藍天下的 Denail 還要難得呢?

不過後來我們發現, 陰陰涼涼的夏天, 似乎是野生動物最常出沒的時候…
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Mt. Healy

Thursday, June 17th, 2005 . Healy

Day 5, Talkeetna to Healy

We heard a comment from someone, that he doesn’t understand why Denali National Park is a national park. He thinks that it looks about the same as the rest of Alaska.

I think he got it wrong. First, if you think about it, the rest of Alaska CAN be a national park. ;) Second, Denali National Park has more to offer than its entrance area where most visitors go.

You can’t see North America’s highest peak in the entrance area; you also don’t see wolves, caribous, and bears hanging out there.

Even so, the view was breath-taking when we were on the top of a hill in the entrance area.

See, you need to do some work in order to appreciate all this. :)

這該怎麼講呢… 阿拉斯加其他的地方的確都可以是國家公園啊! 只是如果整個州都是公園的話可能不太實際. :P

大部分的遊客到 Denali National Park 可能就在 Entrance Area 晃晃就走了. 可是在這個區域是看不到之所以讓這裡成為國家公園的景觀的. 可以看到北美洲最高峰的地點距離這兒還有四五十英哩; 別處少見的野生動物, 像是狼, 美洲馴鹿, 棕熊等等, 也都不會在這裡晃來晃去. (真的不會.)

要看到美景是要用點心思跟時間的… :)
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Denali, the High One

Thursday, June 16th, 2005 . Talkeetna

Day 4, Anchorage to Talkeetna

This is Denali, the High One.

I stopped referring the mountain, the highest one in North America, as “Mt. McKinley” after locals told us it’s more of a political joke how they named the mountain. (McKinley was the governer of Ohio who has never been to Alaska. Or once? Don’t remember.)

Denali is “Athabascan” (one of the Alaskan native peoples) meaning “the high one”. I think we went to “the big one” later on during the trip. I love the way they name these mountains. Quite straightforward, isn’t it?

大部分的人知道的是, 阿拉斯加的 “麥肯尼” 是北美洲第一高峰. 為什麼被叫做這個名字呢? 當地的人說這其實是一個荒謬的政治笑話. (麥肯尼 (McKinley), 當時的 Ohio 州長與總統候選人, 從來沒有到過阿拉斯加.)

Denali 是阿拉斯加原住民 Athabascan 族人起的. 意思是 “高高的那個”.

我們幾天後還經過了另一座山 “大大的那個”. 醬的命名方式也是滿實際的. :)
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Seward, AK

Wednesday, June 15th, 2005 . Anchorage

Day 3, Seward to Anchorage

This is the view outside of the bed and breakfast we stayed in Seward. :)

睡了一個無夢的覺, 也沒有貓咪來請安. 眼睛一睜開已經是早上七點半了. 好久沒有睡的那麼好了!

吃完早餐到附近晃晃, 一出門, 映入眼簾的就是上面的風景…
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Holgate Glacier, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Tuesday, June 14th, 2005 . Seward

Day 2 - Anchorage to Seward

Have you heard the sound of glacier?

On a boat, whose engine is off, in Kenai Fjord National Park, everyone was asked to stay silent for awhile so that we can “hear” the glacier.

When the first “crack” was heard… “Oooooo.”

We heard more cracks, and pops; sometimes it sounded like fireworks, other times it sounded like, hum, gun shots.

Then the most amazing thing happened: a huge chunk of ice calved from the glacier, and crashed into the ocean in pieces, producing a huge splash and “smoke”, probably consists of ice and water.

And then we heard the roar, like thunder.

The boat moved up and down a few minutes after this has happened, in the wake of the calved glacier.

Magnificient!

(In the picture above, the little speck at the bottom-right corner of the glacier is a boat that can take about 150 people.)

Anchorage International Airport

Monday, June 13th, 2005 . Anchorage

A First Sight of Alaska: Flying north from Seattle, you’re in clouds, so you concentrate on a book. When you look up, the light from the window has changed. Down below, the clouds are gone, and under the wing, where you’re used to seeing roads, cities, and farms on most flights, you see instead only high, snowy mountain peaks, without the slightest mark of human presence, stretching as far as the horizon. Welcome to Alaska.
~ Frommers.com

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South Central & Interier Alaska

We had a GREAT time during the 12 + 1 days we spent in Alaska!

The typical reaction when people hear about our trip is:

“Did you go on a cruise?”
“Err, no. We flew there, and rent a car.”
*silence*
“What do you do there in Alaska?”

Trust me, we had the same feeling until we started planning for the trip. ;)

We all know that Alaska is the largest state of the States. What you might not know is that, it’s as large as one fifth of the Lower Forty-eight. Yap, ONE FIFTH. We didn’t believe it when we first heard about it, but Alaskans made sure that they have maps drawn to scale everywhere you go so you will just have to believe that it’s true.

And you gotta be able to do a lot of things on such a massive land!

Our traveling route is illustrated above. I’ll start writing more about our trip and organizing the pictures we took in the next few weeks (or months, since we’re talking about more than 700 digital images…)

Stay tuned. :)

“去阿拉斯加玩啊? 好好喔! 你們是坐 cruise 去的嘛?”
“ㄜ… 不是耶”
*停頓*
“那去那裡十二天要幹麼啊?”

所以我拖拖拉拉的還沒寫遊記也好, 醬比較知道大家的疑惑在哪裡. :P

大家都知道阿拉斯加是美國的最大州. 有多大呢? 嗯, 有五分之一個美國本土那麼大! 我們一開始也都不相信, 但後來去看了照比例尺畫的地圖以後發現, 嗯, 真的, 五分之一. 這麼大的地方, 為什麼大家會懷疑到那裡十二天要做什麼呢? 我們在開始計畫路線之前, 也是這麼懷疑著…

我們這次的路線標示在上面的地圖中. 我之後會陸續把每天的行程跟照片整理出來. :)

(至於為什麼會有那 “加一” 天呢? You’ll see.)

We made a spontaneous decision that we’re going to Alaska during my sabbatical after catching this show on PBS.

What we didn’t know at that time is that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not very easy to get to, and you’re pretty much on your own once you’re there.

It took me awhile to gather the energy to do the trip planning, since I had completely no idea what one should do when visiting Alaska. After 3-day’s intensive work, I’ve finally come up with an acceptable itinerary (and realize that one will never have enough time to travel in Alaska) and conclude that the most useful tools for (casual) Alaska travel planning are:

• Frommer’s Alaska 2005
• google
• my phone

I’ve gotten so many tips from local people when making various reservations that I almost want to run my entire itinerary by them just to make sure that everything’s right. It’s actually really nice talking to people on the phone. I think I don’t quite remember how that feels since I’m almost always talking to people or arranging everything online these days.

Guess this is a good start. :)

Now should I pick a half-day glacier walk, or a full-day one… *thinking*

I will visit Paris one of these days, in April.

I guess the timing just isn’t right this time around.

Until then…