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| Mt Mckinley. Denali NP |
Alaska is a land of magnificent beauty and surreal experiences. You feel small and insignificant in the presence of the majestic vastness of mountains, glaciers and ocean. Alaska is a place where the urban mundane ends and magnificent wilderness begins. Our eyes soaked in only a fraction of what Alaska has to offer, much lesser was captured by the lens and fewer words exist to describe what we experienced. Still, I'll try.
We kicked off our adventure with a Denali flight-seeing tour, followed by a kayak trip to Columbia glacier through the freezing iceberg laden waters of Heather bay.
Next up was Sutton. We set off to explore nearby Matanuska glacier under glorious blue skies; the ice crunching under our feet, looking up at the towering cliffs of blue ice, and peering into the deep crevasses. We spent a few gratifying hours on the ice only to realize what a tiny fraction of the glacier we had explored.
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| Ice cliffs of Matanuska Glacier |
We then drove to Seward, the gateway to Kenai Fjords national park. Harding icefield is it's crowning feature, a massive gigantic icefield measuring around 1100 square miles and an impressive forty glaciers spawn from it. One of them is Exit glacier from which there is a tough hike gaining 3000ft in 4.1mi to a viewpoint of the icefield.
We ended our trip with a day cruise in the Fjords. Tufted and horned puffins showing off their beautiful colors, harbor seals and stellar sea lions lazing on island rocks, shy sea otters quickly escaping under-water, a pod of porpoises playing around, and a grazing black bear were some of the awe-inspiring wild-life we encountered. The highlight though was watching a humpback whale and its calf gracefully breach the water in sync and hearing their blow while silence fell over the ship.
All this led up to our grand finale which was the Northwestern glacier - a river of blue ice stunningly beautiful flowing in ice-berg laden waters. Watching the glacier calve (gigantic chunks of ice break off the glacier into the water) was breathtaking. A moment imprinted in our minds, we bore witness to history in the making and realization dawned upon us, the impact of mankind in this world.
Alaska is a place of serene beauty and utmost wilderness, yet to watch the effects of mankind is unnerving. Glaciers retreating is the biggest impact of global warming. I felt like we were knocking on heaven's door at the final frontier - we got to view a slice of paradise while the sins of the world unfolded in front of our eyes.
