Recently my beautiful bride, Nancy, and I returned from a 10-day trip to Alaska to celebrate 30 years of marriage.
It was an amazing adventure to some of the most breathtaking places on earth.
Accompanying us on this trip were Nancy’s sister, Karen, and her husband, Chuck Webber. Many thanks to their daughter, ,Jordan, for coming to dog sit with Bailey and watch over our home.
The trip began in Vancouver, Canada, where we boarded our cruise ship. I will not mention the cruise line we used, because I really do not have anything good to say about them except that they got us there safely.
We were within site of land for the vast majority of the 7-day cruise. We skirted the western shore of Alaska, which provided us with some spectacular views of the coastline mountains. Most of the higher elevations were covered in snow.
Our first port of call was Ketchikan. This relatively small coastal community was fascinating. Family-owned shops and businesses lined the main street.
Native Alaskan influence became obvious here and was even more noticeable the further north we traveled.
Our next stop was Alaska’s capitol city, Juneau. I think the most interesting thing about Juneau is that there are no roads into or out of this state capitol. You can only get there by sea or by air.
While in Juneau I had the opportunity to do some fishing. I met a guy, and he took me up the bay to try for some King Salmon and possibly other local species.
The tide was wrong for bank fishing, but I watched several guys fishing from boats haul in a bunch of 30-inch kings.
I managed to catch one small salmon. I was able to knock another species off my fishing bucket list. I caught 3 arctic char. The locals call them dollie varden. It was great fun.
One of the many highlights of our trip was our visit to Mount McKinley and the Denali National Park and Preserve.
In 1908, young hunter and conservationist Charles Sheldon wrote, “Alone in the wilderness, hundreds of miles from civilization and high on one of the world’s most imposing mountains, I was deeply moved by… the vast extent of the wild areas below, the chaos of the unfinished surface still in process of molding, and by the crash and roar of the mighty avalanches.”
Sheldon’s lifelong endeavor to create Alaska’s first national park is one of the reasons we have this unbelievable wilderness area to visit today.
Because of his efforts and those of Theodore Roosevelt, we got to see the exact same things, in the exact same condition as they did well over 100 years ago.
Many thanks to these men and many more for preserving this for us.
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980 created more than 100 million acres of new protected lands in Alaska (including five new national parks), more than doubling the acreage in the U.S. National Parks System nationwide.
Mount McKinley National Park tripled in size, from 2 to 6 million acres, and was renamed Denali National Park and Preserve.
Thanks to careful research inventories, we know that 39 species of mammals, 160 species of birds, over 1,600 species of vascular plants, mosses, and lichens, 14 species of fish, and one hardy amphibian live within — and sometimes cross — these expanded park boundaries.
On our excursions through this wild and untamed part of the world we saw moose, caribou, both bald and golden eagles, tons of seas otters and a few bears.
As I was fishing in Juneau, a couple sea lions swam right by me. It was truly awesome.
Now, some people who know me are probably wondering why I have not moved to this part of the country long ago.
The answer is easy… mosquitoes!!! I hate the tiny, spindly little mosquitoes we have here.
In Alaska they are as big as hummingbirds. I’m out. But I will forever be grateful that we got to visit this place.
(Mike Roux can be reached at roux@adams.net.)
