ALASKA: Frontier Back In Time

Before embarking on this trip we had never thought much about the great state of Alaska or about the validity of anything we had heard about it for many, many years. In fact, before moving to the southwestern region of the United States three years ago we had never met anyone from Alaska but have since met a few, which raised our consciousness for the place and piqued our curiosity.

Everyone we know who explored Alaska did so via ocean cruise and did so in late spring or early summer months, and so we elected to follow their lead.

Alaska is huge and scarcely populated. It accounts for 20% of U.S. land mass and 40% of its coastline, but its total population is barely three-quarters of a million, spread over a land area that’s about 2.5 times as big as Texas. If Manhattan Island were comparable in population density, it would have only 14 residents! With more than a million visitors annually Alaska’s summer seasonal population swells considerably. In coastal town Skagway, for example, the summer population is twice as much as its year-round population.

It never occurred to us that Alaska would have its own time zone, one hour west of pacific time, or for that matter that it would actually have two time zones! Moreover, we thought Alaskan weather in summer would be dry and comparable to our early spring here in Las Vegas, but having endured nearly two weeks of rain and temperatures barely above 50 degrees, we now understand that climate and weather conditions here are complicated. Coastal and interior temperatures differ, with interiors drier and temperatures more volatile than coastal areas.

We obviously knew summertime up here has extended daylight but didn't realize it could be as much as 21 hours and it never does get completely dark even after the sun sets at this time of year.

Our trip had sea and land components, spanning twelve (12) days and traversing roughly 3,000 miles, originating in Vancouver, Canada and terminating in Fairbanks, Alaska. We moved from sea to land near Anchorage; not too impressive when viewed on an Alaska map, but most significant when considering that Anchorage and Fairbanks together comprise more than 80% of Alaska's population and more than 90% if Juneau is added. Moreover, Alaska’s road network mirrors that concentration of activity with two interstates passing through Anchorage and two passing through Fairbanks. Most of the other towns we visited comprise year-round populations measured in hundreds of persons. Much of Alaska’s land is held in seven (7) national parks and all seven rank in size among the nation's top ten.

Unlike most other visits in the U.S., an Alaskan trip requires multiple transportation modes and ours included a cruise ship, a riverboat, a few catamarans, two trains, and several busses. Sea planes are also typically used on excursions too. Many places are inaccessible by road with the most astonishing example being Juneau, Alaska’s capital! Most of Alaska still exists as wilderness and consequently its geological formations (mountains, rivers, glaciers, etc) and forests remain in tact as they have since the beginning of time.

Apparently man-made recorded history of Alaska begins in the mid-1800s with the US purchase of the Alaskan territory from Russia for 2 cents per acre or about seven (7) million dollars. According to locals the purchase paid for itself within a few decades with the gold rush in the latter 1800s. Our guides offered no history of the Russian occupation of the territory nor did they mention any notable Russian vestiges still existing today, which make us wonder about the legitimacy of Russia’s possession of the land and why the US felt compelled to buy it from them.

The early 1900s, after World War II, and especially during the past fifty (50) years were the periods that produced the rail, road and national park infrastructure that made our trip possible.

We knew Alaska’s economy was dominated by fishing, gold mining, natural resources, especially energy, and of course tourism, but did not fully appreciate the state's strategic importance as a military base and defender of U.S. sovereignty, especially since the cold war. The U.S. military has a major presence and is a major employer in Alaska even today.

One guide tried to convince us that from a strictly financial viewpoint, Alaska is a great place to retire citing the fact that Alaska has no state income tax, most places have no sales tax, and pension income earned in Alaska comes with COLA (cost of living) adjustments currently of 20%. There is also the coveted Alaska permanent fund dividend, deriving from the state’s huge presence of energy companies, payable to all bona-fide state residents which could amount to $4,000 per resident per year in 2022. Even though we found Alaska prices less inflated than expected with gasoline at $5.50 per gallon and food and restaurant prices high but not outlandish, we're still unpersuaded that Alaska is a financially attractive retirement venue.

We had always been told that salmon, halibut and king crab were plentiful and best in Alaska. Our experience both at sea and on land contradicts that claim, and we generally found fish to be not particularly fresh or adeptly prepared. Alaskan king crab as a menu offering was practically nonexistent and only our lodge in Denali offered it on its menu a whopping price of $150!

We came up here to get away from summer desert heat and to see all the natural wonders we had heard about, including glaciers, Denali (the highest mountain in North America), and various wildlife such as eagles, bear, moose, caribou and of course whales. Many glaciers were quite visible from our cruise, up in Glacier Bay, but seeing wildlife isn't quite a slam dunk even on land, unless you seek it out.

A view of Denali proved quite elusive due to heavy clouds and rain, but apparently not seeing it during a visit is normal. We were told that only 65 days during the summer season is it readily visible and that typically only a third of all visitors to the area actually see it. We found it ironic to have an entire national park dedicated to a subject that is so enormous yet so invisible to visitors most of the time. We thought perhaps it was a scam, and that maybe Denali didn’t really exist, until we finally caught a glimpse of it from the road as we traveled north to Fairbanks.

Our guides throughout were very knowledgeable and peppered their talks with interesting stories about local folks, customs and quips. In one town near Fairbanks, for example, they hold lotteries to guess when the first thaw will happen in spring. Up there in the interiors those folks also take their dog sled racing and the Iditarod very seriously. One guide quipped that “men are men and women win the Iditarod.” Another quipped that because there are more men than women in Alaska that “the odds are good finding a man, but the goods are odd.” And to attest to the strength of Alaskan women...”men are men and so are women!”

We would be remiss if we did not comment on the tour company, Princess Cruises, and our ship the Royal Princess that made our trip possible and a great experience.

Clearly the most efficient way to sample the wonders of Alaska is via cruise and we enhanced that experience with land excursions from the ship to: Ketchikan, where we visited a now silent salmon cannery and an area dedicated to totems made by Alaska’s indigenous people; Juneau, the state capital and a trip to the Mendenhall glacier and whale watching where we managed to see the flukes of many whales in a two hour period; and Skagway, where we did some remedial panning for gold and collectively managed to walk away with $30 worth of gold dust.

From our ship we saw many amazing glacial formations a day before we terminated our cruise in Whittier near Anchorage. Although well worthwhile and probably the most time efficient way to take in the sites, our seven-day cruise had three days at sea with no visual contact with the Alaskan shoreline. Our five-day land excursion took us to Princess Lodges in Kenai, Mt McKinley, Denali and Fairbanks. Although enjoyable, if we were to repeat the trip we would probably eliminate one or more legs of the land portion of the tour, in order to eliminate some redundancies and some of the wear and tear of bus travel.

We give Princess very high marks for the overall luxurious quality of the experience and their skill in daily handling very complicated logistics for a very wide of guests and itineraries. The food was generally very good with lots of variety offered in many venues. However, the quality of the Princess Lodges varied greatly among the four (4) we visited and generally speaking did not meet the service or venue standards we enjoyed on the cruise ship. Food offerings were limited in variety, quality and time convenience, offering mostly processed foods and not the best quality.

Very important: If you plan to take any Alaskan cruise, understand that your access to the internet and media in general will be very limited, and while at sea internet connections were virtually non existent or extremely slow. TV service was also intermittent at best. We were told that the remote sea location and mountains nearby made normal internet connections inoperable and so our service relied on antiquated and distant satellite technology that made connections slow when they existed. Don't expect to be connected to the outside world for most of your cruise.

In closing, one final comment: you can't beat an Alaskan cruise, especially Princess, for relaxation and sheer self-indulgence and opportunity to take in Alaska’s many breathtaking sights, but we believe adding an extended land excursion is really the only way to interact with Alaskans, appreciate their lifestyle, engage the expansive wilderness, and feel what it is like to live in Alaska.