From: mmr@cs.rit.edu (Margaret M Reek)
Newsgroups: rec.travel
Subject: Alaska: travel tips
Date: 29 Aug 92 20:26:08 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY

Howdy,

My husband and I just returned from 3 weeks in Alaska, and have some
tips and comments for folks planning to travel there.  Since Alaska is
so huge, I'll report on rough geographic regions.  At the end is a
packing list I'd use again.  BTW, we'd go again in a minute (if the
finances weren't involved!).


SouthEast (inside passage area)

Geography:
This is rain forest area, with lots of green mountains, blue water and
islands.   Very scenic, and lots of wild life.  You get to see so many
bald eagles, you stop looking for them after a while.  There are also
whales, otters, dophins, etc.  There are also lots of glaciers;
Mendenhall is reachable by road from Juneau,  many others are
reachable by tour boat or flight seeing.

The ferry:
We learned (too late) that you might have better luck getting
reservations for a stateroom on a ferry if you book  through a travel
agent.  We called the first day after we finally got the info. from
the Marine Highway (it only took them over 4 months!), and the waiting
lists were so long they weren't even bothering with that anymore, and
that was in February for August sailing.

We heard all sorts of great things about sleeping on nice lounge
chairs on deck.  We never saw a one of them unoccupied in the 2 days
we spent  on the ferry.  Luckily we managed to find a few feet of
space on the floor to lay out our sleeping bags.  Seasoned travellers
brought their own tents and set them up outside on deck.  Smart ones
also taped them to the deck with duct tape.  During lunch one day an
annoucement came on asking the owner of a green tent to come to
retrieve is as others were hanging on to keep it from blowing
overboard.

The weather:
Hmmm, how to phrase this nicely??  There is lots of moisture, either
in the form of rain, drizzle, fog or deluge.  Good rain gear is well
advised, especially if you are camping and don't have a guaranteed dry
warm spot to spend the night.  We were B&B'ing it in this area, so we
were less fussy on which rain gear to pack for the day (a pancho is OK
if it is only drizzle, or you don't mind being wet from the knees and
elbows down.)  It is also  cool.  We were there in early August and
the temps were highs in the 60s and lows in the upper 40s to mid 50s.

Scheduling:
Do not make the mistake of expecting the weather to cooperate in your
flying plans - make sure you have some slack time between critical
dates.  We learned this our first day in Alaska.  We got up at an
ungodly hour in the morning to catch a flight from Juneau to Gustavas
to take the Glacier  Bay tour.  Got to the airport, they set up a
plane (with passengers) to see how the weather was and the plane
turned back halfway there.  This is not unusual, and can particularly
affect flying small planes.  Even the big jets are occassionally
grounded due to fog.  Locals tell of waiting many days to get out.
Also, you have to rely on either air or water conveyance to get
most places, since the roads don't go anyplace.  Most  communities in
SE are self contained communities that you fly or  boat into.
This means it requires more advance scheduling, since the ferries get
booked  early and last minute plane plans are expensive.

South Central (Anchorage, Kodiak and Kenai)

The ferry:

The ferries serving this area are MUCH smaller than the ones serving 
the Southeast (we were glad we weren't on one of these with all our
camping gear, as most of our duffles wouldn't fit into the lockers,
even by one at a time).  There are no lounge chairs to sleep on, but I
suspect (don't know for sure though) that staterooms may be more
readily available.  The ferry wasn't particularly crowded (maybe
leaving at 3:30AM had something to do with it, but I doubt it).


Geography:
Very similar to SE, but fewer glaciers.

Weather:
Still pretty wet, but without quite as a high a probability of rain as
in the SouthEast (Ketchikan in SE gets over 13 FEET of rain per
year!).  Still cool; temps ranged from 40s to 60s.  

Far North (Prudhoe Bay and south to Brooks Range):

Geography:

The North Slope area (north of the Brooks Range) is low tundra, and
absolutely gorgeous!  The tallest shrubs are only a couple of feet
high, and most plants are only a few inches tall.  The terrain is flat
and you can see hundreds of miles in any direction.  You need a
special permit to drive on THE highway (the Dalton Highway,
alternatively known as the North Slope Haul Road), north of about
Coldfoot.  There are millions of little tiny lakes, even though the
area gets only 8 inches of precipitation a year, because of the
impermiability of the perma frost.  There are lots of caribou roaming
around, and we had 3 grizzly bears running along the bank of the river
across from our camp!  The pipeline is readily visible from much of
the highway (we saw it for hundreds of miles on our drive).  Prudhoe
Bay itself must be seen to be believed!  Every building is
"temporary", as they are required to remove everything when the oil
runs out.  Because of the permafrost all the structures are raised up
on pilings.  Also, nobody actually lives there (many workers are on either a
1 or 2 week on/off schedule, and they live someplace else and fly to
work), so the place is very odd.  The one general store in town had
the largest collection of "girlie" magazines I had ever seen!  You
can't buy any food there, but you can keep your imagination going.

Weather:

Cool to cold.  Lots of layers, gloves, hats and neck warmers were very
helpful.  Our guide also strongly urged us to buy cheap rubber boots,
which we were very thankful for later on, as the mud was something
else.  While they don't get much rain, it managed to rain on us at
some point every day, and we got poured on at least once (we were
trying to pursuade the person running a visitor center at a national
forest to let us camp on her floor - no go).  Also, it tends to be
windy, as there is nothing much to break the wind.  Our $30 PVC rain
suits that we use on our boat did  double duty as a good wind breaker
and rain gear.   I wore my jacket (at least) every day for about 2
weeks.

Transportation:

There is 1 road up north, the Dalton Highway.  There are no services
past Coldfoot until you hit Prudhoe.  The road is hard packed dirt,
raised off the tundra floor, and has quite a few large  trucks
barreling along it.  In some ways I ended up prefering this road to
the high class paved roads we hit by Fairbanks; the steady chop was
easier to deal with than the large rolls we had on the "good" road.

Interior (Denali, Fairbanks)

Geography:

By the time we got down here, we felt we could have been in any number
of other areas in the country, at least while driving along the road.
Fairbanks is basically like any other city, at least IMHO (I'm not
fond of cities, so you can take this with a grain of salt).  Denali
had a wide variety of habitats and things to look at.  It is very
different from other national parks.

The Denali Shuttle:

After the first 13 or so miles, the road in Denali is closed to
private vehicles.  There is a shuttle bus system that will take you
through the park (there is only 1 road, about 100 miles long, through
the park).  You need to go to the Visitor Access Center (VAC) as soon as you
arrive in the park to get tickets for the shuttle.  The tickets are
free, but you can't get on a bus at the VAC without one, and they are
for a particular date and time.  Once on the shuttle you can get off
anywhere you want (except that have to go 1/2 mile further on the road
to let you off if there is a wildlife sighting), and pick up any other
shuttle that has room (that can sometimes be  the catch). The shuttles
go only as far as Wonder Lake, where on a very good day  you can get a
reflection of Mt. McKinley in the lake.  Not all shuttles go that far.
However, if you can get a reservation on one of the other shuttles
that go as far as Eielson visitor's center, you can get put on
a waiting list to catch a shuttle to Wonder Lake.  Quite a few people
get  as far as Eielson and decide not to bother going further (the
"short trip" is 8 hours, and Wonder Lake is at least 11 hours).
Also, if you can't get a reservation for a shuttle the day or time you
want, show up anyway.  Lots of people  make reservations and don't
show up.  Depending on the dispatcher you might get on, or you might
not.  It could be worth a try.

Bring food and water for the full day.  There are no services beyond
the entrance area hotel.  Bring more than you think you will need, as
that bus ride can get really long.  Also, sit on the driver's side on
the way into the park to get the best views of Mt. McKinley.
Definitely bring your camera.  The wildlife viewing is great from the
bus.  We saw wolves, grizzlies, caribou, dall sheep, fox, and various
other smaller things from the bus.  A week before we were there a few
busses saw a wolf pack bring down a caribou, and then others saw the
grizzly take over the kill.  Get off the bus someplace and take a
little hike to get a feel of the vastness and solitude.  Take your
bear bells with you.  Except for near the entrance there are no trails
in Denali; you are on your own.  There are decent maps for sale in the
VAC.  If you plan to go far, you should bring a compass.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Things to take with you.

I compiled a long list before I went of what to bring.  I used almost
all of it.  Part of the problem in packing is what to expect
weatherwise, and my best advice is to bring lots of  layers (or buy
some there).


alaska map
bandaids
bear bells (fairly large bell on a string)
binocs
bug spray (deet) and something for when it  didn't work
cameras (K&M and waterproof one)
dramamine
earplugs 
eye glass or lense cleaner
fanny pack 
film (lots)
hand warmers (handy if shoes or gloves get wet)
aspirin/ibuprofin
imodium tablets (anti-diareal stuff)
kleenex
pepto bismol tablets
personal flashlights
ponchos (for packs)
extra camera batteries 
rubber boots or something really waterproof for your feet
small sewing kit
sun glasses
sun goo (we did actually use it once)
tarp (if camping, this can really save you a lot of grief)
wash & dry towlettes (for times when you don't have any water for washing up)
water bottles (decent sized ones if you plan to do much hiking)
ziplock bags (several sizes for misc - incredibly handy)
bathing suits
extra shoes
foul weather gear (decent rain gear)
gloves
warm hats
hiking shoes
hooded sweat shirts
long johns
long sleeve T shirt or flannel shirt
neck warmer (available at any ski shop)
wool sweater

Well, my  fingers are getting tired, and if you made it this far
you're probably sick of this anyway.  I didn't report on the usual
stuff that you can read in the guide books.  If anyone would like some
particular recommendations, please send  me e-mail, as I don't read
this group with any semblance of regularity.

Margaret
-- 
Margaret Reek, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY 14623-0887
Internet:  mmr@cs.rit.edu	(716) 475-6181 	Fax (716) 475-7100
Bitnet: mmrics@ritvax
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Newsgroups: rec.travel