We woke up to a bright and sunny day - pretty warm - so much unlike Alaska as we had heard. We got a recommandation to a great restaurant from the hotel owner. We were hogging a stupendous breakfast at Peggy's at around 9 am. After that, we took off on Glenn highway. We were headed north from Anchorage. Our final destination for the night being Fairbanks. For Anchorage pics click here.
At around 10:30 am we went off the highway to visit Eklutna lake. Yes, Alaska names are very ineresting. The drive to the lake took us on 10 miles of unpaved dirt road. We were already praising ourselves for upgrading the car. Eklutna lake is huddled amongst the northern Chugach mountains. A calm and a cool place. Soon we were on the highway again. Our next stop was supposed to be Hatcher Pass - but unfortunately we could not find it and we continued on! For Eklutna pics click here.
Soon we were close to Denali National Park limits. The Alaska range could be seen in a distance. It was a gorgeous day with blue skies. We thanked God and booked a flight seeing tour from the town of Talkeetna. Flight seeing is sight seeing from a plane. We were teamed up with another couple and Cathy was our pilot. It was a rickety old plane but handled pretty well. Cathy took off from the short runway and soon we were airborne over silt filled rivers. They snaked through the green Alaskan wilderness. We noticed that Alaska is dotted by millions and millions of water bodies - lakes, if you wish - which are excellent landing strips for float planes. Otherwise, the terrain is pretty much inaccessible. For Talkeetna pics click here.
The Alaska Range of mountains soon was visible in front of us. The tall trees gave way to shorter brush and finally very short grass as the elevation increased. The mountains were taller and taller. Finally they were taller than the altitude that the plane could achieve. So, we were flying amidst them. Above seven thousand feet of altitude the whole mountain range was covered by glistening white snow. It was nature at its best! For The Denali NP pics click here.
We also saw quite a few glaciers. A glacier is a huge mass of ice and dirt that slides on the mountain sides. As it slides it cuts a pathway. These pathways are clearly visible. Some of the glaciers we saw were around forty miles in size. Many times the pilots land on these glaciers but today we were unlucky. Cathy said that the snow conditions were not favorable.
After this unearthly experience, we were back in the car headed towards Fairbanks. We had a cheese filled pizza at Lynx Creek pizza - uhh sticky sticky! We reached Elanor's Northern lights Bed and Breakfast at around 10 pm. It was a very pretty place. Cozy room with a private entrance. The indoors were decorated in a green theme. We were wishing that we could stay much more than just a night there.
Soon, we were asleep dreaming about the next day. In the middle of the night however, Deepa got up to check if there were any Northern Lights - no luck there!