Our 2nd Anniversary trip to Amazing Alaska - Part I

Yes...our 2nd anniversary trip was to "the great land" of Alaska (the first was a cruise to Bahamas). And great, it was!

Lush vegetation like no where else, 
cool blue ice and lots of glaciers, 
snow capped mountains, low hanging clouds, 
crystal clear waters, I have no words! 

But, I can take you through our trip, virtually that is, and I hope you will enjoy and get a glimpse of Alaska through our eyes.

Months before our anniversary, when we decided to go to Alaska, I spent a lot of time browsing about what Alaska has to offer and I must tell you, it was quite overwhelming. There was too much to see and do there. Since we decided to spend only 5 days on this trip (both due to time and budget constraints), I had quite a task before me, to pick and choose the best places to see and the most exciting things to do. After a few tough decisions and small compromises (believe me, planning a travel to a place as amazing as Alaska with such constraints isn't easy!), I had what I would call 'our travel plan', which I am now going to share with all of you. 

We started from Phoenix on Day 0 in the morning and reached Anchorage at 8:30 p.m in the 'evening'. Remember right, sun sets pretty late in Alaska in the summers. It was raining heavily outside when we took a rental car and headed in the direction of our B&B. We knew it was rainy season there but we took our chances and hoped for some sun. I made reservations at a B&B in Palmer (1.5 hrs from Anchorage) as it is near to the location of our first activity on Day 1 in our travel plan. B&B's are not only cheaper but also they provide access to kitchen (most of them) allowing us to save money by making one of our meals (breakfast is anyways covered). We carried some frozen stuff from Phoenix to suffice for one meal for 4 days. Again, B&B's and carrying meals is a first for us, but in hindsight I can tell you it was a wise move.

Alaska Garden Gate B&B and Cottages, Palmer
Our room with Jacuzzi and a kitchenette

On day 1, we made in time for our 10:30 a.m appointment with Mica Guides for our first activity in Alaska - Ice Climbing at Matanuska Glacier located just past Mile 102 on the Glenn Highway. Matanuska Glacier is the most beautiful and pristine glacier we have seen in our entire trip and you can not only walk on this glacier but do a ton of activities like Ice Climbing. We have never seen a glacier before nor have done ice climbing ever, so we were super excited about this activity. Luckily, sun showed up a bit making things more pleasant and beautiful for our trip that day.

Walking like a thumping duck on flat ice and like a cowboy on slopes, climbing up and down the glacier, looking through the cracks in the glacier to see flowing water and poking a walking pole into each of them to measure the depth, watching the blue ice in awe, entering crevasses and coming out of them are some of the things we did that day. After spending 6-7 hours near the glacier doing a variety of things, we can say that it was the most exciting activity we ever did. Thanks to the guides Richard and Carla of Mica Guides! We totally recommend them!! They not only customized the tour to our personal interests, but made sure we had fun throughout.








At around 6.30 p.m, we called it a day, had a pizza in a local restaurant and returned to our warm Jacuzzi in the B&B.

To be continued here.

Comments

  1. You did you a very good virtual tour..you excite me to go to alsaka..specially the ice climbing..
    Congrts on your 2 yr anniversary :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Aditi,

    Thank you :) Yes, you guys should do an Alaska trip whenever you get a chance! It would be my pleasure to share more information with you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Reddy :) I have more on FB, if you want to check them out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amazing.. Fairbanks is in my to do list. did you manage to catchup northern lights!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey Yuva,

    We went in summer and did not go to Fairbanks...got to go in winter again to check out Northern Lights.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts