Humpbacks may be the most dramatic surface performers among Alaska’s cetaceans, breaching, tail and pectoral fin slapping, and spy hopping (where the whale keeps its head out of the water to observe goings-on), and pods are present year-round. “We’ve also had some nice killer-whale experiences around Point Amargura,” Ellen added. “We were in the boat in a very shallow area among some kelp beds. The water wasn’t much more than six feet deep. A pod of forty or fifty orcas came through. It took a while for them to pass; they were strung out quite a distance.”
Some of the sea life you’ll encounter around Point Amargura will most likely be at the end of a fishing line. If you’ve traveled to San Fernando Island with a boat or kayak, you’ll be near fertile fishing grounds. Halibut, lingcod, and four salmon species—pink, chum, silver, and Chinook (king)—can all be found here. Bring strong gear, as kings can grow to more than fifty pounds and halibut to more than two hundred!
The tides of Southeast Alaska are extreme and can vary more than twenty feet. During high tide (the only time you can bring a floatplane or boat to shore at Point Amargura), plan on being in your boat or cabin . . . the cabin backs up against a cliff, and there are no maintained trails through the thick forest of Sitka spruce and western hemlock. But when the tide is out, beachcombing opportunities abound. “When enrollment in the Craig schools (on Prince of Wales Island) was smaller, I’d take our high school students out to Point Amargura,” Ellen shared. “We’d go on the big minus tides and do beach exploration. It was the culmination of our science studies.”
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ELLEN HANNAN is a former schoolteacher, commercial fisherwoman, and technology educator based in Craig, Alaska. An Alaskan since age two, she is a member of the Nanook Hall of Fame, in recognition for her outstanding achievements as a collegiate basketball player for the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
If You Go
Getting There: Point Amargura can be reached by boat or floatplane from the town of Craig on Prince of Wales Island, or by floatplane from Ketchikan. Ketchikan is served by Alaska Airlines (800-252-7522; www.alaskaair.com); Island Air Express (888-387-8989;
https://islandairx.com) provides service from Ketchikan to Craig. A number of boat charter services are available in Craig.
Best Time to Visit: Point Amargura Cabin is open year-round, though peak season is considered May through September.
Campgrounds: Point Amargura Cabin is among more than 180 U.S. Forest Service cabins available in the Tongass National Forest. It comes equipped with a table, benches, a wood stove for heat, and an outside toilet; a fire extinguisher, an axe, and a broom are also provided. You’ll have to bring everything else, including water. Rentals are $35 in peak season, $25 during off-season, and can be reserved through ReserveAmerica (877-444-6777; www.reserveamerica.com).
Activities: Wildlife viewing, fishing, hunting, beachcombing, boating.
Note: There are very few black bears and no grizzly bears on San Fernando Island.
Denali—“the High One”—is the tallest mountain in North America at 20,310 feet.
Alaska—Healy
DENALI NATIONAL PARK
RECOMMENDED BY Kris Fister
At 20,320 feet, Mount McKinley towers high above the Alaskan tundra. On clear days, the great massif can be spied from downtown Anchorage, some two hundred miles away. Yet it’s a special thrill to gaze upon McKinley—now more recognized as Denali, or “the High One” in the Athabascan language—from a more immediate perspective. That’s but one of the appeals of a visit to Denali National Park.
“Denali has facilities like a park in the Lower 48, but it’s also a very wild place,” began Kris Fister. “There’s little in the way of hiking trails, but the park road cuts through the vast wilderness and provides many chances to see Alaska’s iconic animals. The landscape here is a great introduction to Alaska. It’s on a whole different scale.”
Denali National Park and Preserve (originally Mount McKinley National Park) was dedicated in 1917; it now extends to more than six million acres in interior Alaska. Denali has the distinction of being the first park set aside specifically for the preservation of its animal life and owes its existence to the vision of a gentleman hunter named Charles Sheldon and an outdoorsman named Harry Karstens. After spending the winter of 1907 in a cabin near the Toklat River, the two hatched the idea for the park. It took ten years for their idea to find purchase, but since that time, animals within the park’s boundaries have thrived. High on many visitor “must-see” lists are the “Denali Big Five”—grizzly bear, Dall’s sheep, caribou, moose, and wolf. “I’ve had a number of days when I’ll see one or more of the big five on my drive into work,” Kris continued. “If you take the bus all the way to Wonder Lake and pay close attention, you have a decent chance of coming into contact with all five.”
There is only one road in Denali—a distinctive feature among national parks—and the National Park Service has created a system to ensure that it’s a first-class wildlife viewing highway. “The road is ninety-two miles long and goes from the park entrance to the historic mining district of Kantishna,” Kris explained. “It parallels the Alaska Range, and there are several spots along the way where you can see Mount McKinley if the skies are clear, though this is generally not the case. Private vehicles are allowed on the first fifteen miles of road to the Savage River. Beyond this point, travel is restricted to buses operated by the park concessionaire, private lodges in Kantishna, and private vehicles with administrative road permits. You might come upon animals in that first fifteen miles, especially early in the season, but your odds are far greater once you’re past milepost fifteen.” There are several bus options: Shuttle busses run to different destinations along the length of the road and will stop to let passengers view wildlife, snap photos of striking scenery, and disembark to hike. If you have a shuttle-bus pass, you can catch buses going east or west as far as your ticket destination. Tour buses provide a more structured experience, with narration by the driver, and set travel routes. One trip takes you seventeen miles along the road (four to five hours), another fifty-three miles (seven to eight hours), a third the entire road (eleven to twelve hours). Visitors also have the option of biking the road past Savage River, a mode of travel that’s seeing increasing popularity. “Animals do walk the road, however,” Kris cautioned. “If you’re on a bike and a bear is on the road, you had better wait for it to pass . . . or head in the opposite direction!”
There are six road-accessible campgrounds in Denali, offering a range of experiences. “Riley Creek is the biggest,” Kris continued. “It’s near the entrance to the park road, just a half mile from the George Parks Highway, and has the most amenities, including easy access to the Mercantile convenience store, laundry, showers, and Wi-Fi access. On the other end of the spectrum is Wonder Lake. It’s the most remote campground, located at milepost eighty-five on the park road. You need to take the shuttle bus out there. The terrain is a little different here, less forested and at a lower elevation than most of the campgrounds in the park. Late in the summer, there may be an abundant crop of blueberries to enjoy. There are just twenty-nine sites here, but there are flush toilets and lovely shelters that you can cook under and where you can store uneaten food (and toothpaste and other scented items). Wonder Lake is the closest campground to McKinley, just twenty-five miles away. It’s often cloudy, but when the skies do clear, the view is incredible. Sometimes you’ll get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and the mountain is right there in all its glory; in the summer, it’s light most of the time. (Savage River is the only other campground you can see McKinley from.) There are lots of little ponds and lakes in addition to Wonder Lake itself, and the mosquitoes out there can be quite abundant. I try to avoid going out there in July. I’ve watched visitors travel all the way out there on the bus with their camping gear, step outside, and within minutes, get back on the bus. But in late August, the mosquitoes are done and the fall colors are brilliant. The Teklanika River
Campground is roughly thirty miles into the park; you can drive there, but you have to stay a minimum of three nights to minimize road traffic. The Teklanika is a beautiful braided river, and it’s not uncommon to come upon wolves and bear while hiking along it.”
Though Denali may not offer as many miles of trails as other parks, it does offer some interesting hiking opportunities. “One of our most popular ranger programs is the day-long Discovery Hike,” Kris explained. “The group size is limited to eleven people, and venues are ever changing. Descriptions of the hike and what you should bring clothing-wise are available when you sign up. Then you get on the shuttle bus and ride to the appointed meeting place and meet the ranger leading the hike. When you’re hiking out on the tundra, there’s nothing between you and the wildlife and weather. You really feel that you’re part of the landscape. When I’m out there, I’m constantly scanning for bears—you never forget that. You get a brief respite when you reach a higher spot and can see around you. There’s the sense that nothing will sneak up on you for a while.
“Another unique ranger program at Denali is the sled-dog demonstration. We have a working sled-dog kennel; the dogs provide transportation into wilderness areas in the park where snow machines are not allowed. During the demonstration, visitors can meet some of the huskies that work at the park and see a ranger mush a team on a short loop [albeit without snow] and learn how we use the dogs to help protect the park.”
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KRIS FISTER worked at outdoor education centers and state parks in Ohio, Vermont, and New Hampshire before moving to California in 1980 to take an instructor position at Yosemite Institute, an outdoor education program based in Yosemite National Park. In 1982 she accepted her first position with the National Park Service, as a seasonal park ranger in Yosemite’s Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. Within a few years, Kris was working year-round for the NPS. She accepted a permanent job in Yosemite’s Public Information Office in 1990 and was serving as public information officer when she left in January 1996 to take her first position supervising the West District interpretive operation at Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Working and living in the heart of the park was an extraordinary experience. She returned to California in the summer of 1998 to become Sequoia/Kings Canyon’s first public affairs officer and enjoyed spending time again in the big trees, hiking and skiing in the southern Sierra Nevada. But Kris missed Alaska and returned to Denali in 2003 as its public affairs officer, a position she still holds.
If You Go
Getting There: Visitors can fly into Anchorage or Fairbanks. Anchorage (240 miles south) is served by many carriers; Fairbanks (120 miles north) is served by Alaska Airlines (800-252-7522; www.alaskaair.com) and Delta (800-221-1212; www.delta.com).
Best Time to Visit: Peak season is early June through mid-September; shuttle buses are running at this time. Riley Creek Campground is open year-round, though only heartier campers will enjoy the shoulder seasons or winter. See details at www.nps.gov/dena.
Campgrounds: There are six campgrounds within Denali, with options for both tents and RVs. Fees range from $9 to $28; reservations can be made via www.reservedenali.com or by calling 800-622-7275.
Activities: Wildlife viewing, hiking, and biking. Ranger-led activities include hikes and sled-dog demonstrations.
Jaw-dropping Canadian Rocky views await you at every turn in Jasper National Park.
Alberta
JASPER NATIONAL PARK
RECOMMENDED BY Nancy Smith
The Icefields Parkway, which stretches 130 miles from Lake Louise in Banff National Park to the town of Jasper in Jasper National Park, is among the world’s most beautiful roads. Skirting the Continental Divide, it courses past some 100 glaciers, countless dizzying mountains, pristine glacial lakes, and a combined wilderness of 6,899 square miles that’s home to countless totemic animals of the Canadian Rockies, including elk, caribou, bighorn sheep, black and grizzly bears, and wolves. Near the parkway’s midpoint—just a few miles inside the border of Jasper National Park—sits the Columbia Icefield . . . one of Nancy Smith’s favorite places to pitch a tent.
“I love the Columbia Icefield for its location,” she began. “It’s really central between Banff and Jasper, and you have great accessibility to a number of wonderful hikes for people of all levels. And when you wake up and go to bed, you can look out at that tremendous glacier. It’s always different, depending on the light.”
The largest of Canada’s Rocky Mountain Parks, Jasper encompasses 4,335 square miles of wilderness terrain, spread along the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies. Jasper holds a similar space for Canadians as Yellowstone does for Americans. It’s a place where automobile passengers have a great chance to encounter wildlife along the road as well as in the backcountry, and it offers some startling natural phenomena, like Athabasca Falls and the Columbia Icefield. Of course, there are also hundreds of miles of hiking and biking trails, opportunities to ride horses or to fish, and a charming resort town in the middle of the park, fittingly named Jasper.
Jasper’s eleven campgrounds offer a range of amenities. Whistlers and Wapiti, near the town of Jasper, can accommodate RVs up to thirty-nine feet and offer hookups; Whistlers also features new “cottage tents,” a great option for new campers to ease their way into the outdoor lifestyle. All campgrounds—including primitive sites—offer firewood, bear-proof lockers, and log cookhouses for prepping meals during inclement weather. There are two campgrounds near the Columbia Icefield—Columbia Icefield (tent camping only) and Wilcox Creek (mixed use). More than just a great location, these venues offer walking access to one of Jasper’s most unique attractions.
The Columbia Icefield covers more than 125 square miles, reaching depths of nearly 1,200 feet in places. It’s the remnant of an ice mass that’s believed to have covered much of western Canada’s mountains; its location (and size) is explained in part by its proximity to a number of Jasper’s highest peaks, which serve to trap moisture carried across British Columbia from the Pacific. The Columbia Icefield feeds eight major glaciers, including Athabasca; since Athabasca borders the parkway, it is the most visited glacier in North America. (An interesting hydrological fact: the Columbia Icefield sends water to three different oceans—the Atlantic [via the North Saskatchewan River and Hudson Bay], the Arctic [via the Athabasca], and the Pacific [via the Columbia River]). “There are lots of ways that visitors can experience the icefield,” Nancy continued. “You can hike up a section of Athabasca Glacier right from the parking lot. If you have extra time, you can take a snowcoach (a vehicle specially designed for snow travel) up farther onto the ice. Some tour companies will even lead you on an ice walk. There’s a brand-new attraction at the icefield called the Skywalk. It’s a glass-bottomed structure that juts out over the ice so people with limited mobility can experience the glacier.”
For Nancy, most camping trips to Jasper involve a fair bit of time on the trail. She shared a few of her favorite hikes from the six-hundred-plus miles of trails that Jasper has to offer. “From near Columbia Icefield, you have great hikes available for people of all abilities. If you have children, I would suggest Parker Ridge. It’s beautifully groomed, the grade is moderate, and it’s only about three miles. After you reach the ridge, there’s a sensational view of the Saskatchewan Glacier, Castleguard Mountain, and Mount Saskatchewan. You’ll see people of all ages and walks of life on this trail. Though it’s not long, it gives you a great sense of accomplishment. If you’re looking for a bit more of a challenge, I like Wilcox Pass. One thing I enjoy about hiking is the transition between different ecozones. With this hike, you begin in the forest with the scent of pines. As you gain elevation, you get above tree line and the trail opens up to outstanding views of meadows and the icefield. There are abundant wildflowers, and sometimes you’ll see bighorn sheep. If you’re looking for a more serious backcountry hike, there’s the Skyline Trail. It’s a three-day trip, ideally; you follow a ridge from summit to summit, with constant stunnin
g views of the Rockies.”
Summer days linger long in Jasper National Park. The sun rises near five a.m. and doesn’t set until ten p.m. “You don’t want the day to end,” Nancy confided. “But the good news is it doesn’t. You hear people talk about Montana for its big sky, and we’ve got the same thing here. Our night sky can be spectacular. In Jasper, you’re so far from any urban center that you get a truly dark sky, and you’ll see stars like you’ve never seen them. In 2011, Jasper was designated a Dark Sky Preserve, the largest in the world.” To maintain this designation, Jasper vows to support responsible lighting within the park and encourage public awareness; to this end, Jasper celebrates the Dark Sky Festival each October.
Athabasca Glacier, incidentally, is one of the premier road-accessible stargazing sites in the park.
Note: Thanks to a warming climate, the Athabasca Glacier has lost half its volume in the last 125 years. See it soon!
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NANCY SMITH is a native Albertan and has worked at Travel Alberta for thirteen years. She is a passionate advocate for the authentic experiences and diversity of breathtaking landscapes the province offers visitors from around the world.
If You Go
Getting There: Calgary is served by many major carriers, including Air Canada (888-247-2262; www.aircanada.com); Alaska Airlines (800-252-7522; www.alaskaair.com); and Delta (800-221-1212; www.delta.com).
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