The great trip to the great land (part 1)

As some of you may know, I just returned from Alaska a week ago.

The rare few may also know that it has been one of my dreams to go to Alaska, having seen so much of it on TV and read quite a bit too. Finally, on June 26, 2007, it was dream come true as I set foot on the great land of the last frontier.

It was a trip with high expectations in all sense of the word, and it certainly did not disappoint. I went there expecting great things... came back extremely satisfied.

What I hope to achieve with my journal here is not to show off my photo skills, nor to boast about me having been to this great place. My main purpose is to show what this great place has to offer, and to explain the ease of travelling there, and eventually to convince people to make this trip of your life. You can do it!

There were certainly a few myths about the place, that at least I had. One of which was the difficulty of travelling. It was rather easy travelling around the main bigger cities, like the one we went to. The roads we well paved except for a small portion of gravel.

Since I have more important thing like my exam on hand, I shall not elaborate more about the trip until I have sufficient time.

I uploaded first 5 days of my trip. There are almost 200 pictures uploaded. Look at them when you are really free. (link at the bottom) More to come I promise.

A brief description of my trip:

We touched down in Anchorage, the biggest city in Alaska on Jun 26. The very next day, we took the Alaskan Railroad to Denali National Park.

The train ride from Anchorage to Denali cost about $140, and is reputed to be one of the most scenic train ride in the whole of USA (some say the world). It was indeed a trip filled with "woo" and "woah"s as the train went through several valleys and we enjoyed some superb views along the way.

After about 8 hours, we got to Denali National Park. It is million of arces in area, and is the park that surrounds Mt McKinley (aka Mount Denali), the tallest peak in North America. The one thing we came to see is Grizzly! But besides that, the big 5 are the Grizzly, Wolf, Dall Sheep, Caribou (like Reindeer) and Moose (like reindeer, but the antlers is in a big piece instead of branched out, if you get what I mean).

We saw a couple of foxes, one wolf (one of the 90 in the park), lotsa Mooses and Caribou and Dall Sheeps (usually too far to tell how they really look like).

The trip into the park was fun, and funny. Firstly, we took the 3rd earliest bus into the park, and of course, we took the bus that was going the furthers (about 150km in 11 hrs round trip). On the bus, alot of people came prepared with really powerful binoculars. And true to their actions, they were there to see the animals... none were too concerned with the beautiful scenery, or the great mountain (which apparantly appears once every 5 or 6 days or less during the summer, due to heavy clouds surrounding it). Everyone came to see the wild life.... and more specifically, everyone came to see the Grizzly!

After Denali, we took the train to Fairbanks, 2nd largest city, to get our rental car, and then embarked on one of the most amazing drive into the city of Valdez, the switzerland of America. The drive was extremely scenic (i think it could be somewhat like NZ, but I am not sure). Every turn presented a photo opportunity, behind every mountain, was another one waiting to be "wow"ED at. And there was glaciers galore.... lots to see, not enough words to describe the beauty.

That is about the first part of my trip. The rest to follow when I am bored with studying (which i expect to be soon).

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2089603337&code=29038102&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite