Alaska Day 1: Denali

Hey guys,

Let me start by saying a flat fact. My short trip to Alaska was probably the most breathtaking of all the trips I have taken so far. And I would like to thank every single contributing factor which made it possible and so very much memorable. Starting from the availability of affordable flight tickets to the successful production roll out of the phase 2 of my project just few days back (work stuff!) ... from the more than perfect weather we had throughout to the fact that I had people with me to plan out the most suitable itinerary.

The group was back - Asish da, Sukanya di, Soumen, Moumita and me (The same Yellowstone team). On the due date (Aug 31, 1 am local time) we reached Anchorage via Minneapolis (1 hr in air after leaving which the captain informed us that there is an aurora visible to the left of the flight. I am not sure what exactly was it but that night I did see a yellow something in the sky - true story!). Anchorage airport was the place where we had to freshen up, change, eat and get some supplies for our day to come. There was no possibility of sleep for us in the next 26 hours.

Once outside the 40 mile radius of the city of Anchorage, it was only and only one single lane road to the Denali National Park (Soumen and Asish da exchanged seats at a gas station mid way). We reached the visitors' center of the park at about 730 in the morning after a 5 hours drive to cover about 300 miles of road in high beam. We waited and then we started with the guided tour bus at 830. One thing was there about our whole Alaska trip - there was very less driving in comparison to what I had experienced so far.

Like we were told earlier, there was no food item for purchase (or pluck) for the next 12 hours once we were inside the park. And shortly we were inside the park, it started to snow. The fall season in Alaska lasts only for two weeks. Luckily, we were in the middle of it. It was a total treat to be able to see it snowing on the vast red and yellow carpet. Basically it was like a combination of three seasons - summer (as it was back in Lexington, and in most of the world's calendars), the fall (as it was in Alaska, technically) and the winter (as was Alaska always!).

A little deeper into the park, we witness the vast open wilderness. The human kind has settled everywhere on this planet, but beyond certain latitudes, it could not find it in itself to tame the inhospitable beauty of the land. All he could do here is set his foot onto the land and start walking. On our journey, the bus picked up quite a few number of hikers, who were inside the park, with a backpack, a stick and a camera walking or biking on the trails and experiencing the wilderness first hand.

My personal favorite of the day was the Eielson Point (yes, this one) which was like complete textbook Alaska for me - straight out of the picture in my mind (or rather some book called "Ideal Alaska" in my mind) into the picture in my camera.

This was one of those places in the park, where you ask yourself - is it really real? You stand there for so many passing moments with your eyes blinking less frequently, mouth closed, slow breathing and with your hands inside the jacket's pockets... And you just stand there, savoring every ray of light coming from what is in front of you. You touch the cold metal railing, just to check if it is... really real. The sun was not  in an enlightened mood that day. But however that big ball of fire wanted us to witness the sight, it appeared just perfect. And in a way, it was good we could not see Mt. McKinley, there is only a limit to which I could have taken that day.

Further down west of the park was the Wonder Lake, but I had seen what I had to see. While coming back from the Wonder Lake, I was feeling like that student who has already scored the passing mark and who is now only going for some higher numbers, just for the hell of it. With my nose pressed against the bus window now, the loneliness of the place became only clearer and clearer.

Every place on earth does not make you realize the planet-ness of it. Yes, it is a planet, at just the perfect distance from that insanely bright and hot thing. And this distance is why things are more colorful here. Within a second you zoom out higher and higher - a piece of land, a huge land mass, a continent, oceans surrounding the continent, and Zzoop! A planet! With this picture in mind, you take a look at the piece of land again, and you realize that what you are looking at is a planet, the most colourful of all.

On our journey back to the visitor's center, we could spot some caribou but after seeing the image which one of the hikers/photographers in the bus clicked, I am literally ashamed to put up that image which I clicked. But anyway, our journey inside the park ended sharp at 830 in the evening. By now, we were hungry like sharks. Ion had suggested us to try out the McKinley Creekside Cafe, just a couple of miles outside the park. I must say, the cafe was a little rough around the edges, yet had that warm welcome air to it. A lovely place to sit back at the end of day. And to top everything else, it made me fall in love with the fish called Halibut. I had one whole plate of the entree to myself.

But romanticizing the place anymore had to stop. Once done with our food and all settled inside that SUV, we started again. The GPS showed us that we would reach not before 2 am the next day. And so it was. After waking up on Friday 7am, I was about to go to sleep at 230 on Sunday. But that's not all. We had a train to catch at 630 the next morning (o ya!). The sleep was so insufficient that I overlooked a whole wash basin present in my hotel room and ended up brushing my teeth standing in the bathtub the next morning.