I rented a small car at the airport on arrival and stayed the first night in a hotel in downtown Anchorage. I checked the weather and saw that it was going to be all clear at Mount McKinley the next day but was going to be snowing in Fairbanks. I wanted to see Mount McKinley that has an elevation of 6194 meters or 20,320 feet and is the highest peak in North America. I drove north on the George Parks Highway (Hwy. 3) to the town of Talkeetna from where the best viewing of Mount McKinley could be made. It was clear sunny day and I was able to take some beautiful photographs of the Mount McKinley and the surrounding mountains at the viewing sight near Talkeetna. I drove into Talkeentna to see the town from where climb expeditions to Mount McKinley are organized.

I continued north on the very scenic Highway 3 to Denali Park and had planed to drive into the park for about 150 kilometers to see more beautiful scenery. As I approached the park entrance near the town of McKinley Park, the snow was falling lightly but the main road to Fairbanks was just snow covered and sanded fairly well. I had already traveled 400 kilometers from Anchorage. When I turned into the park entrance the road had just been ploughed of snow but was very icy. I met 2 vans coming out of the park with about 9 inches of new snow on the roofs. At the first opportunity, I turned round to get back to the main highway. I decided this is not the time of year for a visit to Denali Park (see picture at right). I decided to drive all the way to Fairbanks that was only 200 kilometers away instead of staying in or near Denali Park for the night. With the snow received the previous night and the snow flurries with sunny periods the trip to Fairbanks was just a beautiful winter wonderland through the mountains of the Alaska Range.

I arrived in Fairbanks (population 30,800) just before dark and I stayed in a motel for the night. At daybreak I left to see Fairbanks. I went downtown to the tourist office which is located on the bank of the Chena River at the spot that Captain E. T. Barnette landed after the boat captain refused to ferry him further due to the low river level. Captain Barnette founded a trading post and settlement at this place that later was named for Charles Warren Fairbanks of Indiana, a US senator and vice president to Theodore Roosevelt. I found that the interesting places to visit were closed for the winter and all that was left was a couple of museums. I then took a short trip through the city to see the downtown and terminus of the Alaska Railroad that came from Anchorage. The previous day I saw parts of the track of Alaska Railroad as it parallels the highway from Anchorage to Fairbanks.

After my short tour of the city of Fairbanks, I wanted to head south and follow the Alaska Pipeline that goes through Fairbanks, then goes south-east for 163 kilometers along the Alaska Highway (Hwy 2) to Delta Junction and then goes south for 451 kilometers along the Richardson Highway (Hwy 4) to the crude oil loading terminal at the port of Valdez. As it had snowed the previous day and I was going over the pass in the Alaska Range on the Richardson Highway, I phoned the State Troopers to verify if the highway was clear. They assured me it had been cleared and that it was open to traffic. At Big Delta on the Alaska Highway, I stopped to see and photograph the Alaska Pipeline crossing the wide Goodplaster River on a suspension bridge (see picture at right). At Delta Junction, I turned south and started the climb over the Alaska Range. The road was plowed but was icy. On the hills and corners the road had been sanded. So I slowed down for the icy road as I did not particularly want to end up in the ditch especially as there was little traffic and hardly any people living along this route. Driving slower gave me an opportunity to appreciate the wintry beauty of the Alaska Range that had received a heavy snowfall the day before. In the pass over the Alaska Range, 

 I stopped at a viewing sight, to read about how the Alaska Pipeline was supported on posts over the permafrost areas and how the posts had radiators to prevent the posts from melting the permafrost (see picture at right). Although the scenery was fantastic over the Alaska Range, I was relieved when I finally crossed it and got back on bare pavement. Just south of the Alaska Range are some large lakes that had a few cottages. Near the junction of Richardson and Glen Highway, I saw the Wrangell Mountains to the east and the Chugach Mountains to the south. The scenery from this junction to Valdez was just fantastic. I stopped at the last pumping station on the Alaska Pipeline that was just north of  the Chugach Mountains and read how a pumping station is built and how it is staffed 24 hours a day. The pumping station is a large facility and I was able to see various parts of the facility from an observation platform built especially to inform people about the Pipeline (see picture at right). 50 kilometers before Valdez, I stopped to admire the large Worthington Glacier that was fairly close to the highway.

Valdez is on a beautiful harbor that is surrounded by snow capped mountains (see picture at right). It only has a population of 4,000 but because of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989  the town has received a lot of publicity. I did not see any residual effect from the oil pill in the harbor area. The harbor was very clean. I saw the Alaska Pipeline Marine Terminal from the outside but could not go on a tour of the terminal as the tours had closed for the season. I wanted to cross Prince William Sound by ferry to Whittier on the Kenai Peninsular but that ferry service was also closed for the season. I stayed in a motel that night and next day headed back north along the Richardson Highway to where it met the Glen Highway (Hwy. 1).

The trip along the Glen Highway that goes west to Anchorage is just north of the Chugach Mountains from where many  glaciers flow. The road has so many scenic spots that it was impossible to stop at all of them. The best spot of all was at the Eureka Summit from where I saw a fantastic view of the 43 kilometer long Matanuska Glacier (see picture at right). I traveled again through Anchorage delaying my visit there to the last few days of my stay in Alaska. I went south on Highway 1 to the Turnagain Arm that is another beautiful inlet, and went round it to the Turnagain Pass (301 meters). I stayed the night at Coopers Landing in the center of the Kenai Peninsular by the large Kenai Lake. The lake is surrounded by high snow capped mountains that made this another of the many beautiful places that I was so privileged to see and stay at.

Next morning I headed west on Highway 1 to the town of Kenai (population 6,300) to see a Russian Orthodox Church that was established in 1894 and contains religious objects that were brought from Russia in 1841 (see picture at right). I also visited the Kenai Bicentennial Visitors and Cultural Center that displays exhibits on Kenai’s history and culture. Next I headed south on the western coast of the Kenai Peninsular that runs close to the Cook Inlet. On the other side of Cook Inlet, I saw a number of Volcanoes that the local people assured me were still active. I reached Homer (population 3,700) that is on the pretty Kachemak Bay that is a 50-kilometer inlet from Cook Inlet. The Skyline Drive on the plateau behind the town offers a spectacular view of the harbor and the mountains on the other side of the harbor.

I stayed the night at Homer at a motel next to the Kachemak Bay. Early next morning, I retracted my travels on Highway 1 to Highway 9 that goes south to Seward on the eastern side of the Kenai Peninsular (see picture at right). I wanted to take a boat trip from Seward to see the glaciers that terminate in the Kenai Fiords. This time I was more fortunate as I managed to obtain a booking for the next day on the boat tour one day before the tours closed for the season. Kenai is a small town with a population of 2,700 that rises quickly in the summer tourist season. It has a coal loading facility where coal is unloaded from the Alaska Railway coal trains and transferred to large ocean bulk carriers that are presently  taking coal to South Korea (see picture at right). The harbor is surrounded by high mountains, which makes this whole area very picturesque. I spent the remainder of the afternoon walking over the various nature trails at the State Park at Exit Glacier that is a few kilometers outside of Seward. Here the trails are very close to the end of the glacier and are marked with descriptions of the history of the glacier and growth of the trees, shrubs, flowers and animals in the areas the glacier has retreated from.

Next day a high-pressure system had moved into the area producing a clear sunny day with  unusually cold temperature (-15C). Not the best day to be on a boat but a great day for taking photographs. We left the dock at 11 AM on the Alaskan Explorer and stopped at a resort on Fox Island for a delicious grilled salmon lunch (see picture at right). The boat carried about 100 people in a comfortable enclosed seating area. I preferred to observe from the open areas in the front and back of the boat in order to take photographs and see all the amazing scenery and wildlife. I saw killer whales, porpoises, Stellar sea lions, otters, and tufted puffins. I also saw Bear Glacier, Holgate Glacier, Pederson Glacier and Aialik Glacier. All these glaciers terminate in the sea. We came close to Aialik Glacier and were  able to hear the cracking of the ice and see large pieces of ice falling into the sea. The temperature near the glacier dropped another 10 degrees so it was very cold when we stopped near Aialik Glacier. The glacier was so fantastic to see that I stood out on the open deck to see this amazing sight in spite of the bitter cold temperature. I was rewarded as I obtained some very impressive photographs of the glacier (see picture at right).

Next day I headed back to Anchorage for my last 2 days in Alaska. Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska (population 226,300) and like most other places in Alaska is  surrounded by snow capped mountains. Cook Inlet is to the west and Turnagain Arm to the south. All these features make it a very pretty city to visit (see picture at right). Of particular interest to me was the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. I took an interesting historical walking tour of the city downtown area. I dropped into a computer store and they let me e-mail a message on the internet to my son in Vancouver and my daughter in Toronto telling them that I should be in Vancouver and back in Canada the next day.