Exploring the North - From Alaska to Vancouver Island

Alaska, a place we had been looking forward to for so long, would finally become a reality. We couldn’t wait to experience moments with grizzly bears, see rivers full of salmon, meet Pacific puffins, whales, sea otters and so much more.

Read all about our time in Alaska and our journey back to the US mainland in this travel update!

• Endless roads and wilderness: wild Alaska!
• Searching for wildlife on the Kenai Peninsula
• The long drive South
• 2025 calendars are out!
• What's next?!

Endless roads and wilderness: wild Alaska!

We left the Yukon with a slight sense of nostalgia, as we had had such a wonderful time in this area. However, it didn’t take long before we were amazed by the view from the ‘top of the world highway’. A gravel road that followed the mountain ridges, with a 360 degree view of the landscape that surrounded us. A surreal experience and we couldn’t have wished for a better farewell to the Yukon.
The border crossing into Alaska was smooth and marked the start of our 3 month US visa. This meant we only had three months to explore the region between the ‘top of the world’ and Mexico, so we still had a long way to go! As we entered Alaska we were happy to be on asphalt again, but this quickly backfired as some of the permafrost beneath the road had melted, resulting in a rollercoaster road. It felt like we were driving over an endless row of speed bumps, some of which were over a meter high. Madness!
After visiting the (somewhat strange ;)) towns of Chicken and Tok, we did some shopping and filled up our diesel to drive straight to the Denali Highway. Another insanely beautiful road along a breathtaking mountain range. We had views of countless glaciers, fantastic mountain tops covered in snow and wild stretches of emptiness. Only the animals, wild rivers and glaciers as a backdrop. After spending almost 4 nights on this 'highway', we decided it was time to drive south and finally see the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

 

Endless views from the 'top of the world' highway.

Home for the night.

..................................................................

Searching for wildlife on the Kenai Peninsula

As we drove to Anchorage, we had hoped for a glimpse of Denali Mountain, but the typical rainy Alaskan weather did not allow us to see it. Now that we were on a 'real' single lane highway again, the time for relaxing driving was over. The big trucks were rushing (the trucks here drive 70 mph / 110 km/h) and people were overtaking at sketchy spots... that was something we really did not miss. With the summer season coming to an end, we thought - or at least hoped - that it would not be so touristy anymore. We were wrong. Shortly after Anchorage we got into small traffic jams of rented RVs and tour buses and it became increasingly difficult to find nice camping spots that were not already occupied. However, we did find a clear blue glacial lake, where we took an icy cold swim. We decided to stay two nights to do some research on where we could spot sea otters, whales and puffins. Soon we were driving to Seward. A small village where many tour operators were only too happy to take us to see puffins, whales and amazing glacier views, but as the prices were ridiculous we decided not to go for that. We were glad we didn't, because just an hour later we saw three sea otters playing. A beautiful sight!

A sleepy sea otter.

A grizzly on a rainy morning.

 
After lunch we decided to drive on to Homer in Kachemak Bay. We found a more reasonable priced 2 hour wildlife tour offered by a water taxi, so off we went! As soon as we got on the boat the captain told us that he had seen three humpback whales earlier that day, a little further out to sea. We weren't really fans of that, as we wanted to go to the cliffs to look for the horned and tufted puffins, but since the majority of the ship wanted to see whales... whales it was. So off we went, looking for the whales. It turned out to be amazing, as the whales breached several times relatively close to our ship! A great experience, but also an interesting one, as the ship wasn't really built for the sea we were in (6bft wind and waves against the tide), so when we got back to the 'cockpit area' we found our bags soaked with salty sea water. Luckily no equipment was damaged! After some persuasion from us we headed to the cliffs where the puffins were supposed to nest. But not before the captain said he hadn't seen a horned puffin for a while.. hmm, not what we wanted to hear! We arrived at the cliff and saw lots of guillemots, kittiwakes and shags. A typical bird cliff, but not a typical puffin cliff, as they have to dig their nests in loose soil. After a few minutes however we saw the first tufted puffin floating in the water! Great to see, but not the most attractive for photography. After a few minutes one flew past our boat with a beak full of fish and after a while we also saw a horned puffin! Only two fly-by's of the horned puffin and a few high up on the cliff. All in all it wasn't great for photography, with the boat moving on the waves and the wind hitting our lenses, but we loved finally seeing these creatures with our own eyes!

The long drive South

After visiting the hatchery at Valdez, where thousands of salmon gather, we drove along the Glenn Highway with its absolutely breathtaking views of the surrounding glaciers. Since we had initially given ourselves 10 days for Alaska and we were already on day 15, we really had to get going. But not before we had visited the Chilkoot Inlet, where Haines and Skagway are located. We saw countless bald eagles and had some great encounters with grizzly bears in the pouring rain. Definitely a moment to remember. With great reluctance we forced ourselves to say goodbye to Alaska and the wild north, and headed towards the mainland of the USA. On one of our last nights in the Yukon, we saw one of the most beautiful northern lights shows we have ever seen, with several bands around us, and it felt like a little goodbye to the north. In 3 days we drove from Alaska to British Columbia, to take a 16 hour ferry to Vancouver Island. The ferry took us past countless fjords, 25+ whale encounters, and epic views. We finally reached Vancouver Island at midnight and ended up spending about a week there. We visited the old growth forest with giant Douglas firs, had some great wild camping spots where the sea lions swam past us, found a raft (a group) of river otters playing and feeding, and spent some time watching the seals relax on the beach. A fantastic way to end our time in Canada!

What's next?!

We head to Olympic National Park in Washington and continue south to Oregon. From there we head inland to Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP in search of beautiful scenery and -of course- wildlife encounters.

Northern lights on our final night in the Yukon.

 

Until next time!