The One with All the Pictures

Story by Nicole

Our last day in Alaska was full of activities.

Since we were unable to take a plane ride in Talkeetna, we decided we would try to find one in the Seward area. Because Seward is close to most of the things that people want to fly over, though, helicopter rides are a little more common in that area, so we settled on going up in a helicopter. Helicopters also allow you to get a little closer to the ground, which is nice when looking at animals and glaciers down below. We found one company that did a trip northeast of Seward instead of southwest, and since we were already going southwest in a boat, we opted to fly in the other direction.

Walking up to the helicopter (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Neither of us had ever been in a helicopter before. Jason was pretty comfortable with the idea, but I was quite nervous. Within a minute of taking off, though, I was feeling fairly comfortable, mostly because our pilot, Mike, was great at flying. Even when we flew through the wind coming off of the larger glaciers, the helicopter stayed pretty stable.

The view from the helicopter was amazing. We flew over glaciers and rivers and even some mountain goats. The best part was how we were able to see an area that’s really only accessible by helicopter. Mike said he sometimes drops people off out there to kayak or backpack for a few days and then picks them up later, which sounds awesome but also a little scary.

View of a glacier from above (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A peaceful pond (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Glacial ice floating in the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Color contrast (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Flying along the coast (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Unexpected sunbeam (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A marshy clearing (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A semi-frozen pond (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Ribbons of water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Heading back to the launch site (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the helicopter ride, we asked Mike and his receptionist what we should do for a couple of hours, and they recommended the Alaska SeaLife Center, which ended up being a great aquarium and rehabilitation center. They had a bird room with a lot of very unperturbed birds, and we were able to get within several inches of puffins, which was pretty great. There were also seals and sea lions on display. All of the big display tanks had viewing both above and below the water line, which was pretty cool.

A tufted puffin (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Puffins in the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A horned puffin (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A fish loses interest in us (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dramatic fish (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A seal prepares to dive (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We had the very good luck of arriving about 15 minutes before the first viewing of Perl, a 10-week old sea lion pup. When we first arrived at the SeaLife Center, Pilot, the father, was in the tank. After we wandered around and looked at the seals, we came back to see Perl and her mom, Eden, emerging. Perl is adorable. Eden was a little protective, but she started relaxing after a few minutes.

Eden is tempted outside with fish (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eden is not thrilled (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eden and Perl (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Perl hanging out at the edge of the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the SeaLife center, we had lunch and walked around until our ride to Anchorage picked us up. Our driver was a very nice woman who spends summers in Seward and winters in Oregon, and all the time fishing. On the way to Anchorage, we stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center to see the animals. The Center was wonderful. They have a lot of happy animals in nice habitats, and they also work to rehabilitate and reintroduce animals into the wild.

Baby moose are the cutest (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An adorable red fox (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A musk ox enjoys the sunshine (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A bear blowing bubbles (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After an hour, we got back on the road for the rest of the drive to Anchorage. There is only one main road between Anchorage and Seward, and it is incredibly beautiful and very dangerous (between all the tourists looking at the scenery and the locals trying to get around the slow tourists). Our driver stopped at her favorite spot on the Turnagain Arm (so named because Captain Cook went up it looking for the Northwest Passage and was disappointed to have to turn around) so that we could look at the beautiful scenery. When we got to Anchorage, we walked around a surprisingly large open-air market, had a long dinner, went to a coffee shop, and then went to a great improv show at a brewery. Around one in the morning, we finally boarded the plane to go back to Seattle and then Denver. 

It was a fantastic trip. We would definitely recommend Alaska. We’ll be going back at some point to visit Denali National Park.