157) Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park

Visited: Wednesday, July 19, 2023

I am still amazed that more people don’t take advantage of ranger talks.  When we got to Skagway, we were happy to have enough time, for a change.  And so we went straight to the visitor center to find talks of interest, and noted two - one on how Dyea and Skagway, towns of equal size during the gold rush, changed trajectories so quickly, and one on the buffalo soldiers stationed in Skagway.  The latter - held at the house of the man who realized the potential of Skagway before gold had been discovered - was particularly interesting - and only Megan and I were there to hear it.  Other than the NPS site, I can’t recommend the town - like many things here, it’s overrun with petri dishes for humans ( a.k.a. cruise ships) - but the NPS site is very well done.

155 & 156) Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve

Visited: Tuesday, July 18, 2023

I fear after Kenai Fjords, I am becoming a little inured to wildlife - and very inured to glaciers.  This is a beautiful park, and we got to see orcas two more times and humpbacks and sea lions.  But the two highlights for me were the film which we only got to watch part of in the visitor center, which focuses on the underwater wildlife and was really spectacular, and our second encounter with orcas, when I was as close to them as I have ever been.  Including at Sea World of Ohio, growing up.  I do wish we had taken a plane or seaplane, rathe4 than a boat from Juneau - it was a long day.

154) Sitka National Historic Park

Visited: Saturday, July 15, 2023 - Sunday, July 16, 2023

It was really nice to (1) visit a historic park, rather than a national park, again, and (2) actually be given time to explore it.  Unfortunately, things were timed such that we didn’t get to see the Russian Bishop’s House, but otherwise we covered things pretty well.  Sitka, for both local and colonial history, is rather old, and has more to it - battles and more battles and departures and  returns and growing acceptance - than I would have guessed.  If you find yourself in Sitka, the raptor center and bear fortress are worth visiting as well.

153) Kenai Fjords National Park

Visited: Wednesday, July 12, 2023 - Friday, July 14, 2023

The real visit of the park was on Thursday; on Wednesday, we saw the visitor center, and we'll go again very briefly tomorrow.  But today we took an eight-and-a-half hour boat ride, getting in to the Northwestern Glacier (named after the school, which mildly surprised me), which was spectacular.  And - not the highlight of the trip.  We saw puffins and sea otters and harbor seals and Stellar Sea Lions and cormorants.  Probably thousands of puffins.  And that still wasn't the highlight.  We saw _three_ pods of orcas - two resident, one transient - all right up close.  And that _still_ wasn't the highlight, at least for me.  We saw a pod of ~10 humpback whales, hunting by bubble net.  Which was simply amazing to see - among other things, it's _not_ often seen in Alaska.  (From Wikipedia: "Bubble net feeding does not occur everywhere. Alaska's cold waters and the high amounts of sun exposure in the summer time produce food for humpbacks.")  But we saw it - and it was awesome.  The whole day was fantastic.  In spite of the fact that I'm not fond of long boat rides, this might have ben my favorite of the parks in Alaska.

151 & 152) Denali National Park & Preserve

Visited: Sunday, July 9, 2023 - Monday, July 10, 2023

Apparently, the first trick of seeing Denali is - seeing Denali.  Only 30% of those who visit the park actually see the mountain.  But we saw it - not the whole thing at once, but the bottom, and then the peaks - and it was impressive.  Our luck with wildlife wasn't so good - we did see Dall Sheep and Caribou and Arctic Ground Squirrels.  But - the most notable part of the park for me was the extent to which it _is_ preserved.  There is a road in - only NPS buses use it, and only during the summer - but things have been disturbed as little as possible, which makes for a unique experience.  Very pretty - though busy to an extent we haven't seen in Alaska.  Not Yellowstone busy or anything - just not so sparse.

149 & 150) Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve

Visited: Saturday, July 8, 2023

Today - did not go as planned.  We were supposed to visit Anaktuvuk visitor center, and then go on to Barrow (which, I have learned, it the name everyone here still seems to use for the city), but the weather did not cooperate.  Our tour was able to visit the closed (and to be decommissioned) visitor center at Bettles, along with the Bettles Lodge, but - that, unfortunately, was it.  Not a bad trip - but not what we were hoping for.

Oh, and during this trip we discovered why the "& Preserve" is there.  Hunting is allowed on Preserves; it is not allowed in National Parks.  So the areas where hunting happened were included as preserves, to get locals to buy in to the designation of the national park.

147 & 148) Wrangell - St. Elias National Park & Preserve

Visited: Wednesday, July 5, 2023-Friday, July 7, 2023

This - was spectacular.  The mountain ranges themselves are great, the glaciers on them fantastic - and the plane ride to Kennecott was something else altogether.  Our pilot would tip the plane so that everyone could see the interesting sights, from glaciers to waterfalls to mud volcanoes to unearthly rock structures.  And then there was Kennecott - an old mining operation where we got to see all 14 floors of the operation.  Though the guide we had referred to the gravity concentration tables as shaker tables (which I consistently heard as Shaker tables)...  The only thing I didn't care for was the lack of air conditioning - which, to be fair, hasn't generally been a shortfall for the lodge.

McCarthy, the town where the mill workers - um, spent their money, shall we say - was not so interesting.  Though another shuttle, on the way there, came across two bears on the road, and at least one other was spotted while we were there.

145 & 146) Katmai National Park & Preserve

Visited: Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Katmai is known for it's bears, and it did not disappoint - we saw nine bears, including five cubs.  But the most spectacular sight might have been a bald eagle, swooping past an animal which had been killed by seagulls, sitting at the top of a tree ignoring the seagull attacks, and then swooping back to capture the animal and fly away from the rather upset seagulls.  Unfortunately, we were too early for salmon - only one couple in our group saw any - but it was still a very enjoyable trip.

143 & 144) Lake Clark National Park & Preserve

Visited: Monday, July 3, 2023

Our main tour of the Alaska parks has now started, and we kicked it off with the beautiful Lake Clark.  Recommendation: If you have the choice of taking the Beaver Pond trail or the main trail to get to the waterfall, take the main trail, _particularly_ if it's wet out (whether actively raining or not).  The Beaver Pond (which now, in my mind, is Bunny Hop) trail is, as advertised less steep.  But it's much longer, much narrower, much more covered in roots that will do their best to trip you, and if it's wet - it will drench you.  The waterfall is well worth visiting - it's the highlight of the park - but the sharp climb at the start of the main trail levels off, and it's a fine hike after that.  The flight into the park was rather good, passing close by multiple glaciers, some rather spectacular.

Update: I realized, after, that many of the National Parks in Alaska count as two units (officially one for the park, one for the preserve), even though there's only one place to visit.  Numbers being updated to match...