We awoke this morning in a bit of a daze after our long and disappointing first vacation day yesterday. Still tired, Annie expressed a little dismay in the morning about where we were staying (an Airbnb a bit outside our comfort zone) and the unfortunate start to our vacation. We decided that there was nothing to do but get on with our vacation, that it could only go up from this point, and that some coffee and breakfast would help our mood immensely.
We spoke briefly last night about wanting to go to Alyseka Resort in Girdwood and hike the steep trail to the top, have a beer, and ride the big tram to the bottom of the hill. Our plan was to find a grocery store on the way out of town and grab some supplies for breakfast and lunch and head south down the Seward Highway to Girdwood.
Google informed us that there was a Fred Meyer just on our way out of town. Fred Meyer is common in the Pacific Northwest, but there is not one in our town and so I had never been in one. The one we stopped at is vast in size on the order of a Super Walmart, but a good bit more upscale. As we walked in, we saw a Starbucks inside the store, so we got a cup of so-so coffee then headed off through the immense store to find bagels, cream cheese, and hard salami.
In the car in the parking lot, I assembled bagels with cream cheese for breakfast. On arrival at the resort, I would make us two more bagels, these with salami, for lunch.
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| Breakfast in the Fred Meyer Parking Lot |
The town of Girdwood is about 30 miles southeast of Anchorage down the Seward Highway past Beluga Point where yesterday we waited for and were disappointed by the bore tide. On the way out of town following along Turnagain Arm, we stopped back at the pull-out where we saw Dall Sheep yesterday and saw a couple more sheep, today much closer to the road. We were so impressed by how easily they navigate the heights.
Alyeska Resort
About 20 minutes after leaving the sheep, we arrived at Alyeska Resort located near Girdwood in the half million-acre Chugach State Park, one of the largest state parks in the country. Mt Alyeska Resort is Alaska's premier ski resort and one of the finest in North America. Even in the summer, the hotel here is a good base for hiking and sightseeing.
Mount Alyeska stands at 3939 feet above Turnagain Arm with the hotel situated below and ski trails on the lower two-thirds of the mountain. Several chair lifts operate on the slopes along with the 60-person Alyeska Tramway which rises 2300 feet from the lodge to a restaurant and gift shop complex about two thirds of the way up the mountain.
The tram is currently limited to 25 passengers because of COVID and takes about 5-7 minutes to move between the two stations. The tram fee is $35 per person; however, hikers who walk up the mountain can ride down for free. Our mission for the day was to hike the hill on the North Face Trail, have a beer, and ride the tram back down. The trail switches back and forth under the tram line until it reaches the top of the hill.
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| Alyeska Resort Hotel |
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| Our Hike Followed the Tram Cables up to the Roundhouse |
The photo above does not do the area any justice. Arriving in the parking lot for Alyeska Resort, just looking up the mountain was quite daunting. You cannot see how steep the trail is, but Ann was already having second and third thoughts just in the parking lot. The North Face Trail gains 2300 feet of elevation in 2.2 miles, steep by any standard, but the walk is doable if you are in any decent kind of shape and take your time.
Given that we normally walk 5-10 miles a day, albeit on flat valley floor terrain, the walk was challenging but within our limits. A couple of spots were really steep, especially the stairs labeled "Stairway to Heaven" and a short rocky section with a chain to hold on to. Despite the steepness, nowhere did the hike feel exposed and children could do this hike with parental supervision.
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| Wetting Her Hair in the Stream |
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| The Snow Above is the Source of the Cold Water |
The lower part of the walk is the flattest part, moving away from the tramline a considerable bit before swinging back to the tram line and starting to climb more seriously. Luckily for Ann, who overheats pretty easily, we crossed a couple of streams in this section in which she could wet her hair to cool off. She was surprised at how cold the water is. You can see in the photo above the pocket of snow above her and to her left where the creek originates.
In the middle section of the trail, the steepest section, we met a couple from Texas with whom we walked and chatted for a while, before going on out ahead of them for the final three-quarters of a mile. Though the pictures below flatten out the grade, these stairs labeled "Stairway to Heaven" are really steep. Ann quite hates me, calling me Mountain Goat out of affection, because I zip right up these steep parts: I started behind everyone to take a photo and arrived up at the top before them to get the shot looking back down the stairs. Ann's revenge is the downhills: I and my knees hate them and I am slow going down.
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| "Stairway to Heaven" |
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| Looking Back Down the Stairway |
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| Largeleaf Avens, Geum macrophyllum |
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| Capitate valerian, Valeriana capitata |
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| Valerian Buds, Pink Before Turning White |
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| Goatsbeard, Aruncus dioicus |
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| Bunchberry, Cornus canadensis |
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| Subalpine Fleabane, Erigeron peregrinus |
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| Partridge-foot, Luetkea pectinata |
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| Nootka Lupine, Lupinus nootkatensis |
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| Cow Parsnip, Heracleum maximum |
This cow parsnip bloom was so beautiful that I had to take a picture of it. It's a very common plant where we live in Oregon, but it is all bloomed out many weeks ago. All over Alaska, we saw signs warning people not to touch this plant because it is phytotoxic. I've read a lot of literature on this plant and not everyone thinks that it is toxic. Of course, sensitivity may vary among individuals. Some people get reactions from more mundane members of the carrot family such as carrots and Queen Anne's Lace, while most of us do not. It may be that way with cow parsnip. I am certainly not going to be the guinea pig: I give it a wide berth.
At the upper terminus of the tram and at the end of the North Face Trail sits a complex of restaurants and a gift shop. The gift shop occupies the octagonal Mt. Alyeska Round House, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the restaurant complex, there is a walk in bar with just a few beers on tap, including, on our visit, a hazy from nearby Girdwood Brewing.
We got a couple beers and commandeered a table on the patio at which to eat our bagel sandwiches that I had made 90 minutes before down in the parking lot. After eating our sandwiches, we moved over to the catwalk on the outside of the round house and took in the the views of the surrounding Chugach Mountains with Turnagain Arm in the distance. Looking across the valley in which the resort hotel is situated gave incredible views with a constant stream of helicopters far below us ferrying flightseers about.
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| We Made It! Cooling Off |
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| Beer with a View |
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| Turnagain Arm Below |
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| The Height of Cuisine! |
Just before taking our leave to find the tram for the bottom, I asked the bartender the best place to get a good beer and without hesitation, he said "the brewery," meaning the local Girdwood Brewing whose beer we had just sampled. It was already on our to-do list for the afternoon, but it's always nice to get confirmation from locals.
I have a real and somewhat paralyzing fear of heights and so the prospect of a tram ride down the hill had my gut a bit aflutter. Still, I try not to let the fear keep me from doing what I want to do and I wanted to ride that damn tram! So when we boarded it to head back to the bottom, I moved straight to the front for a great view and to confront the fear.
I needn't have worried at all. Being in the enclosed tram triggered almost nothing in the way of fear and the way down was smooth and quite delightful. I amused myself taking photos until we arrived at the tram house located at the rear of the main resort building. On arriving at the bottom, we immediately noticed that it was about 15 degrees warmer than at the top.
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| Glacially Formed Kettle Pond |
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| Approaching the Rear of the Hotel |
Behind the hotel, to the left of the tram house, you can see a covered white bandshell in the photo above. Just in front of the bandshell and further to the left sit beautifully planted ornamental flower beds bordering a pond. We set out to investigate in the warm sunshine as we slowly made our way back to the rental car.
Girdwood Brewing
Girdwood Brewing is a ski-themed place (imagine that, in a ski town) with a really laid back vibe. The seating is mainly outdoors under canopies and trees in the back with several fire pits. A really chill bartender was happy to give us his DL on Alaska breweries. His take on Homer where we are heading in a couple of days: Grace Ridge is doing the better beer than Homer Brewing. We would find the two ultra-small breweries to be about equal, with Grace Ridge doing more experimental beers and Homer Brewing doing prototypical and classic ales. There’s room for both in my beer world.
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| Arriving at Girdwood Brewing |
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| Stunning View from Parking Lot |
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| Annie Loving "No Woman, No Cryo" New England Pale Ale |
One of Ann's favorite beers during the whole trip was a New England pale ale called "No Woman, No Cryo" from Girdwood Brewing, Cryo referring to cryo hops, a relatively new hop product.
Coming from the beer-crazy hop-producing Willamette Valley, you would think that we would be well versed in cryo hops, but it's actually a term that we first heard on this trip to Alaska. All the rage at Alaskan breweries, Cryo Hops are a product from Yakima Chief out east in Yakima, Washington. Most of the small breweries we frequent here in Oregon do business with our local hop farms, perhaps explaining why we haven't heard of the cryo product out of eastern Washington.
To make cryo hops, they freeze the hops with liquid nitrogen, then shatter the frozen cones. At this point, they sift the shatter to separate the lupulin—the yellow powder inside hop cones that contains the oils and resins that give beer flavor and aroma—from the green leafy matter. The lupulin concentrate is extremely fresh and for the brewer, less expensive to ship and easier to use with less waste.
After our couple of beers, we had to head back to Anchorage and were pretty hungry, so we decided to check out Moose's Tooth, a highly rated and very large pizza and beer restaurant in the southern part of Anchorage. When we arrived at 4:15 on a Tuesday afternoon, the place was already on a 30-minute wait and packed, mainly with locals.
We managed to grab two seats at the bar and over a beer, got to talking with a very pleasant local guy who ended up picking up our tab. He's apparently a regular and is very high on the place. Their beer was good and the highly lauded pizza was just OK. We are spoiled by phenomenal local pizza at Capo in McMinnville.
After the mad house that is Moose's Tooth restaurant (the crowd waiting to get in was only getting bigger and bigger as we left), we drove back to the Airbnb and holed up in our room on the soft bed with the rock hard pillows before going to sleep quite early.
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