The Long Trip Home: Alan Siegle's Alaska

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The Road Less Traveled

Alan Siegle's Alaska
by Alan Siegle

april quarter 2004

This photo journal contains both photos and prose. All photography was taken by the author, and all prose was written by the author. Click on the images directly following to open Alan's photo journal in a new window.

I have visited and photographed Alaska and Canada three times. The following is a brief description of my experiences as both a traveler and a photographer through Alaska and Canada.

My first trip was in September of 1980. I flew into Anchorage and rented a pickup truck with a cabover camper. This provided me with transportation and a place to sleep. I found that this was the best way for me to travel and photograph the grand landscape. I was able to stop and camp almost anywhere that I wanted or take a nap, since the days are very long. I visited Denali National Park and stayed in the campground inside the park.

The next day, I started a three day drive across the Denali Highway (8). This road is only about 135 miles long (east to west). It is a mostly gravel road with 15,463 pot holes, although I may have missed a few or counted several twice! I love this road. The outstanding scenery makes it easy to understand why I spent three days traveling the 135 miles. From the Denali Highway, I headed south on the Richardson Highway (4) to Glenallen and then west on the Glen Highway (1) where I first encountered the beauty of the Matanuska Glacier. From the Matanuska Glacier, I returned to Anchorage and turned in the truck. I flew to Juneau and visited Glacier Bay aboard the Glacier Seal. We anchored out in Glacier Bay that night, and I stayed up late into the morning listening to the sounds of the glaciers caving. Later that morning, we took a small dinghy onto the glaciers, where we spent part of the day and then returned to Juneau.

My second trip was August of 1993. I flew into Anchorage and rented another truck camper combination. I drove from Anchorage to Palmer, where I visited the State Fair. Besides the regular State Fair exhibits, they had the giant Matanuska Valley vegetables on display. From Palmer I visited the North Pole, then went on to Fairbanks and later on to Denali National Park. After visiting Denali, I took a round trip across the Denali Highway (8) .

After standing in the rain for eight to ten hours each day for five days, I did get some good shots of the bears.

My third trip started July 1, 1999. I spent this trip in my full size truck and fully contained cabover camper. My refrigerator was stocked full of cooked food and, of course, plenty of film. I drove from California through Oregon and Washington, stopping when I got tired or hungry. I drove across the border into Canada, through British Columbia and into the Yukon. I drove as far north as the Arctic Circle. Actually, I drove a little past the Arctic Circle, on the Dempster Highway (5) a gravel road that continued for another 250 miles. I entered Alaska and headed down to Tok where I camped for the night. The next morning I continued my journey southwest on the Glenn Highway (1) toward Anchorage. I stopped along the way and took pictures, but what I really hoped to do was photograph the Matanuska Glacier again. When I arrived at the Matanuska Glacier, it was almost midnight. The light was not quite soft enough, so I waited about another hour. The wait was worth it, and the sun dipped down perfectly to provide some very nice lighting. I continued my trip, stopping next in Anchorage where I took my truck in for its 15,000 mile service checkup. I was on the road again heading toward Seward by mid morning. I took pictures of glaciers, flowers and mountain ranges around the Seward area.

Next, I wanted to visit Hyder, an Alaskan town that is only accessible from Canada and by boat along the Portland Canal. I drove back into the Yukon Territory and then into British Columbia. From there, I traveled south on the Cassiar Highway (37) to Stewart B.C. and west into Hyder Alaska. I wanted to visit Hyder to photograph black and brown bears fishing for salmon. After standing in the rain for eight to ten hours each day for five days, I did get some good shots of the bears. I was a few weeks early for the salmon spawning (this would have been the peak period the previous year), so the bear population was sparse during my visit. After spending these last few days in Hyder, I decided it was time to head home. On the drive back home, I only stopped to eat and sleep, as this was the reverse of my trip up. On July 31,1999 when I reached my driveway, my trip odometer read 7,945 miles.