Alaska - Adventure Travel with Sherry Ott - Part 1

Alaska can make you feel small in the best possible way and not because it’s scary, but because the scale rewires your sense of distance, weather, and “normal.” We sit down with the longtime travel blogger behind Otts World, who’s spent 20 years turning real-world travel stories into practical guidance and small-group adventures. Along the way, we even detour into kitten fostering as the perfect “pet life” for someone who’s constantly on the move.

Then we get into the Alaska travel questions everyone actually has: Where should you base yourself? When is the best time to go to Alaska for fewer crowds? Why do some towns feel like islands even when they’re not? We talk Anchorage as a gateway, Seward as a water-and-wildlife jumping-off point, and why the Alaska Railroad deserves at least a full day on your itinerary.

If you’re dreaming of winter Alaska, Fairbanks takes center stage for aurora borealis viewing, with better odds thanks to landlocked skies and its position under the Aurora oval. We also explore trips across the Arctic Circle, the Dalton Highway experience, Coldfoot, and the engineering story of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. And because you can’t talk about Alaska without ice, we break down unforgettable glacier options like Spencer Glacier and Matanuska Glacier, including guided hiking, kayaking, and winter conditions that can open up ice tunnels, plus what’s changing as glaciers recede.

Subscribe for more destination deep dives, share this with your favorite travel planner, and leave us a rating and review so more people can find Where Next.

You can find Sherry here:

OttsWorld Travel Blog

Instagram

Sherry's Tours

Sherry's Consulting Page

Here are some of the things we spoke about regarding Alaska and Antarctica:

24 Things to Do in Anchorage in Winter or Summer

29 Things to Do in Fairbanks Alaska Summer and Winter

Antarctica Cruise Motion Sickness: Remedies to Help Survive the Drake Passage

How to Travel to Antarctica: The Ultimate Guide

New Zealand Subantarctic Islands: How to Visit the Snares, Auckland, Campbell and Macquarie

Travels with my Father

Map of Alaska

Transcript

Welcome And Meet The Guest

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Hi, welcome to our podcast, Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol. I am Kristen. And I am Carol. And we're two long-term friends with a passion for travel and adventure.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Each episode, we interview people around the globe to help us decide where to go next. Hey. Hi. Hi, nice to see you again.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

So you're just total OG travel influencer blogger, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah, I guess so.

SPEAKER_04 0:43

I say it's been 20 years. So 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 0:48

So no AI content on your website.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

No. Oh my gosh, right? That's it was built with me and all of my and it was built back in a time where I knew nothing about SEO and it was just my journal. Like it was a pure accident.

SPEAKER_04 1:03

That's so great. I love when people just doing something to like share with their friends or something. And then it just kind of turns into something that, hey, a lot of people are interested in this.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yeah. Oh, it was really, it's been really fun. It's evolved through the decades like crazy. But yes, it's been a really good learning experience. And it's taken me all over the world.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

So awesome. Okay. And I was telling Kristen a little bit about um, you know, your you could do Alaska and she went to your website and saw the tours. And aren't you also like an ambassador for like Nova Scotia or Alaska or maybe a city or something? I can't remember. Not technically.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

No. I'm an ambassador for a few brands, I suppose. Okay. But um, but I mean, I've been there, are certain destinations, I've been all over, but there are certain destinations that I've been to multiple times that I either have worked with the uh tourism department a lot. Um, I've decided to run tours there. I've written about it extensively. And so, like, Alaska is certainly one of those places. Nova Scotia also. Um, yeah. And then Antarctica um has just been like a huge interest of mine. And I've been three different times on three different routes.

SPEAKER_04 2:29

Okay. Um, yeah, we've never talked about Alaska with anyone yet, which is I've never been to Alaska.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

It's like, oh, wait a minute, we have not done Alaska yet. Oh my god, it's like my favorite US state.

Fostering Kittens While Traveling

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Okay, for good reasoning. I have four little foster kittens that are sleeping right now, and when they wake up, I'm never really sure what's gonna happen. But how low, how big are they? Little little Oh, they're tiny, they're like a pound and a half. Oh, they're six weeks.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Oh, that's so great. I have a friend who fosters kittens. Um, and then yeah, I remember we went and met her at her Lake Tahoe house for a like a holiday or whatever. Yeah. And then we walk in and there's all these little kittens everywhere, and we're like, yeah, I've got four of them here right now.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

And I just they're all napping, but they will wake up sometime in this hour.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

It's so funny because I have a a friend of ours just said that they foster kittens too. He said, We've had over 350 cats over the last 15 years. Like, are there special people that like they trust to to like watch over these kittens?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Or no, I mean, you do have to like most shelters that you work with make you apply, and they like I have to have a um, what do I want to say? My home has to be reviewed every year and stuff like that. There's things you have to go through in training you have to take, but the shelters are dying for fosters. And for me, because I'm someone that travels so much, it is the perfect way to have pets. And I've been doing it for eight years, ever since I've moved to Denver or made that my home base.

SPEAKER_04 4:06

Okay, and you can tell them, oh, I can only take them for three weeks, so I can take them for seven weeks, and then like okay, then bring them to the Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

And for and me, I mainly do kittens, and kittens, the whole idea is you just need to like get them healthy and get them to two pounds and socialized. And then as soon as they're at two pounds, they get adopted out from the shelter. So my goal is to just fatten them up and make them nice with other people.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

How do you sign up?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Oh, uh, it's really easy. Um, like I would just go and look up local shelters in your area, in your city, yeah. And then all of them probably have a little foster page or something like that. Because all shelters normally have a foster program. And that can be with any age cats or dogs or puppies or kittens or rodents or whatever. Yeah. So then, and then each shelter is a little bit different on what they all require and what they provide. The one that I work with in Denver is probably the biggest one in Colorado. And so they have hundreds of foster parents out there, and they provide, they're very well funded, which is pretty unusual, but they provide like all the food, the toys, the gear, the everything that you need.

SPEAKER_04 5:22

Wow. And we have cat allergies, but I think I'd like to try that for dogs because we lost our dog like two years ago. And everyone's hawk renewing. I'm like, well, do we really want to get a pet, but maybe a foster pet would be a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Well, the only thing I'm thinking is, is it uh do they keep if they're very small, then they're keeping you up at night too. Sometimes they wake up at night.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Well, it depends. If you take them as bottled babies, which are normally one to three weeks, sometimes four weeks, then yes, then it's like a baby. You're up feeding every three to four hours, um, monitoring weight and all that stuff. Yeah. But I normally take them like at four weeks when they're transitioning to eating food and litter box, where they're transitioning to being without their mom. Most of them don't have like these guys came to me, who knows where their mom was. So it just it depends. You have control over that. The older they are, the easier they are. Um, the younger they are, the more time it takes. But like I love this like four to six, seven week stage because they're just they're so fun.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Yes, they are. They are my uh when I was in college, my friend she worked at a vet, had a cat. I don't think the cat, I guess the cat did have kittens, but anyway, we got to watch it from like just born, and and then yeah, it was they just lay there, there's nothing really you can do.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Yeah, oh my god, they play with each other, like they wrestle. It is like wrestle mania when it's kittens, and they have so much energy, they just play, play, play.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yeah, gosh, that's so fun. My son is a huge kitty cat fan, always.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

He always wanted one, and so now I'm like, maybe fostering is a really good thing, also for kids, you know, it teaches them a lot about taking care of it, and right, you know, I'm surprised you guys didn't ask me the question that everyone asks, which is how do you give them up?

SPEAKER_01 7:17

You know, I haven't asked that, and and then did do you find homes for them?

SPEAKER_00 7:21

That was my other uh no for this, like once again, each shelter program is different. Sometimes you do have to hold on to them until a home is found. The shelter program I'm working in, as soon as they're two pounds, they go back to the shelter and the shelter adopts them out typically in a day, like it is they fix them and and adopt them out the next day because kittens are always in such demand.

SPEAKER_05 7:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Um, but so it depends. I am not responsible for adopting them out yet. Because I have a decent social media following and people follow me equally for kittens as they travel, which is a little weird. Um I end up lots of times finding people to adopt them just through my Instagram and Facebook and stuff like that. Wow. I don't really work at it, people just follow the progress and then they're like, oh, we really want to adopt or whatever. So that's so cute. That's awesome.

unknown 8:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

But the giving them up, giving them up is hard. And I will say I cry practically every time, but it's I've fostered hundreds and it's worth it. Once you change your mindset into like, I can save more animals this way, I can save more kittens this way, because if I took one on, then I wouldn't be able to do you know this for others, really. Like it's just a it's a role that you start to assume of like this is my job. I get these kittens ready for their forever homes. Right. And yes, it's hard to give them up, but they're gonna have good lives, and there's like hundreds more kittens, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Ready for the next class. Yeah, so bizarre.

First Alaska Questions And Context

SPEAKER_00 8:59

That's adorable. So what a great story. I love it. Yeah, thanks for sharing. So great. Okay, so you may hear a kitten every once in a while. I hope. That's super okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:11

So when when was the first time you went to Alaska? Yep.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Goodness, I'm trying to think of what year that was. I've been traveling so long, everything gets mixed up with me on years. Was that when you were like a kid or you're in an adult? Or no, the first time I went, I want to say, was probably around 2015.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Well, I want to back up for a second because I don't know you, and I'm excited. Also, my our audience may or may not know of you as well. Is like, so I heard Carol mentioned you were an IT and then you left, and just this is your full-time gig now, traveling. And I was curious, uh, and where did you where were you living? Uh, where did you grow up? And then what made you do that?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Okay. Well, good, I'll I'll try to be concise. It was a lot of time. I'm 56. It's a lot of years. Um, so yes, I grew up in the Midwest in Peoria, Illinois, and then from there got a business degree and ended up accidentally in IT, in a career in IT, because it was that time, it was like 1992. Right. We were all just getting desktops, basically. That was my career for 14 years. And I basically moved around the US climbing the ladder at different companies specializing in retail and IT. Um, so I lived in Minneapolis and worked for Best Buy, I lived in San Francisco, worked for the Gap. And then my last corporate job was New York City working for coach. And I was 36 years old and kind of at this weird, like early midlife crisis, I suppose. I don't know. I just started thinking about how do I really want to do this the rest of my life? Like, what do I really want to do? Like, is this it? Because I always felt like my career chose me, I didn't choose it, kind of thing. So I had to question that a little bit. So I decided I was gonna quit and take a year off, sublet my apartment back in New York City, and um travel for one year. And side note, I was very new to travel. I didn't even have a passport until I was 30 years old.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

So I didn't know what I was doing when I said Turkey is the bulk of what's yeah, it's crazy, isn't it? That's such a crazy one. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

This went in deep. Yeah, yeah, I did, but it but it it it sucked me in, I guess. I loved it because it was such a different culture and it was, I mean, everything was new, and I think, you know, I got really interested in travel, and that's why I'm like, well, I want to go travel for this year and go. I felt like I had to make up for all this time that I wasn't, you know, traveling internationally. And the other reason was I wanted to be able to do active things while I was still young. I was, you know, I used to be a marathoner, I was big into running, I wanted to hike Kilimanjaro, but I was worried if I waited until retirement, it wasn't, I wasn't gonna be able to do that kind of stuff. So that was some of the the reasonings why I left initially. And I was just, yeah, I was questioning if I really wanted to continue in IT. So I left and I went straight to Kilimanjaro and attempted to climb that and didn't make it. Um, I had altitude sickness. And that first year I traveled alone. Some friends came here and there, but I traveled alone to like 23 different countries. And that is where I found my travel interest and style. Like I knew that I really loved developing countries. So I spent a ton of time in Asia. Um, I ended up volunteering and doing some teaching, and it was all enough to know within the first three months that I never wanted to go back to my old job. So I figured out ways to stay on the road. That and at that time, when I when I took off in 2006, I started this tiny little website that was my online journal, basically. We didn't even call it a blog. Um, I called it Otts World because my last name is Ott. And that took off when I was traveling around the world. I was like I said, I was doing it solo. And so I just like people started following. I didn't know how they found me. I had no idea.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

And how did that start? Like, um, because and just so you start a website, but do people how did they find you? Just Googling travel or something like that, and then they just found you and then and then um you said started following you. Was that an Instagram thing or a Facebook on the blog?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

This was back before.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Yeah, I was like, that's what I was thinking.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

I'm like, how do they follow? So and if you think about it, blogs back then were kind of like Instagram, it wasn't like these how to travel posts. For me, it was my journal entry of what I was doing. Here's all the pictures I took, and then people would comment and I'd answer them back. I mean, it was it was that basically. And yeah, they found me through Google search, basically, or maybe I did an interview or a friend told them told them a friend of a friend or a colleague, because you know, I before I left, I told everyone, if you want to follow what I'm doing, here's this little journal that I'm keeping. That's so cool. Um, just word of mouth. I mean, it was the most natural way it ever could have happened. And the first time someone commented on one of my posts that I didn't know who in the world they were. In fact, they were from Brazil. I was just like, this is weird. Totally, right? How did this person find me? And they're asking me about my cat that I gave up for travel. And like, I was just like, this is weird. People are finding me. So yeah, I mean, I didn't know at the time, even though I was in IT, I didn't know much about web stuff at that point. Yeah. So yeah, so then I decided I wasn't gonna go back. I sold everything I owned, put a little bit of stuff in storage, and then I was nomadic for 11 years. Whoa, wow, and yeah, yeah. So I just bopped around the world. And and it was a the time when then I got onto social media. I was living in Vietnam for a year teaching English, but I was also blogging. I was making all these contacts early on because it was so early in the world of digital media that like Lonely Planet was just trying to get into a blog. And so they kind of looked out there and saw who had travel blogs and like worked with some of us in the beginning to understand it and so on. So it was just, I remember when a farm magazine started, I was working with them doing stuff. Like I was in at the right time. All the all these companies, big companies, brands, destinations, lonely planet places, were just starting to dip their toe into that digital media world. And I was already there. There was a handful of us that were already there, and so they were just testing out like changing their budgets over and putting some budget into digital. And that's how I started working with all these people too. You know, you barely got paid anything in the beginning, sometimes nothing.

unknown 16:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

And then that's evolved, you know, incredibly. And I got really into social media and stuff like that too. And you and do you do it all yourself, or do you have like a team that helps you? Oh no, I do it myself. And I have one woman who's been with me since 2012 who's like my virtual assistant.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Well, and you did IT, so you have a little bit more uh knowledge, a little knowledge.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Well, I do, I mean, I do have someone that manages like the server and you know, like manages the website if something goes down and stuff like that. I don't I don't code. Yeah, and then you know, things changed, and then I um I really started focusing on adventure travel, which we'll talk a lot about when we talk about it uh uh Alaska, because that is really what I focus on now. Adventure travel, travel off the beaten path. So like it's kind of like I got all of my bucket list stuff out of the way those first couple of years. And then I realized that's not what I want to do. Like I really love the outdoors and the big wide open spaces and put me in a place where I feel small. And you know, like, and that's really what I started gravitating to. And then in 2018, things with blogs were changing and and so on. I mean, I'm still running, I'm still running it, but it wasn't as lucrative. And I started running tours, uh, small group tours, uh, kind of curating and hosting them. And I went back to some of my absolute favorite places that were the most popular with my you know blogging audience. And I just basically market those out to people who follow me on the blog, on social media, or my newsletter. So you get to meet them. Yeah. Which I I never really wanted to do in the beginning. Everyone always wanted to travel with me, and I'm like, no, I don't want to take care of people. And then I did one kind of with people I knew, so it was a little bit easier to dip my toe in. And then I realized I really liked it. And so I've just kind of been expanding that. So I still do blogging and do media trips and media coverage and write, but now I'm also running like four to five trips a year of small group trips, and you know, and that I don't want to do any more than that ever. Like I like doing both and balancing both. Right. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

So the blog was where you made money before, but then they changed it in 2018. So then it became small.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Yeah, SEO had been changing a lot, and that's you know, you make money from ads and the traffic that's sent to your site and so on. And that had changed a bit. I mean, I was still doing like one-off projects with tourism boards in which I was getting paid and stuff like that, but it was just changing. And I mean, now look, AI, AI has thrown the whole search world up in the air. So I'm really happy that I do kind of I kind of diversified our um once again, kind of got lucky in that sense. But um, yeah, so it's been really, really nice in that sense. How has AI changed what you do? I use it definitely. Like I don't necessarily use it to write, I use it to check things. I use it to like get get I I like to write up stories. I'm a narrative story person. I always hated to write the like how to travel stuff and here's like all the facts. So I use it for the facts and then I try to use it you get your story. Yes, and then I get my story out, yeah, but then you know, here's all the facts kind of thing. I also use it for a lot of stuff. Like I've actually I've actually been considering, I'm actually starting it. What am I saying? Because I want to learn about AI and I don't want to be scared of it, uh I am embarking on a little project for myself to have it write my memoir. I want to see how it does as a ghostwriter. So I've got 20 years of stories out there that's about me and my life and my thoughts and my personal thoughts and feelings. And um, I've done billions of interviews and stuff like that. So I can train it on all of that and then add stuff in and then kind of let it help me figure out what would this memoir be about. It'll be amazing. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Yeah, so read it and tweak it, and it's good.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Yeah, I'm curious. It's just kind of like a little, let's try it.

Why Alaska Feels So Different

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Reading, yeah. Right. And I learned the same. Exactly. Oh, that's so cool. Well, I know I'm and I I keep asking, I could ask more and more and more questions. So I'll just shush my mouth because I know we're here to talk about Alaska. But I do want to also learn about Alaska. I teach, oh, I taught aquaerobics for years. I now kind of just take the class a little bit here and there after I swim my mile. I like the triathlon stuff. And then one of the the the they're all um senior sent senior gals. And there's one that uh that's her favorite place is Alaska. She goes there all the time. She's been bringing her granddaughter there now, and uh, they've taken helicopter tours. There was actually just she just got back and she was saying that um there was they said on the helicopter, hey, we have to go rescue some folks that are stuck on some mountain or something. Yep. And I think they were like, oh, he's gonna lose his nose or tip of his nose or something because it was really messed up. So I was like, oh, but she just raves about it. So I'm looking forward to hearing about it from you.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Such an interesting part of the US. I'm so glad we have it. We're so lucky.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:56

That we scooped it up whenever what year we did. Living it since you're in Colorado too. I'm just like, there's so much to explore in the Rocky Mountains. It's so beautiful and it's like so empty in so many places. Like I would be very curious your perspective of like, yeah, Colorado is amazing, but this is like next level, or here's why it's so much more unique and fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Yeah, I mean, it is. It is absolutely next level. Um, it is more space than you can ever imagine. So I like Alaska for a couple of reasons. One, it's that big open space. It's super, you can find the most remote areas, some of the most remote areas on the planet there. And I like that kind of stuff. But secondarily, what makes it so interesting to me is the culture. And I'm not just talking about like the Inuit culture and stuff like that. That is fascinating. But from the moment, from the first time I went there, I was intrigued with the people that live there because they're Americans, but they just have such a different life and outlook on life and nature. And when I first went to Fairbanks and I met people, and I'm like, how do you deal with the winter and like darkness for whatever 20 hours? And and it gets so cold. And I was just fascinated because most of that state too is wilderness. Like you can't, there's not even roads that go places. And once you winter actually kind of makes it easier for the locals to travel in a way because the rivers freeze and they can drive on the rivers. Ah wow. It's so interesting. You can actually get further into places. It just was so fascinating. And the first time I went, I think I said it was like around 2015. What actually took me there was I was gonna go on this expedition to this expedition cruise, I should say, um, to Wrangle Island, which is in Russia. It's actually north of Russia, north of the Arctic Circle. Um, and the only way to get there, or the way to get there, was to fly to Nome, Alaska, and then take a charter small jet over the Bering Strait to Anadir, Russia, and then that's where you got on this ship. So it it basically took me to Gnome. So I flew into to Anchorage and then to Nome. Gnome is I think Gnome is probably what like first got me because it's a town, it's a decent sized town, let's say. Is that G right on the Bering Sea? N-O-M-E. Yeah. Oh, just N-O, no G. Okay, not like that. No, okay. It's you know, this town on the Bering Sea that's known for its, you know, people mining for gold or whatever. And it is not connected to anything, it's the end of the Iditerrod. There's no roads, there's three roads that lead out of gnome, and they all just end. Like so they are really, even though they're not on an island, they're on an island, and it makes them really kind of quirky. Oh, yeah. I like quirky. Yeah, I like quirky.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

I mean I see they're like it looks like I mean, they're not on an island, but they're they're it looks like landlocked except for the ocean side, and it's very tiny, it looks sort of right exposed to the Pacific Ocean, yeah, and harsh, harsh environment, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Yeah, so I was fascinated with Gnome. I loved it. Yeah, I had a great time there, and then I was kind of uh then I was working with the on that same trip when I came back from Wrangle Island, I had to come back through Nome again, and I was working with the tourism department uh to do some media coverage of other really remote towns, and so I got to go to all these cool remote places, and that's what first hooked me. But like I said, it was a combination of the people you meet who are a little interesting and quirky, and you just go, wow, you're really badass for living out here. Like this is crazy to me. You know, you learn about dry cabins, there's dry cabins everywhere, and that's cabins without plumbing, and everyone has them with kids that are waking up. Um do they just use the snow for water then? Uh dry cabins? Or well, and they can do that, or they'll have like a big pickup truck with the water tank on it, you know, that they'll go into town and get filled.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Do they have like um what is it? Like in Colorado, right? You've got you have one, Carol, I think. What is it?

SPEAKER_00 26:50

The cistern or yeah, uh, where you can just go fill up. Yep. You've seen all maybe you haven't, you know. There's a bunch of shows, I don't watch them about Alaska and people living in the last frontier. And you know, it's just they're interesting people, they're hearty, interesting people that I like. And maybe it's because I'm also from the Midwest and I grew up kind of in the country and my parents were farmers. Like I really relate to them in a way, like I'm fascinated with them. So those are a couple of the things that got me going about Alaska. It is beautiful, and I tell you what, back to your original question, it's nothing like Colorado in that sense. Because Colorado is beautiful, and yes, we've got all these great mountains, but it's way more densely populated. The culture is it's just typical American culture to me. Right.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

Uh whereas like Alaska, when you're 14, you get a uh pilot's license and you have your own plane typically. Like it is insane. The bush pilots there are amazing. And this is because, once again, it's such a remote area, there's not roads. So I can't tell you how many bush flights I've taken in Alaska. A lot. Let's just put it that way.

SPEAKER_04 28:05

Oh so they're just like little tiny planes just to hop.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 28:09

What do we call like puddle jumpers or something?

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Lake Clark National Park once for like a week-long, not even uh like hiking and and uh kayaking trip, like camping trip. It's so remote. It's one of the most least visited national parks, which I think Alaska majority of them. Lake Clark National Park. The only way you can get there is by float plane. The only way. So like you fly into this pristine area, there's no one living there. There's really there might be a couple of cabins where people go to fish and hunt or something, but like it's just pristine. I'm looking at pictures, like what's it called again?

SPEAKER_01 28:55

What what's the town?

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Lake Lake Clark National Park. Yeah, it's a great place to see bears. Um you have to take a plane to get there.

SPEAKER_04 29:05

Yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

So we took a go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 29:08

Where do you sleep?

SPEAKER_00 29:10

They have like five well on that trip, it was all camping. Okay, so we flew in with float planes and we had um all of our camping equipment, our food and everything. We had I I went with an outfitter. I did not, I am not that outdoorsy where I can do this myself. Um and we had, I don't know, about six or four or five, I don't know, inflatable kayaks. And so we kayed the lakes to different camp spots, and then we also did some hiking, but we would pack up our camp and put it all in the kayaks and then kayak to another part. Uh yeah, it's an incredible park, and there's a can of the summer. I did yes, it was in the summer, it was probably late August or so. Yeah. What was the temperatures? It was cold. Uh summer temperatures around there are like you might get to a high of 60. Yeah. Lows of 45, somewhere in there, maybe. That's not a bad low. That's actually okay. Yeah. I mean, it hadn't snowed yet there, but there was snow on the mountains for sure.

SPEAKER_05 30:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Um, in fact, we ran into some rain. But yeah, I mean, it was an incredible trip. And then we had to float plane out. Like it, you know, it just it's really wilderness. And we learned about the whole story of the park and how it came to be. And you know, there's a fascinating history behind it. But that's just one of the many remote parks that you can fly into and go visit there. And that's what I like. I mean, we always hear about Denali. Yes, I was gonna ask Denali's definitely. But I will tell you in all the trips that I've been there, and I've been there a lot, I've been, I've never been to Denali in the summer. For me, it's just I like I said, I really like to go places where people aren't. And my motto in travel basically is I see where everyone's going and I'll turn around and go the other way. I love going to Denali though in the winter because no one's there. Yes. Oh my gosh, you are hardcore. No, it's not that cold. It really isn't. So my favorite, I've I've been in summer and I've but I run my tours there in winter. What's the temperatures then? It depends on where you're at. So in um in like the Anchorage, more in the southern part, uh, it's probably like highs of 25, lows of 15 or somewhere in there on average. I mean, they'll have a cold spell.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

There's not a big highbanks then. That's kind of good to know.

Denali Winter And Aurora Strategy

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Yeah. Fairbanks, it's a whole different story. So Fairbanks will get to more like negative 15. That sounds more like Alaska. Yeah. But I love going to Fairbanks in the winter because that is where you see the Aurora. Oh, yes. Yeah. So it's to me probably the best place to see the Aurora as far as like your best chance. They say if you stay three nights, like your odds are 80%, 85% that you're gonna see the Aurora. And the reason why is it's because up in Fairbanks it's landlocked, right? So you don't have all that moisture that creates cloud cover. And and Fairbanks is right under the Aurora oval, it's called. You could get Aurora practically every night to some degree, as long as there's not cloud cover and you can see it. So yeah, it's uh it's really great. It's colder than heck, but you can do so many cool things there, you know, while you wait. And they've got they've really expanded their Aurora tourism for sure. Yeah. How much do they cost to get there? In the winter? Yeah, generally pretty expensive or uh in the summer, it's way more expensive. In the winter, not as much. It's probably going up because, like I said, they've really increased their winter tourism since the first time I went there. Um, but I would say, I don't know, we have a direct flight from Denver. It's not more than$500. I want to say in the winter, it's probably more like$400 or three. Nice. Oh, not$300, probably$400.

SPEAKER_04 33:32

It's like round trip, you're thinking, or that's one way. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_04 33:36

Um the auroras are better in the winter.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Yes. But I if I had to pick, I would tell everyone to go in the winter. Okay. Um, because I find it really fascinating and less tourists and you get to these locals.

SPEAKER_04 33:49

Isn't it like this dark all the time? How do you see anything? No. No. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

So well, if you go in December, yes. Uh if you go in January, yes. So I normally take my tours out in mid-February, which is still kind of a low season for winter tourism. Their main winter tourism is March. That's when everyone needs to go because it's warmed up and people aren't as afraid of the cold, but you don't need to be afraid of the cold. Just dress right. That's always my theory. And there's so much technology now in gear, where you just have a battery that you plug in and your whole jacket is heated and your socks are heated, and it's it's really not that big a deal. Ah, okay. Um, so it's harder, like I'm also a photographer, it's harder to like keep your camera and gear and stuff from freezing up. But I would say anytime mid-February into March is great for winter. But if you're gonna, if you want to go to Alaska in the summer, this is my personal opinion, the best time to go is at the end of August and beginning of September.

SPEAKER_05 34:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Um, because there's I've never had an issue with like bugs, mosquitoes, all that stuff that you can get in the spring if you go, or even in the middle of summer, because everything's kind of hatching, right? And okay, and so that can be a big issue that's not fun. The tourism season definitely winds down in September. So it's not if you but you can still get that like nice kind of summer-ish feel, right? Um, and things are open. Things are open normally until Labor Day, like a week or two after Labor Day, and then everyone shuts up. Uh, so you do have to watch that. But the other reason why to go at that time is that there's a chance that you're also gonna catch Aurora at that time. I've certainly seen Aurora there in September. So it's it's certainly not as guaranteed, but it's a possibility. So that's kind of fun. And I always say, like, if you want to go experience fall, then you go to Alaska in the end of August, beginning of September. And if you're up in like Fairbanks in September, it will be complete full-on fall. Their fall happens fast, but it happens early. So it's really a great way to see the leaves. Yeah, it's cool.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

That sounds so beautiful. I am just looking at a little map. It says Prudhoe Bay and Wainwright.

Arctic Circle Trips And Pipeline Stops

SPEAKER_00 36:25

I have not been to Prudhoe Bay, but I've been just about there. So one of the things I always tell people in winter or summer, go to Fairbanks, because Fairbanks is really unique. Like I said, they're they're a little bit more, they're more landlocked. It makes them even a little bit more quirkier in a way, um, which I like. And from there, you can do tours up across the Arctic Circle. You can learn all about the pipeline, which I think is fascinating because you're going to follow the pipeline up the ice road. And the ice road basically goes from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay or whatever. But they have a couple of tours that they run in summer and winter where you can either drive up the ice road, you know, have like have someone drive you up the ice road, uh, or you can fly up, drive back, or drive up, fly back in a tiny little bush plane. Um, but it's really cool. And you go up to an area called Coldfoot, which is a one of these super remote towns that no one lives in. It was a truck stop on the ice highway. And it is it is still a truck stop. It is crazy. But there's like a hotel there, and there's all kinds of stuff you can do. The hotel is basically um containers, but they've turned it into a hotel. Oh my gosh. Uh crazy, you know, it's super basic, but it's it is off off the grid. Great place for Aurora to see Aurora, great place to just get a real feel for like who lives up here. Um, and beautiful. And you're also kind of by the what is it, gates of the Arctic National Park. So a lot of national parks.

SPEAKER_04 38:03

How many national parks do we have in the world? I want to say maybe seven. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

Only seven. It looks like there was a lot.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

Maybe there's more. I'm uh this is off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

Or I just yeah, I was just looking, um, and I'm looking at Coldfoot right now because I'm seeing also a whole bunch of um, I don't know what looks like camping containers and then dogs around it. Um and then sled in a sled.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

So I don't know. Yeah, there's dog sledding and stuff up there in the winter. Um yeah, it's a great trip. And like I said, I I find the pipeline stuff really fascinating to learn about how it was built, all the stuff they have to take into account up there uh with the permafrost, when it's above ground, when it's below ground, how they maintain it. It's pretty cool. A lot of engineering.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

I'm curious what would tell me a little highlights of some of that, because I I'm I think it's also very interesting. You mean about the pipeline in general? Yeah, why was it built?

SPEAKER_00 39:08

What does it do? I guess, and then well, it moves oil.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 39:12

From Crudeau Bay down to I can't remember the the end of it down, but yeah, I mean it was a huge engineering feat for them to build that, and mainly because it was on permafrost because permafrost is is moving, and they also have they have a lot of earthquakes in Alaska. Oh I've been there where there's been earthquakes, so they had to also make it so that you know the the pipeline wouldn't break apart and contaminate all this, you know, there's tons of oil moving through there every day. I don't know exactly what the the numbers are anymore off the top of my head, but there's also like a museum and stuff like that where you can go and learn all about the building of it, which I I really, really love. Yeah, I just think it's a really fascinating thing to see. And and like I said, that whole road, that ice road was built for the people building the pipeline. So it follows the pipeline the whole way up.

SPEAKER_04 40:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 40:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 40:11

And then what about Anchorage? You haven't mentioned that yet. Is that like more touristy? And is that where like I feel like most people that I know they've gone to Alaska have done the cruises? Is that like the cruise in the Gulf of Alaska? And what do you think about cruises versus everything else you just talked about? I guess there's a lot more people, Americans.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Yeah. Um, so Anchorage is also a really great town, summer or winter. It's you know, it's not very big. It reminds me a lot of the Midwest in that sense, but it's you know, it's got the tallest buildings, which might be like what, 13 stories or something. Like I mean, it's basic. And it is the jumping off place for everyone who arrives in Alaska, basically. So if you go south from there, you've got really beautiful coastline down to Seward. You can go to Katmai uh National Park from there. That's how I flew into um or from Anchorage, I flew to another place to get into Lake Clark National Park. So they have their, that's the big international airport, as well as they've got a smaller airport that that will take smaller planes or bush planes out to all these other destinations, right? The food, every time I go, there's more restaurants, like more, like the food's getting better. The there's they're building some more um hotels and lodging and stuff like that, which is nice. But you know, there's really not a ton of like chains, there's nothing super luxury out there or anything. It's just really basic. It's also where, and this is an important piece, uh, where the Alaska Railroad starts, or where it's, I should say, headquarters are, it's not where it starts, but that's where the station is. And most of the train trips that the Alaska Railroad does start out of Anchorage and go either south or north. And that is one thing, if you're gonna go to Alaska, I would highly recommend taking the train for at least a day. Oh great. Because it is amazing. And we don't, I mean, there are no other states that have their own railroad.

SPEAKER_04 42:16

I mean, okay. Train is it like you just go on a train ride, or you're actually train taking a train from like Anchorage to Fairbanks or something?

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Or is it you're you're going, you use it for your transportation.

SPEAKER_04 42:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:28

And in the summer, it runs like all these routes run every day. So you can use it to get, let's say, you can fly into Anchorage, do stuff around there, and then take the train up to Fairbanks. You can stop in a little town called Taw Keatna, which is one of my favorites. Get off, spend a day there, get back on the train the next day. You could go up to Denali, get off, do stuff around Denali, get back on the train, go up to Fairbanks, or you could take it back to Anchorage. I mean, you've got all kinds of choices.

SPEAKER_04 43:00

So if you did that to Denali, these other things, how do you get around once you're in those little areas?

Trip Planning Help And Small Tours

SPEAKER_00 43:04

Then do you have to like yeah, they have to drive, probably do tours, but in Denali National Park, too. You got to remember people don't drive there. You have to take buses in, I believe. Oh, okay. Um, this is where, because I've never visited in the summer, I don't really know, but I'm pretty sure that's how that works. You know, all the hotels up there will have they'll pick you up from the train station. They'll probably take you to the park where you can get on the buses. So you could do it without driving in Alaska. I mean, you're gonna be limited a little bit, but then you kind of supplement that with outfitters and having them take you, you know, places out and about. The other things you can do off the train, oh, the train is great. You can go south from Anchorage, and then that goes down the Turnigan Arm and will take you to Seward, um, which is kind of a another jumping off point for the south and lots of cruises. That cruise south of there, like Juneau and those places, will come up and either start or end out of Seward in the summer. And also you can go down to Seward and do and stay in Seward and then do like boat outings and stuff like that into Kat Mai National Park. And that's where you really want to be on the water anyway. The birds, the the seals, like the wildlife is all kind of water focused around that area. So it's really beautiful. There's a bunch of also like lodges and stuff that will, you know, send their own boat to Seward, pick you up and take you out to a remote lodge for like three days where you can kayak and hike and all this stuff. Or fish. There's a bunch of fishing lodges down there. So I have a question.

SPEAKER_04 44:47

So I know you you do limited tours, you know, three to five a year, but would you ever like just do consulting for someone? Like here, here's what I like, here's what I don't like, you know, give me, give me the idea, the plan, and then and then use this booking agent or use this tour company or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Absolutely. And I do that, yes. And I do that for these destinations that I know really well. And a lot of them are the ones that I run tours in because I have all these contacts and I've been there multiple times. And so uh yeah, I do consulting for planning. I'm not an actual uh licensed agent, so I'm not booking anything for people, but I'm lots of times where I'm used is like people are like, okay, I've got two weeks and I'm gonna go to Alaska. What should I all do? Like, how do I organize this?

SPEAKER_04 45:32

Yeah, that's exactly like, yeah, I might want to like I don't like the super cool, but like, okay, but like maybe you kind of talking into like it's just you gotta get to wear the right clothes, you know, and yeah, and then there's certain things my husband might want to do, and then I don't want to do, and then like if we take the train and like uh I don't know, is this a good idea? And then like here's the pros and cons of like each thing, like that would be very cool. Yeah, and like you know, or we're gonna go with like two families or something, and and then yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 45:58

So I do all of that for Alaska for sure, and also like Iron Ireland, Japan, these are all places where I run tours.

SPEAKER_04 46:04

Uh oh, Japan, you do ooh, very cool. How big are your tours?

SPEAKER_00 46:09

It depends on the tour, but it normally is around let's say eight to twelve. They're always adventure focused, except I do I did create a Japan cat tour last year. So that one wasn't adventure focused, it was cat focused.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

Oh, how cute. That is adorable. And that little kitten is a so cute. I love it. It's really inspiring me to do something for my son. I think he I'm gonna talk to him today about it because I think he would get get a big kick out of his 19. He's oh yeah, college right now, but uh, you know, to do that, take care of kitties. You would love it. My little puppy, he's 10 pounds sitting right here. I think he would be he's yeah, he's just napping right here, but he would be a good a good dad.

SPEAKER_05 46:56

Yeah, okay.

Best Glacier Experiences Near Anchorage

SPEAKER_01 46:57

So shall we move on down to the other side of the house? I have a big question before we do that. There's one huge thing we haven't talked about with Alaska, and that is glaciers. I mean, you cannot learn about glaciers at the Calvajero talk, yeah. Done glaciers. I mean, then then we're obviously moving to Antarctica, which is also a whole bunch of glaciers too. But I was curious about that. And then um if we had time, I was curious because I didn't really, I guess I just didn't pay attention or know. I should have known that Alaska has all these islands, and just like Sweden has all the little archipelago, but the and one's called Unalaska, which I thought was kind of funny. I was like, what is that? So curious about the glaciers, your thoughts on that, and then the islands if we had time.

SPEAKER_00 47:42

Ah, I can already tell you I've never been to the islands, so I don't have a lot of knowledge about that. That's okay. But yes, glaciers. You're you're gonna see glaciers for sure, and you can do it winter or summer. So this is the beautiful part. So, my favorite way to see there's a couple of glaciers that I absolutely love, and at certain times of year. Uh, one of the things you can do, and this is a really fun one, because you can take the train to Spencer Glacier. That's south. So that's going to be the train that goes down to Seward. Goes every day in the in the summer. Beautiful, beautiful views. But instead of going all the way to Seward, you get off at, I think it's called the Spencer Glacier whistle stop. And they basically let you off. And normally you would work with an outfitter then, you know, to like say go kayaking or whatever, or to organize your glacier climbing, and they would meet you right at the whistle stop and then take you out to the glacier. So it's not too far from there. So in the summer, it's super cool. You can kayak, you kayak around the the little lake, it's beautiful, right? You can't obviously get super close to the front of the glacier because there's always a risk of it calving, but you do go off to the side and then you don't like crampons and you can hike on the glacier with a guide. You don't do any of this without a guide. Um, but so you so you can do that, and then at the end of the day, so then you come back, get in your kayaks, kayak back out, go to the whistle stop, flag down the train when it's coming back that evening, hop back on the train and back to Anchorage. It's awesome. You get like the best of everything. You get the train, you get glaciers, it's so it's lovely. Oh, wonderful. And there's a bunch of variations of that that you can do. Yeah. And then in the winter, so you can go, and I've done this with both with Spencer Glacier, been there in the summer and the winter. In the winter, the train doesn't run down there. The train only runs in the winter between Anchorage and Fairbanks. Okay. So, but it that's also really worth it, by the way. Anyway, so it doesn't run down there. So you have to get down there, like to Girdwood, and then from there, which isn't that far from Anchorage, it's like an hour drive. And then from there, you can work with an outfitter to go snowmobiling out to Spencer Glacier. And that lake that we you kayaked in is now fully frozen.

SPEAKER_05 50:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

And you take the, so you snowmobile, you have your own snowmobile, you snowmobile out to the lake that's frozen. So you snowmobile on the lake. There's a bunch of like little icebergs and stuff that are now frozen in there. And you can you take the snowmobile right up to the front of that glacier, that you can't do that in the summer. And now you get to like hike around, you get off the snowmobiles, you hike around into some of those glacier like tunnels and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

Oh my gosh. Glacier tunnel because like it's not gonna melt because it's so cold and frozen.

SPEAKER_00 50:50

So it's yeah, and they've you know, once again, you're going with an outfitter that's out there every day checking the conditions and they know where they can take you.

SPEAKER_05 50:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

But it's it's a really cool experience because that's that's just really different. Right. I've I've been many places where there are glaciers, and I've never been able to do that before, but that's a unique one. Also, very close, and you can easily do trips out of Anchorage to Matanouska Glacier. They run every day. That's out on the what's the highway called? Glen Highway, which is a beautiful drive. But you'll get an outfitter like I use salmon berry, they'll take a group out there, summer or winter, and then you can go hiking on the Matanouska Glacier. But the Matanouska Glacier doesn't have like that big lake in front of it kind of thing. It's a little bit different, but you can do summer or winter. I've only done that one in the winter because that's one of the things we do. Those are the two that are really kind of easy and close. And then there's other things. Like I've also done like ATV tours out to Connect Glacier, which is also outside of Anchorage. There's just, yeah, it's endless.

SPEAKER_01 52:02

That's amazing. It's funny. It says for Matanooska, traction shoes are recommended on this glacier, the biggest in the US accessible by car. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:12

I'll never forget the first time I saw Matanouska Glacier. I didn't know it was there. And I was I was driving. This was my first trip to Alaska. I had a rental car and I was driving out Glen Highway so that I could get to this little airport and then take a bush plane into Wrangle St. Elias National Park, one of these super remote parks again that you bushplaned into. And I'm driving along the Glen Highway, and I'm and it's it's that end of August, beginning of September. So it's beautiful colors, just gorgeous colors everywhere. And you're in the mountains, and it's this really the prettiest drive for me in Alaska.

SPEAKER_05 52:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:49

And I look over to my right and I'm like, holy shit, that's a that's a glacier. Like, and I'm like looking, I'm trying to watch the road, looking, trying, and I'm like, oh my God. I have never been in an area where you can just like drive past a glacier. That's that's also kind of unique, really. You know, I've been on plenty of expedition cruises where you've, you know, you could sail past them and stuff like that, but drive past one? That was weird.

Melting Glaciers And Part Two Tease

SPEAKER_01 53:18

Yeah, that it's inland. Yeah, it's it's amazing. And I I just a quick little on um melting glaciers and over the years that you've been. I don't know if you've been for 20 years, if you've noticed any difference and what what your thoughts are or what you're hearing.

SPEAKER_00 53:36

Well, they're definitely melting for sure. They're definitely receding. Um, I'm trying to think of any of them there that are not receding. I don't think so. I think pretty much everything there has been.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

Uh as massive as we are told or thought to be. It's pretty massive, the amount.

SPEAKER_00 53:55

I mean, I mean, I haven't been there, you know, for like a span of 20 years where I can actually like see it necessarily. Yeah, but it is yeah, there's enough people that have that you can absolutely see it. You talk to the locals, they know it. I mean, global warming all over there, right? Like, especially winters are changing there a lot. So Anchorage, you know, we think it's so cold. It's not that cold. It's kind of like being in South Dakota. In fact, lots of times it's warmer than South Dakota. Like I was down in Seward a couple years ago in the winter to go snowshoeing. There was no snow. We couldn't snowshoe. So we went hiking instead. Okay, there you go. Yeah, so it's definitely changing there.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:37

And it's not as cold as you think. It's not as snowy and cold as you think.

SPEAKER_01 54:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:42

So thank you.

SPEAKER_04 54:43

Okay, cool. So we are gonna transition. So if you like what you hear, join us for part two in Antarctica next month. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast, can you please take a second and do a quick follow of the show and rate us in your podcast app? And if you have a minute, we would really appreciate a review. Following and rating is the best way to support us.

SPEAKER_03 55:06

If you're on Instagram, let's connect. We're at Where Next Podcast. Thanks again.