scenic | Telado Photography

To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world. – John Muir

We’ve been back from Alaska for almost two weeks now! Coming home from travel always feels good but the short time we spent in Alaska made it feel like a dream. Sometimes it still feels strange to me to think it actually happened and that I was indeed in some of these surreal backdrops.

Flying into Anchorage was exciting as we flew over British Columbia. From above, it’s almost too beautiful for words. An alien world, almost like a different planet from above.

Flying over Canada

Alaska is beautiful. Large, expansive and yet, being within town limits it had a claustrophobic feel. I blame the towering mountains. I thought I would see towering mountains up north in Denali but I never suspected to see them from Anchorage. It’s interesting what sense we get from far away places growing up.

We don’t have large towering mountains in Pennsylvania. I always remember driving up North to the Poconos or further north and being impressed with the size of the mountains we do have. Our mountains are small in comparison and covered in greenery but still so lovely. The drive from east to west Pennsylvania is so beautiful.

The mountains in Alaska are bare, snow-capped and immense. A scene so impressive, sometimes I had to put my camera down because I would never be able to capture the impressiveness of the place.

Arriving in Anchorage we made it to our hotel around 7pm and headed out for dinner. Luckily, the sun doesn’t set until around 11:30 pm in July and even then it only dips, casting a dusk like glow over the towns. This made for an “are we jet lagged or could we stay up all night? I can’t tell” late night excursion. It felt like we were eating lunch rather than eating an 8-9pm dinner. We ate at Moose’s Tooth which is a local and MUCH LOVED pizzeria and pub. This place was packed at 9pm. People were still streaming in getting their late night fix as we left around 10pm. We got the Chipotle pizza at the suggestion of our hotel clerk who told us to go eat here and if you ever find yourselves in Anchorage, you should too! It was a walk away from the hotel and such a nice treat after a day of flying. (Note: Picture was taken at 7:30 pm. It felt like early afternoon. So strange!)

Moose’s Tooth Pizzeria and Pub

The next morning we went to a little coffee shop in downtown Anchorage and then stopped by 4th and D streets to see the starting line for the famous dog sled race The Iditarod. Every March, the dog sled teams take off from this starting line and race across the state to Nome, Alaska. They travel over harsh terrain for 1000 miles. It is still on my bucket list to be able to experience this race in person and especially experience the after party when the first musher arrives in Nome. One day!

I made it to the starting line of the Iditarod!

After leaving this very sleepy town we headed on a drive south on the Scenic Seward Highway. The sights were comparable to the Californian coast drive on Highway 1, still easily my most beautiful scenic highway drive to date. Truly spectacular (though I haven’t been on many. 😉

I will leave you today with some images from the Seward drive South along the coast.

Signing off for now!
Tessa

Next time: Denali National Park and Healy, Alaska! A road trip North!