Portrait of a Road Trip: Alaska Part 2 - The Rocky Mountains

     Glacier remains one of the top places I’d like to revisit. We were welcomed to the park by a beautiful winding road through towering peaks which reached into the sky and vanished. The steep inclines are what catch your attention first. The road almost seems to dive into a valley in which you’re overlooked by epic ancient gods of rock. 

We pulled into a small campground and found to our delight that there were available plots left, free wood and trails leading out of the area in almost every direction. Bear warnings were everywhere. The ranger explained, as I paid the ludicrously low camping fee, that bears had been spotted very close to the grounds, and one sighting actually put a large bear in amongst the tents. We hadn’t seen any bears yet on the trip, but we’d already gotten into excellent ‘bear aware’ habits, even so, we would be extra cautious here. 

The Next day when we awoke to the fresh Glacier air, we decided on a nice hike up along river trail. One of the fellow campers had given us a fairly enthusiastic speech regarding the trail and promised us quite a view at the top. 

It was an understatement to say we were excited about the day. So far we’d had a lot of road time, and some nice relaxing days, but this was our first chance to get out and throw on the hiking shoes. I was also particularly excited to try out my new bear bells, much to the annoyance of Steph. To say that she didn’t care for the bells would do a disservice to the level of irritation she expressed. 

“You won’t be sorry if a bear pops out in front of us” I countered.

“I’m not wearing one” came the staunch retort. 

In the end, I wore two. 

The walk was phenomenal, we followed the track alongside the river, which being filled with glacial runoff managed to continuously fan us with a cool breeze. Starting with a fairly slow incline and plenty of space, it turned into a far more winding and narrow path. As we approached the top, exhilarated by the scenery, smells and warm sun, we broke through a few more bushes and came out on a hill of solid rock. Behind this rose the side of a few mountains, one of which was home to a superb waterfall. I think this may well have been the moment the trip became real for me. This was a new location, a different landscape to anywhere I’d been before and the scenery was stunning. I could have sat up there for days. 

Instead, we ate some sandwiches Steph had packed that morning, took in the the views and Steph even took a short nap in the sun. We ambled back down to the campsite and spent the evening cooking on a big warm wood fire pit, then turned in for the night. 

The following day was an exciting prospect. We were heading to Lake Louise. 

Now, if you’ve never been here, it’s one of those locations that you will never be able to describe to anyone and feel like you did a good enough job. The color of that Lake is otherworldly. It literally looks like seven million trucks filled with food coloring accidentally veered into the waters. 

A lot of tourists make their way to this area, but fortunately, like a lot of American parks, the vast majority of visitors see ‘The Great Outdoors’ from the safety of their RV window, so once you find a trail that goes up a hill, you gain some peace and quiet. 

We climbed the trail for an hour or so until we got a nice view of the lake below, and with a little help from a telephoto lens, I snapped a nice shot of a family kayaking hundreds of meters below in an ocean of turquoise.

We continued our assent, and it seemed to hit us harder than either of us expected. Maybe because it was only our second, maybe we were feeling the effects of the previous day. Either way, by the time we reached the summit we were done! Luckily, as if the mountain gods had felt our pain, a quintessential english treat lay in wait for us at the top. Ladies and gentlemen, there is a tea house atop the mountain. My hope restored in mankind, Steph and I spent a good bit of time relaxing over a ‘good brew’. 

After the surreal tea hut experience we retired to a perch by a small pond and Steph lay down on my lap. It’s worth pointing out that Steph’s feelings towards rodents, especially Canadian Ground Squirrels quite closely mimics her feelings toward fish. She lay down, fighting the urge to keep a close lookout for stealthy attacks and tried to relax.

“They’re more scared of you than you are of them, don’t worry” I blabbed on, uttering similar advise to that nonsense I’d given by what has become ‘big fish’ lake.

She eventually relaxed, and I sat taking in the beautiful scene, when out of the blue, a moderately sized squirrel flew up onto my lap, and put its paw on Steph, as if checking to see if she was okay. After a split second (during which a thought process along the lines of that’s a small hand, must’ve occurred) Steph reacted. The ground Squirrel did not return. 

That night we hadn’t planned a camp site, but we were aware of a few scattered along the road north. Essentially we were heading straight through the mountains to Jasper. We cruised that evening until we found a site that had just one other person in it, a clear sign that we were progressing ever further north. 

Come back for part 3 next week for our journey up into the Yukon, getting ever closer to our Alaskan goal. For more photo’s visit www.howlandphotography.com

Portrait of a Road Trip - Alaska: Part 1

     Border Patrol heading into Canada. What a welcoming set of uniformed ambassadors they are! No fierce accusatory stares, no overly stupid questions and no prolonged experience. We got a “Welcome to Canada”, then some good advice on how to best find our target for the next night. 

  We were heading to Gladstone Provincial Park, which is essentially a lovely warm lake just over the border. As we rocked up to the campsite, I had my eyes peeled for my spot. Generally we hadn’t booked many places to stay on this trip, most of the nights were marked on our itinerary as ‘find campsite near x’. This one was different. We weren’t quite in the wilderness yet. 

Southern Canada is a very popular location for all kinds of tourists, from families with small kids and RV’s to hardened backcountry hikers. Good locations are booked early, just like the big parks in the mainland states. I’d booked a plot here months ahead of time and felt a nudge from my ego when the ranger said “well you guys have the best position in the camp ground, with your own private path down to the beach.” 

The camp grounds that were coming up in the next few weeks would get smaller and eventually vanish, at times we’d be on both the sides of mountains and the sides of dirt roads, but for now, this was posh. 

     We had been using the new REI two man ground tent for the first week of the trip, but now we were in the forest and we had trees to allow me to set up my Stingray. Back in the early months of planning the trip i’d been aimlessness perusing through Instagram and came across some phenomenal images of people in tents that hung up in the trees. The experiences people were having using them were crazy, and as an added bonus, it meant they could camp anywhere with trees, regardless of the ground type. If it was rocky, uneven, wet, no matter! I went on the website and found a couple of guys in England had designed it, and the company was really taking off. I clicked the order button. 

We spent a full day on the lake sunbathing and relaxing. Steph has what she would call an aversion to fish. It’s more like an dislike of not knowing whats under you. I went out for a swim to explore the fauna and made a valiant attempt to persuade her there was nothing in the water to worry about. In truth, I genuinely saw nothing whilst snorkeling around and felt pretty confident in my analysis. 

“Honestly you’ll be fine, there’s nothing in there, and its so warm.”

“Mmmmmhmmm,” came the uncertain response. 

“Just come in and paddle?”

“Yeah maybe later” she said, settling down to catch more rays. 

“I promise its fine. I’m gonna head up to the car and get some water and chips.”

I got about twenty feet up the path before a young child screamed out from around ten feet off the shoreline “Dad!! There’s a massive fish in here!! It’s massive!!”

I sheepishly continued walking.

“Anything you wanna tell me?” Steph shouted.

“Nope!” I replied, speeding up my walk.

    The next morning we arose from a nights sleep in the Stingray. It had lived up to all expectations. We were up in the trees, laying looking at the stars. Absolutely amazing and unexpectedly comfortable too. 

We needed a shower. As we had a lovely warm lake right by our tent we decided to use it. We bathed in the fresh water and tested out our biodegradable eco friendly camping shampoo. It pleased me. The lake was exactly what we needed, we felt revitalized and ready for the road.

Today was a long day. We had to reach and set up camp in Glacier National Park. Not the far more known American version, but the far quieter and rugged Canadian version. The Rocky Mountains seem to provide an almost endless stream of parks for thousands of miles. 

It took a good eight hours to get that far north, and as we travelled we could sense the traffic thinning and the people changing. There was a tangible feeling of being north, even this early in the trip. The American tourists who like to nip across the border for a quick weekend had vanished, and everyone we saw looked pretty equipped for hiking and mountain fun. 

Glacier National Park is a small park as far as North American national parks go, but what it lacks in square miles it makes up for in height. The rugged, unusually steep mountains here are truly breathtaking, and the hikes here are as beautiful as they are varied. 

When we arrived at a camp ground we managed to find a plot, and realized that or the first time we were in proper bear country. The camp ground had more signs than I deemed normal regarding the dangers of bear attacks, and the ranger warned us upon entry as to the recent bears within the camp ground itself. Now I’d prepped for this, with my bear bells and powerful bear spray, but still, it got me thinking. 

We had a couple of nights here and a couple of days to explore, but that first night, we just got our wood supply and settled down in the tent for the night. As we were sat drinking hot chocolate by the fire, I realized there was a lot of smoke from everyone’s fires gathering in the valley and had an idea. I threw my tripod on my back and heading up the river until I found a crossing. Aware that I wasn't prepared in any way for bears, had no spray and didn't even bring a light, I worked fast. 

The valley was absolutely beautiful. The campsite itself remained hidden from view in the thick trees, but the smoke was sat just above them, an unmistakable giveaway of human presence. The air smelled like pine and smoke, and the sun was just dipping below the horizon behind me.

The shot I got that night set the tone for the next few weeks of our Canadian stint. Which we’ll come back to in Part 2. Stay tuned…

Alaska (Intro)

          By car. It had to be. It’s been my preferred method of exploration my whole life. Pack the tent? Of course. Hiking boots? Yup. Book the backcountry permits? Totally, but lets have the freedom to get anywhere. Thats what a road trip for 6 weeks allows. 

        The whole thing had started in April of 2015, with an old friend of mine, who I’d not seen in years, asking out of the blue “you wanna to go to Alaska with me this summer?” Now I’m a practical person but my gut took over and I replied “yep!” without any hesitation at all. 

We spent a total of three months planning the expedition. Itinerary, gear, food and safety. We wanted a good plan, but not too strict that it left no flexibility. I spent a lot of money in REI, and got a few nice new gadgets to take too. 

On July 2nd we headed west from Chicago. The mission, to drive to Alaska, spend 5 weeks exploring and then drive back. It would turn out to be a 10,000 mile road trip and would blow our expectations out of the water. But here on July 2nd, it was all about getting there. 

After 2 days of driving, we dropped into one of my favorite places, Yellowstone, and had a look around before moving onto Washington State and crossing the Canadian border at a place called Gladstone. The provincial park is set around an unusually warm lake, and after a week on the road, it was nice to set up camp for a couple of days and unwind by some water. I also got to play with my new toy, the Stingray Tensile tent you see above, more on that later. 

So this is where I leave you today. From this point forward I got to see some pretty fantastic places. Unusual, desolate, and disconnected from civilization. I’ll be taking you on the journey in the next ten weeks or so, and sharing some insights into the photography work I managed to accomplish on the way. Watch this space!