Back in 2006 I wrote this post about the advantages of visiting Denali National Park in the shoulder seasons. I have to say that this is definitely the way to go when it comes to visiting Denali National Park – you can take your own vehicle, stop where you like, and really enjoy the park without the crowds. Short of winning the road lottery, there really isn’t a better way to see the park.

I usually make the trip to Denali once a year to go into the park – I have gone both in the spring and in the fall, and both are worth the trip. Both times of year have their advantages, but the weather can be iffy, too.

The National Park Service does not keep the road clear in the winter, so once the road gets snowed-in in the fall, it remains closed until spring. A friend of mine who works for the National Park Service alerted me to the fact that it is now time to start clearing the park road of snow.  This annual ritual, called “Spring Road Opening” or SRO, started a few days ago. I find it amusing that something as mundane as getting the heavy equipment out and plowing the road has an acronym.

This activity also has its own web page, so you can follow the progress. Fortunately for all of us, the page is actually rather entertaining – you get updates on the latest progress, see photos of the park and the snow removal effort, and reports of animal sightings are posted.

According to the latest update, there is a chance that the road will be open as far as the Savage River this weekend. It will take a few more weeks to get the road open to Teklanika, which is as far as they allow the public to go in the spring… but you can hike or take bicycles beyond that point, if you like.

If you get the chance, head up to Denali before the middle of May, and take the drive out to Teklanika. It is a great trip, and a great opportunity to see wildlife and experience Denali National Park without the crowds.

And if you can’t make it, follow the progress on the SRO web page!

I have always been a bit of a weather nut. Those of you who are also weather nuts know what I mean. At a point earlier in my life, I was destined to become a television weatherman, but alas, I was defeated by calculus. But before I suffered that defeat, I did get my feet wet in that field, and I even worked for NBC News in Washington, DC, where I was assistant to their longtime weatherman, Bob Ryan.

One of the main reasons I moved to Alaska was my love of winter weather. I moved from Washington, DC to Fairbanks in 1986, and to say that the winter weather in Fairbanks was different, well… that would be an understatement. But I fell in love with the Fairbanks winters, and when I got into the business of creating custom tours for clients, I always thought that there was room to do winter tours in Alaska – after all, the first thing that many people think of when it comes to Alaska is snow and cold.

No matter how much I love winter, I thought it was a bit of a stretch when I heard that The Weather Channel had declared that Fairbanks was among the top ten winter weather locations in 2009-10.

Wow.

Really, it isn’t that big a stretch to realize that winters in Fairbanks are pretty spectacular… but it is a little surprising that others would figure it out. It is true that Fairbanks gets modest amounts of snow, but the climate is otherwise dry, and late in the winter (like in February through April), the skies are clear and the sun is bright most days. The weather is just perfect for winter activities, and a lot is happening in Fairbanks in March, including the World Ice Art Championships, and the Open North American sled dog races. Many of our guests go to Fairbanks in the winter for dogsledding adventures and a visit to Chena Hot Springs. I even created a special website just for Alaska winter tours.

So, a hearty thank-you to The Weather Channel for recognizing something we here in Alaska already knew.

We do winter right!

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell traveled to Miami to attend the Cruise Shipping Conference in Miami Beach… where he was scolded by the cruise lines for Alaska’s tax and environmental policies. At issue are wastewater discharge standards, and a $50 head tax. The Miami Herald quotes Stein Kruse, President and CEO of Holland America Cruise Lines, who says the industry is, “faced with overzealous regulations” and without relief, “we [the cruise industry] can and will redeploy our ships.”

The cruise industry’s arguments are specious. While it may be true that the taxation and regulatory environment in Alaska is rather stringent, it isn’t punitive. The revenue from the head tax goes directly to infrastructure and services costs that are related to the industry itself. With regard to the wastewater standards, I think that it is fair to say that any community would enact standards to protect their local waters, especially when the use of those waters are shared with other sectors, most notably, commercial fishing.

In the same Miami Herald article, Governor Parnell is quoted as saying, “I heard clearly the need for some change to the head tax and the need to have environmental regulation based on good science. . . I’m going to try to work to reduce costs for the [cruise] industry,”

Back in December I wrote a piece detailing the cruise lines objections to the head tax. Their complaints are no more valid today.

The cruise lines have decided to punish Alaska by reducing the number of cruise passengers coming to Alaska by 140,000. In some Southeast Alaska communities, that will be a disasterous blow. But there are some (myself included) that believe that just because the cruise lines reduce the number of sailings to Alaska that does not necessarily mean that demand for Alaskan destinations is reduced. That isn’t the case.

While the cruise lines scale back their sailings, the airlines have added 930 seats a day between the Lower 48 and Alaska. That is almost 100,000 additional passengers coming to Alaska by air. When you consider that many Alaska cruises are one-way — meaning that they originate in Vancouver, BC and end in Alaska (or the other way around), most cruise passengers use airlines to complete their cruises. If you estimate that half of the cruise passengers travel to or from Alaska by air, then the reduction in cruise-related air traffic might be around 70,000. So does it make sense that the airlines would add 100,000 seats to Alaska routes while there are 70,000 fewer cruise-related air passengers? Not unless there was going to be other demand for Alaska travel.

While the reduction in the number of cruise passengers will hurt port-call communities in Southeast Alaska, the rest of the state is going to benefit. In addition, the cruise lines stated at their conference in Miami that they plan to introduce 26 new ships between now and 2012, and these new ships represent an 18 percent increase in capacity. Clearly the cruise industry expects growth, and that would suggest that the demand for Alaska will remain strong. I doubt that $50 per passenger is going to make much difference at all in the demand for cruises in the long term.

Governor Parnell should stand firm against the cruise lines demands.

When people plan their Alaskan vacations, many come with a list of must-see and must-do destinations and activities. Unfortunately for most of them, they miss out on one of Alaska’s most spectacular destinations – Wrangell St. Elias National Park.

The park itself is the largest park in the National Park Service system, and is the home to numerous glaciers and powerful rivers, and nine of the 16 tallest peaks in the United States.

Mount Wrangell, seen from the Richardson Highway near Copper Center. Note steam plume in the background from the summit.

But like anywhere in Alaska, the scenery and landscape only tells part of the story. If you venture into the center of the park, you’ll experience one of the most interesting and beautiful places in Alaska – the towns of McCarthy and Kennicott.

Kennecott (sometimes spelled Kennicott) was born of the search for minerals and metals. Unlike many of the locations in Alaska, the draw here was copper, not gold. The Kennecott Copper Company built a mine and a company town to extract the rich copper ore. Along with the buildings and machinery for the mine, a railroad to the sea was built to haul supplies and copper back and forth.

The town of McCarthy sprung up next to Kennecott – and while the mine closed in 1938 and was abandoned, McCarthy continued on as the small, remote outpost in the middle of the Wrangell Mountains.

Visitors to McCarthy and Kennecott come for the exceptional beauty of the land. Kennicott Glacier flows past Kennecott and right to the edge of McCarthy. A short walk from town takes you to the toe of the glacier, where you can walk across the moraine, and sit at the edge of the lake as ice and rocks fall off the face of the glacier. From Kennecott, daily guided hikes head off up the valley and guides take you out onto Root Glacier (a tributary glacier of the Kennicott Glacier).

Hikers on Root Glacier, Wrangell St. Elias National Park

Hikers of all ages head out onto the ice with guides, and the more adventurous can head out for extended glacier hikes and ice climbing seminars. If you’re both adventurous and a history buff, you can take a guided hike to the mine entrance, over 3000 feet above the valley floor. If you’re a history buff but prefer to stay in the valley, you can take guided tours of the mill building, or just walk around and explore on your own.

Photographers will love McCarthy and Kennecott, because there are so many varied subjects. Whether you want to photograph the ghost town, or prefer landscapes and scenery, you could literally spend weeks there choosing interesting things to shoot.

When it comes to finding a place to stay in McCarthy and Kennecott, there are a number of great choices. The two main spots are Ma Johnson’s Hotel and Kennecott Glacier Lodge.

Ma Johnson's Hotel in McCarthy

Ma Johnson’s Hotel is in McCarthy. The building itself was a rooming house in the early 1900’s. It has been converted to a hotel. The rooms are rather small, but are decorated with period-authentic furniture. When one walks into Ma Johnson’s, you can’t help but feel that you’ve been transported back to 1920.

Kennecott Glacier Lodge is located among the old abandoned mine and mill buildings in Kennecott. The architecture is striking, as the building itself hugs the mountains, and overlooks the glacier.

McCarthy is what I call an “end of the road” town. What that means is that it is a place where people are drawn who prefer to avoid some of the trappings of modern life. As a result, the town is full of colorful and eclectic people – all of whom have interesting stories about how they ended up there at the end of the road.

Getting to McCarthy and Kennecott can be a bit of an adventure. The McCarthy Road is a 60 mile gravel road between Chitina (pronounced ‘Chit-na’) and McCarthy.

Kuskulana Bridge on the McCarthy Road

The road itself was built on the old railbed that ran to Cordova. The road is narrow, and drivers should take their time. But you’ll be rewarded with spectacular scenery and some thrills along the way. If the road seems a little too adventurous for you, there are companies that will either fly you in to McCarthy or take you by van. You could even combine the  two, and see the road, and also experience the park from the air.

We include McCarthy in many of our packages. It is a great destination for visitors that are looking for some adventure, some history, a great photo safari or just an amazing authentic Alaskan experience.

(I wrote a blog a few weeks back about the Iditarod – click here if you’d like to check it out…)

Alaska Vacation Store has been doing Iditarod packages since 2005, and they’ve increased in popularity every year… to the point where they are booking up earlier and earlier. The problem planning an Iditarod adventure is that in some of the locations, lodging is very limited, so there is a limit to the number of guests we can accommodate.

That is the way it has been this year… until yesterday, when I was able to find a few more rooms in the Talkeetna area. That means we can take another party or two for the Iditarod this year. So if you’ve been thinking about coming to Alaska for the Iditarod, but figured it was too late, here’s your chance to see the Last Great Race.

Our packages start in Anchorage, then head to Willow and Talkeetna, where you will fly out to Rainy Pass checkpoint for the day. After that, there’s plenty of room to customize your trip.

As I mentioned, space is limited… but I am really glad I was able to find a little more space. One of the best parts of this job is making people’s dreams come true… and the Iditarod is a dream of a lot of people.

Here’s your chance!

A lot is made of the darkness in Alaska in the winter.

We do get some sun, though. Would you like to see how much?

Check out this video made last week at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. You get to see sunrise to sunset in one two-minute video.

There’s a certain irony about coming to Alaska to experience an unspoiled environment. The average round-trip flight to Alaska releases over 1000 pounds of CO2 per person into the environment. When you add the gasoline you use once you’re here – most of our packages are self-drive – you’re getting near one ton of CO2 per person released on a typical Alaska vacation.

That seems like a lot to me.

I started to research what a company like Alaska Vacation Store could do to become more environmentally-friendly. I thought it would be really cool if you could create a carbon-neutral vacation package.

It turns out, from a practical standpoint, you can’t.

Sure, you can get on the Internet and do a search on carbon-neutral travel, and there are plenty of web pages there… but nobody has made it easy, or even practical, to take a carbon-neutral vacation - and this is really the key. The people who are passionate about it (perhaps to the point of obsession) will do whatever it takes to be carbon-neutral. But there is a large segment of the population that believes that it is important to limit carbon emissions, but are unable or unwilling to make the kinds of sacrifices that you need to make for a truly carbon-neutral trip.

When I did my research, I was immediately drawn to the idea of purchasing carbon offsets. The average trip releases X-amount of carbon, and you purchase enough offsets to cover the carbon released on that trip.

But there’s a problem with that… and that is, from a consumer standpoint, purchasing carbon offsets is a lot like donating to a charity. Part of the cost goes to overhead. So in a really well-run charity, (or carbon offset company) most of the money goes where it is intended…  and in poorly-run ones, most of the money goes to overhead… or in the worst cases, somewhere else.

If I purchase a carbon offset worth a ton of CO2, I want to remove a ton of CO2 from the atmosphere. And since the whole  premise of carbon offsets is that they are like commodities, one ton of carbon offset needs to be the same as another. But they’re not.

Moreover, when you research environmentally-sound travel, a emphasis of many websites goes towards making the office more green. I think that is important, and I have made some strides there. But in all honesty, the amount of carbon my office operation has released into the environment over the years I have been in business is an order of magnitude less than the average CO2 release on a typical vacation. And I’ve planned hundreds of vacations. Fixing my office doesn’t fix the carbon footprint.

In my office I am transitioning my record-keeping to a more electronic system. Almost all correspondence with clients and vendors is done by email, and I am reducing the amount of paper I use. I have switched my old CRT monitors to flat screens – they’re both energy efficient and larger. My next project is to turn my hundred-page confirmation packet into an electronic document. One advantage of my packages is that our vendors do not require vouchers, so a guest could, in theory, take his or her entire trip and keep all the documents on a CD or DVD, and never need a piece of paper. Unfortunately, that method of delivering documents is not practical for every guest, because not everyone brings their laptop to Alaska with them. But you could create an electronic document with all of the descriptions, maps, driving directions, etc. and put them on a CD. In fact, it could be cooler than any paper document packet. You could include audio and video. It is coming, but we’re not there yet.

That addresses at least some of the environmental concerns… but the larger concern – how to remove a ton of CO2 per person for every visitor to Alaska – remains unanswered. There are some human activities that by their very nature, and not particularly friendly to the environment, and flying across the continent is one of them. I am not suggesting that people stop traveling. Instead, I think the win-win here would be to find a way to negate the impacts of the travel. As the owner of a tour company, I would like nothing better than to be able to offer my clients a way to offset their carbon footprint in Alaska. I think it would be a great selling point, and great for the environment… Not to mention that this isn’t an Alaska-only solution. You could use this to offset travel (or anything else) anywhere.

Now one could argue that reducing the carbon footprint of a 737 is the responsibility of the airline… and that’s true. But for the moment, that part of the equation is not considered, and really, we’re not talking about reducing the footprint of a jet, but rather, eliminating our footprint as passengers through offsets. A jet is always going to emit CO2. If at some point in the future they come up with a more efficient and carbon-friendly jet, or  the airlines decide to offset its emissions in some other way, that just reduces what we as consumers need to account for when we shoot for carbon-neutral travel.

When someone comes up with a carbon offset product that a consumer could buy that actually removed carbon from the environment, and assured the consumer that the money spent was actually going towards  removing carbon rather than paying salaries (and other things), my guess is that travelers will be eager to use them to make for carbon-neutral transactions.

… so are the minutes of daylight!

Rejoice, Alaskans! Tomorrow there will be nine seconds more daylight in Anchorage. In Fairbanks there will be thirteen more seconds of daylight.

Barrow, you’re out of luck until the end of January.

OK, most of Alaska can rejoice!

It is the winter solstice, and the days are now getting longer.

For people that don’t live in Alaska, it is a little hard to fathom how important this is. My partner and I went out yesterday with our cameras intent on taking some photos. There wasn’t enough light to get good ones. Winters are cold here, but they’d be a lot easier to take if there was more sun, and soon, there will be.

Nine seconds doesn’t seem like a lot. It isn’t. But in a week, we’ll be gaining two minutes a day. In two weeks, it will be over four minutes a day. By March 21, the daily change will be almost seven minutes a day – about forty-seven minutes a week.

We’re headed in the right direction… which is more than I can say about yesterday. Yesterday we lost twenty-six seconds.

Rejoice, Alaskans!

The Anchorage Daily News reports in this piece that the cruise industry plans to remove two ships from Alaska routes in 2011, in addition to the cuts announced for 2010. This amounts to a total reduction of almost 160,000 passengers annually by 2011.

At issue is a head tax passed by Alaska voters in 2006. The $50 tax is intended to offset infrastructure costs associated with the landings of large cruise ships that would otherwise be borne by the very small communities in Southeast Alaska. The cruise lines argue that the tax is a significant disincentive for budget-conscious travelers to choose a cruise. However, a number of studies have shown that the additional cost makes little difference in a guest’s choice to take a cruise.

Supporters of the tax think that many of the cruise industry’s protests are disingenuous. The number of Alaska visitors in 2009 was down considerably, and many ascribe this decline to the state of the economy. In Ketchikan, a city that is heavily-dependent on the cruise industry, hotel stays were down about 20 percent from the previous year, while the overall cruise passenger numbers to Alaska decreased only .5 percent. In general, cruise passengers do not overnight in Ketchikan. One interpretation of these numbers is that the cruise industry fared comparatively well despite the head tax and despite the poor economy, while other segments of the Alaska visitor industry suffered.

Andrew Halcro thinks that the head tax is good for the Alaska visitor industry. At the time that the tax was being debated in Alaska, he argued that the cruise lines do not pay taxes at the same rate that other transportation providers (airlines, car rental companies, etc) pay.

For people planning a visit to Alaska, the picture is actually quite good. The reduction in the number of cruise ships in Alaska will tend to increase the cost of cruises and require that cruise guests book earlier, there is still ample capacity for independent travelers to visit Alaska. Also, since many smaller operators had difficult years in 2009, most are reluctant to raise prices in 2010, so the costs of an Alaska vacation will be very close to the prices that we have seen over the last two years.

… and you’re cutting it off, to spite your face.

This morning’s Anchorage Daily News contained this piece which describes Alaska Airlines decision to begin charging for even the first checked bag on most flights.

Bad idea. Really bad.

I suppose if you’re some airline revenue guru, this makes some sense – a way to recover $15 per passenger each way on most routes… since on most routes, most people check a bag. I just traveled to Washington, DC on Alaska Airlines, and I checked a bag. And that makes sense, I was there for ten days.

Thirty bucks. Cha-Ching.

But here’s the thing… Alaska Airlines isn’t any airline. It is our airline. Alaskans are very loyal. They fly Alaska even though other carriers are often cheaper to the same destinations. Alaskans want to earn Alaska Airlines miles. They don’t want Delta miles. They don’t want USAir miles. If you have doubts about how important Alaska Airlines is to Alaskans, ask the Alaska Airlines folks what happened when they decided to change their logo and remove the smiling face from the tail of their planes. It was Alaskans – all 500,000 of us – that objected. Alaska Airlines is a part of the Alaskan identity… even if the company is headquartered in Seattle. When you mess with Alaska Airlines, you’re messing with us.

As the owner of an Alaskan business, I do all I can to direct business to Alaska Airlines because the Alaska Airlines experience is superior to other airlines. My guests are happier and are treated better on Alaska Airlines. Let’s face it, ten hours on an airplane is taxing even for people who like to fly, so anything we can do to make that part of the process more pleasant for our guests makes it better for us and our business… There’s no sense starting off your vacation any more unhappy or uncomfortable than you have to be… And happy customers are repeat customers.

If you took Marketing 101, you know that what Alaska Airlines has done is to differentiate themselves in the marketplace – that is, create the perception with consumers that the experience you get with Alaska Airlines is not like the experience that you get with others. There is a benefit that you get with flying Alaska Airlines, and for many customers that benefit is worth paying for. It certainly has worked to keep Alaskans loyal for all these years. But what the revenue guys will tell you is that isn’t the way many consumers buy their airline tickets. What matters for those consumers is the price of the fare.

Where consumers are damaged, and where companies like Alaska Vacation Store are damaged is that the experience is downgraded when customers are presented with what they believe are hidden costs. Certainly one can’t argue that Alaska’s new policy is a hidden cost, but for the same consumer who worries about a $5 difference in fare, getting hit with a $15 charge for checked baggage he or she doesn’t expect negatively affects the perception of the experience.

It would be naive to think that travelers today expect the same level of amenities that were available on a plane years ago… and there is some sense in the “pay to play” mindset – I would add that I heartily applaud Alaska Airlines adding on-board WiFi to their fleet. But there is a substantive difference between charging for value-added items, like WiFi, or DigEPlayers or even a sandwich or beverages, and charging to bring your basic clothing and toiletries on the plane.

The other day, one of our clients came into the office to pick up his airline ticket, and he asked us about the policies regarding taking his prescriptions on board the plane. He uses several creams and ointments that come in tubes and bottles that are larger than one can carry onto the plane, because of the security rules imposed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). His solution was to put a day or two supply of the different drugs in empty film canisters, and then place the remainder of his prescriptions in his checked bag. As it was, he had no other option except to check a bag, since he couldn’t bring the existing containers on the plane. Now, he will be charged $15 each way for the privilege.

Southwest Airlines is making hay on these different revenue generators. As they should – they understand that there is a certain basic level of service that you should expect when you travel, and those things that go beyond basic… well, you pay extra for those.

All of the airlines that have taken to charging for all bags are coming dangerously close to crossing the line between pay-for-play and failing to provide a basic and expected part of the service. As much as I didn’t like it when airlines started charging for a second bag, I was resigned to the fact that certain passengers have abused the privilege in the past (count me as one) and this was a fair and equitable way to increase revenue and discourage that abuse. Charging for any checked bag seems petty and unfair.

Until now, I hadn’t really worried about this issue, because my airline still offered one free bag. But now that has changed.

So to Alaska Airlines, I have this to say: You’ve spent your entire existence working hard to set yourself apart from the rest of the industry. You’ve owned and embraced what is important about being an Alaskan, and being a part of our community, and you have spread that Alaskan hospitality across the country. You’ve asked us to be loyal to you, and we have – even when it meant spending a few more dollars to travel with you as opposed to another carrier. Alaskans understand, perhaps more than most, that there are costs associated with doing business, and that times are tough. And don’t get me wrong – this isn’t about $15. It is about treating your friends and neighbors like… well… your friends and neighbors. The message you send by charging $15 for the first bag is that really, you’re just like the rest of them. It won’t be long before Alaskans realize that if it is really only about getting between here and there, then any old airplane will do. We’ll cram everything we can into our carry-ons. We won’t check bags, we’ll fly Continental’s red-eye to Seattle and take Southwest the rest of the way… because that will be the cheapest way to go. If you need the $15, then raise your fares $15. Alaskans will stick with you. Just please, don’t tell us that you’re just like the rest of them.

On the tail of every one of your planes is the beautiful face of an Alaskan. It is the face Alaskans fought to keep on your planes back in 1988, and it is a symbol of Alaskan hospitality across America.

Imagine what it will look like without a nose.