Gustavus Proper

Gustavus is flat compared to the rest of southeast. The land is covered with meadows. This time of the year there is green grass and blue lupine everywhere! Gustavus is actually on the mainland of Alaska and since a lot of the glaciers have melted or receded there are actually moose living here. We almost ran into one on our drive from Bartlett Cove into town! What a surprise - and it was so fun to see a moose - but not at such a close range!

Susan met us at the main road in the Mule! We drove in partway on her road and then walked the rest of the way through the mud on the new part of her road that she's having built to their home on the Salmon River.


Gustavus is Green...and the soil seems fertile - everyone has a garden and we got to sample some of the fresh produce during our stay. We enjoyed a great dinner at the Gustavus Inn, a famous inn and restaurant in town. They grow a lot of their own produce and we enjoyed fresh greens in a salad with a homemade vinaigrette, homemade rolls, a mixture of steamed carrots, green beans, and beach asparagus, a delicious halibut/cheese dish (I can't remember the name they called it) much like a dish my mom made, and homemade fresh rhubarb pie. YUM!

Here's my mom's recipe:

Marinate halibut fillets overnight in white wine (we don't always do this and it doesn't seem to make that much difference so you might want to just save the wine and have it while you're fixing this dish!)

1/2 c chopped or sliced onion
1-1 1/2 c mayo
1-1 1/2 c sour cream
1-1 1/2 c shredded cheese
garlic
black pepper, to taste
wine
cracker crumbs

Rolls fillets in cracker crumbs and place in a baking dish. Mix mayo, sour cream, part of the cheese, wine, garlic, pepper. Spread onions over halibut, then the mayo mixture and top with remaining cheese. Sprinkle top with paprika.

Bake for 40-60 minutes at 350°.

We sometimes add sliced mushroom, thinly sliced cauliflower or other veggies and have used different kinds of cheeses to vary the taste. YUM!!

This was taken at the Inn at the entrance to the garden - because there are moose around they have a large fence and other deterrents to keep the garden for the patrons of the Inn.


View from the front porch - looking towards the Excursion Ridge (in the clouds) and the Salmon River. River - more like a very clear creek. Gustavus used to be called Strawberry Ridge because of the abundance wild strawberries - we did see a lot of strawberry plants and a lot of them had fruit or flowers - Susan told us sometimes that sometimes the berries are everywhere!


The homestead


The bath house (with loft) where we stayed very comfortably. The view from the front door looked out over a slough with the bank filled with sitka roses and lupine.


We thought we should get out a take a nice long walk and enjoy the rain-free day so we headed off through the meadow towards town. We got to the "four-corners" where if you go left you go past the corner "mall" and down to the liquor store; go straight to the school, library, and airport, right to the grocery store, golf course and city dock. and if you turn around...well that takes you back to the place you came.

We made it down to the city dock and walked to the end. What struck me was how much sandy beach surrounded the area. We didn't take the time to walk it but it seemed to go on forever.


By the nine-hole golf course...

Here's us with our hosts: Susan, Lillian, and Tipper - thank you so much - we had a great time!

Gustavus Part 1

Tim and I finally made it over to Gustavus and Glacier Bay National Park last weekend. It was a place that I've been wanting to visit since I first started working for Westours and Grayline of Alaska in 1981 and has been a destination we've wanted to see since getting to know Susan and Lillian in Fairbanks. They have a cabin there and invited us over for a stay many times and we finally took them up on it.

So we picked a weekend and had an incredible time! We took the Glacier Bay and Lodge catamaran over on Friday night. It was a 3-hour trip and not very crowded so we had great seats and a quick and smooth ride. We've taken the ferry many time along part of the same route so that part wasn't new and Tim has traveled through the area a couple of times by plane, boat, and helicopter, but most of the water was new to me. We left Auke Bay Harbor at about 7 pm and got into Bartlett Cover at about 10:30. It was just getting dark and you could see the few lights of Gustavus as we traveled by. Bartlett Cove is around the corner from Gustavus. We decided to stay the night at the lodge and go into the park the next day. We made our way to the Lodge along a lighted pathway, where we spent a few hours before getting up early on Saturday for a full day's boat ride into the National Park.

Since we had plenty of time while getting to Bartlett Cove we scoped out good seats for the next morning! It was supposed to be an 8-hour day so we wanted to be comfortable.

Right away we saw humpback whales off in the distance. The area is a breeding ground and one of the most famous spots to see humpbacks. The water spouts we saw were pretty far away for us but the other tourists were pretty excited.


We didn't expect the weather to be that great - the forecast was for clouds and rain so we were prepared with our rain gear. The day started out a little cloudy but as the day went along the clouds lightened up and it was pretty warm out. We stayed out on the boat deck a lot anyway.


We slowed down at South Marble Island to see a sea lion and bird rookery. We saw a bunch of huge sea lions lounging around on the rocks. We also saw Tufted Puffins, Pelagic Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots, various Gulls, Common Murre, White-wing Scoter, Oyster Catcher, Arctic Terns, and Eagles. Before we left the dock we saw junkos, crows, and barn swallows.


One thing the ferry does is drop off and pickup campers who are out kayaking. Glacier Bay is immense and by using the ferry to help get you around between points you can see a lot more. There was a group of about 15 kids going out for a kayak-camping trip. All their gear and kayaks were loaded on the boat with us.


We stopped at two different places to check on the kayakers. One group wasn't supposed to be picked up until the next day but had to call the trip short when one of their kayaks and a tent was destroyed by a bear. When we were picking up the group we did see a grizzly bear just a short distance along the shore - I don't know if that was the bear or not. He didn't look very good actually, it was very thin and his fur was all scruffy. He didn't look very healthy. We did see several other bears during the day who looked much healthier. We also saw sea otters and Mountain goats.


Towards the ending of the bay are two large glaciers. The Grand Pacific Glacier is about 2 miles wide as it hits Tarr Inlet. It looks dirty and has rocks embedded in the ice. The other is Margerie Glacier - also a tidewater glacier. This is Margerie Glacier from miles away. It was easy to image that in 1907 the Margerie Glacier was a part of the Grand Pacific Glacier and extended about 5 miles more than it does today. The Grand Pacific Glacier face is actually in Canada now so I don't image the boat trip will get much closer in future years.


Tim at Margerie Glacier - we did see a few small chunks falling off and making a big splash - but nothing very national geographic.


It was a long day and very much worth it. I would say that the best way to really appreciate the area would be with a kayak. The NP is very large and getting off by yourself to explore would be a good way to go. And I have to say that if time and money are a factor - Tracy Arm and Sawyer Glacier is more spectacular as far as scenery and glacier viewing.