So I made it back from Alaska in one piece, which isn’t too surprising. Although there was one part of the trip where things got a bit sketchy, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I had an amazing time and saw so many beautiful things.

In my last post, which you can find here: Preparing for a Trip to Alaska, I noted that one of my goals was to fill up an entire 24-page watercolor sketchbook with paintings - which was definitely an ambitious goal seeing as I only had 9 real vacation days to do it. In the end, I only managed 7 sketches - one short of a third of the sketchbook. But I’m still happy with the outcome, even though I didn't fill it up. I think I'll use the rest of the sketchbook for any other trips this year.

You can see all of my sketches in the video below:

Where I Went in Alaska

My trip consisted of a good bit of driving and over the entire trip I ended up driving around 1,300 miles. I spent a few days in Denali National Park and it was definitely a highlight of my trip as I saw caribou, moose, snowshoe hares, ptarmigans and a grizzly bear (which was very lucky as at this time of year, only the males were out and about - and there are only around 325 bears in this giant park). Also, unbelievable, endless mountain scenes.

After Denali I headed south and went down to Seward, staying in many places along the way. Below is a map showing the range of places I traveled while in Alaska. I stayed in Denali, Anchorage, Girdwood, and Seward.

The Anchorage Museum

The very last day in Alaska, I went to the Anchorage Museum which turned out to be pretty awesome. Most of the art was from Alaskan painters from the past, which was cool to see. The artist of the painting in the photo below is Sydney Lawrence. He became known for his paintings of Mount Denali [McKinley], just like the one below. It was an amazing experience being in Alaska and seeing the places depicted in these paintings. It was interesting to see how artists over 100 years ago captured the landscapes of Alaska.