Day 14 - Alaska - Fairbanks

Up real early to grab breakfast and get on a bus for a long ride to Fairbanks.  The highway is built on permafrost and the undulation of the road changes with the weather.  It was much like being on a roller coaster with plenty of swaying and ups and downs.  

We arrived in Fairbanks and got on a paddlewheel boat for a river cruise and a visit to a re-creation of a typical aboriginal village.  It was a nice break from the bus ride.  After the cruise we boarded the bus for a ride to the airport and a short plane ride to Dawson City.  

A very long day.  

We stopped at a dog training facility where sled dogs are trained.  It was the home of Susan Butcher who raced in the Iditarod 17 times with 15 top 10 finishes and a winner 4 times.  She was the second woman to win the Iditarod and her best time was 11 days, 1 hr, 53 minutes.  

Susan passed away in 2006 and her daughter, seen in red, now runs the operation and gave us a little talk.  

The dogs are pretty high strung and once they start getting hooked up their excitement cannot be contained.  They love to run.  Seen here pulling a quad and then getting a well deserved swim.  

Reindeer, which are the same as Caribou, except the Reindeer are domesticated.

A ceremonial winter coat made out of furs from several different animals.  

Alaska - Day 13 - Denali National Park

Our only full day in Denali saw a return to the low clouds which guaranteed we would not see Mount Denali.  Apparently only 30% of tourists actually see the mountain so we were in good company.  Historical note.  Mount Denali used to be known as Mount McKinley.  

We took a bus tour through the park and while sights were somewhat muted by the weather it was picturesque none the less.   That evening we attended a dinner theatre and the following morning we were up at 5:00 so we could grab breakfast before our bus left for Fairbanks.  

We did see some wildlife including a family of pheasants, a couple of elk, a moose and a grizzly and her 2 cubs although they were mere specs as they were a few miles away up the side of a mountain.  

The bus driver got very excited every time he saw a ground squirrel.  I can see those in my back yard so Lori and I didn't get too worked up about them.  

A shot of the resort.  We stayed in a housing complex behind the lodge which was pretty nice accommodation. 

 

Alaska - Day 8-12 College Fjord, Anchorage, Denali

 Lumping a few days together as College Fjord was more of the same scenery that we saw in Glacier Bay.  When we got to Anchorage we were both trying to recover from colds so we skipped one of our planned excursions.  We did visit a museum but mostly took it easy in our hotel room.  Day 12 was a long train ride to Denali National Park.

The College Fjord scenery was a little less intimate than Glacier Bay but perhaps more on a grand scale.  

Our ship docked in Seward and we took a train into Anchorage.  The river from the ocean to Anchorage is very shallow and at low tide is pretty much a big mud flat. The silt from the glaciers that collects is a death trap for those animals and humans that venture out into the mud flats.  It acts much like quick sand.  

We were told to keep our eyes peeled for large white marshmallows floating in the water.  Those would be beluga whales.  We didn't see any.  

 

We took a bus tour through Anchorage and from what we saw its a stop to get to other places of interest and not a destination, at least for tourists.  

A long train ride got us to Denali National Park.  The scenery along the way was much like a drive to Thunder Bay.  Lots of rocks and trees and if there were mountains to see we missed it because of the low lying clouds.  

This is a view from the Holland America resort in Denali.  A forest fire hit the area a month earlier and you can see how close it got to wiping out the resort.  

Alaska - Day 7 Glacier Bay

 Finally a day of sun although it didn't look promising at day break.  Day 7 saw us enter Glacier Bay for a day of cruising and looking at all the glaciers and mountains.  I was up at sunrise and walked out on deck to be greeted by pea soup.  I looked over the side and couldn't see the water.  Not again.  Another day of rain and clouds.

I walked around the deck and as the sun rose it burnt off the fog and soon I had some visibility and after an hour or so we had our sunniest day of the cruise so far.  The scenery did not disappoint.  Now this is what I was hoping for.  

A ranger from the National Park Service coming aboard to provide a series of information lectures on what we were going to see in Glacier Bay.  The boat appeared like magic out of the mist.  

As the sun began to burn off the mist some of natures beauty began to appear. 

The water was like glass except for the wake created by our ship.  

Finally some blue skies and snow covered majestic peaks with glaciers flowing, albeit slowly,  down the valleys

Snow, ice and people frolicking in the pool.  Quite the combination. 

Every few minutes we would hear what sounded like rolling thunder echoing through the bay.  What it was was large pieces of the glacier breaking off and falling into the water as shown in this picture.  

The size of everything was hard to grasp.  We were a few miles from the shore and it would have been amazing to be on a smaller ship that could have taken us right up to the ice flows and glaciers.  In fact there was a smaller ship that was doing just that.  

We were greeted by sea otters floating on their backs.  They were so cute with their little paws resting on their fat bellies.  It looked like some of them were waving at us as we passed by.  

One of the otters was catching a ride on an ice flow.  

Even the gulls were putting on a show for us.  

Next up College Fjord.  

Alaska - Day 6 - Skagway

 Early in the morning we were departing the ship and piling into a tender to take us to shore.  A rock fall a few days earlier had rendered our pier unsafe so we had a short boat ride to the dock.  In fact a few weeks after our stop in Juneau a glacier in the mountains above Juneau had let loose a torrent of water which flooded the town.  A few days later a rockfall in Ketchikan had rained down on the town killing one and injuring a number more.  Alaska is the most earthquake prone zone in the world with anywhere from 50-100 earthquakes a day.  Most cannot be felt and only measured on a seismograph but I'm sure with all that shaking going on this type of instability is common place.  

We were heading out on a 6 hour excursion which would take us by bus into the Yukon territory and then board a train back to Skagway, then board another bus for lunch in Liarsville, followed by a musical production and some panning for gold.  Then it was off to the Red Onion Saloon and a visit to the brothel (no longer in business).   

We were tired just thinking about it.  

A shot of our train waiting to take us back to Skagway.  The trains in this area run on narrow gauge track which at 3.5 feet is about 1 foot narrower than standard gauge. 

The ride up on the bus was pretty uneventful other than the sighting of a black bear just off the highway.  

It took some time for me to get this shot as I waited for other tourists to clear out.  I headed back to the bus just as they were about to send a search party out for me.  

The border of Yukon and Alaska.  A little test.  What does NWMP stand for?  A hint for my American readers.  They were the precursor to the red surge suited police force that followed.  I wonder if the NWMP always got their man?

The old bridge.  Obviously no longer in service. 

I stood out on the platform between cars to get these shots and only came in to warm up,  

The cooks for our outdoor meal in Liarsville.  Liarsville was a tent city during the gold rush and got its name because of all the tall tales told by the prospectors when they came back to civilization from working their claims.  

Shades of deliverance.  If you're under 50 you may not get that reference. 

A few of the reconstructed places of business from the gold rush era.  

Gold rush era graveyard.  circa 1900.  

Snow blower 

By the time the tour bus got to the Red Onion Saloon many of us just wanted to get back to the ship.  We skipped the brothel history lesson and headed back to the ship.  

Home at last.