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.