Cruise from Vancouver to Whittier and Land tour from Whittier to Valdez to Copper River to Denali to Anchorage

This inside passage cruise went to Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Glacier Bay.

PICS OF GIRLS

one of my 4 lovely daughters advised me that it was weird that I posted pics of attractive girls. As expected, my wife also gave her support for this opinion. So here is a pic of a few of the girls on the cruise (I think I also saw them at Walmart in Livingston, but with a bunch of tattoos)

Now, I believe that many of my buds that are tuning in would rather see attractive girls, as we are not that old. So for you, here is a young lady I met at the hot tub on the ship (never saw her at Walmart though)

Ketchikanbald eaglebald eagle’s nesttotem polesabout 10 jet skis riding the inside passage- took several days and they carry their provisions (including extra gas) and camp out- stop to refuel someabout half the size of our sight seeing boatdog sled ride in the mountains above Juneau- beautiful setting with steep mountains on 2 sides and lots of streams and waterfalls. As a rain forest it rains almost every day and is more temperate. Who knew! 3-4 mushers summer their dogs here to train

pup is several months oldpup is several weeks oldTlikget native Americans run a tramway in Juneau going up Mount Roberts. These are pics from that

a bald eagle being rehabilitated trees twisted by the weight of snowsea planes constantly landing

Skagway bus tour to a lodge in the mountains and a train trip back. This area is all related to the Klondike gold rush- 1 million left home to come- 300,000 made it to Alaska -100,000 set out on the trail , 30,000 made it up to the Yukon to mine-4000 found gold and 300 struck it rich- the locals from the Yukon had staked claims at most of the obvious places before the Americans arrived.

our guideleft Alaska into Canadathis fire across the lake has been going for several weeksEmerald Lake-The color is caused by light reflecting off white deposits of marl, a mixture of clay and calcium carbonate, at the bottom of the shallow waterwhen we came back by train the fire was whipped up by winds. They will let it burnHook Em

see the small trail that miners used.

The railroad (2 tracks not next to each other) wasn’t finished until after the gold rush died- great timing!here’s the 2nd track you can see in the distance from the track we are on

Glacier bay was just full of glaciers (duh) and was beautiful. We saw hunks fall off and one that broke loose from under the water that popped up.

harbor seal on an ice float

ONSHORE TOUR

Wow Alaska is huge- my preference is to travel off season and stay in out of the way places. That’s probably not doable in Alaska due to the severe offseason weather. Hardly anyone stays during the 8 months of cold and snow so I’m glad we came now.

4 hour boat ride from Whittier to Valdez

4 hour bus ride from Valdez to Copper River Resort Lodge

At Copper River Resort- very isolated

ranger led nature walk4 wheeler excursion- beautiful weather which is odd this time of year- normally overcast and rainy- tried to spot wildlife- saw the ass end of a moose for 1 second, an eagle and a squirrel- not real impressed with what we spotted but a great outing- paired with 2 gay guys- they’re always well dressed and nice. our guidefour impressive peaks you could see from the lodge- chance of seeing northern lights if we stayed up until 1-3 am. Not. We skipped it and heard they were a no show.

Copper River to Denali- this was a 10 hour bus ride over some paved, but mostly unpaved (dirt) highway across permafrost. Lots of views of the Alaska pipeline above ground. Not many trees. Subsistence caribou hunting had just opened so we saw mainly hunters, but couldn’t have seen more than 50 vehicles actually on the road- saw one dead caribou in a pickup. This highway (no. 8) will close soon- only open 3-4 months/year. A few rustic lodges on the road side. We stopped for a planned lunch at one- $10 for a bowl of soup, $10 for a ham and cheese sandwich- you ate it and liked it (no choice). Very rustic living- very few stay for the 9 month winter starting in several weeks.

bus drivers add ornaments to a road side “Christmas ” tree

Denali-what a beautiful place- stayed one day and took an 8 hour tour in the National Park- guide said to expect a few animal sightings, but his tour the day before was disappointing as to such sightings. In his 13 years his max grizzly sightings was 7- we blew that away with about a dozen. Saw caribou and eagle and then saw the very elusive gray wolf. Weather was perfect which is also odd- normally rains a lot.

having fun at the lodge

MOUNT MCKINLEY LODGE

the mountain (Denali) never showed through and it drizzled most of the day and a half we were there but a great resort

Talkeetna- small town headed toward Anchorage- we took a river cruise on jet boat on the Susitna River- saw no wildlife (bummer) and it rained all day but stopped to tour a native camp replica

On to Anchorage by train- 3 hour ride- pleasant but saw very little