Our Alaskan Experience
After our three nights in San Francisco, we flew up to Fairbanks in Alaska. We stayed overnight before joining our tour which started with a trip along the river in a Paddle Steamer, visiting a traditional Indian reservation museum, we learned about how they live and hunt. In the afternoon we were taken to visit and old gold mine Gold Dredge 8 where we were shown how they dredged for gold in days gone by. We had the opportunity to have a go at gold panning, which was great fun, I came away with my find sealed away in a locket, which is a lovely memento!
We now head south to the Denali National Park for two nights. Denali is six million acres of wild land, bisected by one ribbon of road. We took a guided tour into the park with a very knowledgeable guy, we even managed to spot some Dall Sheep, natives of northwestern North America, Grizzly bears and Moose. Our next stop on the road south towards Anchorage took us to views of the famous Mt. McKinley, North America's highest mountain. We were one of the lucky 30% that actually see her with the sun on top, a lot of the time she has low cloud cover. It was a stunning, majestic site, viewed from the sun deck of the hotel, with a cool glass of white wine!
We now continue our journey from Mt. McKinley Wilderness Lodge to the small town of Talkeetna, where after wandering around the quaint streets, we board our train with upper deck full viewing windows, and head to Anchorage, travelling through some beautiful countryside.
Today is our last day on land for a few days, on our way to Whittier to join our ship, we visit a wildlife sanctuary, where we see an array of wildlife, birds, bears, moose among the many. It is now time to get on board the Coral Princess, for our southerly journey to Vancouver.
Day one we did scenic cruising in and around Hubbard Glacier, followed by, the next day Glacier Bay National Park. The Captain of the vessel took the ship as close as he could to the glaciers, we were able to watch them calving into the water, it was a fantastic site. We were entertained by extremely knowledgeable guides from the area and Mark Harris the cruise line's Naturalist.
Our first land port of call was Skagway. Skagway was the gateway to the gold fields for the thousands who flocked to Alaska and the Yukon with the hope of striking it rich. We took a day trip up to the Yukon, Yukon is a wilderness playground with an extensive network of waterways. On the scenic 65-mile drive from Skagway, the lush coastal landscape gives way to rugged wilderness. Its capital, Whitehorse, is the centre for the Yukon's mining and forestry industries.
Next stop is Juneau, we took a Whale watching trip and saw lots of Hump Backs, some frolicking about with sea lions in the bay. Following this we were taken up to view the Mendenhall Glacier, a spectacular sight with an amazing waterfall next to it, cascading down with thousands of gallons of water per second.
Our last land stop was Ketchikan, the salmon capital of the World and Alaska's first city. It is a quaint fishing town with lots of quirky buildings and shops. We took a twenty minute float plane trip of the lakes and mountains, landing by a lovely lodge, where we feasted on fresh Dungeness Crabs, delicious!
Our final day on the cruise was spent heading down to Vancouver through the inside passage close to Vancouver Island. During the journey, we encountered more wildlife and even managed to spot a few Killer Whales en-route. We arrived into Canada Place dock early the next morning, we spent the day visiting some of the places in Vancouver that we had not seen for a few years, including the famous Granville Island, with a fantastic array of fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, flowers and food stalls.
It was now time to catch the Sky train back to Vancouver airport and our flight home. There was so much going on with this trip, I am running out of space to say much more on here.
I hope you enjoy reading this, I am always available if you want to know more about this beautiful country.
