Cruise to Alaska
We went on the gold panning tour at the El Dorado Gold Mine and on the Tanana Valley Railroad. At the end of rail trip, they hand you a bag (a poke) full of soil and hopefully a decent amount of gold.
In the afternoon we went on a riverboat cruise on a sternwheeler, on the Chena River, past a husky breeding station and a native village. We disembarked in the village, it was fascinating as the people used everything they caught, nothing was wasted.
The next part was by the Denali Express which has a domed glass roof for all round viewing to the Denali National Park. This was a journey through the countryside, plenty of trees growing on the permafrost. We went on a coach trip round the National Park which was beautiful. passing a moose and her baby on the way. The Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge was very comfortable, consisting of chalet type accommodation.
The next night was spent in the Mount McKinley area at the Princess Wilderness Lodge. The views were fantastic and the highest mountains could be seen from the hotel terrace. There were warming log fires burning in the hotel’s main areas, which were more than welcome.
Durung our stay we travelled to Kenai by coach. I took a lot of photographs but mostly they were of trees, as the wildlife having disappeared as soon as I produced my camera! We stayed at the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge and spent the next day walking with a guide who took a picnic for us. We could see salmon jumping and the weather was gorgeous, sunny and not too hot.
The following day we joined the cruise at Whittier. Our cabin had a double bed and a balcony. We sailed on the Coral Princess.
We sailed to Glacier Bay where there were small pieces of ice floating on the water and managed to see glacier “calving” which was was nosier than I imagined it would be.
We berthed at Skagway and went on a train journey which took us over the snowy Canadian border. The journey itself through forests and mountains provided the most beautiful scenery I have seen.
The next stop on our cruise was Juneau, the landlocked capital of Alaska. We went on an excursion by small plane, which took us up over green forests, more mountains covered in snow and many lakes of different sizes - this was an uninhabited area. We also rode a cable car and overlooked the place where the ship was berthed.
Sailing further south we reached Ketchikan, which is reputed to have more totem poles than anywhere else. We went to Creek Street. Apparently the term ‘up the creek without a paddle’ came from here!
The next part of our journey took us along the Inside Passage. There were running commentaries during the day, pointing out various wildlife and marine life. It was overcast, windy with rain in the air. The mountains were lower here and became more like wooded hills interspersed with many little islands. We were going from United States territory into the Canadian part of the passage down to Vancouver.
We decided not to fly back, so we hired a car and drove to the US/Canadian border. We did have to queue for about an hour, which isn’t unusual. The area is very well kept with beautiful gardens, especially on the Vancouver side.
We headed for the area where Mount St Helens is situated. The accommodation provided a full breakfast and the young lady there cooked for 15 difefremt breakfast requests! You were able to help yourself to wine and nibbles in the evening.
Mount St Helens is both impressive and sad with dead trees still lying where they fell after the volcano all those years ago.
Washington State is very sparsely populated. The busiest parts were along the main I5. We went into Oregon, just over the border, bought some lunch then made our way back, heading back to Vancouver for our return flight.
We spent one night in Vancouver, explored Stanley Park. It had been affected by a bad storm the previous winter and there were trees lying on the ground, but it was recovering.
This was our second cruise, we had been to the Caribbean previously and we enjoyed the whole Alaska experience very much.