Alaska
Our first view of the mountains around Anchorage.
Our hotel, the Captain Cook.
Anchorage was heavy with flowers.
Bears too.
In the morning we boarded the train to the North.
Our seat mates for the trip in the observation car.
Forests of black spruce and other evergreens.
Fields of fireweed.
Beautiful streams.
And mountains.
An overcast day. The Knik Arm and its tide plain.
Very wet ground.
In the other direction (east) were the mountains.
The mountains make their own weather.
Rivers, lakes, forests and mountains!
Some interesting homes along the railway.
The hot spot in Wasilla; actually the only spot in Wasilla.
The Black Spruce is stunted because of the permafrost. Roots canÕt go deep.
The only way in and out is by bush plane.
Homes are often on stilts.
We ended the train trip in Talkeetna. This tiny town had a brewery!
A very small tourist town but still neat.
Flowers everywhere.
The very silted Susitna River meets the Talkeetna River in town.
Alaskan winters can be tough on cars.
We took a 45-minute bus ride to the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. Our building.
The room was simple but clean and pleasant. Time to nap.
Lots more flowers.
Up to the lodge and aboard a wagon ride through the woods.
We were the only ones on the ride. We got to pan for gold.
And we found some!
Feeding the raindeer the hard way.
Raindeer breath!
The fireweed was in bloom everywhere. Then back to the lodge for dinner.
It was still light at 10PM.
Nice mountains from the lodge overlook.
We did finally get a peak at the bottom of Denali herself. She makes heavy weather.
A lot of folks sit by the windows hoping for a glimpse of the big one.
This is what it should look like. Picture in the lodge.
She is hiding her top. This shot was from the bus on our way to the Princess Denali Lodge.
Along the road was an interesting igloo hotel with an amazing history.
A lot of bush pilots out. Many were giving tours from above.
A significant spot to stop.
A nice place to camp and fish.
All the train track crossings must be solar powered.
The bus was driven by a fellow up from LA for the summer. He was full of stories.
Along the road we saw many patches of ice and waterfalls.
The room was done in rustic!
The view was amazing.
This is the ÒtownÓ of Denali!
More flowers.
Along the walkway looking back at our building.
The main lodge was done in rustic too.
Rafters going by on our piece of the Nenana River.
The next morning we are up early to get on the bus (school type)
for our ride into the Denali national park.
The ranger at the entrance to the park.
Soon we spot some bears. Saw 9 bears altogether. Two eagles, 2 wolves, many sheep,
one moose, half a dozen caribou, hare, ground squirrels and ptarmigan.
Sites to amaze.
And then we spotted a female moose.
More mountains.
More bears. Momma and cub.
We saw Denali too! Or at least the small peak.
Those white spots are Dall Sheep high on the slope.
One of the few places to stop. Maps and souveniers.
Scenery.
A wicked roadway.
The park was full of fireweed in bloom.
The stubby black spruce.
Blessed again with a bit of the big one.
This is Stony Hill Overlook, as far as we went.
A ranger cabin.
Caribou on the ice. They put their noses in the melt to keep the flies out of their nostrils.
Waiting for the train to take us back south to the cruise ship.
Salmon on the run up river.
Can you imagine living here?
Remarkable!
The number of rivers is amazing.
Cook Inlet with the tide out.
Seward is out that way somewhere.
The Chugach National Forest to the left.
Rainy in Whittier. Glad they had this canvas tunnel to the ship.
The Coral Princess atrium.
Cabin was nice and had a balcony.
The next morning we went into Prince William Sound. The icebergs of College Fjord .
This is Harvard Iceberg.
Weather was not nice but we could see all this from our cabin.
Ship did a 360 so everyone could get a glimpse.
Big ice.
It is hard to get a sense of the scale in pictures.
Next day and we saw the whales of Glacier Bay. Overnight was very rough seas.
We spotted many in the waters around the ship.
They spouted and waved.
Further in we saw more icebergs.
This one at 90¡ to the white one. This one dark with rock and debris.
We had some rangers board and give us some information about the bay.
The Skagway port was busy. Another large ship at dock.
We boarded a quant old train to ride up to White Pass.
The Skagway River.
Part way up a look back showed us the ships in the harbor.
A sharp curve gave us a look at the back of the train.
The river below had some good rapids.
George E. Buchanan, a Detroit coal merchant, began bringing boys and girls to Alaska on adventure
trips in 1923. His goal was to help young people learn the art of earning and saving money.
For fifteen years groups of approximately 50 young people, mostly boys, made the annual summer
excursion from Detroit to Alaska. Many years later members of the various Buchanan Boys groups
returned to Skagway to ride the WP&YR and to revisit the memories of their special and happy trips.
Reportedly the boys from one of the summer trips painted the sign "On To Alaska
With Buchanan" on the side of the mountain to commemorate their inspiring leader
We did cross this trellis.
We were up pretty far.
One short tunnel near the top.
Building the narrow-track railroad was not easy.
It was foggy in spots.
The river below.
The trail the gold prospectors took was one way only. It was hard to pick out in the rocks.
Lakes and fog at the top.
A pretty waterfall.
The pass was of course surrounded by mountains.
Our train ride ended at Frazer.
A bus ride later and we were back in Skagway for lunch at a garden restaurant.
They had a nice flower-rich garden.
Then down to the river to see and hear how gold was mined.
We had a demo of how it can be done with a pan.
But it took really big equipment to make it cost effective.
Downtown Skagway has some interesting buldings.
And back to the ship. This is NOT where we went aboard.
In Juneau the next day we toured a garden with upside down trees.
The trees are ripped out by the roots and inverted to serve as a planting site.
This garden is next to the Tsongas Rain Forest.
We rode up into the hills and at the top saw this deer.
The Juneau airport form the hills.
Devils Skunk Cabbage.
The indoor garden had many hanging flowering plants.
And more flowers outdoors.
They were all wonderful.
There were a lot of the upside down trees.
On to Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.
Bears were nearby as was this eagle feasting on the salmon.
The glacier was amazing. The waterfall at the right was relatively new. A sign of faster melting.
A wider view shows the other waterfalls.
Glacier is receding at a rate of 250 feet per year.
Used to be only 60 feet a year.
Eagles on ice flow snacking on salmon.
A nice view from the visitorÕs center.
From the ship. The misty mountains.
Ketchikan from the ship.
We took a walking tour of the town. Much is built on stilts. We learned later that the town
has about 8 nice days a year. And this was one of them!
An interesting cultural statement.
The Ketchikan River flows through town. It had salmon going up river.
Captive but saved as babes. At the salmon hatchery.
Fish in the tanks almost ready to be released.
At the Totem Heritage Center
Some homes had their own totems.
Nice view from up there but a hard climb with the groceries.
An interesting shopping district.
The next day at sea. Not too many up top to enjoy the sun.
Dessert.
Arrived in Vancouver the next morning.
The city skyline.
Took a tour of the city.
A green roof.
China town.
A nice ambiance.
A steam powered clock.
The art museum.
Visited the Totem Park.
And of course lots of flowes.