Cruising Glacier Bay

                                                                  

We boarded the Coral Princess around noon on Monday, July 2,2012, found our cabin, and ate lunch.  We spent most of the afternoon exploring the ship and watching trains and buses bring more passengers.  Our luggage was late arriving because we received a free cabin upgrade to a balcony.  We enjoyed the balcony but would probably use it more in a warmer climate.

     

We sailed toward Glacier Bay on Tuesday, July 3, expecting to see Hubbard Glacier, the largest tidewater glacier in North America, on Monday.  Unfortunately, between fog and icy waters, the ship was unable to continue to Hubbard. Both Hubbard’s size (76 miles long, 1200 deep, 40 stories high) and the fact that it calves (has huge chunks of ice the size of i10 story buildings breaking off) make it an outstanding sight.  It was a disappointment to miss Hubbard Glacier, but we still saw beautiful ice formations. 

     

     

     

         

    

     

Princess cruise’s Schorlarship@Sea program featured Alaskan naturalist Kathy Slamp who lived for many years in Alaska.  She gave several lectures about Alaska, growing up there, and the glaciers. She narrated as we passed through Glacier Bay.  Also, National Park Service rangers came aboard to speak about the glaciers and answer questions. 

     

     

     

Denali to Our Cruise–by Rail, of course!

 

Leaving Denali, we again boarded Alaska Rail – along with lots of others – and headed to Anchorage on Sunday, July 1, 2012.  It was another day of beautiful sights and, of course, we took lots of photos!

        

        

In the photo above, the open area above the A in Alaska is the upper level observation platform where we enjoyed the views and took photos.

         

Later in the afternoon we met up with the sister train coming from Anchorage which stopped alongside our train for the service crew to swap trains and return to their base station. 

              

              

              

Above you can see a cruise line car which has the observation deck on the lower level. After spending the night in Anchorage, we continued on Alaska Rail, heading to Whittier to board the Coral Princess.

         

         

We had a delightful morning of beautiful scenery and wonderful train photography as the RR made its way along Turnagain Arm.

         

         

   

                              

It was pretty windy in the vestibule between train cars from Anchorage to Whittier, but the views were fantastic!

          

          

          

          

The route to Whitter passed through two tunnels.  At the second one just before Whittier, the rail bed and the highway shared the tunnel – alternately - with trains having priority.

               

        

               

When we emerged from the tunnel, we were in Whittier and were soon greeted with a view of the Coral Princess.

        

         

         

The train arrived and we disembarked (Monday, July 2) to board the Coral Princess – our home for the next week as we cruised along the Alaskan coast to Vancouver.

                         

Denali National Park

 

We spent June 28 – 30, 2012, at Denali National Park, a huge wilderness area with lots of wildlife, the imposing Mount McKinley, and limited access by road.  We saw the McKinley mountain range but McKinley hid  behind the clouds during our visit.  We enjoyed the exhibits at the Visitor’s Center and took the Tundra Wilderness bus tour which continues past the limited road open to the public. 

             

             

Our tour guide/bus driver did a great job of spotting wildlife and informing us about Alaska. At one point, she stopped on a bridge and said, “Look up the river.  You can go 1500 miles without seeing any signs of civilization.”

                       

Our first “wildlife” was Alaska’s state bird, the ptarmigan – actually mama ptarmigan and her brood along the side of the road.

              

Shortly, we spotted Dall sheep on the rocky hillside where they adeptly climb, staying away from most of their predators. 

               

               

                     

                

                

                     

Of course the scenery was as awesome as the wildlife but we saw only a small sample of the vast expanses of Denali with its snow capped mountains, rivers, and winding roads.

       

       

      

      

We were fortunate to see grizzlies a couple of times including a mama grizzly with two cubs.  We viewed them from a distance but we weren’t unhappy with that. 

                  

                  

                    

                    

                    

At one of our stops on the Tundra Wilderness Tour, we checked out some good-sized discarded antlers from the park’s inhabitants.  And later on we saw caribou. 

                            

                            

                   

While we were at Denali, we stayed at McKinley Chalet Resort, a large complex with many lodge buildings and a central shopping and dining area which was reached by shuttle vans which occasionally required some waiting.  It was a nice resort employing many students, both U.S. and foreign (especially from Easter European countries).