Alaska - our last frontier
by missylee, Sun 13 Sep 2009
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Our Alaskan adventure started when we boarded our cruise ship at Vancouver, the Grand Princess. Everything about her was grand and definitely first class - from the cabins to the dining room and the staff - and we had no complaints at all.
We sailed out under the Lions Gate Bridge from Vancouver into the Inside Passage. Our first stop was Ketchican, Alaska's first city and as picturesque as they come. The town was built on piles over the water and clings to the slopes of Deer Mountain. We saw millions of salmon migrating back home to spawn.
We then took a floatplane to Neets Creek Bay where we saw black bears catching salmon - so many salmon they took no notice of us humans, much to my relief. Back on board ship we continued our journey up to Juneau. In addition to being the capital of Alaska Juneau is the only land locked city in the U.S. with no road connections to major highways, although travel is easy via scheduled air service and the Alaska Marine Highway.
We landed at Auk Bay and went on a tour to the Mendenhall Glacier. It was an awesome sight, including my first look at a glacier! Back in Juneau we had a wander around town and ended up at the Red Dog Saloon and enjoyed a drink with some of the locals. Back on board we had our first formal night, getting dressed in our glad rags for cocktails with the captain followed by a five course meal then a walk around the deck to burn up some calories as we sailed to our next stop - Skagway.
This was the staging grounds of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898 and from here, an army of hopeful gold seekers began the 45 mile trek over White Horse Pass towards the gold fields. In 1898 the population was 10,000 - today it is 750. We took the easy way up and went by steam train passing Bridal Veil Falls where a beautiful cascade of water drops 6,000ft from Mount Cleveland.
Rocky Point was another viewpoint that gave us an excellent view of Skagway with Mount Harding forming a magnificent backdrop. After going through many tunnels we reached White Horse Pass on the border with Canada. After going back to Skagway, we then had two days at sea which gave us time to explore the ship and join in some of the activities and see the shows - all of which were first class.
We sailed into Yakatut Bay toward the Hubbard Glacier, which is Alaska's most active glacier, surging 47ft in one day. It is the largest and most impressive in the state and extends six miles across - we got to within half a mile and were lucky eneough to see it calving (when a chunk of ice breaks off) and the noise was deafening.
We then sailed into College Fjord which has 16 glaciers all named after Ivy League colleges in the U.S. It was absolutely freezing sailing into the fjord, but the scenery was spectacular. We also spotted a shoal of Beluga whales and lots of sealions. Despite the fact our ship was 17-stories high, we were like a tiny dot compared to the size of the glaciers.
Our last night on board was a party night and the waiters brought out baked alaska parading around the dining room with flames coming out of the pudding. After docking at Seward we headed for Anchorage for the second leg of our holiday staying at the Hilton for two nights in the centre of town.
Anchorage is a wonderful place and called the hanging basket capital of the world. Everywhere we went we saw beautiful flowers and giant vegetables because of the continuous sunshine during the summer.
From Anchorage we went to Mount McKinley Wilderness Lodge for two nights. The sun shone all day and we had clear blue skies. The mountain was majestic, covered in snow and dominating the skyline. We took a float raft down the Sustina River in Talkeenta then had a more hair-raising ride in a speedboat. Settling down after that, we took a more sedate ride in a chuck wagon to pan for gold. I managed to bag about $10-worth.
Our next stop was at the Denali State Park for a further two nights. Our lodges had hot tubs outside - what better way to spend your time than to soak in a hot tub enjoying a glass of wine looking at the stars with Mount McKinley as a backdrop.
Our last stop was Fairbanks, inthe centre of Alaska where we managed to stay up long eneough to see the famous Northern Lights, which brought our holiday of a lifetime to a perfect end.
