"Discover Alaska-Inside Passage"

September 2000
 
 
 
 

Alaska - at last! We've always dreamed of going to Alaska to see all the sights but we just never got around to it. But now, with the weather in Houston above 100 degrees every day and the humidity oppressive, we were ready.

We flew directly into Anchorage from Houston and met Pat and Chuck our Holland America/WestTour guides. After a good night's sleep, we boarded a domed observation car for the all day trip to the Denali National Park about 250 miles north in 50 degree weather (yes!). The views from these cars were really great. The water in this view is gray from the glacial silt (called "rock flour") created by the glaciers grinding away on the underlying bedrock. The salmon swim through this stuff to get to their spawning grounds then blow out their gills real hard when they get into clear water. We saw a float plane flying overhead after we got up the line a good ways and came to find that he had landed on a lake around the bend at his summer cottage. Not a bad way to get to the back country for some weekend fishing or hunting!

We saw many animals on our trip which I have not included here except this moose. Believe it or not, we saw a couple herds of these guys right near the busy Anchorage Airport having a good supper but not a one of them up in the boondocks! Saw a whole lot of American Bald Eagles, though - what big, beautiful birds.

After we got situated in our hotel in Denali, we went to "Cabin Night" at a local restaurant/bar for an all-you-can-eat ribs and salmon dinner. They put on a great show after dinner especially when this gal playing the piano said that as far as men were concerned "the odds were good" but "the goods were odd"!

A bus trip up a 90 mile road into the Denali National Park started out rather cloudy but after a while we got some lucky sun and caught on to what the park was all about. Above the tree line, we saw lots of scrub brush and underlying tundra. The scrub brush turned out to be red, dwarf birch trees and bright yellow willow trees that only grow so tall because of the harsh climate. The bus guide told us we hit it just right because the birch and willows were both out at the same time. The underlying tundra is very dense, colorful (dark red), tightly packed and hard to walk through. As the day wore on, this park became more beautiful as we considered how harsh the climate is and how short the growing season is. We didn't get a real good look at Mt. McKinley in the park but here's a picture of Judy and I at a stop where we had hot chocolate - Mt. McKinley is in the clouds behind us. We took a coach bus back to Seward that afternoon and the skies open up more and we got lucky. The coach driver stopped at a spot that offered a great shot of Mt. McKinley - it's almost totally out of the clouds. This mountain (20,230 ft) just dwarfs any other mountain around it in the Alaskan Mountain Range! It's also the tallest mountain in the U.S.

After this pleasant but basic tour of Denali, we boarded the plush Statendam cruise ship in Seward, the port of Anchorage. The Statendam was built in 1993, is 75M tons, and offers beautiful surroundings, staterooms, dinners, shows, and views. Judy enjoys these kind of vacations because she can finish up her knitting projects while she looks out from the Lido Deck at other cruise ships. The ship offered a lot of "flightseeing" excursions and these little float planes were all around us when we went into ports along the way like Juneau and Ketchikan.

The peak of my excitement came when we sailed slowly into Glacier Bay and other tight places for about four days. The ship kept quiet and made numerous slow, 360 degree turns so we all could see the sights while we listened to the National Park interpreter. No amount of words can express one's feelings about these massive, moving ice flows as they slowly make their way down through the mountain valleys. I hope these pictures will give you a longing to go there some day. Here are some pictures of the Margerie Glacier at various angles (1, 2, 3, 4). And, here are some pictures of College Fjord which is another beautiful place (1, 2). The ice bergs floating along tell their own stories - like this newly calved one that still retains its characteristic blue color and this old one which has served as a dinner table for many inhabitants.

As the final days of our Inside Passage Cruise dwindled, we we able to visit some cities like Juneau (the capital of Alaska) and Ketchikan which are accessible only by boat or sea plane. They were fun visits especially when I remember the Red Dog Saloon which had a sign inside which stated that "if our standards are not as high as yours, then lower yours"!

Closing out a cruise to this part of the world is somewhat bittersweet because of the stark contrast between the harshness of the climate and the natural beauty of the surroundings. Our final memories of Alaska are sealed forever by the view of these mountains as we looked back off the ship, even when they receded from our view, as we headed back home to our 100 degree heat. Ahhhh..., more memories to soothe the soul.