After ten days in Alaska, it was time to head south to prepare for our trip
home. We rode the Alaska Railroad back to Anchorage, sitting in Holland America’s
fancy McKinley Explorer cars. The ride was incredibly scenic, but very slow
(8 hours). After two days in a row sitting in buses for 7+ hours, I wasn’t
interested in sitting around again, so I spent most of the trip on the platform
downstairs, watching the scenery go by.

This is the final installment of my trip photos, as we fly home to SFO today
(Wednesday). I hope you enjoyed the trip as much as I did!

Here comes the train! The Alaska RR cars are in front, followed by Royal Caribbean/Celebrity,
Holland America, and Princess. It’s a long train!

Our super-swanky train car

Every gets a great view in these cars

View from my seat

Picture-taking in the platform area was popular

All the blue cars are Alaska RR

With all the standing water around, it’s no wonder that Alaska has a mosquito
problem

Glacier-fed rivers aren’t particularly clear

I’ve said it before, but everything is so green in Alaska

Lots of big mountains near Anchorage

And lakes too

I took this photo from our hotel in Anchorage at 11pm! You need good curtains
here!

That’s all from Alaska!

Day 9 of my trip was billed as the best day to see Alaska’s wildlife. While
it wasn’t quite the "zoo" that I was expecting, we still saw Denali’s most
famous residents: brown bears, caribou, dall sheep, and moose. Our tour lasted
nearly seven hours, with the excellent driver/guide making the time pass quickly.

Before that, though, we took a trip to the park’s sled dog kennel. Denali
still uses sled dogs to patrol the park in the winter, and we got to meet and
greet most of the dogs. They’re all remarkably friendly, and they seem to love
what they do. They did a little demo with 5 dogs on a gravel trail, and they
were really moving fast. It was also funny to see how excited the dogs
when they were getting the sled ready… lots of barking "choose me!".

Pictures of everything after the link!

Let’s start out with the sled dog kennel:

One of the 30+ sled dogs in the park

Love this one

This one too. These Alaskan Huskies have great ice-blue eyes!

There they go!

They had to sit in order to get their bones

This was a little hike my dad and I took around the visitor center:

Like I’ve said, everything is SO green here

The rest of these photos are from our Tundra Wilderness Tour inside the park:

Moose

Amazing glacial valleys

Dall sheep

A slightly closer look. Check out those horns!

Caribou

Caribou butts

Nice rack

Amazing scenery here

Really like this shot

Panoramic view (click
for larger)

Here I am, standing in the middle of a glacial valley

The rocks in the river bed are amazing

See that muddy brown thing in the center? That’s a grizzly (brown) bear

Artsy shot of the day

I was "famous" on the bus for actually getting a picture of these two brown bears

Mother is on the left, her cub on the right

That’s all for Denali. I hope you enjoyed the photos!

We were up way too early on Sunday, as the cruise portion of our tour had
come to an end. We left the Zaandam at around 7:45am and were quickly loaded
onto a nice motorcoach for a grueling 8 hour ride to Denali National Park.
The ride was scenic, but the driver wouldn’t stop talking, much to the dismay
of his passengers.

I managed to actually take a nap, and when I woke up, we
were about to stop to take a look at Mt. McKinley. The mountain is not a common
sight in Alaska, but we lucked out today — we could see it fairly well. A
while later we pulled into the "town" of Denali, where we checked in to our
hotel.

There’s really no "night" this time of year — the sun is up something
like 20 hours a day. It’s a bit odd being outside at 11pm with "afternoon"
lighting still in effect.

I’ve got a few interesting pictures from our long bus journey after the link.

Our ride… actually a nice bus

We stopped at a wildlife sanctuary not far out of Seward. This coyote looks kind
of mean here…

And more relaxed in this shot

This is how I like my bear encounters — with two fences in-between us!

This brown bear is freakin’ huge… and he apparently likes to eat hot dogs

The moose has to be one of the least attractive animals on earth

See what I mean?

A black bear, like what you’d bump into in Yosemite

Not easy to see, but Denali, also known as Mt. McKinley, is in the background

Another look at Mt. McKinley

Extreme close-up. The peak on the left is over 20,000 feet tall.

Everything is so green here

Our home for our two nights in Denali

Umm, yuck?

Next up: Denali National Park!

The last full day of our cruise was spent in College Fjord. This fjord was
as smooth as glass, and filled with seals, otters, whales, porpoises, and birds
of all types. There were quite a few glaciers to see, too, though there was
no dramatic calving like in Glacier Bay.

Photos from Day 7 of my Alaska trip after the link below.

Looking out from the back of the ship as we enter College Fjord

Not sure what kind of bird this is, but they appear to walk on water

We saw a TON of sea otters here

There are four otters here… sometimes you’d see a half dozen or more at once!

I assume that’s an otter on the iceberg on the right

Pretty spectacular scenery

Apparently these trees died as a result of the 1964 earthquake

Seals hanging out on some ice

There are at least five glaciers in this photo

A river of ice…

Nice waterfall

Another glacier

The bow of the ship was a popular place to be today

Lots of ice in the water here

Nice reflection

One more glacier for good measure

In the next gallery, I’ll have pictures of our trip from Seward to Denali.

We spent our sixth day cruising through Glacier Bay, Alaska. If you like glaciers,
this is the place to be. After the link I’ve got a bunch of photos, plus some
cool movies of glaciers calving.

Morning balcony view

One of many glaciers in Glacier Bay

See those tiny brown things? Those are brown bears.

Calving glacier

Lots of blue ice floating around

Cool striations in the ice

Aren’t their feet cold?

Our ship would just park in front of a glacier and wait for things to happen

Then, you’ll hear a "crack", and the ice collapses into the Bay.

Yours truly, trying to stay warm

Yet another glacier

They opened up the bow of the ship for glacier viewing

Love the blue ice

We had guides from the NPS onboard… here they’re on their way home

And now, two movies that I put together from still photos:

The next gallery will be the last one from the cruise portion
of this trip: College Fjord!

On day 5, we stopped in Skagway. Like Ketchikan, the city itself isn’t very
exciting. There are some quaint old buildings, though most of them contain
chain jewelry stores, or tacky t-shirt shops. It kind of felt like Fisherman’s
Wharf at home.

The highlights of the day included a trip on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad,
and our departure from the port. I’ve got pictures of everything after the
link.

The morning view features soaring mountains and the Norwegian Sun (again)

Looking up at our ship

Another view of the Zaandam, with the Norwegian Sun in the background

Skagway

Weird old building

Lots of jewelry places in these ports, few of which are owned by Alaskans

Now we’re on the train, headed out of town

Looking back toward Skagway. Our cruise ship is the one in the middle.

There’s a big wooden trestle bridge that you have to cross

Amazing views up here

Crossing the trestle and going into a tunnel

This steel bridge is no longer used

And here’s why

This is at the top of White Pass

Lots of flags at the border: USA, Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon Territory,
and Canada

Amazing mountains all around

Going downhill

Another train further up

Getting closer to sunset at 930pm

Dusk (at 1045pm)

Panoramic view (click
for larger)

And now, for something completely different:

Cruises always have a "midnight buffet", though they’re usually at 11. On this
particular night, it was a chocolate/dessert feast.

Love the Eiffel Tower of chocolate

One of the bartenders makes a flaming drink

Next up: Glacier Bay!

On day 4 of our cruise, we stopped in Juneau. My folks went off on a whale
watching / glacier trip early in the morning, and my excursion wasn’t until
the afternoon, so I was on my own for a change. I took a tram to the top of
Mt. Roberts, walked around the town, ate lunch, and then it was time for my
"Photo Safari". We took a special boat designed for photographers out into
the inlets surrounding Juneau. After that, we had a land portion near the Mendenhall
Glacier.

Needless to say, lots of photos were taken — and you can see my favorites
after the link.

Morning view from our balcony

My first activity was taking this tram to the top of Mt. Roberts

It’s a pretty expensive trip up the mountain. The view is nice,
but I’m not sure if it’s $25 nice.

A more zoomed-out view of Juneau

There was so much snow at the top that you couldn’t hike very far

Cool stuff growing on this tree

Back at sea level, I walked past the Westerdam, which is larger than our ship,
and similar to the Noordam that I sailed on two years ago

Here’s our ship

Downtown Juneau

Definitely an old city

An old Russian Orthodox church

The State Capitol building is sort of underwhelming

I like the statue though

Now, onto the Photo Safari by Land and Sea!

We saw quite a few humpback whales, but no orcas

The tail on this one looks pretty beat up

Lighthouse

There’s lots of action at this buoy

Getting up onto the buoy isn’t particularly easy

My thoughts exactly

A sea otter, a fairly uncommon sighting in these waters

A good lookout spot

The Alaska Marine Highway

A salmon stream near Mendenhall Glacier

Lupine, I think

More cool stuff growing on a tree

Mendenhall Glacier

Love the blue ice

A panoramic view of the glacier (view larger)

Next up: Skagway and a trip on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad!

Today will probably end up as the most adventurous day of our trip to Alaska.
The highlight, as you can see, was a floatplane trip to Misty Fjords National
Monument. This was my first time in a turboprop (a 1953 Dehavilland Otter),
and surprisingly, I was more relaxed than I am on a commercial jetliner! We
also spent some time walking around Ketchikan, the self-proclaimed Salmon Capital
of the World.

Hit the link below to see all of today’s action!

The view from our balcony this morning

Not the most exciting city, but what a beautiful area

They love their totem poles here

There’s a fish ladder just upstream from here

Buildings along Creek Street

The light blue building (Dolly’s) is an old cathouse

The Star Princess was parked two ships in front of us. You can see the huge nightclub
they have on the back of the ship.

Now it’s time for our floatplane ride! Ours is the one in the back left.

While we were waiting, my dad noticed this guy hanging around nearby.

Look at those talons!

Not sure what he’s looking for here.
I was using the 300mm lens and 1.4X
teleconverter for these photos.

Okay, eagle time is over… time to board the plane… gulp.

Up, up, and away

View from 3000 feet

Lots of inlets and lakes

Mirror Lake

Apparently they’ve had a long winter this year

Sheer granite, with a 2000 foot deep lake below

A frozen lake

Waterfall below the frozen lake

Landing on a lake in Misty Fjords

Postcard shot, taken while standing on the plane’s pontoon!

Heading back to Ketchikan now…

Buzzing the Zaandam

Soon we were back onboard, for a 3pm departure

We soon passed the Star and Dawn Princesses

Leaving Ketchikan behind

That’s all for day 3. Tomorrow: Juneau!

The first full day of our cruise was spent at sea. It wasn’t a particularly
good day to be outside — there were gale force winds, rain, and rough seas.
Thus, the majority of the day was spent laying around, touring the ship, and
eating. I unfortunately had to do a little work, but that’s over now (or so
I hope).

Click the link to see photos from day 2 of my Alaska cruise!

The first item of the day (after showering, of course) was to hit the Lido Restaurant
for breakfast

Next up: a kitchen tour!

These ice carvers are quite skilled

The executive chef

Glassware is washed here

Industrial-strength dishwashers

Assembling cheese plates

Now THIS is a stand mixer!

The seas were quite rough… you could really feel the ship moving!

The Star Princess was at our side for most of the day

After the Captain’s welcoming ceremony we saw a show… a little too "lounge
singer" for my taste

For some reason, the cruise line was celebrating my mom’s birthday, two months
early

Towel art awaited us in the room after dinner

The sun sets really late… at around 10pm…

Next up is part 3, which I know you’ll enjoy!

My Sunday started way too early at 5AM. A few hours later we were on an Air
Canada jet on our way to Vancouver. From there we took a bus ride through the
city on our way to the cruise ship terminal, with a driver who talked way too
much.

Thanks to the handy US Direct service, we didn’t have to deal with Canadian
customs at all — it was straight onto the ship for us. Once onboard we went
straight for the Lido Cafe for the first of many meals. The rest of
the day was spent wandering the Zaandam, and then enjoying a beautiful departure
from Vancouver.

Click the link to see the photos from the first day of my ten day trip to
Alaska!

This is Canada Place, the main cruise ship terminal in Vancouver.

They were busy loading food and supplies for the cruise

This is the midship pool, which has a retractable roof

And here’s the roof. I don’t expect to see it opened much on this trip

This pool’s on the back deck… I don’t think anyone has gone into it yet.

The cows are a nice touch though

The Crow’s Nest is a great place to sit back and enjoy the view (and a drink).
It looks out over the bow of the Zaandam

The Exploration Cafe is the Internet Cafe / Library. Internet Access onboard
is slow and expensive (over 40 cents per minute)

This three-story "organ" is the centerpiece of the ship’s atrium

Our room for the next week… not for the claustrophobic! And this is a suite!

There was a lot to see from our private balcony, including TONS of float
planes

Here’s something you don’t see everyday… a gas station in the middle of the
water

Now it’s time to head out to sea!

Pulling away from Canada Place

A more distant view… the ship parked next to use was the Norwegian Sun, which
you’ll see again in a moment

Stanley Park… I was here ages ago

Approaching the Lion’s Gate Bridge

We’ve cleared the bridge

A police boat followed us out past the bridge

We were followed by the Mercury (left) and the Norwegian Sun (right). This
was taken with my 300mm lens and 1.4x teleconverter.

We’ve seen plenty of lighthouses thus far

The Norwegian Sun seemed to be in hurry — it quickly passed

The Mercury passed us as well

Ferryboat

Cool mountains in the distance

That’s all for day one… stay tuned for day two!