My Alaska Cruise Vacation
Ranked #2,014 in Travel & Places, #71,767 overall | Donates to National Wildlife Federation's Alaska Regional Center
Alaska-A trip to Remember
Our 2003 trip to Alaska is one I will always remember. Alaska is a beautiful state from it's majestic mountains to the amazing glaciers and the wonderful wildlife and delightful flowers that make their home there.
This lens will give you the highlights of the trip and give you a pictorial view of our trip.
This lens donates all of it's funds to the National Wildlife Federation's Alaska Natural Resource Center For more information on their work go to Alaska Natural Resource Center
photographs by Mary Beth Granger
This lens will give you the highlights of the trip and give you a pictorial view of our trip.
This lens donates all of it's funds to the National Wildlife Federation's Alaska Natural Resource Center For more information on their work go to Alaska Natural Resource Center
photographs by Mary Beth Granger
Vancouver, Canada
looking back at city from the cruise ship
We boarded our cruise ship, the Dawn Princess, in Vancouver, Canada. We took a 7 day cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage and then a land tour from Anchorage to Fairbanks, Alaska.
Seven Wonderful Days of Cruising
Cruise Featured Four Ports
Juneau
Ketchikan
Sitka
Skagway
and a Cruise through
Glacier Bay
Cruise Ports of Call
five stops on our Alaskan cruise
The cruise navigated Alaska's inner passage and stopped at four ports of call, along with cruising in Glacier Bay.Each of the towns where the cruise stopped were small but distinct. We took one of the tours offered through the cruise lines at each of the ports of call.
Juneau is the capitol of Alaska. It is located in the panhandle of Alaska and is 900 air miles north of Seattle and 600 air miles southeast of Anchorage. The population of Juneau is 30,711. The economy of Juneau is from government, tourism, mining and fishing. On our stop in Juneau we took a tour to the Mendenhall glacier.
Skagway had frontier style storefronts and was a great place to browse the shops. While in Skagway we took a ride on the oldest narrow-gauge railroad in the world. We saw some beautiful views as we rode up the mountain in the railroad car.
Ketchikan is billed as the salmon capitol of the world. In Ketcikan we took a tour of a salmon hatchery. It was very interesting to hear the story of the salmon and how they always come back to the place where they hatched to lay their eggs.
Sitka is a very unusual little town of just under 9000 people. It has a rich history from it's past with the Tlingt culture and its' Russian history. You can read more about Sitka's fascinating history at City of Sitka. At Sitka we saw some of the unique totem poles and took a carriage ride through the town.
Glacier Bay was wonderful. It is a network of inlets that channel the frozen tide to the sea and covers over 3.3 million acres. The cruise ship was required to stay at least a mile away from the glaciers for safety reasons, but as you can see in the photos, it looks like we were right next to the glaciers. Beautiful views and when one of the glaciers break off a piece (calving) it almost sounds like thunder. It was an unforgettable sight!!
Alaska Scenes
breathtaking scenery on postcards and calendars
Mendenhall Glacier
tour from Juneau
On our Juneau stop, we took a tour to Mendenhall glacier. It was incredible. The glacier is 12 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. There was a nice park near the glacier where we were able to get great views and some good photographs.
Ketchikan
Salmon Capital
This watercolor was painted by my friend Karen after her Alaskan cruise.
Harbor in Alaska by kjmwatercolorsplus
Gacier Bay
views from the cruise ship-over 1 mile from the Glacier
Alaska Cruises and Ports of Call
guide to Alaska
It's always good to read up on the ports of call before you go. I would suggest reading this guidebook to find out the places that best fit your interests. There are several choices at each port of call and only time to take in one or two tours.
The Land Tour of Alaska
Tour of Anchorage
Visit to Denali State Park
Glass Top Train to Fairbanks
A wonderful lens on Anchorage
This lens gives lots of places to visit in Anchorage and some wonderful photos too!
Denali National Park
beautiful scenery
This photo was taken at Denali. We stayed in a lodge near the great mountain and then the next morning took a bus tour in Denali National Park. It was very cloudy when we were there and the mountain was visible only for very short periods. Unfortuanately I did not get a good photo of the mountain.
The park was beautiful, though, we saw beautiful wildflowers and an occasional glimpse of wildlife in the distance.
Denali National Park
Denali Postage
Wildflower Photographs
and a bear in a tree
Help Keep Alaska Beautiful
National Wildlife Federation's Alaska Regional Center is committed to protecting Alaska's wildlife and wild places for our children and grandchildren. We work in partnership with concerned citizens, grassroots groups, and communities.
Have you been to Alaska or do you long to visit?
please leave your comments here
-
-
RinchenChodron
Apr 2, 2012 @ 10:00 pm | delete
- I used to live in AK - Loved it.
-
-
-
WaynesWorld
Jan 26, 2012 @ 7:17 pm | delete
- My mother took my 4 sisters, two of their husbands, her sister and husband(my aunt and uncle), my aunt's half-sister(my mom grew up with them), a granddaughter, my wife and myself(12+herself). She told my brother-in-law that she could give us all some cash and we would forget about her after she was gone, but a trip-of-a-lifetime is unforgettable. We did the reverse of your trip, we flew into Anchorage, took the globe topped train to Denali then onto Fairbanks. Stayed there a day and a half then flew back to Anchorage where we took busses to Steward where the "Diamond Princess" was docked.
*
The ship was so massive, we stayed in mini-suites on the Baja Deck. I want to say they were just under 400 square feet. Equivalent of a nice hotel room complete with walkout balcony and jacuzzi tub.
*
The land portion of the package was just a bit too rushed, when you are on vacation you want to sleep in and lounge around which the cruise allowed plenty of. Now with the cruise part we stopped at the ports of call but now you were only at the ports for short visits.(hmmm? Can't we make this guy happy?)hehe
*
Even with the rushedness(is that a word?) I would go again in a New York minute. We would sleep in, get up and go to the buffet and pig-out, go back to our room and take naps, then do it all again. I think we were eating 7 times a day, everything was so great except the calamarri.
*
Ketchikan was rainy, I found out when we got home that it is the second rainiest place in the world (339 inches per year), it was wonderful though because we were from Phoenix, AZ that gets an average of 7 inches/year. I went to a internet cafe and the operator mentioned that he'd been there 6 months and could count on one hand the number of sunny days, so if you like cloudy weather...
*
Glacier Bay was awesome, the seals were everywhere. The cruise ship cruised up to what appeared to be half-a-mile from the glacier and they put the engines on each end in such a way to make the ship do a perfect circle. It did this for probably an hour. I was wearing just a thin baseball jacket so I would go from side to side through a doorway and large hall to keep from freezing.
*
I had watched a video of a guy that had gone to Alaska prior to our trip and he was wearing one of those snorkel style winter jackets with frost and/or snow built up around the face opening. It was the second week of June for his video, burrrrrr... I figured we would freeze our butts off on this trip so me and my wife went to Burlington Coat Factory and bought big down coats for the cruise. She wore hers a few times but I was used to northwest Iowa weather as a youngman so except for Glacier Bay it never really was too cold. The whole family had prayed for warm weather and they had record breaking warm weather the entire time we were there. (Our we just blessed? Maybe, but it never hurts to pray.) The morning we got up at Denali Lodge it was 32 degrees, same baseball jacket to ride the school bus out to see Mt. McKinley(Denali); largest peak in North America. The tour guide said to look quick because the peaks were not clouded in, he said they were 42 miles away as the crow flies and they are so big that they have their own weather patterns because of their height. I say 'their' because there are two peaks, one is jagged and one is rounded, the rounded one is actually the tallest. We saw a ptarmigan, some mountain goats way up on a mountain ridge and on the way back we caught the rear ends of a moose and her calf running into the brush. The guide said the moose will head towards settlements to have their calves to keep them safer, the bears are less likely to be around people.
-
-
-
elsiehui Jun 15, 2011 @ 5:14 pm | delete
- Great Lens! Be sure to check out Cruise Ship Balcony Deals!
-
-
-
KatBar
May 12, 2011 @ 10:13 am | delete
- I've been twice. Alaska is so beautiful.
-
-
-
EverythingMouse Feb 13, 2011 @ 6:17 pm | delete
- An Alaskan cruise is such a memorable experience and your lens is excellent. Squid Angel Blessings to you.
-
- Load More
Here is a little about me
I hope you will visit my other lenses.
by mbgphoto
I am a retired grandmother of four beautiful little girls. I enjoy photography, lighthouses, nature, baseball and reading good books. Squidoo is a gr... more »
- 221 featured lenses
- Winner of 29 trophies!
- Top lens » 10 Interesting Places to Visit in Missouri
Feeling creative?
Create a Lens!
Explore related pages
- Interesting Places to Visit in Florida Interesting Places to Visit in Florida
- Rhine River Cruise Rhine River Cruise
- Our Cruise to the Mexican Riviera Our Cruise to the Mexican Riviera
- 10 Interesting Places to Visit in Missouri 10 Interesting Places to Visit in Missouri
- Visit St. Louis Visit St. Louis
- Jupiter Island Jupiter Island
Alaska
a wonderful novel
Alaska: A Novel
Amazon Price: $7.51 (as of 05/28/2012)
If you want to read a good historical novel on Alaska, I would recommend this book.
Lighthouse Musings
stop by my blog
Beautiful Photos of Alaska
Alaska: A Photographic Excursion
Amazon Price: $34.95 (as of 05/28/2012)
Take a photographic journey of Alaksa!
