Juneau was far and away the best stop of the entire cruise, and has some of the best picture I took the entire trip, so I’m going to break Juneau up in to two days: Mendenhall Glacier and then Whale watching. The excursions were run by Gastineau Guiding, and I want to make a point to name them, because everyone involved with the tour was absolutely fabulous. I would recommend them in a heartbeat to anyone wanting to tour Mendenhall Glacier and go whale watching.

The entire day was amazing, and makes Juneau one of the places I definitely want to return to (the other, of course, being Denali National Park. Just for convenience.)

If you were not aware of the fact, Juneau is the capital of Alaska. It is also completely unreachable by car. You can only access it by boat or by plane. There have been various drive to move the capital, however, when I asked Tania about it, she said that since everything went online, it doesn’t matter where the capital is, as long as someone can email the representatives or watch sessions remotely. And i do believe she is right.

In case it isn’t clear immediately, we had amazingly, stunningly, beautiful weather in Juneau. So first up: Mendenhall Glacier.

No rain, clear skies, and perfect temperatures. (60s F)

I saw tons and tons of fascinating plants while hiking, including lots of moss and lichen.

And lots and lots of gorgeous flowers and trees.

All of which was fabulous, and very impressive, until we stepped into a tiny clearing at the edge of the lake and I had my breath taken away at the sight.

Our first port of call was Skagway, Alaska. Skagway was the starting point of the climb during the Yukon Gold Rush. Our tour guides told us that at its peak, Skagway had a handful of restaurants and 80+ bars and saloons.

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In recent years, the town rebuilt itself upon its historical past, as you can see above. One of the first places we stopped (after our excursion) was the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Although it is a teeny museum, what impressed me in retrospect was actually seeing the equipment miners took with them, and pictures of the climb. Here is a link to the Chilkoot Trail Gallery. Go there and look at the pictures.

Then realize that the men who were making that climb were required to take 1000 pounds of supplies with them, which meant multiple trips up the “stairs.”

Our excursion in Skagway was a quick tour “Up the Yukon Pass”. Essentially it was a small bus that took us up above the treeline into Canada. Sadly, it was overcast and raining in the morning, so the view was not very good. Later in the day skies cleared, so I wish we’d have taken a later excursion. (Not an issue if you’re on your own and doing things at your own pace.)

This is probably the only picture that gives you any sense of the scale of the climb.

About the only thing you can tell from this picture is that we are above the tree line, and any trees are scrub that won’t get much higher.

Regardless, it was still a beautiful climb.

On of the things I particularly liked about the cruise was that they had a naturalist on board who spoke about the various sights we were passing, and even brought about park rangers when we went to Glacier Bay.

It was, not surprisingly, rainy and grey most of the day. Yet, despite the overcast and drizzling skies, it was an awe inspiring sight. We saw multiple glaciers, and the ship just sat–presenting one side and then the other–at the glacier, so we had a chance to just sit and enjoy the majesty.

Glacier Bay was where I saw my first whale (in the wild, that is).

That morning there was a whale that came quite close to the ship, which was a wonderful sight to those of us who were braving the cold and rain to stand at the bow.

The closer we got, the more icebergs we saw floating on the water.

The land that surrounds these bays was formed by the glaciers. I could not help but start at these formations wrought in the land by nothing more than ice and time.

Glacier ice is different from the ice in your refrigerator. The ice crystals form slowly under pressure and individual crystals can grow to be the size of a football. Air trapped between the snowflakes is also frozen into the ice at pressure. Ice near the bottom of the glacier is under tremendous pressure, which allows it to flow almost like a plastic over the bedrock beneath. Friction between the glacier and the bedrock produces meltwater which further lubricates the bedrock allowing the ice to slide.

These pictures have slightly different shadings to them–the first pictures I processed were from the jpgs I shot. Then I went and processed the pictures using the RAW data, which allowed me greater leeway in correcting the color and light of the image.

We spent time at Lamplugh Glacier and Margerie Glacier. When I take the time to adjust my picture times for Alaska time, I’ll even be able to tell you which glacier is which.

Yeah, I’ve finally started going through all the flower pr0n I took on vacation. Still haven’t looked at the pictures from Stanley Park Rose Garden, but I’ve gone though the flower pictures I took in Alaska.

Arctic Poppy Papaver nudicaule

Blue Poppy Meconopsis betonicifolia

Alpine Forget-Me-Not Myosotis alpestris

Still trying to figure out what this one is.

Primrose Primula

Of course there are more pictures! Just click through!

(finally got the handful of pictures I took/asked Michael to take using Michael’s camera )

We did noting particularly picturesque following the visit to Seward. We went to visit Jim, and went out for beers with Redrummy but then Tania headed back home because the next day our cruise started.

Although you fly into Anchorage, for the cruise you leave from Whittier. Whittier is an isolated, deep water port that was once a secret Naval base. How secret? First, the place is usually covered in fog. Second, until 2000, the only ground transportation was via train, through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel.

So, did they build a new road into Whittier? Nope. They just modified the existing train tunnel so cars can also drive through it. And by also, I mean that the tunnel is one lane, so everyone–cards and trains–take turns waiting to get through the tunnel. The schedule is posted (and strictly adhered to) so you can time your arrival so you don’t have to wait too long, but still, you are driving through an unfinished train tunnel.

It was fascinating.

Whittier?

Well, despite the fact that the day was sunny when we left Anchorage, and even when we entered the tunnel, things were foggy and grey when we exited the tunnel.

The building in the background is an abandoned military complex.

So, at Whittier we boarded the cruise ship, had dinner, settled in, and the next day was really when the cruise portion of our vacation started.

The first full day at sea we were cruising Yakutat Bay.

One of the things I really liked about the cruise, was that there was a naturalist aboard, and when we went through these amazing areas, the naturalist spoke about what we were seeing. Additionally, at Glacier Bay National park, Park Rangers came aboard the ship, so the speakers broadcast not just the commentary of the naturalist, but also of rangers who work at the park, and were delighted to answer all questions about the glaciers and the park.

And I believe that I’ll pick up with Glacier Bay next Monday.

No pictures tomorrow. I decided to spent the evening using Flickr’s map setting to locate the Alaska and Vancouver pictures as accurately as possible.

I even considering trying to figure out how to enter latitude and longitude into Flickr, but the snot to brains ratio in my head was not conducive of that.

You think that’s bad, once I start going through all the flower pictures, I’m totally going to have to look up the species, just because I want to know.

A few miles before you reach Seward (which is apparently a fisherman’s paradise in the summer, because I think we saw half a million tourists there) is Exit Glacier.

Exit Glacier is part of the Kenai Fjords, and was so named because it was where explorers would exit the Harding Ice Fields. I have to admit that although I think Denali is preferable to Mt. McKinley, I really like the names Turnagain Arm and Exit Glacier.

Because of the way the glacier has retreated, we were not allowed to walk up to and touch the glacier–there was simply no path to do so. But we got very close–close enough to be extremely impressed.

One of the things I liked about the hike to the glacier was that they marked where glacier had been and at what year. It was amazing to stand in what was pretty much a forest, and realized the glacier had been there not fifty years earlier.

As you can see, we had an absolutely gorgeous day.

This was our first clear view of the glacier.The glacier had been where I was standing in 1926.

Once again I was amazed by the landscape and not just what nature had done (in breaking bits of mountain into small rock) but also how quickly the plants and trees had taken over where not long before a glacier had stood.

And now we’re closer, but you can still see we’re relatively far away, as the people standing by the glacier still look quite tiny.

There were lots of waterfalls within the glacier, where the melt ran down eventually to ground.

You can see here how quickly plants take over once the glacier has receded.

Outside of the park, the river formed by the melt.

And then the town of Seward. I was fascinated by the piece of dock that had survived the Good Friday Earthquake and Tsunami.

We took the Seward Highway to reach Exit Glacier and the town of Seward. But the drive itself was gorgeous, so I’ll save Exit Glacier and Seward for tomorrow.

The part of Cook Inlet that runs along the Seward Highway after Anchorage is called Turnagain Arm, from when Cook was searching for the Northwest Passage. It wasn’t, and so was named (in irritation I presume) Turn Again.

The drive down Seward highway takes you from the Cook Inlet to the Gulf of Alaska, and was a gorgeous drive. I kept asking to stop so I could get out and take pictures until I realized how late it was and that if we didn’t move we might not make Exit Glacier before the park closed. (Plus, Tania wanted to visit with her friends in Seward, and I was totally delaying that!)

The drive down Turnagain Arm–followed by the drive back that night–showed precisely how far the tide goes in and out in Cook Inlet.

One of the things I don’t seem to have pictures of are the areas that fell during the Good Friday Earthquake in 1964. (Here’s a picture of what I’m talking about.) When the earth fell, areas that had been above the tide line suddenly weren’t anymore, so I kept seeing areas where there were bare, dead trunks sticking up in the air.

At this point, I kinda lost track of where–precisely–we were. Other than everything around me was gorgeous.

Wherever we went, I was fascinated by the marks on the land–the fractures made by water and ice. I live in mountains worn down by water and time, while these lands are changed not by erosion but by the violence of the earth. Round river stones replaced here by shards of broken rock.

Our trip to Denali National Park was very rainy, but since we were spending most of the day in the car, we didn’t mind too much.

The next morning we walked a bit along the Nenana River, then drove into the park as far as private vehicles are allowed to drive. Next time we’ll take the bus ride all the way to the end of the road. The grey day cleared up just as we were leaving the park, and had a beautiful ride back. We stopped for dinner an Talkeetna, where we had dinner at the same place my cousin did in June before he climbed Denali Mountain. (Yeah, that’s right. My cousin goes to Alaska to climb a mountain; I go to take pictures of things.)

This was from the drive to Denali Park:

Fireweed is probably my favorite Alaskan plant.

Nenana river and canyon, on our way to Denali National Park:

The color of the water is not just from the grey day. The water is grey from glacial silt.

And now, Denali National Park:

I am very disappointed none of the pictures I took of the area(s) in the picture above look they way the area felt.

Drive back along the Parks Highway.

Now you can see the skies just beginning to clear.

Here is where we stopped for dinner. Twister Creek Restaurant at Talkeetna. Notice the second part of the sign? I went to Alaska to take pictures and see things. Michael went to drink local beers.

Michael and Tania!

On the 11th we went to Potter’s Marsh, part of the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge. It is a birder’s paradise, and although I am not a birder, I enjoyed using my new zoom lens to see birds up close.

As you can see, it was another grey day, but it was fun regardless.

First, some general scenery:

Now, some birds:

Greater yellowlegs (?) Tringa melanoleuca

Arctic tern Sterna paradosea
Greater yellowlegs (?) Tringa melanoleuca

Common Redpoll Carduelis flammea

Gull of some sort.

We landed in Anchorage. Tania drove down from Fairbanks to meet us, and be our guide and chauffeur, a fact for which I will be eternally grateful. Alaska is a HUGE place and trying to figure out what to see was an overwhelming task. Tania helped us see an overview of the areas she thought we’d like, and that gave us an idea for places we’d like to see when we finally get to go back.

Anchorage in the summer is tourist land. In fact, most of the areas we visited catered to summer tourists and sportsmen and adventurers and tourists. Tania helped us to avoid the overtly touristy places, and I tried very hard to make sure stores we visited were Alaska owned and the loot I bought was Alaska made or designed.

This was a lot harder than you’d think, especially in the ports of call for the cruise ship.

But I think (and hope) I did okay. I certainly prefer that my money went to support someone who lives in Alaska year round, not just when the weather is good.

One of the first things we saw–and were warned about–were the mud flats.

Anchorage was surrounded not by beaches but by mudflats there are basically squishy quicksand. That, combined with the the tremendous difference between high and low tide make these ares extremely dangerous.

Anchorage is also, of course, surrounded by mountains.

It was usually cloudy, so I didn’t get many good pictures of the majesty of the surrounding mountains. However, I will say that I liked the various Alaska ranges better than the Rockies. Of course, the Appalachians remain my favorite mountains, and the mountains in Hawaii are also wonderful, but the mountains in Alaska were amazing and impressive.

One of the things we did in Alaska was eat. A lot. And Michael tried to sample as many local brews as possible. I think he did a pretty good job, thanks to Tania’s expert guidance.

While in Anchorage, Michael and I hiked Flattop Mountain. The views were spectacular, despite the grey weather.

We also managed not to be eaten by a bear, which I thought was important.

While in Anchorage, we visited Potter’s Marsh and the Alaska Botanical Garden. Potter’s Marsh will be the next post. The Botanical Garden will be some of the last pictures I go through, since it’s almost all flowers pr0n.

As some of you are aware, Michael and I took three weeks vacation and went to Alaska. We spent just over a week hanging out with our friend Tania from Fairbanks, and were joined by Neurondoc and her family.

Then Tania went home while the five of us went on a cruise down the Inside Passage, viewing glaciers and stopping at port cities.

Then we spent two days (one night) in Vancouver, where we met Jeri, and then spent several days in Seattle.

If you were wondering why I hadn’t been around much, that’s why.

The trip was amazing. I do not have superlatives enough to describe it.

I do, however, have several thousand pictures.

Never fear, I will not subject you to that many pictures. I’m planning on posting several of my favorite pictures every day, and if I feel so motivated, telling you a bit about that area we saw. You can also click through to Flickr to see more pictures there, but I am being aggressive in culling pictures, and putting up only ones that I think best represent wherever we were visiting.

Then I plan to go through I work through the shots I took for myself (things I found interesting/fascinating) and only then will I allow myself to go through all the flower pictures.

Because I took a LOT of plant pictures. The botany of Alaska is not just different from what I am used to here in West Virginia, but it differed from region to region, often significantly.

If you have any questions about where we went and what we did, please feel free to ask.

Alaska is definitely a place everyone should visit–and should do so while they are young enough to get out and hike and see places.