Alaska Tour and Cruise

To quote the author and celebrated wildlife and nature photographer Art Wolfe, "Alaska is a state that is difficult to think of as a state; it is more of a country in and of itself, with vastly different geographical regions, its sheer immensity and it's pristine wilderness". This impression has been continually reinforced through our conversations with fellow travelers who are overwhelmingly from the lower 48.

And so our exploration of discovery to the State of Alaska commenced with dramatic views of the snow and glacier covered mountains as we flew from Seattle to Fairbanks.

Heading north

A very late evening arrival in Fairbanks Alaska and something's not right the sun is still shining! The streets were empty as we drove through downtown Fairbanks - oh that's right it's nearly midnight! Most of the locals were tucked up in bed.

Fairbanks is only 120 miles south of the Arctic Circle so you'd think the temperature would be a little on the cool side. Nothing could be further from the truth - the days averaged maximums of 15° to 24° C. That's even a few degrees warmer than Seattle!

Our first full day in the 49th State has been both fascinating and enjoyable. We visited an alluvial gold mine called El Dorado followed by lunch visit and scramble around an old gold mining dredge. The lunch consisted of authentic beef stew and scones (they called these biscuits).

Experiencing El Dorado

To enable the gold extraction process, water is transported in a 91 mile channel and 48" trench built in 1929 called the Davidson Ditch. This water was also used to defrost the frozen rock mined and stockpiled during the 9 month winter.

Mosquitos are jokingly referred to as Alaska's state bird. They breed in the extensive patchwork quilt of still ponds and lakes resulting from permafrost and beaver dams.

The gold mining dredge works just like a sluice box, could process tonnes of paydirt per day and were profitable even when gold was $35 per ounce. Dredges used mercury to improve the concentration of collected gold - another reason for their ultimate demise.

Gold Dredge Number Eight - Fairbanks, Alaska

We took the short drive to El Dorado mine along the Steese Highway which achieved notoriety following  the release of the television series "Ice Truckers". It's the lifeline for the oil production facility and community in Prudhoe Bay.

Steese Highway mishap

We also stopped to examine up close  the Alaska Oil Pipeline. An amazing number of engineering challenges have been overcome during its design and construction incl. earthquakes, permafrost, massive temperature changes between summer and winter and the temperature / viscosity of the transported oil. The world's largest recorded earthquake (9.1 Richter Scale) occurred in 1964 beneath Prince William Sound. Combined with permafrost (both stable and unstable) there's lots of work for civil  engineers up here.

Alaska Oil Pipeline

Pipeline Route

Our afternoon excursion during our day in Fairbanks was referred to as a Riverboat Discovery Cruise aboard a genuine rear propelled flat-bottomed sternwheeler riverboat that would look completely at home on the Mississippi River. Many very professional presentations and demonstrations involving people onboard and onshore that covered a wide variety of topics including;

• Air transportation to remote communities 
• Dog sledding and the 1100 mile Iditarod
• Fish trapping and smoking
• Traditional Alaskian Native fur clothing
• Athabascan Indian Village lifestyle

Traditional Fur Coat

Moose Mates

Friday (Day 7) - and we've headed for Denali aboard the McKinley Explorer. The glass top carriages are supplied by Holland America Line (HAL) and Princess Cruises and have have increased the popularity of this railroad enormously.

McKinley Lodge - Denali

McKinley Explorer

Although the sun was shining we were not very successful at spotting much wildlife or Mt  McKinley inside the National Park.

Mt McKinley

The second half of the rail trip to Anchorage was much more scenic; lots of glacier fed streams, beaver dams, narrow gorges and spectacular mountains. Saw our first Alaskan glacier (from the ground and at a distance).

Did you know that no one uses more duct tape than the residents of Alaska. Alaskans use the product to fix or create almost anything. Wasilla has become known as the "Duct Tape capital of the World" when in 2003 the Wal-Mart store sold more Duct Tape than any other Wal-Mart store in the world. The story goes that a hunter's life was saved after a bear attack by binding his own wounds and drove himself to hospital. Wasilla is also Sarah Palin's home town.

Sarah Palin

Portage Glacier is one of the most visited places in Alaska since it is so close to Anchorage and accessible by road. The town of Portage was destroyed  by the 1964 earthquake when most of the land subsided by 4 metres. This is our first up close glacial encounter which we did onboard a small passenger vessel.

Portage Glacier

Seward greeted us with grey skys, low cloud and frequent showers. This coastal town lies south of Anchorage on the edge of Prince William Sound and is the preferred embarkation port for the Alaskan Cruises for a number of cruise lines (including Holland America). It is also the terminus of the Alaska Central Railway which reached all the way north to Fairbanks. Many people will be aware that the USA purchased Alaska off the Russians in 1867. Seward was named after the US President's Secretary of State at that time - William Seward.

Seward, Alaska

Boarding our cruise ship was like greeting an old friend as Holland America's ms Zaandam is an identical sister ship (same size, decks, and internal layout) to ms Volendam which we spent 14 wonderful days on in New Zealand a couple years ago. (see our New Zealand blog). We were delighted to find that we'd been upgraded from an internal cabin on Deck 1 to a window cabin on Deck 2.

Zaandam in Glacier Bay, Alaska

Zaandam's theme is music so there are lots of references to music in the internal decorations. The ships atrium is filled with a pipe organ sculpture and the accommodation corridors feature embroided gold fabric panels of sheet music (impossible to photograph successfully).

The first full day of the cruise and Zaandam took us to College Fjord in Prince William Sound to see some glaciers. Realising that we were in the same neighbourhood as Valdez (oil refinery and the site of the Exxon Valdez grounding on Bligh Reef) was helpful to gain a better appreciation the enormity of that environmental disaster.

Exxon Valdez

Overnight we steamed (actually we motored but that sounds far less romantic) to Glacier Bay. At 4:00am we were all woken by the ships emergency alarm followed by an apology and announcement that the bridge had received a report that a passenger had been lost over the side and that we were returning to the same position to commence a search. In the meantime the entire ships compliment (later amended to guests only) were required to report to their lifeboat muster station to checked off.

Amazingly it took just under half an hour for every passenger to be accounted and were able to return to our beds. Also amazing - it was still warm out on the ship's promenade deck. Also amazingly compliments were flowing both ways the following day -

a) the Captain congratulated:

• the passengers for responding so promptly and patiently, and
• the crew for ensuring that the incident was managed with a minimum of fuss, plus

b) the passengers comments all we're very complimentary about the ship's well rehearsed and efficient emergency procedures.

Our unexpected early wakeup was the prelude to an amazing day of scenery and wildlife in Glacier Bay. We felt extremely privileged to observe Margerie Glacier calving just few hundred meters away from us as the ship was brought to a complete stop. Several pods of whales were seen surfacing and breaching as the ship moved along the Fjord towards the glaciers. As a result of the delay overnight, another of Zaandam's sister ships ms Oosterdam followed us all the way up Glacier Bay. As we crossed near the head of the fjord it became awesomely apparent how the scale of this place quickly distorts the senses. Although considerably larger than Zaandam, Oosterdam seemed tiny amongst our natural surroundings.

Margerie Glacier

ms Oosterdam passing in Glacier Bay

Zaandam in Glacier Bay

When discovered by Vancouver two hundred years ago, Glacier Bay was full of glacial ice that has gradually receded north to produce a fjord sixty five kilometers long and thousands of feet deep leaving a dozen tidewater glaciers. This area is considered so unique it has been declared a National Park, World Heritage site and United Nations Biosphere Reserve.

Our first port of call is Haines. Situated around 120 kilometers up the Lynn Canal (North America's longest fjord) on the edge of Glacier Bay National Park, Haines marks the end of the road (Haines Highway) that commences in Fairbanks, crosses into British Colombia joining Whitehourse and Yukon Territory. Starting as a mission settlement it became established as a mining supply and fishing port around the time the Yukon was being overwhelmed by 19th century Klondike gold rush prospectors.

Back in 1901 the US decided that a military base was needed and Fort Seward was established. The remoteness and primitive environment classified this base as "foreign duty" (soldiers earned double credit for each year posted to Haines). During both world wars the Fort was a training base for Alaska recruits and during WW2 it was an R&R centre for troops serving in the North Pacific. After WW2 it was closed, declared surplus property and sold to five army veterans who established it as a tourist destination. Most of the Fort Seward buildings are still intact and many are still in use particularly the officers accommodation.

Officers Accomodation - Fort Seward

Wanna take me home?

Whilst many of our fellow passengers chose to take excursions (by fast ferry) to Skagway and beyond, we decided to explore the village and catch-up on emails. Huntin' and fishin' are obviously very popular recreational pursuits around these parts as a browse in the local outdoors store revealed. There were plenty of interesting "things" you can't find in our local BCF stores. Unfortunately most of this gear would not get through the airport security screening process so we resisted the temptation to purchase and just looked.

Helen found a couple of friends in this outdoors store but fortunately they weren't for sale 'cause the postage home would have been a bit steep.

We really enjoyed exploring the town of Haines. There's lots of quaint things to observe like the hairdressing salon that does more than do hair,  the Hammer Museum and Roy's Ramblings.

Special thanks to the guys at Rusty Compass Coffeehouse who served us BIG cups of coffee and allowed us heaps of WiFi time during the afternoon.

You lookin at me?

The Hair Shop Etc

Alaskan Fireweed is probably the best known wildflower in Alaska. Named for the striking blooms on tall stalks, patches of fireweed can be seen growing throughout Alaska's more temperate regions. In mid to late summer fireweed begins blooming in the middle of the stalk, with each successive flower blooming just above the one before it. As the last flowers are blooming at the top of the stalk, the earliest blooms seed and turn to cotton, as seen below. When the fireweed turns to cotton, Alaskans say there are about six weeks until winter begins.

Alaskan Fireweed

Haines has a massive tidal range (upto 26 feet) as you can see from the shot of the boat harbour below.

Before returning to the ship in Haines we called into a bottle shop to pick up a bottle of wine (HAL is quite relaxed about bring your own wine onboard). To our surprise they stocked Australian wine around 15 to 20% of the stock! If you click on the photo you might even recognise some of the labels on the shelves closest to the camera.

Spot the Aussie Wine

Cruise Day 5 and we're in Juneau - capital of Alaska. I guess it says something about the pioneering nature of Alaskans that they would choose and stick with a capital city that has no road access with the rest of the state / nation / continent. Access to and from Juneau is restricted to air and sea. The city is hemmed in by two soaring mountains and the Gastineau (saltwater) Channel. There are many tourist oriented shops along the waterfront to cater to the cruise ship passengers but the capital has generally retained its own unique character. The top tourist attraction is the nearby twelve mile long Mendenhall Glacier. 

Mendenhall Glacier

On the day we came to visit, rising waters on Mendenhall River below the glacier, stemming from the sudden release of a glacial ice dam on a lake above the glacier began threatening homes.  The main elevated concrete path to the photography vantage point was almost inundated and guides were reporting to the visiting tourists  that the lake was still rising at more than an inch per hour.

Floodwater emerging from under the glacier (under the rock outcrop)

The freshwater streams adjacent to Mendenhall Lake were full of breeding sockeye salmon. Each pair were defending their patch in the stream from smaller silver fish (could have been juvenile salmon) and other males on the prowl so we suspected that eggs had been laid and fertilised.

Sockeye Salmon

We also saw lots of humpback whales surfacing in the still waters of Gasotineau Channel in the afternoon though it was obviously whale siesta time as we saw very few tails and even fewer breaches We'd been told that bubble netting had been happening a lot during the past week but unfortunately we didn't witness any of this learnt behavior whilst we were out on the water.

Lots of humpback whales

Many thanks to the staff at The Rookery in Juneau - Great coffee & WiFi

Our final port before disembarking back in Vancouver was Ketchikan. One of it's claims to fame is the record rainfall in 1949 of 5,144 mm - ie. Capital of Liquid Sunshine. On the contrary, we experienced another great day - lots of sunshine and just a few degrees cooler than the past week.

The opportunities for shopping in Ketchikan need to be seen to be believed. There's

• Trading Post stores which sell every souvenir imaginable 
• Jewelers and studios selling everything from watches, designer jewelry, semi precious gems, gold and diamonds
• Fashion Boutiques 
• Gift shops
• Practical clothing stores - jackets, scarves, t-shirts etc.
• Speciality food shops - smoked wild salmon
• Local Art / Handcrafts
• and lots, lots more . . . . .

And then there are places that sell food! We really struggle to understand why food shops would make money in these cruise ship ports since all your meals are included on board the ship and the ship is just a few metres away. Most passengers going ashore roll down the gangway they've eaten so much and so often and yet many of the food shops get plenty of business.

Ketchikan wharves and shopping area

There's no shortage of customers either. Our day in Ketchikan was shared with up to approximately 10 - 12,000 other passengers and crew from five cruise liners.

All the Ketchikan berths all occupied

We caught a funicular from Creek Street up to Cape Fox Lodge and suddenly the contrived tourist experience disappeared for a few minutes we experienced the other Ketchikan as we strolled through quiet back streets and walkways in this charming town. The snow fed Ketchikan Creek was clear and flowing fast. We looked for wild salmon - no such luck today.

Funicular to Cape Fox Lodge, Ketchikan

Creek Street

The highlight of the entertainment for us on board Zaandam has been Paul C McD - Pianist / Singer who performed nightly in the Piano Bar after dinner. Paul comes from Brisbane and this season is his first gig with Holland America. We had a quite a lot of fun making direct and oblique references to Australian musicians, New Zealanders generally and Australian music without upseting or confusing the American guests too much. Some of the guests played along but many (not suprisingly) didn't get it.

Paul and Helen in the Piano Bar

Celebrity Century steamed virtually alongside us all the way from Haines to Ketchikan and we shared adjacent berths in Juneau (see pic below). We'd been told by a number of friends and family who've taken an Alaskan cruise in the past that Ketchikan is frequently busy with cruise ships during summer and they we not wrong. On the day when we arrived (at 11am), Regent Seven Seas Navigator, Norwegian Pearl and Oosterdam (HAL) were already berthed. Oosterdam was the first to depart and her berth was quickly filled by Century.

Celebrity Century still alongside in Juneau

The sea day on our return to Vancouver was wet and windy but the ship handled the moderate seas beautifully as we crossed Queen Charlotte Sound but cleared up by the time we reached the Queen Charlotte and Johnstone Straits and Discovery Passage. In the middle of packing our bags we saw a small pod of Orca out our cabin window that appeared suddenly as we entered Queen Charlotte Strait and a large pod of Dolphin played of the side of the ship around the same time. The spectacular scenery continued into the last evening as the ship glided through this narrow waterway towards Vancouver.

As you can probably tell the Alaska Discovery Experience has been fantastic. The standard of service on board Zaandam was excellent as usual even though there was the odd wildlife experience.

Helen monkeying around

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That's all for now but before you leave -

Have you seen the previous page titled " Vancouver and Seattle " yet?
(click on the link to take you there)
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