Yukon & Alaskan Adventure

We boarded MS Amsterdam bound for Alaska on the last Friday in May all very excited about what was ahead of us. A journey to Alaska is on a lot of bucket lists and ours was no exception. The ship owned by Holland America Line was much smaller than the Pacific Jewel which D and I had sailed on to the South Pacific Islands in 2012 but it was a nicer, more maintained and 'classier' vessel. All three of us shared a stateroom which was pretty cozy but for 3 nights it didn't really matter. Having an outside window made a big difference as well as on our previous 14 night cruise we were inside which made it impossible to know what time of day it was when we were in the room.

The cruise up the coast was nice, the weather had come good that morning and we started with a few drinks in the crows nest at the front of the ship. Having free food available 24/7 was just ridiculous and we took full advantage of it ordering room service quite a few times. Mum and I had a spa treatment on day 2 in between meals which was lovely but as with our first cruise experience we found we got bored pretty quickly and being restricted to a ship is just not our thing, even if it's only for a few days. We got dressed up for the formal night but apart from that didn't get involved in any of the ship board activities.

View of Vancouver as we pulled out on the cruise ship

Formal night - it was bloody cold outside!

Day 3 brought us into Glacier Bay and a perfect sunny day. We witnessed dolphins jumping and playing during breakfast, whales swimming past as we entered the bay, eagles perched on floating icebergs and parts of the glacier splitting off into the ocean making thunderous sounds as the waves forced the massive ship move in the wake. A national park ranger came aboard in the morning and narrated the whole tour through the bay and to the glaciers, it was an amazing sight - so peaceful and one I am glad we had the chance to experience.

Coming into Glacier Bay it was such a perfect day, so quiet and clear

Enjoying our cabin's window

The binoculars and cameras were pretty much in action all day long

Stunning snow capped mountains right into the ocean

Ice breaking off the glacier's face

We made our way back out of the bay that evening and headed towards Skagway, Alaska overnight which was our port of disembarkation. Again the weather was smiling upon us as we left the ship never to return! Our 8 day land tour was upon us. It was perfect day - sunny and warm. Skagway is a definite tourist town we couldn't believe how many jewelry stores one small town could possibly sustain! We wandered through the gift stores and bought homemade lemonade from kids in the street. It was a lovely morning for a stroll before boarding the White Pass railway winding up through the mountains which was some of the prettiest alpine scenery we had seen. The bus was waiting for us at Fraser BC and we boarded bound for Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.

Frontier themed Main street in Skagway, Alaska

The scenic railway ride through the mountains and back into Canada

Fraser, BC border crossing. This was pretty much the only building.

En route to Whitehorse at Emerald Lake, Yukon

Whitehorse is the biggest city and the capital of Yukon Territory, with about 38,000 people living in the area it's around 12,000 people less than our small town of Airdrie! I couldn't believe it was a capital city it was so remote and so full of nothing, I could never live there. We took a tour to a wildlife preserve and went to visit the fish ladder where the counting of the salmon swimming up river to spawn occurs followed by a view of the SS Klondike - the last river boat that serviced the Yukon River.

Modelling the shed antlers at the Yukon Wildlife preserve

D enjoying the fish ladder

Me and mum at the SS Klondike

We left Whitehorse headed for Beaver Creek on the border of Canada and USA driving through Kluane National Park along the way which was snowcapped mountain after snowcapped mountain. Beaver Creek has a population of around 140 people and this was the most remote place we visited. We were literally hundreds of miles from anywhere and I actually enjoyed this tiny town and the rendezvous musical show (a little lame) put on by the town folk, campfire smores with Yukon brewed beers and a family style dinner with a lovely trio visiting from Pennsylvania.

Kluane national park

Indoor smores at the Rendezvous show in Beaver Creek

Welcome to Beaver Creek!

Midnight sun

Couldn't believe it was 12am and still so light outside

After our quick one night stay in Beaver Creek we were back on the bus and making our way once again into the USA to Fairbanks, Alaska. We had a stop at North Pole, Alaska and the official Santa Claus house where we met Santa and his reindeer and were each given a deed to one square inch of land. Fairbanks was again, a remote city that I didn't fall in love with. The steamboat tour to a Native Indian village and afternoon panning for gold at the historic Gold Dredge number 8 (where I found a whole $12 worth of gold flakes) were redeeming factors but staying in another town with not much to offer scenery wise was getting to me... As was sharing one hotel room with 3 people. I held high hopes for Denali.

Panning for gold, hoping to strike it rich!

My stake

D was in his element I think he wanted to steal this hat and move into the cabin

Probably the only time I will ever drape myself in a dead animal. Poor Mr Fox.

The train was into Denali was great with windows domed over the roof for a real view of what was to come but it dragged on quite a bit and considering the drive only took 2 hours, I thought 4 hours on the train was a little much. Most of the journey was trees on either side of the carriage but the scenery really opened up during the final moments as we wound around a river and large gorge into Denali. Finally we were here, this place we had been watching in documentaries from Australia and dreaming of one day visiting. First impression though, not so great. Hotels everywhere, gift shops everywhere, inflated prices everywhere and people all around - although it was nice enough it certainly didn't have that wild feeling I was expecting. We decided to do a true tourist activity and sit for an Alaskan style portrait before heading out for a guided fly fishing lesson in the afternoon.

So this is what we'd look like if we were Alaskan.... Probably not....

D caught one Arctic Grayling and neither mum or me caught anything. I didn't even get any bites. I'm an impatient fisherman on a good day let alone 4 hours getting swarmed by horse sized mozzies covered in mud all smelly and wet.... Yes my boots suctioned in mud at the very beginning of the night and I fell over resulting in a very uncomfortable experience for me. It was nice scenery though as we had a beaver swim and bat his tail at us as well as passing a moose on the way in so it wasn't all bad!

The next day we took our tour into the actual national park. Denali only has one road in and out. Regular cars can only drive to the 15 mile mark so to go any further you have to travel on a park bus. It was a VERY crowded and squishy school type bus and considering we were in it for 8 hours I was already dreading the experience before we even crossed the park gates. The driver had a video camera at the front of the bus and whenever we saw wildlife she would stop and zoom in so everyone could get a look but it was a lot of moving around other people to get pictures and ducking down to allow others a chance to see with their own eyes. The scenery turned from dense treed rolling hills to sparse arctic tundra with high peaks in the background. It was unlike anything i'd seen before but I wouldn't describe it as 'beautiful'. On the tour we saw Dall Sheep, Moose, Grizzly Bear, Elk and even an illusive Wolverine!

The converted school busses - don't look too bad but try spending 8 hours with 50 other people on one!

Baby moose twins!

Scenic overlook in Denali

Dall sheep munching on grass

Grizzly mama and her cub

The next day we boarded the McKinley explorer train again bound for our last stop of Anchorage. Again a 4 hr drive in a car was 8 hours on the train and unfortunately we were all over the long days of travel. Anchorage turned out to be a highlight it was covered in flowers and we took a trolley tour around the city the morning before our flight out. I was so glad we went and saw Alaska and the Yukon for ourselves but I don't think we would venture there again. We saw everything we wanted to see, scenery, wildlife and even a look at Mt McKinley from the plane as we left Anchorage. What more could we have asked for?!

Anchorage tourist trolley

Fell in love with flowers on this trip, wish I had more of a green thumb!

Denali/Mt McKinley - 'The high one' from the plane as we left. Goodbye Alaska!