Alaska Aug 19-24

We left town for the next leg of our trip: ALASKA!  We are doing a cruise-tour with Steve's Sister-in-law, Lilia, and her husband Rafael.  The 14 day itinerary is:
First to Anchorage to pickup the bus. Next to Copper River, then Fairbanks, then Denali. Load aboard the Island Princess and sail the last week on the inland passage to Vancouver.
Aug 19
This was a travel day. We flew to Anchorage. About a 6 hour flight.  As we learned, you can never tell the weather in Alaska. Landing through the total cloud cover, it was a damp (not much rain, though) day.  We met in the airport and took a shuttle bus to the Captain Cook hotel.  We had a late dinner (arrived at 9pm Alaska time).
Aug 20
Our first of many bus trips this week.  We drove mostly east to Copper Center, to a Princess lodge.  Saw a glacier or two along the way.

The trip lasted most of the day so we settled for a walk in the forest around the lodge.
Aug 21
Our first tour day. Sherry and Steve took a bus to Valdez.  On the way we spotted a bear taking advantage of the migrating salmon!  Sorry, couldn't get the image to rotate. Look sideways :)

In Valdez, we picked up a boat to cruise through the Valdez channel and over to the Columbia glacier.  It was cold and rainy but the glacier was beautiful and this is the closes we have been to one by water.  We saw lots of wildlife, including sea otters, bald eagles, and sea lions.

 

Aug 22
This was a travel day to Fairbanks. This town seems to be a major hub for the touring crowd.  The town serves as an airport/bus stop for tourists transferring to other places.  We stayed in a Princess lodge there.  The memory of the night was seeing the Aurora Borealis! Steve got some great pictures.  At 1am!

Aug 23
This was a day to take two free tours.  One was a riverboat trip a few miles on the Chena River.  The other was a trip to see a huge gold-digging dredge used in the early 20th century to get the placer gold left by the 19th century gold miners (who went for nuggets, not dust).

Aug 24
This was a travel day from Fairbanks to Denali National Park.  On the way, we saw Mt McKinley from 120 miles away.  It still looked big!  We took a bus tour into the park when we arrived. We got within viewing distance of Denali but the whole week has been cloud-covered and cold. Today it was a little clearer so we were hopeful.  We saw lots of the snow-covered mountains adjacent to McKinley but it was, alas, still cloud covered.  The park personnel say only 30% of the visitors ever get to see it.  Well, we have another chance tomorrow...