In Skagway, we took a tour that went across the border into British Columbia and the Yukon territory. We went with a small independent tour company that was still trying to recover from the pandemic. Only one other family was on the tour, so we weren't crowded or stuck with a huge group at the touristy stops. We were on a small shuttle bus, but after we drove up in to the mountains for a bit, we saw the White Pass Railway train that we would take back down in the afternoon from across the valley.
It was an overcast morning, and the clouds were covering up most of the big peaks around us. However, the valley was still pretty, and had several waterfalls. This path through the mountains is essentially the same trail that the prospectors took during the Klondike Gold Rush 125+ years ago, though our trip was considerably easier.
Normally, the background for this picture is a stunning mountain range, so I was a little bummed that the cloud cover obscured our view. This looks like it could be in a parking lot anywhere. Oh well. At least it's a nice family picture...
Our tour guide found some interesting stops. She was nervous about the kids going very far out though, for fear of bears. She thought she saw bears around every shrub, and pretty much guaranteed us that we'd see bears today. (We saw no bears.)
The other family wanted to pay to go on the suspension bridge at one of the tourist stops. I was surprised that we didn't have any takers from our side, but at least we timed it between large tour buses, so they were only in there for half an hour or so. I guess it was a long morning in the shuttle, because we had some tuckered out kids.
The clouds burned off by late morning, and it turned into a beautiful day. Most of the drive was next to scenic mountain lakes, like Tutshi Lake, and lots of photo ops.
I mean, doesn't this look like a fake backdrop? This was our 360-degree scenery from our shuttle seats most of the day. Stunning!
Further down the road, we stopped at a sled dog training camp, since that is another big part of the culture around these parts. These pups were a little too old to cuddle, and too young to pull us in the summer sleds, unfortunately. The lady who ran the camp was a former Iditarod musher, though we thought the 'sled rides' were way overpriced for a family of four.
Carcross Desert is a random collection of sand dunes created by glacial silt. It's not a true desert, but definitely makes it on the tourist stops on this tour.
The farthest point north that we went in the Yukon was Emerald Lake, which as the name indicates was a beautiful dark green.
By this point, we were pretty hungry! The village of Carcross had a couple of good options, including tasty burgers and local brews. I think this made us 3 for 3 for brewery stops, so far. The village definitely gave off a vibe of being open for only about 4 months of the year. I imagine this is a pristine, but desolate place in the winter months.
This Yukon sign was apparently just a few weeks old and getting mixed reviews from the locals.
More beautiful scenery from the Yukon and British Columbia...
In Fraser, BC, we said good-bye to our tour guide and caught the White Pass Railway back to Skagway. Built during the gold rush, the railway is an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, and a beautiful classic train pulls you into the turn of the century setting.
We started off inside. The views were still amazing coming down the valley, but it was a little stuffy. (If you look closely, you can see the cruise ship in the second picture in the triangle of water in the middle.)
But we soon discovered the exhilarating fresh air and views from the back of the car, which really made this a highlight of the day and a favorite of the entire trip! A perfect day, topped off with one more brewery, Skagway Brewing, on the way to the ship.
The following day was 'at sea', but we were in Glacier Bay National Park for most of it. Talk about spectacular scenery! Every picture looks like it could be a jigsaw puzzle. The ship also brings a couple of park rangers on board, and they give a 'guided tour' over the ship's intercom system. So cool!
This is what sea otters look like. They are some of my favorite animals, so I was very stoked to see them in the wild!! We also saw some seals, mountain goats, lots of seabirds, and more humpback whales from a distance.
Of course, we saw lots of glaciers! This is Margerie Glacier, the big one at the end of the bay, just this side of Canada. Unfortunately, we didn't see any calving (ice pieces breaking off), but we did see a lot of bergies (small floating chunks of ice, too small to be called icebergs). The scale of these glaciers is difficult to translate on film, but they are massive. I didn't realize that Alaska has some 27,000 glaciers!
Pretty amazing to see all of this from the ship! Definitely another highlight of the trip.
That night was our last formal night. Don't the kids look great? This might be one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
For historical purposes, I have to document that this was the same day that Hurricane Beryl passed right over our house at home! Luckily, we had minimal damage, and our neighbors are awesome, so we could enjoy our vacation knowing that our house was okay (at least on the outside!). Not like we could do much from the Gulf of Alaska anyway...
Our last day on the ship was another day at sea, part of it in College Fjord (basically a smaller GBNP), but we missed most of it because it was cloudy again and we had dinner reservations. Nobody was too sad, since they said they'd seen plenty of glaciers already. Ha!
I didn't touch on it much, but we enjoyed the ship's food and entertainment, as well. We caught several musical shows, comedians, trivia, presentations by an Iditarod champion and prominent naturalists, a magician, and a funny cooking show, complete with a tour through one of the ship's galleys (pictured). Speaking of galleys, we probably all gained the 10 lbs/cruise they say you do. My favorite thing was a meringue I had at high tea one afternoon, followed closely by some of the best pizza I've had; Owen ate lots of tentacles and exotic seafood; Hadley loved the fancy desserts after every dinner; and J appreciated the ease and availability of food, in general, that we didn't have to prepare or cleanup! We might just be cruise people.
The cruise spit us out the next morning at Whittier, where there is nothing. We opted to get a rental car to head to Anchorage at our own pace, rather than do another tour. Before we left, we did a quick walk by the creek.
The 2.6 mile, one-way tunnel in Whittier is the longest combined vehicle/railroad in North America, and you have to wait for the tunnel to open to traffic going your direction.
Once we were through to the other side, we could breathe a little easier. The Turnagain Arm Drive is considered one of the most scenic drives in the country, but I think it's probably more scenic heading in the other direction. I was driving, so I didn't get any pictures, and it was another cloudy morning, so some of it was obscured anyway. We stopped at Alyeska ski resort/ Girdwood for some tasty pizza and did a short hike to stretch our legs. Once again, we appreciated the lush greenery and flowers along the way.
The next stop was Beluga Point, spoiler alert: no belugas. It was quite windy, but the kids had a great time running down to the beach and then climbing all over the rocks.
Quite a change in scenery from BP, the final stop was Potter Marsh, a bird sanctuary with an extensive boardwalk for viewing, just outside of Anchorage. We didn't see many birds, but we did see bear tracks and an eagle nest with eaglets inside.
Finally, we got to Anchorage and our Airbnb, a modest townhome. We drove to downtown to check out the city (not impressed) and get some dinner. We found a fun and unique playground and discovered that our kids haven't outgrown playgrounds just yet...
The next day we rented bikes and did a 22-mile out and back trek on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. The trail was in great shape, not too busy, and went through and by several parks all down the west side of Anchorage. It was mostly flat, but did have a few hills! Owen was mostly in the front, and I was definitely bringing up the rear all day, but we had so much fun!
Part of the trail went right next to the airport where we saw this blobby Dreamlifter and watched a plane come in for a landing just over our heads.
Just a few miles from the end of our journey, we came across a Momma Moose and calf just off the trail. They were very focused on the food around them and didn't mind us at all. Apparently, this is not uncommon in Anchorage, but was probably the top moment of our trip for us.
Whew! 22 miles later, some of us could barely walk, and we definitely needed some sustenance! Why not one last brewery? Ha ha! 49th State Brewing had excellent homemade brews, sodas, and elevated pub food. A perfect end to our epic 49th State trip.
The Anchorage airport was pretty nice and we got one more moose picture.
When we landed in Seattle for our layover, it was such a clear day that we could see Mt Rainier perfectly! One last gift before we return to the swamp. I love this part of the country!
