Land/Sea Cruise Review - 2nd installment

[Okie1946]

Land/Sea cruise June 4 – June 18, 2014

 

FYI - went to Photobucket and have tried to move photos over to it so I could post them. I am having trouble with the saving and titling the downloaded photos - will keep working on it, they might be posted at the very end. Please bear (no pun intended) with me...... I will get it right eventually.

 

June 6, 2014:

 

I forgot to include this information in yesterday’s posting – If doing the Land portion your final documents, etc. from HAL has a section that will state that you can pack one bag that can be designated “Join on Board” and that bag will be taken directly to the ship. This is incorrect. Be prepared to have all of your bags with you all the time. We packed one large suitcase with all of our cold weather clothing (for Glacier Bay etc) as well as our evening wear (we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary on board, so we wanted it to be special). This bag followed us around but at the same time it was nice to have. We packed purchases in it and knew we were going to mail a couple of boxes home before we boarded ship.

 

This morning was like waking up in a different world. It was so peaceful outside – we didn’t hear any traffic noise, our neighbors from upstairs weren’t up bumping and thumping at 5:30 in the morning. Couldn’t believe how beautiful the day was. DH got up and made himself a pot of coffee, went out and around to the picnic table for a morning smoke. While sitting there enjoying the beauty of the day, he spies a young black bear walk down to the bank of the river (they were on opposite sides of the river) for a drink of water. DH just sat watching (and cursing the fact that he had left his camera in the room) while the bear calmly checked both sides of the river, then shambled back into the woods. What a great welcome to Denali.

 

We had the morning free, so we just wondered around the grounds, went up to the lodge for breakfast and then checked out some of the stores across the road. The usual tourist stores, but some of them are really cute. For the quilters out there, there is a gift and fabric shop that has some absolutely beautiful fabric. Was a good girl – didn’t want to have to carry fabric all over. We had our first excursion of the trip that afternoon. This excursion is included in the cost of the Land/Sea cruise and to me was the BEST one of them all. Whatever you do – DO NOT MISS IT. It is amazing.

 

Oh yeah – I am going to digress a bit – in our cruise group we have a total of 43 people from all over. There were three couples from Australia, couples from Nebraska, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Texas, Minnesota (DH and I) as well as another couple from Mankato, and three or four couples more from Canada. What was really wonderful about this mix, there weren’t any complainers or gripers. We had a great group.

 

Sorry back to the excursion. It is called the “Tundra Wilderness Tour” and it is beyond description. We boarded a Blue Bird type bus – except it had been modified and had the touring type seats in it. Be prepared – this is a 6 ½ hour to 7 ½ tour. There are bathroom breaks about every two hours so you are not stuck on the bus all the time. The driver and tour narrator for our tour was named Mary Jane and she is very knowledgeable about the park/preserve. She works for the Park Service year round and you can tell she really believes in what she does. First of all, we learned that Denali is not necessarily a park as we think of as a national park. The majority of the land is set aside to operate as a preserve and to protect the land and the animals from ANY interaction or interference from humans. The animals that reside in the preserve are completely wild.

 

As we started out, she told us that if we should see an animal or even think we saw on, to yell STOP and she would stop. As we proceeded into the wilderness we began to think the trip was going to be a big bust. Then form the back of the bus we heard a meek little stop, and we all spotted a HUGE moose eating out of a tree along the side of the road. After that everyone was psyched up. We traveled a few miles further into the preserve and – LO and BEHOLD – in front of us just strolling down the middle of the road we saw the back sides of a mother grizzly and her two cubs. She saw the bus coming and decided to take the cubs into the brush.

 

By then Mary Jane had explained to us that all the buses strive to get at least a “Grand Slam” in animal sightings. The Grand Slam is the sighting of a moose, a bear, caribou and Dall sheep. An ultimate Grand Slam is when you sight the 4 listed above and either a fox or a wolf or a wolverine. Everyone tries for the Ultimate, but it is very unusual to get one. As we traveled deeper into the preserve, we spotted a large number of caribou. When we finally spotted a small flock of Dall sheep hanging off the edge of the mountains, we KNEW we had a Grand Slam. Will be honest we were really greedy and wanted the ULTIMATE GRAND SLAM and we were beginning to have our doubts that we would get it. Had been on the road for quite a while and kept seeing caribou, sheep and bears when DH yells STOP!!! He had spotted the tail of something going into a culvert, so we sat and waited for whatever it was to stick a nose out. And glory be – a fox came creeping out. WE HAD THE ULTIMATE GRAND SLAM!!!!!!! We were feeling pretty full of ourselves.

 

During the trip in, we happened to see two bears way down in a valley in between some ribbon rivers. As we sat and watched them, it turns out, the larger male bear was courting the smaller female. She would try to out run him, then she would slow up and the male would get close, then she would speed up. He got tired, and laid down for a few minutes. She stopped and looked back at him and then walked back towards him, he gets up and she starts to run away. He got close enough a couple of times to sniff her back side and she would turn around and slap him. The guys on the bus were cheering on the poor male and the ladies on the bus were cheering for the female bear. Finally had to move on - we never will find out what happened. 

 

Got to the turn around that is located miles from Denali. We couldn’t see the mountain, it was encased in clouds. A big disappointment, but that was ok – we had an ULTIMATE GRAND SLAM. Turned around and headed back. On the way back we spotted a couple of Golden Eagles, and several small Artic Ground Squirrels. Then a different flock of Dall Sheep, this one had several lambs and their mothers and Mary Jane said this was called a nursery. Then we spotted a BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN grizzly bear walking down the middle of the road. Just taking his time looking around and in no big hurry. Several times he looked back as if to say “what are you doing on my road”. Followed him for about a mile and got some great photos.

 

At the turnaround that is 60 miles out from Denali, we pulled over and looked back. The sun had burned off the overcast and the clouds had moved out of the way. We got to see the mountain in all its glory. It is magnificent!!!!! Got some photographs that will never be duplicated. We now belong to the 30% Club. It was explained to us that only one-in-three visitors to Alaska get to see Denali.

 

About a mile up the road we spotted another female with her cubs. Ok, so far we had sheep and bears, what was the chance that we would get another Ultimate. Then we saw a herd of caribou down below on a river flat – 3 down and 2 to go. Then another fox pops up out of a ditch and crosses the road in front of us. Not to get our hopes up, but we sure were close.

Well – guess what folks – WE GOT IT!!!!!!!!! Just before we left the park another moose was spotted down by a river getting a drink. WHOOT !!! WHOOT !!!! Over all we saw

1. 10 Bear

2. 17 Caribou

3. 24 Dall Sheep

4. 2 Foxes

5. 2 Moose

6. 2 Golden Eagles

7. 3 Artic Ground Squirrels

 

We all agreed that this was a very successful excursion.

 

Now a word of caution: Because this trip is so long – the information sheet that we receive does tell us that a snack and a bottle of water is provided to every person who is on the bus. This might not be enough for some of you. For those of you who are used to eating a full meal during the time of the tour, there are lunch wraps available in lunches you can purchase. If you are not huge eaters, I would recommend that you purchase just one to share between you both. The lunch purchased usually includes your choice of a wrap, a piece of fruit, chips, cookies and a bottle of water. DH and I shared one boxed lunch and that was more than enough for both of us.

 

June 7, 2014: Today was a free day for us to do what we chose to do. We packed wheeled carry-on luggage for the land portion, so our clean clothes were starting to get limited. The Canyon Lodge building has a small launderette in it. We went up and washed a couple of loads, so we could continue with clean clothes. It cost us $2.50 per load to wash and dry a load. Not to bad.

 

For Father’s Day, I surprised the DH with an excursion to play golf at the Diamond ??? (can’t remember the whole name) Golf Course. So he had a 3:00 tee time and I had a Photography Shop excursion that was very enjoyable. I had bought me a new camera 4 months before the trip and took a workshop at the camera store I bought it at, but that 8 hour class didn’t teach me what I learned in the 4 hour excursion that I took. The instructor was a professional photographer who works out of and does a great deal of work around Denali. If you are a new photographer or want to even increase your knowledge of your camera – I do recommend this excursion.

 

Had dinner at the lodge and then headed back to the room. We had to pack for our “bags out” call at 6:00 AM tomorrow. Then we board a bus for Fairbanks. That won’t be so bad, it is about 3 ½ hours long. I know I took a lot of space talking about Denali, but it is such an amazing place and HAL has done a wonderful job of making it an experience to remember. In my opinion, everyone who goes to Alaska has to experience Denali just once.

 

June 8, 2014: Bags out on time, we headed up to the lodge for breakfast and some computer time before we left for Fairbanks. Wanted to check in on our DS1 – he had a heart attack on Good Friday and at first we considered cancelling the trip. He made us promise that we would be sure to take our trip and to not worry about him. RIGHT!!!!! :P

 

Anyway – loaded up at 9:00 AM and on the road. The drive wasn’t bad at all. The scenery was starting to give way from the mountains to a more leveled off area – granted the mountains were still there, but the foliage was changing. We pulled into downtown Fairbanks about 11:00 AM. Some of the group went to various restaurants for lunch while the rest of us walked around the river’s edge. There are several monuments built there honoring early settlers, the Army Air Corp Alaskan Siberian campaigns, a Naval monument and a nice clock tower with a carillon. Down by the foot bridge that crosses the river we found a small vending cart. The gentleman operating it had HOT DOGS, chips and bottled water. DH and I realized that we had been craving a hot dog since we left Minneapolis and this was perfect. So we had a large fresh hot dog for $2.50 each. Not too shabby.

 

We all piled back on the bus and went on to the 2nd of the HAL sponsored excursions. We visited the mining site known as Dredge 8. Part of the Alaska Pipeline is also exposed at this location and there was a very nice display telling us of the history of the pipeline as well as an exhibit that shows how the pipeline is built. Had a picture taken underneath it with my arm stretched up over my head. Now I am only 5 foot tall – I could have stood on the head of another 5 foot person and I still couldn’t have touched the bottom of the pipe. It is huge.

 

Moved on down the hill to a small tourist train where we were entertained by a gentleman playing a guitar while the train was being loaded. This train took us back into where the actual mining operation existed. We saw how the earliest miners worked the operation until it was purchased by a large conglomerate. Then we came upon the huge dredge that was used to dig up the dirt, moving the dirt into the skid area and then doing all of the panning within the machine. Had not realized just how much of a scar this type of operation would live on the face of the earth. It was still interesting to see.

 

We moved on to the end of the line and got to experience “panning for gold”. Granted, the water was warmed up for the “whooshes” (me included) in the group. Do not think I could have been a gold prospector, panning for gold in the cold water for a few flakes of gold. There is a gift shop (of course) on location that will weigh your gold for you. DH panned $5.00 and I got $12.00 worth. One fellow from our group panned $74.00 worth. He got a good poke to start with.

 

Back on the bus, this time we went on to the hotel. The Fairbanks Westmark is a very nice hotel, a little more upscale that the one in Anchorage. We went looking for a post office to mail a few things home so we wouldn’t have to cart them around in the luggage. The front desk has a good selection of the “if it fits, it ships” boxes from the post office. If you purchase them there, they will mail them out for you, (the one we sent home, was here before we got home). It is well worth the $12.95 to send it out.

 

Dinner and repacking – Bags out at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Then we fly into Dawson City, Yukon. Needed to be sure to keep passports handy. Board the bus at 10:00.

 

Will add more later

 

Okie

__________________

[wyobean]

So excited about reading your report. We board Sat. for the 13 day cruise tour. Your info has been very helpful! Thank you....

 

 

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[Krazy Kruizers]

Wonderful review.

Thank you for taking the time to write it.

[northernphoenix]

Waiting in anticipation ...we begin our 20-day , August 10th. Your info is very timely,

Marilyn

 

 

 

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[KirkNC]

Nice detailed review! Thanks for writing it.

[Susie51]

Thank you for sharing the details of your land/sea cruise with us.

[PathfinderEss]

Great review, thanks for taking the time to do it.

[I_r_a]

Thanks for sharing, Okie

 

Ira

[Keith1010]

Excellent review.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this.

 

Keith