July 4, 2014 Radiance Southbound/DIY Land Tour Review

[mollanjake]

With only an hour, there was no time to dilly daly!

 

We headed off toward all the people! it was an area where you could see the glacier, then down the steps and path to the lake!

 

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We headed back the way we came and then headed out onto another path in the direction of the falls.

 

[mollanjake]

 

remember the signs back at Exit glacier all the signs she had to read....well I guess reading the signs is good!

 

The next night while in line waiting to be seated in the dining room, I overheard the man behind me say to his DD something about a girl-glacier. Turns out they had been there and remembered my DD from her answers!

 

With my DH and I constantly checking our watches we decided to head back and into the visitor center.

 

we looked around at all the stuff, they have some animals , a sheep or goat skin you can touch. As we are looking around I heard somebody say...BEAR!

 

we go over to the windows:

 

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we decided it was time to head down to the parking lot. Sure glad we did as the bear was still around, so we stayed close to the rangers and followed along.

 

 

As our new little friend wandered away we had to head to our meeting spot.. We walked up to find our van there and the driver waiting for us.

 

The PERFECT way to spend 1 hour(1hour 5mins) at Mendenhall Glacier!

[mollanjake]

We were glad to see the shuttle driver and told him about the bear. We talked with the driver on the ride into town, I think we asked if whales were ever in the harbor near town-not very often. He asked if we wanted to be dropped at the ship or somewhere else like the Red Onion Saloon. We picked the Red Onion although we didn't go in.

 

We walked around, trying to go away from the ships- looking for shops that were locally owned rather than seasonal people.

 

We made a stop in the Alaska Brewing Company Store, for my DH, unfortunately they don't have beer in downtown location. DH got a tshirt.

 

We stopped at a jewelry store that was an "authorized" Pandora dealer. BIG MISTAKE. I asked if they had an Alaska bead, they do not. The man commented on my engagement ring and then tried to sell me piece after piece of EXPENSIVE jewelry. Of course my DD had no idea the stuff was very expensive and kept saying how pretty it was. Sorry a $2,000 diamond ring just wasn't on my list!

we eventually got out of the store, but that was it for us and the jewelry stores.

 

Next stop Tracy's King Crab Shack!

 

 

We did/saw lots in Juneau, but we probably could have done more.

 

next Up Skagway

[mollanjake]

Alaska has zip lining in almost every port, but I had to do a lot of looking to find a place that had a low enough minimum weight for my DD. Grizzly Falls was it! I booked their first trip of the day with a 7:50am pick-up time. I even called to confirm that with a 7am arrival that was ok.

 

The Radiance was docked at the furthest dock spot, behind Rhapsody. basically meant we had a 6 minutes walk to our meeting spot. We found a person holding a sign and she took us to her van, We drove into town and then switched to another van that had everyone else on the 7:50am tour. They were all from the HAL ship that was also in port. I believe HAL offers this as an excursion.

 

The van made about 2 stops in town to pick-up our guides for the day, then we headed put to Dyea. Also on our tour were 3 college guys that were working for the railroad for the summer. This was their day off. Btn the driver and guides were told lots of history and other general info. Once at the base camp, where they also have dog sledding, we transferred to UNIMOG's and more importantly they had BATHROOMS. We were told use them here b/c anything else would be an outhouse.

 

I won't bore you with our UNIMOG story, but apparently they are somewhat unusual and my husband, a car guy, was impressed thet I booked an excursion that used them. I think this type of vehicle is used by the Swiss military...

 

 

The area had a few pretty creeks and waterfalls

 

with both of the family pictures we also got selfies

 

These guys encourage tricks and give a different trick at each line. My DD ended up flipping upside down toward the end of the last zipline. She went into the platform upside down. Unfortunately, she went first so neither my DH or I was there to catch a picture.

[mollanjake]

After finishing the course went rode back down to base camp in the UNIMOG. We had a short time at base camp to use the bathrooms, look in the gift shop and our UNIMOG driver said we could look at the sled dog puppies the lady with the puppies discouraged it, saying we needed to be somewhere else.

 

We all piled into our original van and headed back into town. Having the guys who were there working for the summer was interesting because they told us about where they lived etc. One of the guys had a car in Skagway b/c he drove it there from NJ!

 

Back in town the van dropped off the HAL passengers first then took us to he Radiance.

 

 

We headed back to the ship, mostly b/c we didn't have our big camera. We had a had lunch, called our tour company to ask if they would meet us in town rather than at the ship and walked into town. It is a bit nerve racking leaving the ship and waking into town when everyone else is go toward the ship. I think this was around 1:30 pm and we were docked until 8:30pm.

[mollanjake]

 

 

The actual town of Skagway is maybe 2 blocks long. we walked by most store, but stopped in a few. I bought a pair of earrings, not sure if my DD got anything.

 

 

 

At 3pm we met Valerie from Beyond Skagway Tours. After we booked the zip lining , I looked for another tour, but couldn't find one that started late enough. Not sure if I discounted the train , but I think there is a train that leaves around 1pm.

 

Beyond Skagway is a locally owned company that offers private tours , they charge by the hour rather than by person. Great company to deal with and our guide Valerie was great. Since there was just 3 of us, the tour was probably a bit pricy. I should have tried to find someone to share the tour with us. Lots of people recommend renting a car in Skagway my DH say NO!

 

Valerie asked if there was anything special we wanted to see, we aid no and she headed out of town. Valerie is from Utah, but lives in Skagway year round now(unless of course she has moved to Juneau where her boyfriend just moved)

 

She gave us a lot town history. She knew great places and stop and when DD needed a stop. She also mentioned when there was a decent bathroom to use!

 

 

A usual stop. This bridge is only attached on one side.

 

 

 

 

This creek/river runs along the US Canada border. So funny it splits one going to US and one going to Canada

 

When we crossed the border into Canada, the border guard was rather "bad a**" she looked at all of our passports, had Valerie roll down the back window to look at us. The guard even asked us how much $ we were carrying.... Seemed like over kill, when we were only going to the YUKON SIGN! I get it, I really do, but Valerie's van has both Alaska and Yukon licenses plates. anyway...

 

 

 

 

Not sure why but no one ever posts this one.

[mollanjake]

These pictures are necessarily in the correct order.

 

We made some stops on the way to the Yukon, but made most on the way back The nice thing about Valerie was, she knew cool spots to stop where we could walk in a bit.

 

We passed an area where there had been a mud slide a few days before that COVERED the road. I think she said it happened early enough in the day that there weren't any tours on the Canada side when it happened! She drove us down to a lake where she had camped. My DD stood in the water in her shoes. Water proof spray worked! We got a few "Canadian" rocks for our Fairy Garden

 

I think this stop was on the way back. There was a shack, that had a sofa in it??? OUTHOUSE, we did not have to use. Out side the shack was this:

 

 

 

 

Not sure what kind of skull it is, but we thought bear...

 

 

 

Fun picture, Valerie suggested.

 

 

This guy was on the side of the road. Luckily Valerie saw him quick enough and pulled right up along side him. I did NOT roll down the window. he was spooked when a big loud truck came down the road, he ran off. But we saw a CANADIAN BEAR! we did see another critter. Looked like a ground hog, it was sitting on the mental HW guard. We stopped but one of us made a noise and he ran off, we decided it was a marmot.

 

 

Everyone stops here! DD and the inukshuk we built.

 

 

Think this is another popular stop. Was probably about 6:30pm in this picture, Was cloudy for sure there was a misty rain, but nothing bad.

 

 

A quick stop at the gold rush cemetery. The gold nugget was put here when a president visited, but can't remember which one. Valerie told us she leaves the Gold Rush Cemetery and the water fall till the end of tour as she's never sure how long it will take to get thru customs or animals sitings. DH and I decided to pass on the water fall.

 

Valerie took us back to the ship. We thanked her for the great day! OOPPS I was suppose to pay with CC ahead of tim ir bring cash or check. I paid with CC when I got home.

 

Seemed like we were the only people walking back to the ship, but there were a few others!

 

we dropped our stuff in the cabin and rushed to the DR. We liked MTD!

[mollanjake]

URL=http://s1039.photobucket.com/user/mollanjake/media/Alaska%2014/IMG_5244_zps56d66340.jpg.html][/url]

 

Another great day in Alaska!

[JosieRhodes]

Wow, great whale shots:):):). We didn't have much luck on our whale watching trip.

 

 

Ps. The mud slide was something... Never crossed my mind that could miss ship due to that until went by that:)

[mollanjake]

Wow, great whale shots:):):). We didn't have much luck on our whale watching trip.

 

 

Ps. The mud slide was something... Never crossed my mind that could miss ship due to that until went by that:)

 

Thanks!

 

Sorry your didn't have as much luck with the whales. I was a little jealous of your seal and bear pics on FB, just can't depend of the wild animals. From all my reading it seemed as if BubbleNet feeding is out of the ordinary, but we saw 2 separate groups doing it. Also seemed as if the whales we went to see had been doing it as they said e know where there are some whales with interested behavior. Guess we were just lucky!

 

We told Sarah that we would NOT go whale watching again for a LONG time, because expectations will be too high after this. Matt and I had an awesome whale watch out of Provincetown, MA years ago. The whales got so close to the boat we could smell fish from their blows, Think I have a picture of a whale eye somewhere. That was after we had been to Hawaii at the end of March and barely saw whales! We also had a great whale watch in Hawaii, but in Feb, but Matt missed much of it as Sarah didn't feel well and fell asleep in his lap down below.

 

I wanted to see Orca, I knew it wasn't all that common, but a girl can hope. I guess we have to plan a trip to Seattle for that.

[mollanjake]

Before heading to bed I checked our tickets for our excursion in ISP. The only excursion booked thru RCI. Immediately I wondered why I booked it at 7:45am because we had a meeting time of 7am!

 

We had to get a wake up a call, but I'm pretty sure I was up before the phone rang. I got up and dressed and stepped onto the balcony. The ship was still moving, but very slowly. I very quickly saw a whale spout and a humming bird(or a really BIG MOSQUITO).

 

Since I was the first one dressed I went down to the Park Cafe and got us some breakfast. Think I got 2 egg sandwiches and a breakfast burrito. We ate them on our balcony, no visit from a raven this time. The sandwiches were yummy!

 

We went to our designated meeting place, arriving after 7am. A group was leaving, but we didn't here our excursion called. We were in the next group.

 

Our excursions was Forest tram and the Tribal Dancing(not sure if that is the correct excursion name) I wanted just the dancing show, but couldn't book it on its own, so I booked the combo. the tender to shore is quick, we had to wait a bit for our tour. There is a building close to where you get off the tender called excursion lounge I think. They had an electronic board of available excursions, of course the dancing show was on there around 9am(very likely the show we saw). I could have waited and slept in just a bit!

 

The tram ride was nice, we sat in the front, right behind the driver. Our driver grew up in Hoonah and was knowledgeable about the area plants and animals. He had great stories about growing up in the rain forest and told us about the natives use of the seal, the entire seal.

 

The tram thru the rain forest was neat but I didn't take pictures. Once we were near the water, someone spotted a lone seal. we also saw an eagle or 2. At the end of the line so to speak we got out and had a short time on the rocky beach. DD and the other kids on our tram had a great time looking at rocks and shells.

[mollanjake]

back tracking to Skagway just a bit

 

 

We were told this water freezes in the winter and people ice climb on it.

 

Also since I mentioned Canadian customs, thought I would mention coming back into US. The US customs guy greeted us nicely, looked Valerie's passport card and asked if we were all citizens(pretty sure he recognized her as a tour guide) he then asked if we had a good time!

[mollanjake]

back in ISP

 

on the beach

 

 

 

Once we were back on the tram, it started to rain really hard! Once we returned to our starting point We had to walk over to the "theatre" building. So glad we had on our raincoats with hoods.

 

 

 

 

The show had 3 parts. They told us some history, about clans and how certain clans can only marry certain clans. I guess this to keep blood lines clean, but seems hard to maintain in this day and age. There were 5 people in the show. Some more animated than others. One thing I really noticed was how one of the younger people in the show had REALLY bad teeth. Kinda wonder if they even have a dentist. Closest hospital is in Juneau. They showed us a courting dance and told us a story about the raven and keeping the moon, stars and sun in boxes. The story is clearly a "famous" one as they sell boxes at most stores and we eventually bought a totem pole that depicted this story.

 

The show wasn't too long that the kids lost interest. The end was audience participation and at that point pictures could be taken.

 

The button blankets that are worn are all hand made and the more elaborate the higher your status. After the show we headed into the adjacent gift shop. All items here were hand/locally made, We bought a christmas ornament.

 

After the show we paid a visit to the donut shack. You can watch the donuts being made. we got the bacon maple dipping sauce!

 

Didn't seem like the rain was going to stop anytime soon so we decided to go about our business:

 

First up the beach walk

[mollanjake]

 

I'm posting this picture to show how close to the shore the ship is. Before we got off the ship we saw a whale btw the ship and the pier.

 

Despite the rain we enjoyed walking on the beach lots of neat rocks and other beach/ocean critters.

 

 

 

Sea Urchin that was open on the top, we decided it had been opened up by a sea otter and eaten( don't know if they are even otters in ISP!)

 

Lots of little jelly fish in the water!

 

I think we walked about as far down as the trail goes. We walked on the trail, which is paved and off the beach going back. This is where you will find the bon fire and totems.

 

We walked back to the pier area and headed into the cannery mall to find a bathroom.

 

The cannery has some exhibits about Alaska and fishing/canning and shops. A few shops were locally made products but all were not. There was a book store that benefitted local school.

 

Shops of note: there is a shop that sells canned salmon and other food products. Lisa's Art Store: had lots of locally made stuff. I bought 2 pears of earring: Dentalium Shell and beaded. The girl in the store said her sister did the painting. She did some of the beading, others were her mom, grandmom and sister. DD also got earrings, hers were made in Alaska, but a brand seen in all stores.

 

After this we decided to head back to the ship. I had also planned to do the Rain Forest Trail if we had time. We had time, but DH and DD didn't want to and I wasn't going to push it. Heck I was tired too! DD wanted to eat some fresh crab on the dock, but didn't like the fact that they had live crabs in a tank, Think these were dungeness crabs.

[mollanjake]

When we re boarded the ship there were shopping folks there handing out flyers about the shopping talk. free stuff for everyone who attends! I considering taking my DD just for the free stuff. We went back to our cabin, I planned to lay down for about 15mins, but I fell asleep for 2 hrs! Everyone else took a nap too!

 

The other thing I would like to mention now is the rain and my camera. I bought a rain " hat" my camera and it seemed to work, just don't turn your camera lens toward the sky. I eventually put my camera into my waterproofed backpack. My mistake not taking my camera out of my backpack immediately once we returned to the ship. After dinner I went in my backpack to find a wet dead camera! DH said the battery was wet. Display was also a little off. Fortunately after drying out it appears to work fine.

 

 

Laura

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mollanjake]

just typed a bunch and lost it....UUGGHH!

 

Now I know why I have my review broken into tons of posts!

 

Anan is a Wildlife Observatory and during the peak season, a permit is needed to visit as they limit the # of people out there each day. (60, I think)

 

Anan is only accessible by water,: float plane from Ketchikan or boat from Wrangle(I think)

 

the float plane people in Ketchikan put in for permits, I believe the first lottery is October.There is a second lottery for outfitters and then a 3rd where independent people can also enter. While you do need a permit Im not EXCATLY sure how the lottery works.

 

My interest in seeing bear up close and personal was really sparked by reading a trip report by WalleyeLJ. He has 2 excellent reviews. The bear trip was his first report/but second trip. His bear trip was out of Homer and while it looked fabulous, it wasn't something my DH and I were comfortable taking our DD on. Some where with all my reading I discovered Anan and when our trip dates changed to the beginning of bear season we had to go.

 

I contacted companies fairly early I'm think August or September, BUT one of my roll call friends had beaten me to them. JosieRhodes also has a great trip report and great Anan pics. When 2 companies that JosieRhodes was #1 on the list got permits, I lucked out that she contacted me and that I was #2 of the list. So late October we were going!

[mollanjake]

Both JosieRhodes and I did some worrying. Permit season start 7/5 and we were there 7/9: what if the salmon run was late and there weren't any bears????

 

But not such UNluck!

 

We docked in Ketchikan at 9am and we had a 9:30 meet time. Laura with Carlin Air gave perfect directions to our meeting spot. We arrived early probably by 9:10-15. Luckily the couple we were sharing our trip with were also early, we all hopped in the van and went off to Carlin Air.

 

I paid Laura the other half of our trip and we used the restrooms. Last chance for a real and bear free potty- I will show you later!

 

we went out onto the dock, and a kid was prepping the plane. MY DH joked that our pilot looked like out friends 16yo son. He wasn't the pilot, he was just helping, he loaded us onto the plane and gave us the safety briefing, MY DH got the coveted copilot seat. (DD was mad) Second row was our traveling companions and bear experts.(they had been to Anan 2 other times as well as Pack Creek and other bear spots) DD and I were in the 3rd row. Pretty sure 1-2 people could have fit on the bench behind us.

 

I believe the pilots name was Jeff, while not esp chatty answered all of our questions.

 

The flight to Anan was very pretty esp with light clouds both above and below us.

 

The tide was high when we landed at Anan and getting from the plane to shore would be a bit tricky without getting wet. We had to exit the plane, stand on the float, get around the door, down the float to shore. We all were successful, nobody was wet. Jeff told us when he would be back to pick us up and told us a good time to leave the viewing platform.

 

Think I forgot to mention the fun part: you land at the bay and have to walk about a mile in to the viewing platform.

 

On shore, we were met by a ranger who gave us a talk about bear safety. The most important thing is too not scare a bear, so we wanted to make noise on the trail. No problem there, we have noisy 9YO DD. Since our traveling companions had been before we followed their lead, walk single file and talk, no stopping for pictures. They had encountered a bear on the trail on a previous trip and lived to tell us.

 

We reached the platform with no bear encounters!

 

we quickly saw our first bear

yep WAY FAR away and I though to myself that better not be it and it wasn't!

[mollanjake]

 

This is a black bear, even though he looks brown

 

 

 

I like this picture b/c you can see the bear and a fish.

 

 

 

Even though the bears have fish in most of my pictures we saw plenty of attempts where there bear didn't get a fish. I even found myself yelling "he got one" at one point. There was one bear who would catch a fish then go into the cave to eat it. Then after he left, we saw another bear go in and come out with fish scrapes.

[mollanjake]

before there bear got there or when they all disappeared at once, we could look at the eagles.

 

 

yes the bears on that close. when they came close to the deck we all backed up. this guy went under the deck, seemed like we could have stuck our hand thru the rail and pet him!

[mollanjake]

 

What's better than a baby bear pooping??

 

 

I was at one side of the deck looking down at the creek, when I heard a commotion, I turned around to see this guy climb a tree. He got up there and ate his fish. He was right above us, if he had fallen he would have landed on the deck. There was blood and other fish debris on the deck. After finishing his fish, he took a nap up there. At one time, I noticed a lot of rain, but it was only coming down in one spot... under the bear....Not rain at all, but bear pee! Pretty sure it got on a least one guy, but how many people can say that got peeded on by a bear? He stirred and moved around once or twice. BUT...

 

 

Not coming down. He really started moving around, when it was about time for us to go. My DD was really mad they we MADE her leave before the bear came down!

[mollanjake]

 

Posted this one for several reasons: The bear is walking on the path, the one we had just walked on and I knew others were coming. Do you see the little building behind the bear? thats the outhouse. If you search youtube there are videos of people stuck in the outhouse! he pooped on the walk way as well.

 

This is a small brown bear and it's the bear that was really far away in the first picture I posted

 

Eventually it was time for us to head back to the bay. So our group of 5 headed back talking the entire way. We were't as apprehensive this time, and as I said my DD was mad we didn't wait for the bear to come down out of the tree. This time instead of "hey Bear are you around the bend" its was "hey bear, hope you don't eat me"

 

Some of the Anan tours are "guided" which means you have an armed guard with you. As groups arrived with armed guides my DH asked why I hadn't booked a "guided" tour. On our way back we passed at least one of the guides who was walking in by himself. We even passed a guy who was walking in by himself not armed. The ranger said there are no rules about it. The guy was renting a cabin out there was his 2nd or 3rd year and he loved bears!

 

Back at the bay, waiting for our ride, we saw this guy and friends

 

[mollanjake]

He came back!

 

Once we were back at the office, we used the bathroom, then Laura drove us back to town. We asked for suggestions: quick bite to eat, and buy a totem pole. Laura gave us a few places to eat. Ultimately we ate at a shack at the dock, the rest halibut and chips are made to order. You sit right there at a picnic table to eat. 2 orders was plenty for the 3 of us. YUMMY! We sat with the couple from our Anan trip. They had also been on our Juneau whale watch. They had been to Alaska several time and said that our whale watch was one of the best they had ever been on! We also chatted to another couple, who were on our ship.

 

There we 3 large ships docked. I would say HAL had the best spot, right at the sign. A smaller, but still big ship was docked but sort down a ways. Then there was an Oceania ship that was tendering. I would not be happy tendering if others were docked. Funny looking at this picture I just realized that the Radiance was quite a bit larger than that HAL ship. I think we were in every port with them!

 

 

 

After eating we headed up the street for a little shopping and to see Creek Street!

We eventually found a "shop" more of a stand that had totem poles. The totems are Alaska made(I hope) it's signed and has the artist name and where he is from. They were cheaper than the gallery though. Next to the stand was another stand and when looking in it my DH spotted my Glacier Smoothy soap! it was the real stuff from Juneau! I also got Sea glass earring I had be eyeing the whole trip. I regret not taking a second look at earrings that looked like ones Valerie had been wearing the day before. The lady in the stand said that the earrings were made by a woman in Haines....

 

Purchases in hand we headed toward Creek Street

[mollanjake]

 

We saw about 3 or 4 totems, but the pictures aren't great with cars in them. I found Creek Street a little less picturesque in person than in all the pictures I see here on CC.

 

I also thought the water level seemed really low. I swear I saw pics of people kayaking right there, but for sure they couldn't have done that when we were there.

 

We walked the short distance, peeking in the shops. The last store had what I really wanted and had yet to see: Eskimo dolls! The dolls are dressed in fur mostly rabbit with bits of other fur. Made buy in Alaska!

 

At this point my DH was ready to head back to the ship.

 

Had I not been a shopper we could have done the funicular or maybe walked Married Man's Trail, but that would have been difficult to explain to a 9YO.

 

One last stop

 

 

Everyone needs husky hat!

[mollanjake]

With 45 mins to spare, we boarded the Radiance. We were leaving Alaska. Not sure where the land becomes Canada, but that night we turned the clocks ahead 1 hour to Pacific time.

 

 

 

Our last towel animal!

 

The last day was at sea. I had a massage, DD used the pool, rock climbing, DD and DH did Samba lesson(got it on video!)

 

Our trip ended on a rough note when our flight from Denver to KC got canceled. After waiting for a very long time we got on a flight at 4:40pm the NEXT DAY. After a short discussion DH and I decided to rent a car and drive the 9hrs home. We were unable to get a hotel room and waited at the airport until 2am for luggage which we were told would take 1-2 hours. DH said he could drive so we headed for home We arrived home about 1pm Saturday about 15 hours later than we expected, but we were home!

 

 

Our dog loves his reindeer antler!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

[JosieRhodes]

See u did finish it before me:)

 

Great pic of the bear in tree as I just could not get the angle right to capture him, just too dark for my camera to capture. Hey, I think u might still owe me a drink for those Anan permits, so maybe someday we will be on another cruise together:p