16 Glorious Days In Alaska!

[LarryF]

Hello Everyone,

 

My wife and I returned Sunday from 16 glorious days in Vancouver and Alaska on the Sapphire Princess and our own independent land tour. You can view my pictures on the link below. I posted two different albums as I had two cameras and webshots had a hard time putting them in the right order.

 

I am working on a review that could be the longest in history. We just had such a great time and were so taken with the beauty of Alaska. I hope you enjoy the pictures and I will try to post the reveiw by this weekend.

 

Thanks,

 

Larry

[SCUBA Mark]

Very nice pictures!!! You sure did see a lot of glaciers. Thanks for sharing.

[qiangf2]

Larry, you got some excellent shots there. Also, I really appreciate your effort to annotate every image to explain where and what.. That helps a lot in viewing through them. Thank you

[photodoodle]

I loved your photos. Thanks for sharing them.

[newbie2468]

Great pictures... we are going southbound on the Sapphire in July... can't wait...

 

Thanks for sharing... After hearing all the great things about Marv and Harv's excursion.. I am thinking of changing our "photo safari land and sea" (with the ship) in Juneau to Marv's... seems like the pictures are fantastic... not sure what the other excusion is like? Did you hear of anyone taking the photo safari?

 

Tori

[TeeBuccs]

Thanks for sharing your pictures, I thoroughly enjoyed them. I got some great shots when I was there last year but you got some even better. Mind me asking what type of camera (and lens) you were using? Also, what was your land itinerary? We are planning to go back in '08 and do our own land portion for 5-6 days and curious what others have done.

 

Thanks!

[margord]

Please let us know when your review is ready.

[Budget Queen]

OK, Larry, I am going to put you on the spot. :) Only because I think I can!! :) I remember responding to many of your posts and you initially going with a cruisetour. I did a quick look at your past posts and see this trip was in the planning over a year. You also added significant time, to your original trip.

 

So- did it work out well??? And- for others- was the advice and trip planning info you got- THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!! :)

[LarryF]

Thanks for sharing your pictures, I thoroughly enjoyed them. I got some great shots when I was there last year but you got some even better. Mind me asking what type of camera (and lens) you were using? Also, what was your land itinerary? We are planning to go back in '08 and do our own land portion for 5-6 days and curious what others have done.

 

Thanks!

 

TeeBuccs,

 

I bought a Canon XT SLR camera about a month before our trip. I used the standard lens that came with it, plus I had a 75-300 zoom lens from our old Canon Rebel 35mm camera. The greatest thing about the SLR is the ability to do sequential shooting. I was able to get the entire sequence of the Glacier calving and also was able to get shots of whales from the time they rose to the surface until they dived showing their tale. I wish I had bought the camera much earlier so I could have taken photography classes. My main challenge was getting good shots of the snow coverd mountains and glaciers as the top of the glaciers and mountains blended in with the sky or clouds. I know there must be a manual setting to compensate for that.

 

Our Land itinerary was as follows:

 

May 26 - Docked in Whittier. Used Alaska Transportation Group to pick us up at 7:45am and drive us to Anchorage to rent a car from Hertz at there downtown location. It was a private car for just my wife and and it took about 2 hours to get to the rental car facility. We then drove south stopping at several stops along Turnagain Arm, Portage Glacier, Wildlife Conservatory and Exit Glacier. We stayed in Seward at the Holiday Inn Express.

 

May 27 - Cruised on the Kenail Fjords tour with Renown Tours. Afterwards went to the Sealife Center.

 

May 28 - Spent the day doing scenic driving to Hope, Coopers Landing and Nilnichick. Stayed at Kenai Princess Lodge.

 

May 29 - Drove to Chickaloon which is about an hour or so north of Palmer. We stopped at Alyeska Resort and in Palmer along the way. We stayed at Castle Mountain B&B. Had dinner at Sheep Mountain Lodge to celebrate our 30th anniversary.

 

May 30 - Went Ice Trekking on Matanuska Glacier. Later drove to Talkeetna and stayed at Talkeetna Chalet B&B for the night.

 

May 31 - Drove to Denali and Healey. Went water rafting (floating) and went to Cabin Night Dinner Show. Stayed at Lakeview Inn in Healy.

 

June 1 - Took 6:30 am shuttle through Denali. Went hiking and returned about 5:30pm.

 

June 2 - Drove to Anchorage. Went to Native Heritage Center and Farmers Market. Flew home that night.

 

That's a quick synopsis...everything was incredible and I plan to go into a lot of detail in my review.

 

Hope that helps..

 

Larry

[LarryF]

OK, Larry, I am going to put you on the spot. :) Only because I think I can!! :) I remember responding to many of your posts and you initially going with a cruisetour. I did a quick look at your past posts and see this trip was in the planning over a year. You also added significant time, to your original trip.

 

So- did it work out well??? And- for others- was the advice and trip planning info you got- THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!! :)

 

 

BQ,

 

I could kiss you! I am so glad that I took your advice to do our own independent tour. Having the freedom to stop whenever we wanted, to be able to divert our plans at anytime was great. Tiime after time we saw people on the cruise tours that were sleeping in the Hotel lobbies waiting for their buses. There were several occasions where we would stop for 30 to 60 minutes to view wildlife on the road while the tour buses either zoomed by or stopped for 2 minutes and then had to drive on to meet their schedules. Everyone on the bus were straining and climbing over each other to get a photo, while I'm standing 20 feet from the bear shooting dozens of photos!

 

I could go on and on about the advantages of doing your own trip planning and independent tour. This board has been so helpful to me and I just can't thank everyone enough for all there input. I also could kiss Yukon (maybe I'll let my wife kiss him). That was the most incredible drive I have ever been on. I just didn't want to return, it was so beautiful! We were very lucky that we had clear blue skies and bright sunny weather. It was just an incredible winter wonderland that will live in my memory forever!

 

I would have never known about the hiking on Matnuska Glacier, or the incredible drive between Palmer and Chikaloon or the unbelievable Hatcher Pass drive on the 17 mile paved road just outside of Palmer!

 

So yes, BQ, the advice and information I got from these boards was just the absolute best! You are the Queen!

 

Thanks,

 

Larry

[Budget Queen]

Thanks Larry- I could kiss you too!!! :)

 

 

We all look forward to your review. It will be invaluable to others.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks - heading to your pictures and looking forward to your review.

[cruisin2alaska]

Larry,

 

Thanks for sharing! Beautiful pics.

 

I too will be doing the independent land tour / drive to Seward, and I was wondering about your thoughts on Hope! Did you just drive the scenic road for a bit, or did you go all the way into town?

 

Also, with regards to Hatcher Pass; did you drive the 17 miles paved road to the end, and then turnaround and do the reverse drive? Or did you go all the way across? Trying to decide on that one as well.

[Budget Queen]

Larry,

 

Thanks for sharing! Beautiful pics.

 

I too will be doing the independent land tour / drive to Seward, and I was wondering about your thoughts on Hope! Did you just drive the scenic road for a bit, or did you go all the way into town?

 

Also, with regards to Hatcher Pass; did you drive the 17 miles paved road to the end, and then turnaround and do the reverse drive? Or did you go all the way across? Trying to decide on that one as well.

 

Just adding- if you are going to take the Hope Highway, there is no point in not going all the way to Hope. Only a bunch of trees until you get to the Arm. Although the road is paved, it's not in the greatest shape, so allow time. Most all car rental contracts prohibit driving past the mine on the rough unpaved Hatcher Pass to Willow.

[Italy52]

Thank you for sharing your beautiful pictures, I really enjoyed them very much.

 

I do have a question for you: When you showed the picture of your whale watching tour with Harv and Marv, there was a boat that was adjacent to yours. The tour boat looked quite crowded on the deck. Do you know what tour operator it was? From that picture, it looked like you had the viewing advantage with the smaller boat. :)

[Bucky3]

Thank you for sharing your gorgeous pictures, and we look forward to your detailed review and especially to places you stayed on your independent tour. Bucky

[LarryF]

cruisin2Alaska,

 

There is almost nothing in Hope. The drive is about 18 miles and there are some great scenic views of Turnagain Arm. This drive was not in our original plans, but when we initially drove from Anchorage to Seward it was cloudy and rainy and the views of Turnagain Arm were not great. When we left Seward the weather was very nice and I had heard that the drive on the Hope Hwy. was very scenic and indeed the views of Turnagain Arm were much more colorful and beautiful with fair skys.

 

We drove the paved road in and out of Hatcher Pass. The road was closed beyond the paved road and I don't think it would be wise to drive a rental car the rest of the way when the road opens.

 

Italy52,

 

I believe the boat you see in my pictures were booked through the cruise ships. I am so glad we were in the small boat as we had much more freedom to maneuver around than those on a crowded boat. I will say that the larger boats did seem to do a great job finding the whales, because a lot of times our best whale sightings were where those larger boats had already sighted the whales...

 

Larry

[jillybabes]

Larry: Your pictures are magnificent....Can't wait to go only 99 more days...Later, Jill:cool:

[debbieinva]

Larry, thank you so much for sharring, I could feel the colors of Alaska in your photos. Just makes me more the excited to see for myself in July!!

thanks.....

[allentownahoy]

Thanks for the great photos. Quick question. How long did it take to walk to the waterfall at Mendenhall Glacier?

[LarryF]

It took about 25 minutes, maybe 30 tops. Totally flat land and not strenuous at all. During wetter parts of the year, the area can be too muddy to get to...

 

Larry

[lthomas]

I have been reading every word of your review on the other board but I did not get the picture link for some reason. Can you post that for me again? would love to see them. We are also on the Sapphire in July.

[southwardbound]

Larry F-

Where did you go hiking in Denali? We are taking the 6:30 am shuttle to Wonder Lake and would like to do some hiking as well. Was it a guided hike or just on your own? Thanks:)

[LarryF]

We started hiking at the Tolklat stop. We hike on our own. This was not in our plans as we are not hikers, but we had met another couple on the bus that wanted to hike and asked us if we wanted to jioin them, so we did.

 

We made our way down a river bed and planned to hike along that river bed and make our way back to the road about 2 or 3 miles ahead. However, after about 20 minutes of hiking we came across a 20 foot fast moving stream that we could not cross. So we made it back to the road and just hike along the road.

 

There are no trails in Denali, but once you get there you'll see that most anywhere you hike is wide open and and it would be hard to get lost. The Park does offer guided hiking and I believe you sign up for the guided hiking the day before the hike.

 

Larry

[tapia]

Wow, your trip sounds amazing. I wish I had that much time to take the same type of trip, but my schedule doesn't allow at the moment.

 

I have some questions for you, if you don't mind:

 

In Seward, how was the Sealife center and where did you go to eat?

 

How was ice trekking on the Matanuska Glacier? What company did you use? Was it very straining? How far is that from Anchorage?

 

How was the cruise? Do you have a review going on another board (I guess Princess--I will pop over there in a few)?

 

You have some amazing pictures. What kind of settings did you use to get the whales? I have a Canon S3IS and I don't think I can get the same shots. I've been trying to learn for about a year now and any advice would be appreciated :-)