Alaska
Alaska and Yukon – A Retrospective
What is it that summarises the spirit of Alaska and the Yukon for me? Perhaps the scenery, the wildlife, the people or its history, In fact it’s all these things but two things really stood out for me. The first thing is just how naturally beautiful Alaska and the Yukon really are – every corner […]
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Whitehorse – The End of Our Adventure!
There is no way to get from Haines to Skagway other than by ferry and the one on which we had a reservation did not depart until late afternoon, so we had all morning to fill in. This was not hard to do with a visit to the Chilkot State Park with a view of […]
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A Day on the Move – The Fast Ferry to Juneau
We caught the fast ferry from Haines yesterday for a day trip down to Juneau. It originates in Skagway (30 minutes to the north) and travels down the Lyn Canal which widens out to form Gastineau Bay. This is a deep fjord, nearly 300 meters deep) and the result of glacial action. The waters near […]
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Beating the Bike Race To Haines
The Haines Highway connects Haines Junction in the Yukon to Haines, Alaska. On the way it passes through a short section of British Columbia. It follows the route of the old Dalton Trail that is based on an ancient indian trading route and is about 244 km long. We were advised that we needed to be […]
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Back to the Mountains at Haines Junction
Our last week in the Yukon has been in a topography without any significant mountains – mostly in the broad valley and plain of the Klondike River along with some rolling hills. All that changed as we travelled down to the town of Haines Junction – obviously named because that is where the road to […]
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Travelling from Paxson to Tok
We were the only guests at the Tangle River Inn last night. As such, we had the royal treatment – a tour of all the mementos in the lounge and the bar including a bear skin, a photo of Sarah Palin (I had to keep my mouth shut) and a certificate from the President’s office […]
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Out in the Tundra
Our travels today have taken us into Central Alaska and to the Tangle River Inn, 20 miles out in the tundra along the Denail Highway from Paxson.. This place is a haven for fishermen but only offers very basic accommodation. I guess that our tour company, GoNorth, included it because the next town uo the […]
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On Towards Palmer
We left Seward yesterday morning in bright sunshine (warm enough for just a short sleeved shirt) and retraced our way back along the Seward Highway to Anchorage and then on to Palmer. The area around Palmer is the food bowl of Alaska, where the long hours of summer sunshine encourage the the fast growing of […]
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Seward and Kenai Fjords National Park
The town of Seward sits on Resurrection Bay, right at the end of the Seward Highway. Cruise ships and bulk coal ships dock here and the Alaskan Railway then connects them to Anchorage around 190 kms to the north. I had a great trip doing a cruise through the Kenai Fjord National Park, watching wildlife […]
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Homer and Seward
The nice weather that have we had for a few days turned against us yesterday. It rained for most of the day so we decided to have an easy day catching up on domestic activities – many washing and emails. We did venture out for a short time but the rain was not only dampening […]
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Our First Look at the Kenai Peninsula
We were back on a smooth highway again as we drove south from Denali to Fairbanks. The road was wide with a good amount of room for passing many oversized vehicles carrying heavy road construction equipment north. Most of the scenery in the early part of our day was quite stunning but we found long […]
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Traveling in the USA is Hard Work.
My friend, Ken, suggested in a comment, that I was becoming integrated as an American when I referred to a service station (as we would call them at home) as a gas station in my last post. Sometimes it is just easier to go with the flow and use local terminolog because that’s the common […]
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