Alaska May 2012

In May 2012, Trudy and I took a vacation to Alaska with Holland America to celebrate my retirement. This post contains 30 images from that incredible 13 day experience. We flew into Fairbanks, spent 6 days on land tours, including Denali, then boarded a ship for a 7-day cruise south through the Inside Passage from Seward to Vancouver.

 

DENALI NATIONAL PARK

Dall sheep at Polychrome Overlook on the Tundra Wilderness
tour

Caribou (aka reindeer)

After seeing moose sign on all the hikes, we finally saw moose
on the Tundra Wilderness tour.

View from the Rock Creek Trail, with spruce and aspen in the
foreground.

KENAI FJORDS NATIONAL PARK

A medium sized boat took us on a tour out in the fjord to see
glaciers and wildlife.

Steller sea lions and kittiwake gulls

Humpback Whale

Orca

Check out the huge size of the Holgate glazier in comparison
to the tour boat! The air remperature was in the 40's.

 

We boarded our cruise ship, the Statendam, in Seward to begin
the cruise south in the Inland Passage.

GLACIER BAY

Marjorie Glacier in Glacier Bay. This glacier is 250 feet high
above the water, and it extends 100 feet below the water. The
water temperature is 38 degrees.

 

CHILKAT RIVER, Haines

Eagle Creek Preserve float adventure on the glacier-fed
Chilkat River.

The horsetail was more green and lush than I had ever seen.

JUNEAU

Mendenhall glacier at Juneau

Trudy is holding a chunk of ice calved off the glacier.

Lupine speckled with tiny diamond-like droplets of rainwater.

We saw more humpback whales offshore of Juneau!

KETCHIKAN

We went boarded a hard-bottomed inflatable boat with twin huge
outboards for an excursion called Orca Beach Rainforest. This is
the shoreline of our destination, Betton Island, in the Tongass
National Forest.

Wearing the provided rain suits and boots,
we hiked the trail through the spruce and
western red cedar rainforest.


CRUISING THE INDLAND PASSAGE

Back on the ship, we indulged in the fine dining.

VANCOUVER

This is our cruise ship docked at Vancouver.

While in Vancouver, we had time to explore
Stanley Park.

... and have a huge bowl of chicken & ramen noodle soup!