Banff to Calgary.

Today was a coach ride from Banff to Calgary. It was a wet cold day. The first stop was at the Banff gondola which we didn’t do as fog covered the mountain so there were no views to be had. We stopped downtown in Banff for lunch. It was a miserable day so when we found the Rose & Crown pub decided to go in as it would be warm & dry. It was all of theses and the food wasn’t bad either. After lunch on to a place where we were to have a 10 minute helicopter ride ove the Rockies. Malcolm & I we’re not going to participate but the weather was so bad it was all cancelled. It was a long boring day with nothing to see due to the lousy weather.
Today a stretch limo picked us up from our hotel and brought us to the airport. I thought the limo was a bit over the top but it got us to where we wanted to go. Presently in the Air Canada lounge. ANZ has a partnership with Air Canada. We should be gold KoruLive to qualify but because we are silver and I think the guy flet sorry for me he let us in. We should be back in Vancouver by lunchtime.
This hotel in Banff is fully booked for the next 2= years. People book to stay for the experience

Vancouver to Lake Louise

The Rocky Mountaineer was a visual and gourmet experience. First day too dud from Vancouver to Kamloops. We were about 12 hours on the train.  The early starts are due to fitting in on the lines with all the other trains that are travelling. Each day we would pass at least 20 other trains all with over 100 carriages. Most things are carried on train certainly in this part of Canada. Our train did not travel fast but at a speed where people could photo the scenery which changed every time we rounded a corner. Sometimes it was thick spruce forest, other times open flat farm land. Deep gorges and ravines. A carriage holds 40 people and the meals in the dining room are done in 2 sittings. They start serving alcohol at 10am which just seemed a bit early for me. Lunch was a 3 course meal with 6 choices for main. The food was exceptionally good but far too much of it.  Kamloops is a large city. We have very nice accommodation in new apartments opposite the park it is lovely to have daylight til about midnight. We couldn’t face any evening food so just a gourmet ice cream from an ice cream parlour.
Next day  6.15am start travelled Kamloops to Lake Louise. This was an interesting journey travelling alongside canyons huge and small rivers and finally climbing to 5800 feet above sea level. To do this we travelled through 3 mountains in a spiral fashion. Most impressive. Finally got to Lake Louise. Our hotel room looks directly out on the lake and the magnificent mountain. The sun was shining on it and it was awesome. This morning the cloud was hanging around so photos not so good. Lake Louise has a population of 1200 but 1000 multinational staff live in a complex behind our hotel.  In winter it is a ski resort.

 Our hote.  Beautiful gardens

 View from hotel window

Rocky Mountaineer

We flew from Fairbanks to Vancouver via Seattle. You have to pay $30US for each piece of checked in luggage. Needless to say we only checked in our suitcases and took everything else on board. Had one night in Vancouver then a 6.30 am pickup to the train. There were about 24 carriages on the train. The front 12 are single story. The passengers in these carriages eat their meals in their seats. The back 10 carriages are 2 levels. The bottom level has the dining room and the top level the very comfy seats and glass on the roof and all sides. We were in the first of the 2 level carriages so got superb views out front and all around. The food was excellent. Everttime you leave a station there is a great group of workers waving goodbye.

 Nibbles served with a drink

 Breakfast

Alaskan oil

Alaska is very rich in oil. The citizens of Alaska do not pay any tax. Each year they receive a payout from the government. The amount they receive is dependent on how well their sales of oil have been. They never receive less than around $2000 US.
The pipeline is 800 miles long and took 1000 days to complete. Quite impressive

Paddle boat trip

It was interesting to travel down the river and view all the very expensive homes. Home owners are encouraged to come outside and wave.

We went down the river to where Susan Butcher a very good musher trained her dogs. She competed in th Ititerod race 1000 miles many times and won it 4 times. Unfortunately she died of cancer 4 years ago but her husband and daughter are continuing with the work she started. The pictures will show her huskies then the daughter taking the dogs for a run, the pups and the huskies cooling off in the river after the run. They love their dogs so much the swim with them in the river. 

Fairbanks gold dredge

afairbanks was once a thriving gold mining place. Large amounts of gold were discovered there. Even today there are 3 operational gold mines. We had a coach tour to one of the mines which has been developed with all the old pieces of equipment to show how a gold mine operated. There is a train which takes you past various exhibits and then try ones hand at gold panning. I got $7 worth of gold and Malcolm got $13 worth. It will hardly pay for the trip.

We then proceeded to the paddle boat for a trip down the river

Fairbanks

Today we moved on by coach from Denali to Fairbanks. We are now further inland and only 180 miles from the arctic circle. It’s been a very hot day with Fairbanks ar 30 degrees. As we travelled today the landscape changed completely. The mountains are much further away , not as high and no snow on them. There is a lot of flat open space which we haven’t seen before. On route we stopped at a place called Nenana. It is just a small village famous forv2 things. First its cinnamon swirls. Ive never tasted anything as good. All the buses stop at this funny little shop to buy them. The second thing that makes them known is their “guess the date, hourvand seconds when the winter ice in the river running alongside the town will crack. It costs $2 to put in your guess and you can buy as many guesses as you want. There is apparatus on the ice and the cracking measurement is all very scientific. People from all over Alaska put in their guess. It’s a fundraiser used to enhance the town. . A woman in Anchorage won this year. She correctly guessed a date in April which was much earlier than usual. She got the correct day and wasn’t too far out with the time. She won $350 and the town benefitted by several thousand. Did big load of washing tonight to get ready for the next stage of our trip

Denali National Park

Today was a 4.30am wake up call and we left for the park at 6am. We travelled 60 miles into the park. The road was a bit like the Treble Cone road but the drivers are very skilled and I was never scared. It was a brilliant clear morning with the sun shining. Mt Denali standing at 24,000 feet was majestic. We were lucky enough to see the whole mountain with no cloud at all. It is an awesome site. Only 10% of people who go to Denali ever see the whole mountain fully exposed so we were very lucky.
As we drove through the park we saw many wild animals including a moose and 2 baby moose, a bear with 2 cubs, several caribou, a wolf, a fox and several dall sheep. As you cannot get off the bus you must try to get photos through the windows. Also a telephoto lens on a camera is an asset. One has to do the best with the equipment. The main thing is the memories we now have of these animals in their natural environment. It was well worth the 8 hours in the bus.

                                               Moose

                                           Raven
                                        

McKinley explorer

                                                  The inside of the train

Today we took a coach trip for about an hour to the station where we boarded the McKinley Explorer. This is a very smart rail car which has two level. Dining on the lower level and seating with a clear domed roof on the  upper level. The countryside we travelled through was quite different to our other travels. We climbed to 2000+ feet  and had great views of the mountains in the distance and rivers below. The whole journey to Denali took 4 hours.

The resort we are staying at is once again like the last one consists of several blocks..  these all look the same are cover a huge area. There are 3 shuttle buses which run round the complex continuously.

McKinlay Pricess Wilderness Lodge

the roads in Alaska are excellent. They are well maintained and have a 65 mph speed limit in some places but generally 55 mph. There are stretches of road where the sign says “double fine are”. This means that instead of the normal $500 fine for speeding you get a $1000 fine in these areas. It seems to help prevent speeding. Perhaps NZ is to lax.  People come to this lodge to do bush walks etc. it’s quite beautiful if you enjoy being surrounded by forest. 

                                          One of the bedroom blocks

                           Mt McKinlay in distance which few people see due to cloud

Talkeetna

Left Alyeska and drove for about an hour to Anchorage. This is a major city of around 400,000 people. All the places in Alaska are unbelievably clean. I have yet to see any rubbish on roadsides or pavements. Found out there is an automatic $1000 fine if found dropping rubbish. My phone went on the blink today. Found an Apple shop but he couldn’t fix it in the short time. I had before the bus left. However over night it has rectified itself thank goodness. After Anchorage drove to a place called Talkeetna. We are staying at the McKinlay Princess Lodge high up in the forest. The accommodation is in rustic buildings which each have about 15 bedrooms. Our lodge was at the top of the hill which gave us good exercise although there was a shuttle we could have used but we walked each time. The lodge is only open during summer as it is completely snowed in with feet of snow during winter. Although it’s miles from nowhere the food prices were very reasonable. The lodge was built in the 70’s and the bedrooms are tired but clean. All the lights in the bedroom have tacky moose on them.

A new friend

A new friend

View from our room

We are surrounded by very tall mountains. They are is very prone to earthquakes and avalanches. In 1964 there was a 9.2 earthquake which destroyed the village and shifted it 2 km up the road. The mountains almost come right down to the highway. The road is often closed in winter while avalanche guns are set off to bring the avalanches down.
There are lots of hikers trails and bike trails for summer activity. The forests are mainly spruce and hemlock trees and there are numerous lovely walks through the forest

                                        A walk through the forest.

The view from our bedroom window

A day in Alyeska

It was nice to wake today to blue skies and no wind. As the day progressed it became quite warm. We took the free shuttle bus into “town”. It was about a 10 minute ride. When we got off the bus I asked a man where the town was. “This is it” he said pointing to a few funny buildings.

      This is the shop with everything. Laundromat, cannabis, Thai food & I suspect a bit more?....

A real junk shop.  Not sure who buys but very strange man who owns it.

The hotel has the gondola(tram) leaving from the hotel. It travels to 2500 feet up the mountain. The North face is so steep it is a double black run.  I’m told it’s almost vertical. On the south side there are at least 30 different runs of varying difficulty.

                                     Front view of the hotel

Alyeska

today we left the ship in Seward and travelled by coach to Alyeska our place for 2 nights. It was about a 2 hour journey but we had several stops on route so we nearly 6 hours after leaving the ship that we arrived. At a place called Portage we went on a cruise on the lake. Although it is summer the mountains which are all around still have a good covering of snow on them. We took a boat trip on the lake. The cruise before ours had seen a bear on a glacier but no such luck for us.   The waterfalls are spectacular and make the Brudle Falls look like babies in comparison.there was also a spectacular glacier.  From here we went to an Alaskan wildlife park. Her we saw brown and b,ack bears plus a bear cub in their natural environment. The animals here have all been picked up injured and brought here to rehabilitate .
I had a bad photograph day today. My Ipad has decided to only take out of focus pictures so I then used my camera which decided the batteries were flat. Thus only a couple of photos of the glacier and waterfall

                                         Glacier

                                         Waterfall

                                                  Seward marina

Margerie Glacier

Several Park Rangers boarded the boat at the Glacier Bay visitor centre and travelled on the boat giving informative talks about the are. A Native Tlingit woman also boarded and gave a great talk about her tribe and their history. The tribe uses canoes to gather the seafood and they have a central meeting house where they gather to do their crafts. Weaving is one of their main occupations.

Glacier Bay

Glacier Bay is a National Park & Preserve. Only 2 cruise ships per day are allowed into the bay. The native Tlingit tribe call the bay their ancestral homeland. There is over 3.2 million acres of forest, inlet and shore, mountain peaks rising over 15,000 feet and the incredible glaciers. There are 7 significant tidewater glaciers the most famous of which is Margerie Glacier. The captain travelled very slow through the are as required and at the face of the glacier did several 360 degree turns of the ship to ensure everyone on board got a great view. The Margerie Glacier is 1km wide, 250 feet high with approx 400 feet of ice below the water. It also reaches for several kms up into the valley. An amazing sight. In winter the mountains receive over 100 feet of snow which compresses the ice and forms the glacier. The glacier is white with no discolouration at all. It is unbelievably beautiful.  All the photos below are of this glacier and the surrounding bays.

Huskie pups

The huskies have a breeding regime in order to ensure they have new pups to train for racing. When we were there there were 3 dogs with pups about 8-10weeks old. One litter had 7 pups another 3 and the other 1 pup..  the pups were incredible. The mother did not mind them being removed from the run to be cuddled and photographed. The pups loved cuddles and stroking. 

                                          Malcolm with a pup

                                        Mother dog keeping an eye on her pups

                                        Adorable pups