whats in Alaska besides snow and ice

[Paul G]

The ship took us up close and personal with the glaciers. Yakutat bay, and Hubbard Glacier. Distance is very misleading. The glacier stood over 100' above the water. They say the glacier is a moving river. It moves at a rate of 8' per year. I heard different numbers from different tour guides, so lets just say it moves. Ice falls in to the water routinely. We did see it "calving" once. That is the ice falling in to the water. Falling snow high up the mountain compacts, it gets very dense as it continues to pile on. Eventually it makes it all the way down the moving river of ice and falls in to the ocean.

[Paul G]

Ice floating on down to the ocean. Glacier ice has a blue color due to the extreme denseness. It is a prizm effect. The dirty ice is from scraping along the sides and bottom of the moving river of ice. Again, distance and size is misleading. The floating ice in the first two pics are big enough for several people to sit on. The camera was zoomed in.

[Paul G]

Skagway, Alaska. An old mining town. Again not much there. Alaska has an entire population of only 800,000 persons. Many cities in the lower 48 are larger. Skagway is famous for it's Red Onion bordello. I don't think it is used for that purpose any longer??



Some very "friendly" young lady's advertising for the show in the back of the establishment. I think it is just a "throwback" I hope?



And a railroad size snow thrower.

[Paul G]

Juneau, Alaska. Ziplining anyone? That was a lot of fun. Juneau is the capital of Alaska, not accessible by road. Air and sea only. Go figure. Click on the last pic, it may open to a video. My wife being a hot dog zip liner.

[Paul G]

Ketchikan. Sled dogs. They use us, tourists, to help keep the dogs in shape over the summer. I was surprised at how small the Alaskan Husky is. Only a 30# dog. They hitched the dog team to wheeled sleds and let them run. These dogs were yelping, barking, tugging at there harnesses to get going. Amazing how they loved to run. It's what they live for. And we got to hold a puppy. We got to ride a Unimog up to the dog kennel.

[skip68]

Wow, just beautiful Paul.         
Thanks for sharing.  Seeing the glaciers up close in person is something most people won't ever see.   Looks like you folks had a great trip.   That late night daylight stuff would take some getting use to.   Looks like the overall temperatures were mild and perfect for the trip.     
Any plans on going back?   

[Paul G]

We had a great week for sure. Weather was cool, not cold. We had nice sunny days for the most part, not the norm, cloud cover is the norm. Would I go back? I don't think so. Once is enough. I will strongly recommend that people who like to travel put Alaska on their to do list. We did the land tour first. Some did the land tour last, or no land tour at all. Both land and sea have so much to offer, I would recommend doing both if you can.

Truthfully I was not to enthused about going to Alaska, but I am glad I did. (sometimes it pays to listen to the wife)     

[Chargerguy74]

Wow, very nice, I've always wanted to make the trip.

[green69rt]

The pictures of the glaciers are misleading.   They're actually MUCH taller than they look,  the cruise ships will only go so close.  We went a few years back and when the cruise ship decided to turn around the glacier looked huge.  Then the captain pointed out a smaller cruise ship ( only help about 200 passengers ) and it looked tiny and a few miles closer to the glacier.   I think the glacier face may be as much as 1000 ft high in spots.

A beautiful state and well worth the time and money to visit!!  Sounds like you had a good time.