Heading to Alaska




From Wednesday, May 24th, through Thursday, June 8th, we will be enjoying 15 days on a trip to Alaska.  The first week will be a cruise north through the inland passage from Vancouver to Anchorage, Alaska. We fly from Birmingham to Vancouver on Wednesday and will board the ship that afternoon in Vancouver for the journey to Alaska.  Thursday is at sea.  We will be in Ketchikan on Friday and Juneau on Saturday.  There we will visit the Mendenhall Glacier, which was formed during the Little Ice Age about 3,000 years ago, and then attempt some whale watching aboard a catamaran in nutrient rich Auke Bay.  Then on to Skagway and a trip on the White Pass Scenic Railway to the Yukon and back that parallels the legendary White Pass trail of 1898.  Monday puts us in Glacier Bay National Park and some scenic cruising on both Monday and Tuesday (College Fjord).  After disembarking in Anchorage on May 31st, our land phase of the trip begins.  First, we head to the Kenai Wilderness Lodge for a couple of days of hiking and nature viewing.  On Friday, we head to Copper River by motor coach (9 hr ride) and then have a rafting trip scheduled on Saturday.  This trip put us on both the Tazlina and Copper Rivers in the midst of salmon season.  Sunday puts us into Denali for several days of outdoor activities that take us 62 miles into Danali National Park to the Stony Hill Overlook with vistas and wildlife viewing.  We depart Denali late Tuesday afternoon by train for Fairbanks where we have an extra day for sightseeing, which includes a sternwheeler riverboat cruise on the Chena and Tanana rivers.  An early morning flight from Fairbanks brings the trip to a close as we begin the long trip back to Birmingham on June 8th.  The weather forecast looks pretty good – 60’s in daytime and 30’s/40’s at night – with some chance of showers.  We are ready!  So, stay tuned.

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