trippingpara

Sunday, September 2^nd   

We pulled into Ketchikan around 9:30 am.  There were already 3 ships in port, 2 Celebrity ships and a smaller Seaborne ship.  The captain pulled us into Berth 1 at the southern end of Ketchikan.  It was a bit unnerving sitting on our aft balcony watching our ship head straight for the port aft side of a giant Celebrity ship.  There was maybe 10 feet between us as we slowly drifted by the corner of the other cruise ship.  By the time we were fully docked, there was about 50 feet between us, but as we drifted in, whoa, there was some serious pucker factor going on!

Anyhow, we slowly got ourselves ready.  We were scheduled for a Misty Fjords flight and landing with Island Wings.  Michelle, the owner, is the only pilot and she flies a beautifully restored old De Havilland Beaver floatplane.  There was just something about her story and her business that drew me to her company (there are a lot of companies that fly tours into Misty Fjords National Park).

We got off the ship a bit earlier than we needed to so we could leisurely find our way over to the Rain Gauge next to the Visitor’s Center.  It ended up being around 100 yards away and pretty flippin’ easy to find.  As I was standing there taking a photo of the Ketchikan sign (I know, a real shocker, huh?), my cellphone started to ring.  I looked down and saw that it was a local Alaskan number.  Oh-oh, that’s not a good sign.

But before I go there, here are a couple shots of the Ketchikan

We're here!!!

The infamous Welcome to Ketchikan sign

Something doesn't seem right about this..Oh wait, that's a floatplane taking off next to a fishing trawler.

We're big "Deadliest Catch" fans so we were so surprised and stoked to find our favorite ship, the Time Bandit sitting right next to the Legend.  I was standing right next to it taking pictures of the deck before I realized what ship it was!

The infamous Rain Gauge - the most famous meeting point in Ketchikan

Up next:  The phone call...

Thank you so much to everyone for their patience.  I seem to be rather addicted to these things called a paycheck and you'd be surprised the kind of crap you have to put up with to continue collecting them!!  I'm off to New York City tomorrow for a few days, come back to Rhode Island for a day and then I'm off to Las Vegas for a week.  And nope, none of these jaunts are for fun.  I'm hoping to get a post up tonight and possibly one or two more during my down time while traveling.  I promise I am still here, just being worked to the bone between my regular job and I recently opened up my own photography studio so that is quickly filling up any free time that I thought I had.

If there's anyone out there that is still following this thread, I apologize for the delay in my posts now that CC is back up and running.  I hope to kick this back off with Ketchikan this weekend.  Thanks!

The cruise we just took was originally scheduled for Tracy Arm Fjord but was then changed to Glacier Bay. At first, I was pretty bummed since I wanted to get closer to the glaciers. But without a doubt, Glacier Bay was ten times better!! For one, we got to save a ton of money as the excursion in Tracy Arm Fjord is $400+ per person and Glacier Bay is free. If you really want to get close to a glacier or even walk or hike on one, then Juneau is the place to do it at for the same price point or less that what it costs at Tracy Arm Fjord. Go with Glacier Bay, you will not regret it!!

Glacier Bay (cont.)...

Like all my travels, I research the living bejesus out of everything and there was one inlet that I really wanted the ship to sail into...the John Hopkins Inlet. Unfortunately, the inlet only opens for 10 days a year in order to protect the thousands of harbor seals that give birth in the inlet. The inlet is fairly narrow and is home to the Reid Glacier, the Lamplugh Glacier, the Hoonah Glacier, the Gilman Glacier and of course, the famous John Hopkins Glacier. So, our chances of being able to go into the inlet was less than good. In fact, our chances were exactly 14.2% of being able to go into that inlet. I'm not a huge betting man, but there is no way I would take those odds.

I was taking a break from the balcony and looking over the National Park Guide that was put into our stateroom and admiring that inlet when the park ranger came back on the PA and announced that she just got confirmation that the National Park Service has just opened the John Hopkins Inlet and we would be the first ship to go into it this season. Yes!!

Okay, so I get pretty geeked out by the little things, but I knew we were about to be surrounded by high cliffs in the narrow fjord with thousands of harbor seals watching us the entire way as glacier after glacier sailed by.

The calving ice sounded like giant cracks of thunder booming across the narrow bay. It was incredible to hear. As we silently drifted across the inlet, the entire ship was deathly silent. Nobody was talking. It was breathtaking. Since the John Hopkins Inlet is so narrow, the captain could only turn the ship to the starboard side. Which just happened to be the corner of the ship that we were on, so it worked out great for us!

As the ship turned, you could see thousands of seals laying on the icebergs that covered the northern flank of the inlet. They were everywhere. Because of them, we were not able to get as close to the glacier as we did with the Margerie Glacier. We spent about a half an hour sitting in front of the John Hopkins Glacier before we slowly began out descent back out of Glacier Bay.

Our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Aggie that we met earlier in the cruise came over to our cabin with a pitcher of margaritas. What a way to finish our day in Glacier Bay with good friends, enjoying some good drinks surrounded by some incredible scenery. It doesn't get much better than this!

Next up: Ketchikan, Alaska...

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Just stopping by to let you know I'm still following along and really enjoying following along and the pictures you've shared are spectacular!!! Wow, wow, just WOW!!! I look forward to your updates each time I log into CC.

Hey pghsteelerfan - glad to see that you're still following along and I haven't bored you to death with my verbose writings. Thank you so much for the kind words. But honestly, it's pretty hard to take a bad photo in Alaska. The scenery really does all the work!!

Saturday, September 1st

Glacier Bay, Alaska

What a way to wake up! I opened the curtains to our balcony in our bedroom to the incredible sight of our ship entering the Glacier Bay Basin where we had just picked up the Park Service Rangers. I had read multiple reviews about tuning the TV to the forward camera channel in order to hear the park rangers. That turned out to be true for the naturalist but the park rangers were broadcasted over the entire ship's PA system. We could hear her loud and clear from our balcony. No need to blast the TV and leave the door open to hear it.

We sailed all the way up the bay to the Tarr Inlet to see the Great Pacific Glacier and the famous Margerie Glacier. The captain turned the ship in a complete 360 so both sides of the ship could see the Margerie Glacier. It was beautiful! While in the Tarr Inlet, we saw a grizzly bear strolling along the shoreline and a large group of mountain goats high up on the cliff walls. We also saw a ton of otters playing around.

A family of otters play as we sail by them.

Margerie Glacier

The Uncruise 36 passenger ultra luxury vessel, Safari Explorer sails close to the edge of the Lampugh Glacier towing a large RIB boat for even closer viewing opportunities. These passengers even get the opportunity to kayak up to the glaciers!

A lone seal chilling on an iceberg watches us as we slowly sail by.

A winged visitor decides to pop in and take a break as we view the Margerie Glacier.

The Splendor sails past us as we depart the Tarr Inlet.

We sailed out of the Tarr Inlet, we passed the Carnival Splendor heading into the inlet and then found out that we were in for an awesome surprise...

Next up: the awesome surprise!

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Skagway (cont.)...

Here are some parting shots of Skagway:

Yep, it's not just the Caribbean...Tanzanite International's in Alaska too!

The Skagway Visitor Center

A Carnival worker puts the finishing touches on the newest painting on the Cruise Wall.

The Splendor departs Skagway

Next up: Glacier Bay...

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Skagway (cont.)...

The Skagway River Valley as you head back towards Skagway.

As we approached the town of Skagway, we took a detour down Dyea Road that runs parallel alongside the town and airport. There is a pull off just before the road sharply curves around the mountain. That pull off provides a famous overlook of Skagway, the airport, docks and of course, the cruise ships! You can't go on a cruise and not get a photo looking down onto your ship!!

The Carnival Legend and Splendor sit alongside the Norwegian Jewel.

Unfortunately, it was getting late in the day so we couldn't continue driving down Dyea Road. Just a little further down from where we were is Yakutania Point at the mouth of the harbor and as the road bends around the mountain face, it roughens out into a dirt road. If you continue down the road you will go across the Dyea Campground, the mouth of the Chilkroot Trail, the Slide Cemetery (an other gold rush era cemetery) and the ruins of the town of Dyea. So bummed we couldn't go down there. Maybe next time!

Our next stop before turning the car in, was to the Gold Rush Cemetery and the Lower Reid Falls. We headed back the way we came and then over to the entrance to Skagway, skirted through the maintenance yard of the White Pass Train, down a dirt road until we came to the small parking lot for the cemetery. There is a large sign for the Gold Rush Cemetery.

This is where the infamous mobster, Jefferson "Soapy" Smith is buried along with the man that killed him (and was killed by Soapy himself), Frank Reid, the 'man that gave his life for Skagway'. There's also an unidentified man that blew himself up with his own dynamite when he tried to rob the local bank as well as numerous victims of a major epidemic of meningitis in 1898. It's a really neat cemetery and definitely worth a visit if you can make it out to the edge of town.

At the back of the cemetery is a well defined trail that leads up to the Lower Reid Falls. There is also an Upper Reid Falls but that is a far more difficult and time-consuming hike up the mountain, so everyone just stops at the Lower Reid Falls. And why not, it's beautiful!

At this point, we were about out of time, so we drove back to Avis, turned in the car and started to make our way back through town towards the Railroad Docks where the Legend was berthed.

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Hi Trip - I tried to figure out how to private message you, but don't know how, and I don't want to take up your review. We have a Canon EOS Rebel T31, it's 4 years old, but works fine. I was thinking about getting a new camera body & lens to avoid having to switch lenses all the time(which is what we do now. :D:D)

 

Thanks,

Hi Sweetpea. For some reason CC doesn't have the private message feature. Not sure why as many people have requested it, but they have that functionality turned off for some reason. Anyways, if you're looking to avoid switching lenses as your primary driver, then you really only have two options: 1) get an all-in-one lens like Tamron's 18-270mm for your current camera (that's what Lady Trip carries on her dSLR, or 2) drop the dSLR completely and move over to a what is called a 'bridge camera'.

A bridge camera looks similar to a dSLR but does not have interchangeable lenses. Great thing is its portability and ease of use. Downside is it's limited functionality and ability to handle multiple photographic roles well when compared to a dSLR. There is always a trade-off with an all-in-one camera, hence why there are dSLR camera bodies and thousands of lenses. However, bridge cameras have really come a long way from just a few years ago and are great options for amateurs and enthusiasts. A couple really good bridge cameras to look at are the Sony RX10 III and the Panasonic FZ2000. I'm hearing great things about the RX10 III and the price should be starting to come down some since they just released their newest model, the RX 10 IV. I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Trip

Here's a couple shots from our recent Alaska cruise:

Grizzly

Mount Rainier

A man and his best friend

Nares Lake, Carcross, Yukon Territories

The White Pass Train at its terminus in Frazer, British Columbia

The long road ahead

Hi Trip - LOVING your review. I have a camera question...hubby has a Canon EOS Rebel DSLR with a 18-55mm lens & a 70-300mm lens. If we wanted to get ONE additional lens (or another camera body & lens) what would you suggest?

 

Looking at possibly booking Alaska for 2020, an want to be able to take amazing pictures.

 

Thanks!

Hi 01Sweetpea. Thank you so much for the kind words and I'm glad that you're enjoying my review. Hmm...a camera lens question. These can be tricky to answer as there are so many variables that can go into an answer and most of them are personal so there never really is a true, set answer. However, with that said, I will do my best. First let's look at your camera body. A Canon EOS Rebel is a good, reliable entry level dSLR. I'm not sure which model you have so I can't really comment on whether it is getting old in terms of technology or if you have a more modern megapixel count.

I wouldn't necessarily move to a new camera body unless you want to a) switch from a crop sensor to a full frame sensor or b) the camera body is an older unit and has a low megapixel count (like 10 mp or below). If your camera is fairly new and you do not intend to seriously pursue photography as a hobby, then I would not spend the money on a new body, Since your two current lenses cover the majority of standard family/travel photography needs, I would just look at upgrading your kit lens which is the 18-55mm lens. It's a good lens to start out with but most people outgrow it pretty quickly. Your 70-300mm is a pretty good zoom lens and I would keep that unless you decide to really upgrade to the 70-200mm lens (excellent lens with a price tag to match!).

To replace the 18-55mm lens, I would look at either the Canon 17-55mm f/2 or for a bit more money, the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8. I would recommend you buy used from a reputable source instead of paying for a brand new one. A wise man once told me, look for a camera body like you do a girlfriend. You will have many of them in your lifetime. Now, lenses...well...look for those like you would a wife. Spend as much as you can possibly afford on them, take care of them and they will last you a lifetime! And it's true. I still heavily use a prime lens that I bought used over 25 years ago and it works just as well now as it did back then.

Really, the best recommendation I can make is to learn your camera, it's controls and it's capabilities and limits the best you can as well as study what makes a good composition. I have taken incredible pictures with a simple disposable camera and horrible pictures with top of the line professional cameras and lenses. Its the photographer that really makes the picture not the camera or lens. They are just the tools to achieve what you are envisioning.

I know that I just threw a ton at you, so please don't hesitate to ask any more questions!

Cheers,

Trip

I guess I'm that old also, because I absolutely remember Jimmy "SuperFly" Snuka. He was one of my WWF heroes, and yes I said WWF not WWE....LoL I remember a match he jumped from the top of the "Cage", awesome times.

Hey Alaskan Joe, thanks for taking the time our of writing your own review to pop in and join us here! Glad to see I'm not the only one old enough to remember good ol' Superfly Snuka and the WWF. I grew up on them. Loved watching him launch himself off the top corner rope.

Skagway (cont.)...

For most people that drive the Klondike Highway, the turnaround point is Emerald Lake. It is a lake of pristine green color that derives from lighting reflecting off of calcium carbonate and clay. There is a large pull off here and this is also where Carnival excursions for the White Pass Train and Bus Tour turn around.

We opted to go a little further up the highway to the Robinson Roadhouse. This was a base camp settlement used by miners. It almost became a full fledged town until the Royal Mounted Police showed up and set up a base there due to extreme levels of corruption and crime. Apparently, the presence of five-0 stopped any politicians from making a home there and officially starting the town. Which makes complete sense when you stop to think about it!

We played around and explored the whole area as we were the only ones here. We were planning on heading a but further north to Miles Canyon (just outside Whitehorse) to go across their suspension bridge (it's free - compared to the extremely overpriced Yukon Suspension Bridge that we passed several kilometers back). However, a large storm was brewing in the north and we didn't want to get caught in it. Just as we decided to head back to Skagway, big fat rain drops starting to come down. And there's our sign! It was time to head back.

Okay, these signs were everywhere on the Klondike Highway, which I understand. What I don't understand is the fact that they were all located in parking areas and they say no stopping. Then WHY put a parking area there?!

We finally made our way back to Skagway (of course, we stopped some more on the way back for photos too!!)

Next up: Skagway...

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Skagway (cont.)...

Next up on our little road trip was Carcross, Yukon Territories. It was formally known as Caribou Crossing because it sat right on the migration route of caribou. That is until they were all killed. Then they stopped migrating and they had to change the name of the town. Maybe they tried to name it after the caribou carcass but misspelled it. I don't know but that's the story I'm telling myself!

Anyways, it's a quaint little town and the primary stop for those heading north to Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. There are very few places to stop for food, drinks and souvenirs, so this is a great place to get all of those things. We did just a quick stop here as we were trying to go much further than most people that do this drive. More about that later. For now, here are some shots of Carcross.

Looking across the inlet at the town of Carcross.

Some ruins of old homes on Waterfront Drive in Carcross.

Lady Trip taking pictures of Bennett Lake. And yes, that is a real beach!

The ruins of the SS Tutshi. It was in the process of being restored as a museum when it caught fire. They still made a museum out of it. Albeit, a burnout out hull of a museum, but still a museum!

After our brief stop in Carcross, we jumped back onto the highway for about 500 yards, where we quickly pulled over again. This time for the oddity of the world's smallest desert. It really isn't a desert though. It's actually sand and silt left over from the glaciers that carved this area out thousands of years ago. Fun fact: the Carcross Desert measures approximately 1 square mile. Today, fresh sand is deposited from nearby Bennett Lake by the wind.

The infamous Carcross Desert, known as the world's smallest desert.

Sure wish I had a 4x4! This looks like it would have been a blast to go sand duning!

Next up: Emerald Lake and Robinson Roadhouse...

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Skagway (cont)...

About 10 kms away is the ruins of the town of Conrad City which was built to serve the silver mines. We had to drive down some dirt roads to find it. There's a new campground there so the roads are pretty well maintained. It was a bit hard to find at first, but we got there. It was neat to explore the ruins of the houses as well as the smashed mine cart at the edge of the water.

After spending some time hiking around the ruins and beach of Conrad City, we headed north on the Klondike Highway to the Bove Island Overlook which was named for Lt. Giacomo Bove, an Italian Naval officer.

Don't feed the bears! This is a sign next to the Bove Island Overlook (in fact, you can see the corner of Bove Island to the left of this photo).

Next up: Carcross and the world's smallest desert!

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Skagway (cont.)...

The dog team pulled us around their gorgeous property for about half an hour when we had to stop due to another fight breaking out amongst the front team. Ed broke them up and asked if we minded if he extended the tour in order to work the dogs out some more. They had too much energy and fight left in them and he wanted to let them exhaust it out in the field instead of against each other. Like we’d have a problem with spending more time out sledding with the dogs!! We spent almost another half hour out before we headed back into the musher’s camp.

Once the dogs were unharnessed, we were able to pet them to reward them for their hard work. It was funny to see the difference in the dogs. They were still excited but with a lot less energy than before. We spent about 15 minutes petting them before saying our goodbyes and heading back out on the road.

We loved this little guy's nose with it's pink stripe. He was quite the snuggle bunny too!

Welcome to the Yukon Territories! This was just down the road from Tutshi Dog Kennels.

On the other side of the same pull off of the Yukon Sign is the Welcome to British Columbia sign.

Next up: Conrad City ruins and Bove Island...

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I am loving this review! Our very first cruise was Alaska 10 years ago, this is making me ready to plan another!

Hi Posesmom! Thank you so much for the kind words. Glad you're enjoying the review!

If anyone was on the Legend in glacier bay on the same day here you go.

 

 

Hey Alaskan Joe, Great review! I was on our aft wraparound balcony on the Legend when you took this photo which was probably while I was taking a photo of you!

Here's another one of you behind us as we entered the Inner Passage on our way to Juneau.

And yet another one as you departed Skagway.

Skagway (cont)...

As we walked through a gate into another area, we were greeted with the discordance of barks from a couple teams of overly excited sledding teams. If you’ve never heard a dog sled team before, you cannot imagine the level of noise that they produce. As soon as the sled pulled up, they went ballistic!! Another staff member came out and gave us a nice presentation of the equipment that is used by the Iditarod racers. The owners of the kennel, Ed and Michelle, are very active racers and they run in both the 1,000-mile-long Iditarod across Alaska and its Canadian cousin, the Yukon Quest across the Yukon into Alaska. That race is often called the “toughest race in the world,” and runs between Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada which just happens to be about an hour north of Tutshi Lake.

A few minutes later, we boarded the back of the cart and watched them harness up the dog team. The dogs were overly hyper this afternoon and were being rather aggressive with each other. They had to break up several fights and had to rearrange them a couple times due to the fights. Eventually they got everything sorted out and we were off, complete with Nikki, the golden retriever sitting shotgun.

Hitching the dogs up.

Nikki anxiously awaiting our departure.

A man and his best friend. Ed, who is driving here, stated that Nikki often likes to accompany him when training the dog teams. Although Nikki is not a sled dog, she acts as the matriarch of the facility.

Out on the trail.

A quick shot of us on the "sled". The UTV that we're riding in is usually in neutral the whole time and allows the dogs to train with the heavy weight of the vehicle. Ed explained that he does occasionally put the UTV into gear and help them when climbing hills or downshifts when going down hill to keep the vehicle from getting too close to them. I have to say, the dogs did not appear to have any problems at all pulling the heavy UTV with us in it.

To be cont...

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Skagway (cont.)...

Okay, let me get back to the review.

We continued on stopping every couple kilometers for pictures until we just passed Tutshi Lake and turned down a dirt road to the Tutshi Dog Kennels. Lady Trip adores dogs (all animals really but she has a huge soft spot for man’s best friend). I hadn’t told her that I had booked some time here as I wanted to surprise her (yes, I am a hopeless romantic and love to surprise my wife with gifts and fun little surprises). Needless to say, she was a wee bit happy about the surprise.

This is where you check in and buy tickets, can donate to the dogs and buy some general supplies if you like.

An authentic musher's camp

There were no signs of life outside of this training facility for miles around. It was Alaskan paradise! This is an active training camp and the tours offered are all part of the training program. The human interaction with the puppies helps to socialize them at an early age and the dog sled tours helps to exercise the dog teams and develops their stamina and strength for the grueling races.

Lady Trip is a wee bit happy!

Now that's a dog house!

We checked in and were immediately escorted out to an area where the puppies were chillin’. There were two batches of puppies, one group was 7 months old and the others were 3 months old. Yep, Lady Trip was in heaven! Within seconds, she was laying on the ground buried in puppies. A small tour bus pulled in and their arrival eventually attracted the attention of the puppies and they ran off in search of new company. Thankfully, the staff came over and grabbed us to take us behind the scenes for our dog sledding adventure.

Up next: dog sled tour...

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Here are a few more shots for ya...

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Do you pre plan what gear to have fot each port or do you bring a multitude of items?

Hi cruzin Phillis. I'm a bit backwards in that I had all my camera gear completely planned out first for every day. I knew which camera body I was taking and which lens and if I needed any additional gear or not. Yeah, I'm a bit of a nut case! As for clothes, I did have a pretty good idea of what we'd be wearing for each day which helped out with the packing. I knew that Glacier Bay was going to be the coldest place and I knew by our excursions whether or not we would be outside for long stretches at a time so we may need to bring our rain gear with us. We actually packed pretty light considering the trip. You need A LOT more items then you do in the Caribbean. We normally cruise with just carryons but not here. We only packed for four days and did laundry twice (once in Seattle at my sister's and once on the cruise - had free laundry bag with the suite). That helped to keep things down but we still needed a full size suitcase plus carryons.

Love your review!!! We are planning Alaska for 2020.

Hi Steph0224. Thank you so much, glad you are enjoying it. You will love Alaska! The Caribbean is beautiful but there is just something about Alaska that is magical!

Loving your review. Stunning photography! I did the Glacier Hike excursion with a different cruise line. It was one of the best excursion I've ever done. We were fortunate; it was sunny and 70 when we went. We were shedding layers. Even the guides were snapping pictures like crazy.

Hi Janice - thank you so much for such kind words! Hiking across a glacier is such an experience, certainly one that we will always remember! Seems kinda weird to be stripping layers off when you surrounded by ice!