Our Alaskan Cruise

Holland America Line has put up this year’s video brochures for their Alaska cruisetours.

ALASKA: Imagine its dramatic landscape, wildlife and rich history revealed through a lens of comfort and impeccable service. For 65 years, Holland America Line has brought the best of Alaska and the Yukon to our guests and our expert planning allows for these natural wonders to unfold. Choose from a wide-array of 7 or 14-day cruises or expand your adventure with a cruisetour and go into the great interior of Alaska and the Yukon. A cruisetour is a seamless and effortless land and sea vacation offering extra time in the best places like Denali National Park, home to North America’s tallest peak Mt. McKinley.

Here’s a short video of us landing on the Norris Glacier via Era Flightseeing Helicopter. The other helicopter landing nearby really helps put the glacier’s scale into perspective. This was one of my favorite excursions on our Alaskan cruise. I had never flown in a helicopter before and was impressed with how smooth and exciting the flight was. The weather wasn’t perfect but it certainly made it memorable.

I would highly recommend a helicopter excursion on your Alaska cruise!

The wide gravel bars of the Toklat River are braided with ribbons of crystal clear snowmelt mixing with the murky sediment-laced runoff from a faraway glacier in the Toklat River. This is a wonderful place with so much to feast the eyes on from near to far: huge mountain ranges capped with snow, tumultuous clouds riding the peaks and valleys, melting glaciers miles away washing silt and gravel from eons ago to mingle with the melting of last years winter snows.

With so much area to observe, the sun and clouds above cast huge and amazing patterns out over the tundra and up the mountainsides. We highly recommend capping your Alaska cruise with a trip into Denali and taking the shuttle bus into the real wilderness of Alaska.

Just don’t miss the last bus out of the park or you’ll be spending the night with the bears.

In Denali National Park, all glaciers monitored are retreating, with an average retreat of 20 m (66 ft) per year. The terminus of the Toklat Glacier has been retreating 26 m (85 ft) per year and the Muldrow Glacier has thinned 20 m (66 ft) since 1979.

We had thought we’d seen an Alaska teeming with wildlife during our Alaskan cruise. Yes you can cover a lot of distance on a cruise and see much of the inside passage and the animals that tolerate these few ports of call along the way… but you will not be prepared for the vast expanse, magnificent beauty and amazing creatures that inhabit the park of the “The Great One.”

This young Brown Bear (or Grizzly) deftly hauled himself from the open tundra up the few hundred feet of rubble/scree to the side of the road where our bus was parked. He climbed with such speed he was upon us before we or the driver knew it. Although typically we would avoid such close encounters this juvenile got the jump on us and I was able to photograph about a dozen frames of his golden September coat backlit by the setting sun.

These pictures were all shot at 200 mm, 1/250th, f/2.8 or f/3.2

The National Park Service gives the following guidelines for bear encounters:

Denali National Park and Preserve is home to both black bears and grizzly bears. Black bears inhabit the forested areas of the park, while grizzly bears mainly live on the open tundra. Almost all bears seen by visitors along the Park Road are grizzlies. The bears of Denali are wild creatures, free to behave as they wish. If annoyed, these solitary animals can be very dangerous to intruders. For your own protection, and to keep Denali bears healthy and wild, please carefully read and abide by these rules.

If You Encounter a Bear

• Running may elicit a chase response. Bears can run faster than 30 mph (50 km/hr). You cannot outrun them. If the bear is unaware of you, detour quickly and quietly away. Give the bear plenty of room, allowing it to continue its activities undisturbed. BACK AWAY SLOWLY IF THE BEAR IS AWARE OF YOU! Speak in a low, calm voice while waving your arms slowly above your head. Bears that stand up on their hind legs are not threatening you, but merely trying to identify you.
• SHOULD A BEAR APPROACH OR CHARGE YOU—DO NOT RUN, DO NOT DROP YOUR PACK! Bears sometimes charge, coming within ten feet of a person before stopping or veering off. Dropping a pack may encourage the bear to approach people for food. STAND STILL until the bear moves away, then slowly back off.
• IF A GRIZZLY MAKES CONTACT WITH YOU, PLAY DEAD. Curl up into a ball with your knees tucked into your stomach and your hands laced around the back of your neck. Leave your pack on to protect your back. If the attack is prolonged, fight back vigorously.
• IF A BLACK BEAR MAKES CONTACT WITH YOU, FIGHT BACK.

Report all bear incidents and encounters to a ranger! Park rangers and biologists need this information to document bear behavior for research and management purposes.

Here’s a Holland America Lines Alaska Cruise promotional video from 2009

Alaska’s Cruise Leader

Alaska and Yukon CruiseTours (2010)

It had started raining while we were enjoying the Salmon Bake, but not heavily. We traveled by tour van from the heart of downtown Juneau to the Era Helicopter Headquarters. After being weighed, divided into groups of four and geared up, we were ready for our helicopter/glacier excursion. Again, a very well organized business, very friendly people and we felt very secure with the adventure we were about to take.

See four of Alaska’s most spectacular glaciers as your pilot flies over the ice spires and pinnacles of the “cascading” Hole-in-the-Wall Glacier, the “advancing” Taku Glacier, the “retreating” Norris Glacier and either the mysterious “floating” Dead Branch Glacier or the “river-like” East Twin Glacier.

Land on a remote glacier to step out and explore the ancient landscape with your pilot as your guide. Peer down into a crevasse and look for a glacial stream. On the return trip, watch for bears, mountain goats and moose.

Each glacier we saw during the excursion is part of the Juneau Icefield. The whole trip lasted a little over an hour. We started with flying over the Hole-in-the-Wall Glacier, flew through the Taku Glacier and came to land on the Norris Glacier. It was a completely different world.

Once we departed the helicopter, we found ourselves walking on rocky, uneven ice. Albeit uneven, the pattern in the ice was consistent. It almost looked like it had been purposefully carved with ripples. Several crevices in the surface gave us view to that brilliant blue color of the ice once again, water running over the blue ice like a miniature waterfall or a sculpture.

Era Flightseeing also sponsors Dog Sled Excursions on Norris Glacier, we’d love to try this the next time we make the trip.  The glacier walks and dog sled lessons are only accessible via air travel.

We sadly returned to our helicopter and began our way back to Era after viewing the last two glaciers on the itinerary. After returning to Juneau, we completed our day in the city just traveling the streets. We poked our heads in the historic Red Dog Saloon and ultimately decided to check out some of the jewelry shops along the main street. Ryan bought me an incredible sapphire and diamond ring, and then we found a great Jade shop next door where we were able to buy some gifts for family members back home.

All in all, a great day in Juneau.

Era Helicopter Flightseeing Brochure 2010