And some flowers....

Up early to put our bags out for transport to the hotel. 
Breakfast at the main lodge was very nice. We had a short wait and boarded our bus.

We did have plenty of views of the mountains.

We stopped for lunch at the Mount McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge.

Our "box" lunch was awful and after throwing away most of the lunch, I walked out on the deck of the lodge to look around.  There was a commotion and it was because a young moose had walked out of the woods.  It was just off the porch and only about 50 feet from the building.

Today is Betty's 85th birthday. She especially wanted to see Denali for her birthday. This is the reason we booked the cruise/land tour of Alaska. Interesting numbers showing up today, our wilderness tour is 13, the bus is number 13, and today is Aug 13. The number 13 is our "lucky" number today.

We have to meet our tour bus early today.  Up for breakfast and then walk up the hill to the bus stop.
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Our Wilderness tour guide, Sara, was fantastic.  She told us that the park road closed by Sept 12th each year and that Denali has 18k ft of vertical rise making it the tallest in that measurement from its base in the world.  An impressive mountain if you can see it.  The mountain is so large it makes its own weather and it is often very different from the surrounding area.

The bus looks a lot like a school bus but with some great video upgrades.  Screens are spread throughout the bus and the driver/guide has a very high quality camera to display any wildlife she finds.

It takes about 10 minutes to get from the Holland Lodge to the Denali park entrance.  We will drive just over 40 miles into the park and return for our tour today.  The road stops at the point where a slide took out the bridge that would allow access the rest of the way.   It will be several years before they replace the bridge.

Soon we get our first sighting of wild life.  A big bull moose but he is a bit shy.  More of these in just a couple of minutes.  Even our guide could not get a good image.

For several miles, we get pretty views of the mountains and forests and then our next is a short walk and a bathroom break.  

Just before our bus pulled away, we were given a "lunch" box and this was the content.

Only a few minutes after we pulled onto the road, she stopped for our second moose sighting.

More pretty scenery.

Next our first bear sighting.  A mom and cub.  Well, that is what we thought and then the second cub stepped out from behind a big bush.  The mom was very light haired which is very rare.

More pretty scenery.

Another mom and cubs, a caribou, and a moose.

More Grizzlies, a Mom and Cubs.

More Caribou and some Dal Sheep.

Our wildlife spotting total today:
1 Huge raven
1 Snow hare
1 Arctic ground squirrel
3 Moose
2 Sets of Grizzly Bear moms and 2 cubs.  6 total
5 Sheep
4 Caribou

Our guide told us that this one of the best wild life spotting tour she has ever had in one day. It is unusual to see so many of the local animals all in same day. The only animal we did not see was a wolf.

Exhausted, we head back to the lodge for a huge steak dinner.

First, head to get our breakfast and then a tour in the park.  Hope we see the top of Denali and lots of animals.

Buses leave from the Lodge to the visitor center regularly.  Once there, we waited for our tour bus that would take us to the Huskie Sled dog demonstration.  Even the benches were neat.

Next the Sled dog demonstration.

We decided to walk through the park visitors center.

Some lunch.  Pizza! It was a chilly(45 degrees), and misty day. So glad we had our puffy jackets.

Shawna and I took a walk along the river... and now some Flowers...

We are really happy that the tour buses have been upgraded. The originals look a bit uncomfortable.

Betty took a nap and Shawna and I walked over to a brewery and do a little window shopping.

Music of Denali dinner theater was fun.

Our walk back to the lodge gave some nice views of the surrounding mountains. The next morning, those mountains had a dusting of snow.

We got up at 5:30am and were at breakfast at 6am so we will be ready to disembark at 7:40.

Lots of waterfalls.

At 2.5 mile we pass through the longest auto/train tunnel in the US.

Spread along the tunnel are 8 compartments with living areas with food water and beds in case of cave in.

All air is evacuated between each car or train trip in either direction

Whittier was made as a WW2 protective port.  Eventually the port and town were turned over to residents and the military left.
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We were told that the train was known for having an amazing cinnamon roll. 
​They were right.

There was a standing wave on the river and I was able to catch a picture of a surfer.

Lunch was good.  The dining car was nice.

The mountains started to get more impressive as we got past Anchorage. Mom doing well in spite of the broken finger and some pain.

Shawna tried the local beer.

Amazing views during lunch.

We were passed by the other cruise train heading down to Whittier from Denali.

We travel along the Susitna river most of the trip up to Denali.

Back into the forest and crossing some bridges.

Arriving in Denali.

Our room at the lodge was nice.

Time to get dinner at the restaurant.

Today is a sea day.  We will be visiting College Fjord late in the afternoon.  The fjord got its name from the glaciers that are all named after colleges. 

​We are having a brunch this morning and plan to relax as the ship slowly moves into the Fjord.  Our hope is that we will have clear weather but that does not seem likely.

In the afternoon, there was a wine tasting.  Shawna takes pictures just in case she wants to buy the wine later back home.

When we got back from the tasting, we got a knock on the door and it was Betty.  She had closed the door on her finger.  After a trip to medical and x-ray, it was determined she had broken it near the tip.  At least, it was her left hand.​

Up early and we are already in the park.  ​

A "Bevy" of Otters.

As we started out, fog rolled in and then mist.  Glad it waited till we were done.

We had a pretty sunset before dinner.

The Fjord to Skagway is 2nd longest in the world.

​History Warning:

Skagway has a population of just over 1200 people but doubles in population during the summer months.  The entire town is on a small area of flat land that is only 1500 feet wide and 6000 feet long in a thin valley between the mountains. Originally, it was started as a gold mining town.  Later, it was a shipping port with a railroad that still operates into the interior and even into Canada.  Many of the trains are for tourists from the cruise ships.

This valley has been popular with native tribes for hunting and fishing.  It has the advantage of a flat area and a river that flows from glaciers and rainwater flowing out into the bay.  The bay is protected but known as ​Skaqua or Shgagwéi or a windy place with “white caps on the water” and later changed to Mooresville and finally Skagway.

In the 1887, Skookum Jim and Canadian Capt. William Moore survey the path up to what would later be named White Pass. Moore lays claim to the 160 acres of land in the valley floor and begin working on a cabin and dock naming the area Mooresville.

By 1894, the Canadian Mounted Police patrol the land to establish Canadian presence in area and the first group of prospectors hike Moore’s trail over White Pass.

In 1896, gold is discovered by Skookum Jim, George W. Carmack and Dawson Charlie beyond White Pass and the Klondike Gold rush is on. The next year steam ships arrive bringing hundred of people looking to strike it rich.

For many, the Moore trail is given the nick name of "Dead Horse Trail" for all the pack animals that died on the trail. 

By 1898, the town grows to 10,000 but most of wealth is made by people selling supplies, liquor, and prostituting to those who would make the track up and over White Pass.  Most who tried going over White Pass died on the way. The railway begins construction and a criminal element comes to town run by a man called Soapy Smith. 

Soapy was a master con-man and he got his name setting up shop on the street running a shell game.  Bars of soap wrapped in paper were set out for the price of 5 dollars but he claimed that many had 10, 20 and 50 dollar bills between the bar and paper wrap.  After his partner would buy a bar and unwrap it showing money others would buy bars.  None had money in them other than the ones that were part of the con.  Soon the nickname stuck.  He starts a saloon in Skagway and begins building his "empire" in an attempt to control the town.  He bought off editors of the town paper to keep stories out of print that involved his crimes.  His biggest con was a fake telegraph. There was no actual telegraph line to Skagway but gold miners would arrive in town and want to contact loved ones by home.  He would fake a message asking to "send money" which was kept by Soapy.  His excuse was that if people were stupid enough to get caught in his Con then he was saving them from sure death in the Klondike.

He was killed at 38 years old in a shotgun shoot out with Frank Reed who died a few days later.  Reed was given a hero's funeral.

1900 Census is taken in Skagway, recording  3,117 residents and on June 28, Skagway becomes the first incorporated city in the territory of Alaska,. It beats Juneau by a day.

From 1942 to 1944 Skagway is invaded by the US Army to build a runway in support of the construction of the Alcan highway.  With 3000 troops stationed there and  supporting 20 trainloads per day running up and over the pass the town doubles in size and almost the entirely of town activity is dedicated to Army control.

Since then the town has fluctuated in size with most of the summer dedicated to cruise ships bringing thousands of tourists for short visits.

Back to our visit.
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The bus tours started in 1923 and even today each bus is operated and narrated by a "Street Car conductor".  The first bus was used for U.S. President Warren G. Harding when he came to visit.

We toured town for a while with lots of information on the local history and colorful characters.  Our driver was hilarious. 

We drive through town to the town's Gold Rush Cemetery.

From there, we drove up to an overlook.

The glacier in the picture is connected to Mendenhall glacier outside of Juneau.

There are so many waterfalls, great views, and glaciers.

We headed back at the ship.

​The Holland ships are very well maintained and painted so that they look nearly new. It is even hard to find a small amount of rust anywhere.
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On the other hand the Royal Caribbean ship docked next to us looks like it should be considered for dry dock to get a major upgrade and fix the problems.  This makes me seriously have 2nd or even 3rd thoughts before ever going on a cruse on one of the RC ships.

Our ship is 8 years older and looks great and so does that really pretty lady in the foreground.

Almost forgot.... Shawna's pictures of flowers and bushes.

Dinner with Mom, then Shawna and I go on a "Bar Hop" on the ship.
​Some of the bars went all out for the preparation of the drinks.

​Almost every day in the mainstage, we have a talk on the next port of call.  Tomorrow, we  will be Denali and the talk gave us a lot of information.

We start to disembark and I noticed the National Geographic expedition ship docked near us.  Those cruises sound like they would be very fun.

Expedition ships are small so they can get into places a large cruse ship could never hope to go.  This one has small boats to get to shore and explore.  Some excursion ships include a small submarine.

There were a lot more flowers here than I expected.

Back on the bus to shop in Juneau.   Then Mom went back to the ship to rest. 

We did a bit more shopping and then decided to go to the Red Dog saloon.  Years ago Kevin told me he would go to the saloon when their ship was in town. I can see why he enjoyed this place.  They have a qwerty sense of humor.  The saloon was established in the late 1800's before Alaska became a state.

Two saloons try to claim to be the oldest surviving saloon in Alaska.  The Red Dog in Juneau and the Salty Dawg in Homer.  Kevin visited the Salty Dawg much more often but now Shawna and I have visited both saloons too.  We miss you Kevin.

The walls are covered by mounts, signs, flags from around the world, and some pretty wild posters. One display, supposedly is Wyatt Earp's gun but there is information showing that he was arrested before the date this items was displayed.​ So he probably was in jail.

The staff plays up the old saloon theme even down to the sawdust on the floor.  A piano player known for his rude jokes played directly behind Shawna.

Back to the ship and then we realize we need a small luggage bag for Denali.  Back to town for an over priced bag and then back to the ship.

Dinner, 10 forward for drinks,  mainstage for a comic, ...

He was funny'ish.

Off to our cabins. Mom to bed and we to watch the sail away from our balcony.  It looked like there would be pier runners missing the boat but instead they were just 4 extremely intitled people who made a show of walking slowly and even pausing several times on the way to the ramp.  They walked on board just 5 minutes before "all aboard ".  They were so close to being left behind.

We had a choice of Chowder or Chili for lunch

Interesting.. We started out with fog and mist but got into the fjords and it was clear skies.

I was standing on the bridge speaking with the captain.  This is why there is an odd color to the pictures.  It was interesting talking about the area with him.