Alaska Cruise and Canadian Rockies Tour |Part one Alaska Cruise

August 2012
We had an evening to explore downtown Vancouver before we left for our cruise.

Norm unfortunately had a bad case of kidney stones and had to miss the cruise but met up with Brad and I for the land tour -Vancouver to Calgary.

Cruising the Inside Passage

We had beautiful views of Vancouver Island and Northern British Columbia

SKAGWAY

In Skagway, we took the White Pass historic train up to the Canadian border. We really lucked out as we got the first sunny day they had in weeks. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, the fireweed was in bloom, and the views were magnificent.
Built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, this narrow gauge railroad is an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, a designation shared with the Panama Canal, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.

HISTORY : The line was born of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897. The most popular route taken by prospectors to the gold fields in Dawson City was a treacherous route from the port in Skagway or Dyea, Alaska, across the mountains to the Canadian border at the summit of the Chilkoot Pass or the White Pass. There, the prospectors were not allowed across by Canadian authorities unless they had one ton of supplies. This usually required several trips across the passes. There was a need for better transportation than pack horses used over the White Pass or human portage over the Chilkoot Pass.

The WP&YR railway was considered an impossible task but it was literally blasted through coastal mountains in only 26 months.
The $10 million project was the product of British financing, American engineering and Canadian contracting. Tens of thousands of men and 450 tons of explosives overcame harsh and challenging climate and geography to create "the railway built of gold."

The WP&YR climbs almost 3000 feet in just 20 miles and features steep grades of up to 3.9%, cliff-hanging turns of 16 degrees, two tunnels and numerous bridges and trestles. The steel cantilever bridge was the tallest of its kind in the world when it was constructed in 1901.

The 110 mile WP&YR Railroad was completed with the driving of the golden spike on July 29, 1900 in Carcross Yukon connecting the deep water port of Skagway Alaska to Whitehorse Yukon and beyond to northwest Canada and interior Alaska.

The quaint town of Skagway has lots of jewelry and art shops. With its boardwalks, clapboard buildings and saloons, it look much like it would have during the gold rush.

Video of  Glacier Bay, Alaska   link

Cruising Glacier Bay was a highlight of our trip. The views were magnificent and the setting so serene. The water was a beautiful milky green color with hardly a ripple and we even got to see the Margery Glacier calving .... stunning!

I have included some screenshots of my photobook.

Juneau

We pulled into the dock in Juneau at about 1 pm. We had booked a
Whale watching tour with Orca Enterprises and then a quick trip over to the Mendenhall Glacier to take in the views and hike a small part of the temperate rainforest.
We then returned back to the dock to poke around some shops. We got back on the ship around 8:30 pm and were very ready for our late dinner.