Gerry Fischer Photography

07/01/2013

Our train ride ended in Anchorage where we stayed an additional 3 days. The next day we rented a car and drove south on the Seward Highway and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. From here we visited the Portage glacier and went on to Whittier which a small town on the Prince William Sound. The only problem is that there is a 13,300 feet high mountain in the way. Luckily the have a tunnel trough the mountain that is almost 12 miles long and is the 2nd longest tunnel in North America.. The other unique fact is the the tunnel is only one lane wide and is shared by cars and train. Every 30 minutes they reverse the direction of the traffic. The train goes first followed by the cars and trucks. Once in Whittier, we boarded a speed boat that took us around on the Prince William Sound to 26 glaciers ( give or take a few). The glaciers look small in the photos, but they are several thousand feet high and the ice wall that is at the edge of the water is about 400 feet high. We also saw a bald eagle flying over the Sound and several sea otters. The weather was great and we enjoyed the magnificent views of the Sound and Glaciers.

06/23/2013

Here we are at the College Fjord. We took a speed boat to the glaciers around the Prince William Sound. What a magnificent sight.

06/23/2013

06/19/2013

Well, we took a little train ride through the wilderness of Alaska. We started at Fairbanks, spending some time in Denali and then continuing on to Anchorage. This was an absolutely great way to travel trough the Alaska wilderness with many lasting impressions and sightings.

06/19/2013

Leaving Fairbanks on the Alaska Explorer Train. The Train has a glass dome on the top and a restaurant and bar on the lower level. This was an absolutely great way to travel through the Alaska wilderness. We have seen Bears, Moose, Bald Eagles and lots of other animals. We stayed at the Denali National Park where we could see Mount McKinley peaking though the clouds at sun rise. Mount McKinley ( also called Mount Denali by the natives) is just over 20,320 feet high and is the highest mountain in North America. At the base of the mountain is the small town to Talkeetna. The pioneer spirit is still very much alive in this town. It serves as a base camp for those who want to climb McKinley. The town also has an international grave yard of climbers that did not make it at McKinley.

06/13/2013

After all those miles through the Yukon, we made to back to Alaska.at Poker Creek. This most northerly US border crossing, has a population of 2; The Canadian border guard and the US border guard. From here, the roads were narrow and winding so that we needed a pilot car to guide us through the unpaved mountain roads. Eventually we made it to Chicken, Alaska – 3 Saloon style huts was the downtown area. We then joined the Alaska Highway going towards Fairbanks. Here we visited the Sheena Eskimo Village and watched a bush pilot demo. Another interesting site was the Alaska Oil Pipeline. In Fairbanks we experienced the midnight sun since the sunset was at 25 minutes after midnight.

06/05/2013

We proceeded from Whitehorse to Dawson City, the second largest town in Yukon. We drove 380 miles with lots of scenery, but not a lot of people living there. The upper Yukon River was still partially iced over. There were very few rest stops and services. This place is totally empty. Dawson City is still a frontier town. All roads in downtown are dirt roads with board walks at store fronts. The town is so close to the artic circle that it is build on permafrost. That means if you dig deep enough you encounter frost and ice, even during the summer. The other adventure was leaving Dawson City crossing the swollen Yukon River by ferry. The ferry was slightly larger than the bus and was fighting the fast current and dodging trees washing down the river. The usual ferry access point was flooded and they had to built a make-shift ramp for our bus. Wow, we made it. The next 200 miles back to Alaska were over a narrow and winding mountain road that was not paved. We encountered only 19 cars on the entire 200 miles going the other direction.

06/04/2013

The smallest desert in the world is the Carcross Desert in Yukon. It measures only 1 sq mile. For some reason the wind and the mountains are depositing sand dunes in that 1 square mile that looks like a desert.

06/01/2013

The Yukon never made it to statehood and remains a Canadian territory. Even though it is more than 3 times the size of North Carolina, it only has 35,000 people living in the entire territory. We boarded a train from Skagway that would take us over the White Mountain Pass to the Yukon. We crossed the border from the US into Canada on top of the world with lots of snow. Here a are few photos from that adventure.