Travel Log

Downtown Anchorage Alaska

Alaska ....

Looks like spring doesn't it? Well it still might be a bit early in Alaska for spring but in Arizona, we are in our "month" of spring! HA HA! Soon the temps will be over 100F and everyone will want to get out of town.

How about going on an Alaska cruise? Cruise season for Alaska runs from about mid-May - until early September. The best months for Alaska cruising are June and July as they are the warmest months (and even that is cold for an Arizona gal) and you are bound to see the most wildlife during these months. A few great reasons to consider Alaska cruising:

1. Wonderful scenery on the ship and excellent shore excursions and/or cruise tours to see more of the beauty of Alaska allowing you to get "in closer" to nature in spots where the larger ships are unable to travel.

2. Excellent food and fantastic amenities on the ships.

3. Once you unpack you stay unpacked until you depart the ship. No need to pack/unpack and haul your luggage around each day.

4. Excellent staff on board the ships to help meet your every wish, desire and need. You will truly feel spoiled, pampered and relaxed.

5. Comparing a land only vacation (food/hotel/transportation) versus a cruise vacation (accommodations/food/transport) where everything is included can be a savings of between 25-35% depending on cruise/time of year/dates of travel.

Now is the time to be booking Alaska...if you wait much longer the best cabins will be sold out (if they aren't already). The cruise season is short for Alaska (May-early September) and many specials are being offered right now! Call or email to get the best deal. Susan@CriticsChoiceVacations.com or call 480-831-9076.

 

Hubbard Glacier, Alaska

Hubbard Glacier, Alaska

 

Hubbard Glacier is located in Disenchantment Bay and is the largest tidewater, calving glacier in North America. From its source in the Yukon, the glacier stretches 122 km (76 mi) to the sea at Takuta Bay and Disenchantment Bay. It is the longest tidewater glacier in Alaska, with an open calving face over ten kilometers (6 mi) wide. Before it reaches the sea, Hubbard is joined by the Valerie Glacier to the west, which, through forward surges of its own ice, has contributed to the advance of the ice flow that experts believe will eventually dam the Russell Fiord from Disenchantment Bay waters. The ice at the foot of Hubbard Glacier is about 400 years old: it takes that long for ice to traverse the length of the glacier. The glacier routinely calves off icebergs the size of a ten-story building. Where the glacier meets the shore, most of the ice is below the waterline, and newly calved icebergs can shoot up quite dramatically, so that ships must keep their distance from it as they ply their way up and down the coast. (Information above was taken from Wikipedia).

This glacier is a favorite to see while on an Alaska Cruise as it is the largest and longest (and probably one of the most dramatic) of the accessible glaciers in Alaska! Why not go check it out for yourself? (This photo was taken by Dave Getz while on his Alaska cruise a few years ago. For more on Dave, visit http://a-zphoto.com/. Thanks Dave for the use of your amazing photo!)

Portage Glacier -- outside Girdwood, Alaska

 
It's just about cruise season in Alaska again and many of my clients are getting very excited about their upcoming fishing excursions, cruise or cruise tour, and/or private excursion into Denali Park.

Visitors see blue ice by land, sea and air. Three kinds of glacier viewing are possible on an Alaska vacation.

Glaciers by land

A number of glaciers are within viewing distance of Alaska's highways, and you can even walk up to (and on) some of them.

Want a souvenir? Pick up a piece of ice that washes downstream from the glacier's snout -- but don't get close enough that ice can fall on you.

Glaciers by sea

Cruise liners pull close to the "rivers of ice" in Glacier Bay National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Prince William Sound.

In addition, smaller boats carry sightseers on day trips to the blue ice of Prince William Sound and Kenai Fjords National Park. These trips are readily available in Valdez, Whittier and Seward.

Cruises and day trips are the way to go if you want to hear the legendary thunder of calving glaciers and see huge faces of blue ice.

Glaciers by air

Sightseeing trips aboard small planes and helicopters provide both an overreaching view and sometimes a glacier landing.

Flight seeing companies that land on the ice provide cold-weather gear and guide you on a safe area of the glacier.

For more details visit www.Alaska.com on the above information.

Additionally, please don’t miss out on the last minute pricing and what is available cabin wise if you were considering an Alaska cruise for this summer. Call today for pricing and details. Call Susan at 480-831-9076 or email me at Susan@CriticsChoiceVacations.com before it's too late.

 

 

Girdwood, Alaska

 

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center ---Girdwood, Alaska

Not far from Anchorage (about 2.5 hours) is the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. Read a bit about it's purpose below:

At the 140-acre Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, jaws drop in awe-even those of longtime , Alaskans who've studied grizzlies and other animals up close. AWCC's mission is to provide refuge for orphaned, injured, and ill animals-those that can't survive in the wild. The center, which opened to the public in 1993, also educates visitors about Alaska's wildlife. On your visit, you might see a Siberian boar snoozing, moose foraging, baby moose napping, plus caribou, elk, bison, baby Sitka black-tailed deer, eagles, and other animals. The musk oxen are worth the visit all by themselves.

The Center's Setting

Set on the shores of Turnagain Arm, surrounded by mountains and hanging glaciers, the center is the perfect setting to learn about Alaskan wildlife. The animals are located in different areas grouped around several road loops. Perhaps the best way to view the facility is to first drive around to get your bearings, then park by the gift shop and walk. Each habitat area has a sign explaining the history and habits of the particular animals.

See this link: http://alaska.org/girdwood/alaska-wildlife-conservation-center.jsp for more details and for a map of the exact location.

This is a great place to visit to see some animals up close and personal and to enjoy a very beautiful and natural setting against the Turnagain Arm.

Take advantage of the special pricing on many summer 2009 Alaskan cruise opportunities! Prices  have not  been this low in a long, long time! Call or email today for some special options! Susan@CriticsChoiceVacations.com or Call 480-831-9076! Space is running out!

Alaska

 

Alaska ....

How about this photo for "perspective?" Cruise season for Alaska runs from about mid-May - until early September.  The best months for Alaska cruising are June and July as they are the warmest months (and even that is cold for an Arizona gal) and you are bound to see the most wildlife during these months.  A few great reasons to consider Alaska cruising:

1. Wonderful scenery on the ship and excellent shore excursions and/or cruise tours to see more of the beauty of Alaska allowing you to get "in closer" to nature in spots where the larger ships are unable to travel. 

2. Excellent food and fantastic amenities on the ships.

3. Once you unpack you stay unpacked until you depart the ship. No need to pack/unpack and haul your luggage around each day.

4. Excellent staff on board the ships to help meet your every wish, desire and need. You will truly feel spoiled, pampered and relaxed.

5. Comparing a land only vacation (food/hotel/transportation) versus a cruise vacation (accommodations/food/transport) where everything is included can be a savings of between 25-35% depending on cruise/time of year/dates of travel. 

Now is the time to be booking Alaska. The cruise season is short for Alaska (May-early September) and many specials are being offered right now! Call or email to get the best deal. Susan@CriticsChoiceVacations.com or call 480-831-9076.

Thanks to D. Getz for the use of his photo from his cruise 3 years ago.

Girdwood, Alaska

Today's post is for all those Eco-tourists and sports enthusiasts out there who long for the freshest of air, a silent journey, a view unlike any other and the chance to explore, learn and refresh one's soul! This is certainly one place on the planet that will meet all of those needs! You might have thought is was the Swiss Alps or perhaps the Colorado rockies - but wrong again. This shot was taken very near the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska. It is located about 2-2.5 hours outside of Anchorage! If the weather is right (that would mean clear) you can see for miles and take in the freshest air possible!

I leave you with one of my most favorite quotes on travel, "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." Quote by St. Augustine.

One more note, in case you were wondering if that was me ---nope I was on the other end of the camera!! But one day............

Portage Glacier, Alaska

Portage Glacier is a glacier on the Kenai Peninsula of the U.S. state of Alaska] and is included within the Chugach National Forest. It is located south of Portage Lake and 6 km (4 mi) west of Whittier.

Portage Glacier was a local name first recorded in 1898 by Thomas Corwin Mendenhall of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, so called because it is on a portage route between Prince William Sound and Turnagain Arm. Visit  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portage_Glacier for more details.

The first stop at Portage Glacier should be the Begich-Boggs Visitor Center, which contains a number of exhibits as well as a highly recommended film about glaciers: "Voices From the Ice."

If you stroll along the shore of the lake you can see see icebergs up close and may even be able to touch some of them. To get the best view of the glacier though, you should drive further along the lake to a sightseeing boat dock and buy a ticket for a cruise through the lake that takes visitors close to the glacier face. A parking lot about halfway between the Visitors Center and the boat dock is at the head of a trail leading to another glacier, Byron Glacier. A healthy hike takes visitors to a glacier they can climb on.

This is an incredibly  beautiful part of Alaska and it is easy to access by car/bus/RV/motorbike. You can get up close to these glaciers and see many icebergs floating in the water.

This photo was taken shortly after a brief rain shower in July of 2007.

Now is the time to begin your plans for summer 2009 in Alaska. Call or email now!

Whittier, Alaska

Whittier was once a military port during World War II. Today Whitier is mainly a shipping port for tourism and fishing. It is located on the western edge of Prince William Sound in south central Alaska and has about 400 residents. Recently, a number of cruise lines have begun to use Whittier as a departure port for their Gulf of Alaska Cruises. Whittier is 62 miles southeast of Anchorage. Whittier is unique in that it is separated from Alaska’s main road system by a 2.5 mile long tunnel that is shared by alternating one-way auto and railroad traffic. If you want to go through the tunnel by car/bus or other personal means of transportation you have to make sure to check the schedule to get through the tunnel which runs on alternating 1/2 hour and 1 hour schedules. The town is quaint, quiet and very small but gives an interesting perspective to some of the smaller fishing villages in Alaska and the people who live there. It can be an interesting stop for lunch while on your journey to/from Portage Glacier back into Anchorage.

Anchorage, Alaska

During the summer months in Anchorage, the days are endless (it is daylight from about 4am -midnight) and the streets are filled with parades, festivals, live music and perfect refreshing weather. Flowers adorn homes and store fronts in the summer and spectacular wilderness is just steps away from any accommodation. Anchorage is surrounded by six mountain ranges and warmed by a maritime climate. Anchorage has been recognized as a four-time All-American City.  During winter Anchorage is truly a wonderland. Thousands of lights decorate downtown Anchorage and their is an excitement throughout the entire city. Anchorage is generally a port stop on most cruises and can be easily enjoyed on/off peak season. Call or email today for some special ideas on how to see the city this coming summer or winter!

Mt. McKinley, Alaska

Often referred to as Mount Denali, it's mass rises 20,320 feet above sea level. Denali (Mount McKinley) is the highest mountain in North America. The Indian name "Denali" means the "high one". It has been said that (on a clear day) Mt. McKinley can be seen as far as 250 miles away - beating even Mt. Everest whose elevation is 29,035 feet. Many adventurous travelers attempt to climb Mt. McKinley each year but few make it to the top due to very dramatic temperatures (can reach -70F in some places), freezing 100 mile per hour winds, little to no sun-light in some places, sheer elevation and rugged terrain. The northern peak was conquered in 1910. The higher south peak was scaled in 1913 by Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens. The coldest weather on Denali is found from November through April. There are also guided tours (up to a point) and flights over Mt. McKinley for those who are not quite as adventurous as those seeking to climb the mountain. (Thanks Drew for the use of your photo!)