When we arrived in Ketchikan, we had a little time before heading off to the Rainforest Sanctuary, so we wandered around the town and visited the famous Creek Street.
Salmon Ladder
We watched some salmon head up the ladder, which was pretty neat. Then we headed back to meet up with our group to go on the Rainforest Sanctuary walk to search for bears!
The Rainforest Sanctuary has a series of elevated platforms and bridges to walk across the forest floor and hopefully see some bears. The area isn’t fenced in so you never know whether or not you’ll see any bears. Luckily for us, we saw a mother bear and cub in the river catching salmon!
We also saw tons of eagles here near the river, probably looking for salmon too!
The Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary also has some birds that are being rehabilitated so you can see them up close. I love owls!
*All photos are the property of Charlotte Moore, unless stated otherwise, and may not be used without written consent.
We arrived in Skagway early, to a bit of a gloomy day. I was worried that my helicopter tour wouldn’t go, but lucky me, it did!
I headed off the ship right away to join the helicopter tour. The helicopter company, Temsco, was great and super organized getting our group geared up for the trip. We were given a safety vest to wear, as well as glacier boots to put on over our shoes. I was lucky that I ended up with a family of 4, including 2 small children, so the helicopter wasn’t cramped at all, plus I ended up with a window seat. The flight was about 20 mins before we arrived at the glacier.
Arriving at the glacier
Once we were on the glacier, we were given poles to assist with walking around and we explored the area.
Glacier boots!
Leaving in convoy!
View on the way back to SkagwayView of the NCL Pearl as we’re about to land
The helicopter tour was spectacular – certainly not something to miss out on in Alaska!
While I was off on my tour, Jennifer went on the Klondike rock climbing tour. She thoroughly enjoyed herself. Here are some photos from her trip.
We met back at the boat for lunch, and then headed off on our walking tour of the historic town of Dyea. We were the only two that booked this trip, so we had a private tour, which included a picnic lunch by the river (wish we knew about that so we didn’t eat before!).
Remnants of a boatLast surviving piece of Dyea that is still standing.Slide CemeteryPIcnic lunch by the riverLocal brew by the riverSkagway Overlook
Finally, we walked back through downtown Skagway for a little shopping.
White Pass Railway
Next post will be about Glacier Bay National Park!
*All photos are the property of Charlotte Moore, unless stated otherwise, and may not be used without written consent.
After a wonderful cruise on the Norwegian Pearl to Alaska, Jennifer and I are back and excited to tell you about our trip. We’ll start off with port reviews and then an overall cruise review, including some tips and tricks. First up, a port review on Juneau!
We left from Seattle on a Sunday afternoon, around 4pm and cruised through the night and all of Monday to get up to Juneau. We saw lots of whales on the way, and even a pod of dolphins! We arrived in Juneau on Tuesday, a little early, around 1pm. The NCL Jewel was still docked, so we floated in the harbour until they left and we could scoot over into the AJ dock. Here’s a couple photos of our arrival:
Once we docked, we headed off right away to get off the ship. We met our tour (Sled Dog Discovery and Musher’s Camp) on the pier and got on the bus to head over to the summer dog camp. We picked the first tour time of the day; which worked out great once we made it to the camp. The camp is on Douglas Island, so about a 20-25 minute drive from the dock. As soon as we arrived, we went straight to the sled for a ride through the forest. We had 16 dogs pulling us and they were so excited to be running! Our musher told us about life with the dogs and what a typical year is like for him. He owns a total of 42 dogs. In the summer, they train in Juneau and in the winter, he heads back up to Fairbanks.
Getting ready to go.And we’re off…!
After our sled ride, we were able to visit with the dogs and then were given a little presentation on the races. Jennifer tried on the giant parka that they have to wear for the Iditarod.
Finally, we got plenty of time to play with the puppies! There were 3 litters of various ages and we were able to visit with them all.
This was a really lovely excursion. Great people and happy dogs!
After the tour, we asked to be dropped off in the town of Juneau. We wandered around, stopping for some icecream, and then decided to go up the Mount Roberts Tramway. You can purchase tickets for the tram on the cruise ship, but as there is no set time to go up, it’s easier and slightly cheaper to buy the tickets when you arrive. The tramway only takes about 5 minutes to reach the top. Once there, you have the choice of many hiking trails. There is also a theatre, visitor centre, gift shop and raptor viewing. We walked the loop trail at the top.
Downtown JuneauMount Roberts TramwayView of the NCL Pearl from Mt RobertsView from the trail at the top of Mt. RobertsEntering Bear Country…
Next port review will be Skagway!
*All photos are the property of Charlotte Moore, unless stated otherwise, and may not be used without written consent.
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