The past couple of weeks have been beyond outstanding! In the last post I was at the Mckinley Princess Wilderness lodge and since then I have gone quite a ways! We left early morning on Tuesday the 24th and headed to our second lodge on tour in Denali National Park!
Debbie and I on the way to Denali Princess Lodge
From the deck at DPL
What a beautiful place it was! The rooms were fantastic and the amenities were to die for.
That evening, Debbie and I sat down at the King Salmon Restaurant and indulged in a beautiful meal of 18inch King Crab Legs and 16oz Prime Rib...all on Princess's dime mind you! The food was four star and the view from my seat was expansive!
The next morning, I headed out with our group of 46 for the Tundra Wilderness Tour in the heart of Denali National Park. What a tour it proved to be! We saw six, I repeat, six Grizzly Bears, dozens of doll sheep and caribou, moose and eagles galore! Lunch was a reindeer sausage sandwich with some home made Alaskan potato chips and an ice-cold bottle of water. The tour took us nearly 50 miles into the park where we climbed by bus thousands of feet and saw dozens of animals. It was 7 hours...but a worth wild 7 hours!
I think there is an animal in there somewhere!
I spy a bear!
I spy another bear!
The Alaska Range
Much heavier than you would think!
Moose alert with the Alaska Range in the background!
That night the group and I headed to the Music of Denali dinner show, a rowdy, knee slapping good time! I hit the sac shortly after and then woke up with the group and hopped on our coach to head to Copper River. The drive is absolutely beautiful and the first one hundred miles is done on an unpaved, truly Alaskan road, the Denali Highway! There were stunning views of several ranges, glaciers and even more Moose, Caribou and porcupines! We ate at a very small town called McClaren where we dined in what looked like someone’s home! The people were great and the food was even better!
The Alaska Range...and me :-)
Views for miles...
When we arrived to Copper River Wilderness Lodge we were greeted by every member on staff with roaring applause as we were the first group to arrive at the resort for the season! What a wonderful welcome reception and fantastic lodge! Two nights here and the hopes of a twelve-hour tour tomorrow to see glaciers crack, whales roam and animals prowl! I cannot wait!
View of the volcanoes from the Great Room of Copper River Lodge
The weather has been to die for!
I woke up bright and early and received confirmation that Debbie and I were indeed booked on the 12 hour Prince William Sound Excursion! I was excited and ready to see some wild life! We boarded the bus and took a beautiful drive down to Valdez seeing dozens of waterfalls along the way! Debbie and I grabbed our boarding passes and hopped on to our beautiful catamaran for the day. The ship was practically to ourselves considering it held over 200, and only 35 were there!
Waterfalls on the way to Valdez
Crazy Sea Lions!
Porpoise Running along the Bow!
Glacier Ice
The Mountains of Prince William Sound
A chunk of glacier ice...wow, heavy
This whale slapped the water 26 times!
The Port of Valdez
More waterfalls...
The day completely exhausted me so I hit the sac early for our long ride down to the port the next day! Our group of 46 hopped on the coach and headed west and south down to the port of Whittier. The drive was beautiful yet again, with bald eagles and beautiful vistas along the way! We stopped in Anchorage for a quick bite to eat and then went through the longest multi-use tunnel in the world! It's a one way tunnel that both motor-vehicles and the Alaskan railroad use...very neat! It must be time slotted to allow for East bound one half hour, and West bound the other half hour of each hour.
About to board the Coral Princess
My first group of the season...I already miss them!
All in all my first training tour went unbelievably well and I'm actually on my very own tour as we speak and so far, so good! The people are fantastic, and every aspect of the trip has been smooth sailing! Hoping for a safe and flawless transfer down to the Island Princess in the morning!
Next update very soon...
Great post buddy!! Loved that you put videos and held the big block of ice! Looks fun!
ReplyDeleteahh! i can't believe that this is real life! i'm glad you're enjoying it! we're definitely going to have to have a glass of wine (or more!) when we're back in florida. i can't wait to hear all about this!
ReplyDeleteSo jealous of the REAL crab legs!!! I'm salivating as I type!
ReplyDeleteAnd what GREAT pics! Keep it up!
Talk about livin' the life! :)