5/22-6/1 Alaska Cruise (Radiance) & Land Tour, LOTS of Photos (L.J. & Bev Part II/I)

[luv2sail7]

Wishing you positive thoughts for your surgery and a quick recovery.

Feel better soon.

[wnycruisefam66]

Good luck with your surgery! I do want to say that your other Alaska trip report is what inspired me to book an Alaskan cruise. My DH & DS have always wanted to go, but I haven't. I've put off even thinking about it, I live in Buffalo, NY & since most of my trip planning takes place during the long cold winter months, the last place I want to think about is Alaska! But last year after reading your report & seeing those great pictures, you sure changed my mind! I kept calling my DH in to see the photos, saying "we can see/do this & this & this!" So as soon as the schedule was out this year, I booked us on a southbound cruise for next July (we'll be heading to Europe this year). Can't convince our DD to come with us though - she says she will only go somewhere warm. Her loss - she's in college, so can stay home by herself & now I won't have to pay for a cat sitter! Thanks & hope you have a quick recovery!

[GeorgiaPeach]

L.J., Hope the surgery was successful and your recovery will be as quick and easy as possible! I've been reading your two Alaska trip reports recently while planning a SB Radiance cruise this May. I just want to be another grateful traveler that appreciates all the time and effort you have put into your reports! Thanks for your extraordinary photos, commentary, advice, wit and wisdom that has me even more excited about my first Alaska visit.

 

All the best to you and Bev and can't wait for the next installment when you're ready!

[disneyfaninaz]

L.J. I hope your surgery was successful and you are recuperating nicely.

 

I've been following along with your trip report as we will be in Alaska this May. I am loving the details and the photos.

 

I'm wondering if you could tell me what settings you used on your camera for the whale photos. They are stunning. I will be using a 300 zoom lens. I was just wondering if you shoot manual, shutter speed or aperture priority.

 

Thanks!

[WalleyeLJ]

Well, I am back in the saddle again (so to speak since I’m in the middle of our horseback riding adventure)! Thank you to all the well wishes – they paid off! The shoulder if 95% healed (just don’t quite have full range of motion behind my back, but a little more every day) – even better than the knee, which I’ve got to get 100% up to speed for our next adventure bear watching at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge in Alaska next summer! So, in the meantime…back to our Yukon adventure!

 

The waterfall was really more of a series of tumbling rapids making a left turn down through the valley floor, but it was a pretty location nonetheless. Not having ridden a horse but one other time in my life, and with a still cranky lower back (if you follow my posts you’ll see my joints do not seem to like me), it was good to get down and stretch our legs a bit. Even with our ever vigilant bear dogs around it was still a bit of an adrenaline rush to be walking around thinking of possibly coming upon a grizzly. That didn’t happen though, and we were able to soak in the now hot sunshine. While it freezing atop the White Pass getting here, it was now easily up into the 60s or even 70s. Joni said it was not uncommon to get summer temps up into the upper 90s. While Joni waited with the horses and watched over the surroundings from high ground, Bev & I headed down to the river to check it out. Joni also offered to take our picture while we were down there. Yes, I know I look goofy in my rain hat, but I needed something to keep the sun off my head!

 

 

Down by the river…

 

 

 

 

 

A look back up the rapids to where we had our photo taken

 

 

 

 

 

After about 10 or 15 minutes checking things out, we readied ourselves for the ride back to the ranch. Before we got back on our trusty steeds, Bev & I grabbed a couple shots with our travel companions for the day…

 

 

 

Bev with sweet Rosie

 

 

 

 

 

My willing and more importantly able pal Carolina

 

 

 

 

We’d had such a nice ride out that time had slipped away a bit, so our return ride with Joni was a bit more brisk than the ride out…and by a bit more, I mean we didn’t just cantor back to the Ranch – we had a couple of times when we full on galloped. One of those was shortly after we headed back, working our way uphill. As I mentioned while I’ve enjoyed our couple of horseback riding outings, I am by no means a “rider”. When Joni headed up and her horse took off, Carolina took the hint and followed suit – whether I was ready or not! Up the hill we charged for probably 60 seconds or so! I was ok the first 20 seconds, and then I totally lost the rhythm of things, and I started to pitch back and forth in the saddle – boom, bang, whip, crash, smack! I felt like James Bond martini when it was all over – and my otherwise reasonable good back did NOT like the adventure of it all. But…I didn’t fall off (had to hold onto the saddle pommel at one point to do it!), and it was AWESOME to ride full out like that. Most places you get the old nose to tail saunter out and back, and as ugly as it was a couple times, we RODE our horses – we didn’t just sit atop them. We did it a couple more times on the way back, which was much easier as we were up on top of the ranch property then, so while it was in the woods, it was pretty flat..

 

 

 

A shot from on top of Carolina just a bit before the uphill gallop adventure

 

 

 

 

 

Before we knew it, our adventure was over and we were back at Emerald Lake Ranch. The next group to go out was already there, so Joni had us drink our horses while she got the next group checked in and ready. Here we are at the water trough…

 

 

 

A well-earned drink for our horses (no bear like Willie & Toby’s horses)…

 

 

 

 

 

We got off our horses, let them start to feed on some hay Joni had out for them, and headed to her home/office to use the restroom. While were there she gave us some lemon poppy seed cake, which was terrific. Bev just couldn’t stop smiling from ear to ear – one of our coolest adventures to date! As we finished up and got ready to make our way back to the car, Joni surprised us with an unexpected offer. She said she knew I like taking photos and that if we would like, we could use her 4 quad ATV and follow behind the next group she was taking out (at a distance some as not to disturb them), and could stop and take as many photos along the trail and at the lake as we wanted. We offered to pay her something but she would have none it, so we made out wave the quad for some instructions and then after the next group headed down the trail, we followed along a few minutes later!

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Good luck with your surgery! I do want to say that your other Alaska trip report is what inspired me to book an Alaskan cruise. My DH & DS have always wanted to go, but I haven't. I've put off even thinking about it, I live in Buffalo, NY & since most of my trip planning takes place during the long cold winter months, the last place I want to think about is Alaska! But last year after reading your report & seeing those great pictures, you sure changed my mind! I kept calling my DH in to see the photos, saying "we can see/do this & this & this!" So as soon as the schedule was out this year, I booked us on a southbound cruise for next July (we'll be heading to Europe this year). Can't convince our DD to come with us though - she says she will only go somewhere warm. Her loss - she's in college, so can stay home by herself & now I won't have to pay for a cat sitter! Thanks & hope you have a quick recovery!

 

wnycruisefam66,

 

That's terrific- you'll have a wonderful time! It's a shame for your daughter - all our weather has been between the 40s and the upper 70s on our trips. She'll miss a grand adventure. We can related to the cat sitting. We've got a pair - brother and sister - that I got in college and are now 15 years old. The girl developed diabetes a couple of years ago and so now she needs insulin shots twice a day. It makes boarding extra expensive, but we've since found a couple of folks, one in our neighborhood, that allows us to keep them at home for a lot less cost to us and stress to them. Have a great trip and post a review for us when you get back!

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

L.J. I hope your surgery was successful and you are recuperating nicely.

 

I've been following along with your trip report as we will be in Alaska this May. I am loving the details and the photos.

 

I'm wondering if you could tell me what settings you used on your camera for the whale photos. They are stunning. I will be using a 300 zoom lens. I was just wondering if you shoot manual, shutter speed or aperture priority.

 

Thanks!

 

disneyfaninaz,

 

Thanks for the well wishes and the nice comments on the photos. YOu all see the best of the best - you don't see the couple thousand not so good shots! :D

 

Believe it or not, I often shoot in Program mode and find it to work great much of the time, and just tweek the shutter or aperture settings as I need to. With the whales, however, it was a different story. I shot with shutter priority when the light was softer, and then moved more to aperture priority in the f/9-f/11 range when the sun came out to control depth of field better. Even then, my shutter speeds all fell into the range of 1/500th to 1/1000th, with the whale tail and eagle shots running 1/640th. I hope that helps, and sorry for the delay responding. Have a fantastic time on your trip!

 

L.J.

[disneyfaninaz]

disneyfaninaz,

 

Thanks for the well wishes and the nice comments on the photos. YOu all see the best of the best - you don't see the couple thousand not so good shots! :D

 

Believe it or not, I often shoot in Program mode and find it to work great much of the time, and just tweek the shutter or aperture settings as I need to. With the whales, however, it was a different story. I shot with shutter priority when the light was softer, and then moved more to aperture priority in the f/9-f/11 range when the sun came out to control depth of field better. Even then, my shutter speeds all fell into the range of 1/500th to 1/1000th, with the whale tail and eagle shots running 1/640th. I hope that helps, and sorry for the delay responding. Have a fantastic time on your trip!

 

L.J.

 

Welcome back! Thanks for the info, every little bit is appreciated to get those great shots! I will try to share them when I get back. :)

[mollanjake]

Glad your surgery went well.

 

 

Laura

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ilsteelergrl]

I have dreamed of an Alaskan Cruise for years, thank you so much for the adventure and beautiful pictures. Can't wait for the rest of the story:)

[tlcoke]

Welcome back L.J. Glad to hear your surgery went well and you are close to being back to 100%.

[SoonerFan75]

Glad your surgery went well - just wanted to say thank you for all the time you've invested in your trip reports! The information is so helpful in planning and the pictures are awesome.....we leave on June 1st for our first visit to Alaska and after spending hours reading and looking and your pictures I don't know if i'll make it 32 more days! :D Thanks again!

[sprint180]

great review and great pictures

[WalleyeLJ]

It was interesting riding on the quad as it was my first time on an ATV, we had no helmets (so I drove slow – very slow – but it was still fun!), but since we were away from the rest of the group to not ruin the ride for the other folks, we didn’t have the two bear dogs for an early warning system/protection. So I told Bev to hold on tight just in case we ran into one of the elusive bruins on the trail. You can’t outrun a Brown bear on your own two feet, but I figured a quad could! We followed the trail up to the overlook and got a few minutes to just enjoy the views, check out the area a little better, and then we made our way back to the Ranch to drop off the ATV and start making our way back to Skagway. We had a few other stops planned for the return trip since we drove straight out, and as long as the port call was, we were slowly eating away at the day. There was still so much more to see and do!

 

 

Bev & I overlooking Emerald Lake (before vacation selfies – taken with a camera! – were "selfies"…and were just called "photos"...:D)

 

 

 

 

 

Bev grabbed a shot of me on my first ATV. You can see that I was really warm at that point – shirt sleeves. If I’d had shorts I would have worn them!

 

 

 

 

 

One of the tiny little wildflowers up on the overlook

 

 

 

 

 

On our way back to the car, we passed a beautiful horse with the most amazing eyes. Call me crazy, but I had never seen (and haven’t seen since), a horse with powder blue eyes. They were awesome!!! So here are a couple of shots of the pretty mare and her ice blue eyes.

 

 

 

Portrait Time

 

 

 

 

Time for You Close Up Miss Mare!

 

 

 

 

Our time at the Emerald Lake Ranch complete (and Bev walking on cloud nine), we piled back into the car and started our return trip. I couldn’t wait to get some Cinnamon Buns at the famous Cinnamon Cache!

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

I have dreamed of an Alaskan Cruise for years, thank you so much for the adventure and beautiful pictures. Can't wait for the rest of the story:)

 

ilsteelergrl,

 

So are you going to go on an Alaskan cruise?!?! If it's your dream - go! It's awesome - our favorite place to visit. If we could move to Alaska we would:D.

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Welcome back L.J. Glad to hear your surgery went well and you are close to being back to 100%.

 

Thanks Tracey! I had PT this afternoon, and I received 5 out of 5 on all my strength tests - functionally healed, although I still have some movements that hurt a little and I still have a bit more range of motion to get back - but I'm almost there:).

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Glad your surgery went well - just wanted to say thank you for all the time you've invested in your trip reports! The information is so helpful in planning and the pictures are awesome.....we leave on June 1st for our first visit to Alaska and after spending hours reading and looking and your pictures I don't know if i'll make it 32 more days! :D Thanks again!

 

Glad your surgery went well.

 

 

Laura

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Thanks Laura!

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Glad your surgery went well - just wanted to say thank you for all the time you've invested in your trip reports! The information is so helpful in planning and the pictures are awesome.....we leave on June 1st for our first visit to Alaska and after spending hours reading and looking and your pictures I don't know if i'll make it 32 more days! :D Thanks again!

 

That is FANTASATIC! I hope you have a wonderful trip. Where are you going/what are you doing for your first Alaska adventure? I'm just sorry I get a good run of posts going and then get sidetracked for extended periods of time. I will keep forging ahead - and I'll get as much in as I can before June;)!

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

great review and great pictures

 

Thanks!

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

So, while we were getting hungry for those Cinnamon buns, right after we left the ranch we pulled off at the main overlook for Emerald Lake. The sun was behind the clouds for our short stop, so the water was a darker blue than the Caribbean look it has when the sun is shining on it. The tropical look of the lake is caused by a chemical reaction between carbonate from the surrounding limestone rock layers and calcium in the lake water, creating a layer of what is called “marl” on the bottom of the lake. Marl is a collection of hard white shells from algae called diatoms. This causes the sunlight entering the water to be reflected back up.

 

For the record, while I did fine in Chemistry in high school, I bombed it in college. So, where did I find the info from the preceding paragraph? Interpretive signs placed at the roadside pull off explain how the lake gets its color, plus info on local wildlife and the effects of recent climate changes on the surrounding area. Check’em out!

 

 

 

Lake Info

 

 

 

 

 

Climate Info

 

 

 

 

 

Wildlife Info

 

 

 

 

 

Our lesson for the day complete, we rolled a few more minutes down the road and pulled into the Cinnamon Cache. I’d read about it here on CC, and the food was a good as advertised. We had some ham & cheese sandwiches, and sodas, and some giant, tasty Cinnamon buns. The property was actually listed for sale when we were there, and it has sadly closed since our visit. Our bellies full, we headed south towards Carcross, to stop again just couple minutes later to check out the Carcross Desert, known locally as “The smallest desert in the World”. It was a pretty cool and random thing to see in the midst of the snow-capped mountains that surrounded us. A few folks were tearing though on ATVs (not pictured), but we just checked out the sign (see below) and the views and headed down into Carcross proper.

 

 

 

“Get Your Buns In Here”

 

 

 

 

 

The Cinnamon Cache

 

 

 

 

 

A day at the beach (sort of) – Canadian style!

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Carcross was a neat little town. It was all out in the open along the banks of both Bennett Lake and Nares Lake. The population is a little less than 300, but there are some neat things to see in town. It’s one of the stops on the White Pass rail tour. There had been an avalanche a few weeks before that had caused some damage and interrupted service. There was a team working on getting some rail cars back onto the tracks that they had trucked in with semis pulling flatbed trailers. It was obvious they had done this before, but it was pretty cool to watch.

 

 

 

“The train on the truck goes up, up, up…”

 

 

 

 

 

We checked out the middle of town, watching groups of tourists check out the sights. They had a pretty big visitor’s center, but since we were getting pressed for time, we into what seemed like the main attraction – the Matthew Watson General Store. It was chock full of all sorts of things – arts & crafts, fun trinkets, gold pans, collectible dolls, post cards jewelry, clothing, TONS of magnets (we like to collect those!), and, most importantly…

 

ICE CREAM!

 

The snack shop was full, with ice cream the most popular item to order. Two scopes and a can of soda later, we made our way back to the car to make the run back to Skagway…

 

 

 

Welcome to Carcross!

 

 

 

 

 

The front of the Visitor’s Center

 

 

 

 

 

Folks on their way into the Matthew Watson General Store

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of stuff to check out in the General Store!

 

 

 

 

 

 

One last look back across the lake at Carcross…

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[deddans]

I have just finished reading both trip reports - wow. We are going to Alaska for the first time and our first cruise in 2015. You have inspired me to take a photography course and update our DSLR so that I can take full advantage of the scenery. We are also looking at spending a night at Silver Salmon Creek so please let us all know how that goes. In fact let us know about all your travels - the photos plus commentary strike the perfect mix.

 

I'll second the recommendation about Tasmania - definitely on my wish list but then so is a lot of Australia - and I live here :)

[WalleyeLJ]

So, as we headed south down the Klondike Highway back to Skagway, we left the warm and mostly sunny Yukon and made our way into the cool gray, rainy weather near the coast. There were several pretty valleys and lakes that I wished we’d had time for me to shoot on the way out when it was sunny – but you can’t do it all. That’s why you have to make another trip! We did make a few scenic pit stops (Bev drove so I could jump in and out to take photos) along the way, and our first one, before we got back into the rain, was to check out the Mountain goats way up on the mountainside – our first ones on the trip! Looking high up on the slope, we scanned the scree slope for the goats that a couple other cars were watching or looking for. It took a few seconds to see the little white spots high above us, and then it took looking at them through my camera at 400mm to confirm that they were indeed goats and not little residual piles of snow. The shots would likely have looked a better if I was shooting off a tripod, but at least you get an idea of what they looked like. Remember that this as after zooming in all the way to try and make them out. To the naked eye, they were just little white dots - but a blast to see them nonetheless!

 

 

 

Goats on the Mountain (naked eye view)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goats at maximum zoom (still a long way to go…)

 

 

 

 

 

We continued back down the road for a while until we got to Shallow Lake (on our left headed back to Skagway). It was down in the 30s again as we had climbed up a ways towards the White Pass Summit. Since it was late May, the high alpine lake was starting to ice out. The combination of the little island in the middle, with the open water, snow, ice and misty fog made for a wonderful view. It was dead quiet – like we were alone on the planet (or at least this part of it). The precipitation had started up by now was a mix of light rain and wet snow flakes, making photography a bit of a hasty pursuit. I’ve since got rain gear for my camera for such occasions, but today I was winging it. This shot below was my favorite shot, the one that best captured the mood…

 

 

 

Late spring at Shallow Lake, British Columbia, Yukon Highway

 

 

 

 

 

A friendly roadside reminder to adjust your watch between time zones…

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately, despite the cold, the roads stay wet and clear, so the drive back wasn’t a problem. If it had been, we might still be there! AS we made our way to the highest elevations, the snow that had been mostly up on the hillsides above us made its way all the way down to the roadway – and there was a ton of it! It was the most snow we’d ever seen – and it was almost June!!! I can’t imagine what it would like in the middle of winter. I went over and stood next to the snow pack and Bev took a shot of me to give a good sense of scale. My reach in the photo is just a little under 7.5 feet (2.286m).

 

 

 

Rolling down the Klondike Highway in a winter wonderland…

 

 

 

 

 

Almost 8 feet of snow – the last week of May!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Next up – we return to Alaska!

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

I have just finished reading both trip reports - wow. We are going to Alaska for the first time and our first cruise in 2015. You have inspired me to take a photography course and update our DSLR so that I can take full advantage of the scenery. We are also looking at spending a night at Silver Salmon Creek so please let us all know how that goes. In fact let us know about all your travels - the photos plus commentary strike the perfect mix.

 

I'll second the recommendation about Tasmania - definitely on my wish list but then so is a lot of Australia - and I live here :)

 

deddans,

 

Thanks for checking out our stories - I'm glad you've enjoyed them! Bev keeps up a travel blog on TravelPod (ljandbev is our username) when we're actually traveling, and then I slowly :) work on the detailed posts here on CC. We've been very fortunate to have to wonderful experiences in Alaska. Understanding Exposure and Understanding Shutter Speed, both by Bryan Petersen, are two great books you could check out for some photography self learning.

 

As for our trip to Silver Salmon Creek, we're going there August 16th-19th 2015, so you may very well get there before us - but I am so looking forward to it. If your trip is before that, we'd love to hear about your experience there - and all your other adventures!

 

As for Tasmania...it's on the to do list - along with Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Bora Bora, Africa (photo safari), Venice, Tuscany, Rome, the Amalfi Coast... (I'm going to have to live a long life to check all these off...:D)

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Right after the 8 foot snow pack shot, we crossed back into Alaska. As we descended back down the pass into Skagway, the intermittent snow changed back to just rain, but it was still only in the mid to upper 30s. We were still ok on time, so I took the opportunity to snap a few more shots, some from inside the car to keep the camera gear safe. There were a number of waterfalls along the way, some near and some far, and the actual border crossing back into the U.S. was a bit after we passed the “Welcome to Alaska” sign. Perhaps one of my favorite sights from the day was making our way down from the border to the border crossing, dropping sharply towards the coast and Skagway, and seeing the red and white markers high above the roadway. These funny looking, 90 degree candy canes, which bent over the roadway itself, are placed there because the snow gets SO high during the winter, that they use those markers to be able to stay on the roadway when plowing snow from the road. Absolutely fascinating!!!

 

 

 

“Welcome (back) to Alaska!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roadside snowmelt waterfall in the misty rain (on the right side of the road heading back to Skagway)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading down the Candy Cane Highway…:D

 

 

 

 

 

More waterfalls across the valley to our left (if you look in the upper right quadrant you’ll see one of the bridges that the White Pass train takes on its climb up to the summit and into Canada)

 

 

 

 

 

The border crossing – luckily there really isn’t a lot of traffic on the road. Reminded me of crossing back from Quebec into northern Maine…

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.