Alaska Cruise Tour: Land Tour days 8-12

This is the third post of our Awesome Alaska Vacation. Make sure you check out 7 day cruise posts: Days 1-3, and Days 4-7.

After our Cruise ship docked in Whittier we boarded our tour bus and headed for downtown Anchorage. The trip from Whittier to Anchorage is a beautiful hour and a half drive surrounded by mountains, lakes and glaciers. The start of the journey begins by traveling through the Whittier tunnel, this tunnel is the only way in and out-of-town. The tunnel is fascinating, it’s a two and half mile one lane tunnel (the longest in the US) through a mountain. It is not only for traffic, but also for trains. You are actually driving on top of train tracks. Traffic out-of-town leaves on the top of the hour, and traffic into the town leaves on the half hour. You have to wait in line for your turn to travel the tunnel. The tunnel is not large and has exit doors about every quarter-mile. I’m not claustrophobic or scared of tunnels but this tunnel, I admit, I was a little stressed going through. Until you see the light at the tunnel end you’re just filled with thoughts of the worst case scenario. You can see the entrance to the tunnel below:

After we made it to Anchorage we were given the afternoon to spend exploring and grabbing lunch. We found a small craft fair going on and browsed the different vendors. At one of the vendors er found a really cute Christmas ornament as a souvenir. When our time was up we met back at the tour bus and set off for out first destination, The Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge. The lodge is located in Copper Center and you make a few stops along the way to take in the sights. One of the stops we made was to view Matanuska Glacier.

Copper River Lodge

Once we arrived at the lodge it was beautifully rustic with wood beam ceilings and huge floor to ceiling windows for you to enjoy the view while relaxing. We didn’t plan any activities at this first stop, we just enjoyed being off the ship and hiking through the huge national park that housed the lodge. We hiked down to a neighboring river and up to the mountain over look. It was nice being back on solid ground and able to explore the nature around us. On the shore of the river there were remnants of a past camp and in the distance of the mountain over look you could see a pipeline which kinda ruins the view. All along the trails were small bird houses and we saw some cute little friends hiding out in some of them.

From Copper River we set off toward Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. The in between of these two lodges were probably the most exciting because as someone who grew up in Florida I had never seen snow. This trip was the first time seeing in person, but up until now it was all in the distance on the tops of mountains. During one of our stops at an over look there was tons of snow on the ground. There wasn’t tons of it but it was luckily still fluffy and white!

We also stopped at a very cute roadside lodge for lunch. The food was great and the deserts they made were even better. Next to the lodge, was a cool house built on top of a large hill. It almost looked like it was floating on top. One cool thing we saw were reindeer running along the side of the road.

Denali National Park

The Denali lodge was at the foot of the Denali National Forest. This forest is 6 million acres! Can you imagine that, it’s huge! The lodge is spread out and had the feel of a quaint little village than a hotel. There were lots of cute shops and restaurants mixed in with the lodge buildings. They are really big on wood working in Alaska and all over the lodge they had these cute little wood bears. I really wanted to take one home but I wouldn’t be able to take it on the plane. I debated shipping it back but the shipping cost was outrageous. Sadly, I left them all behind.

We spent two days at this stop and we choose two excursions to fill our says. The first one was a tour through the Forest where we learned about the ranger houses placed all though out the forest. They are cute little log cabins with just the necessities. We also saw a mother moose and her babies in the distance and lots of goats up on the high peaks of the mountains. The forest is beautiful on its own but all the animals made it even better.

Our second day of adventures was to tour the husky training facility. The dogs were super cute and they demonstrated how they train them for sled pulling even when it’s not snowing. There were even puppies that had just recently been born. It was so interesting.

Alaska Railroad Glass Top Train

In between this stop and our next one we didn’t have to ride the tour bus this time. We actually traveled by the Alaska Rail, a glass top train. The glass top makes it easy to see all the views as we traveled through the beautiful Alaska country side. One thing that I found fascinating was we would pass houses every so often and those people who lived in the houses had now real was to leave their homes except when the train came by. Can you imagine living so far out and without roads? I’m so used to the convenience of city life I don’t think I could do it. The train ride ended in the small town of Talkeetna, which is the town that inspired the show Northern Exposure.

Mt. McKinley Wilderness Lodge

From Talkeetna we made out way to our last lodge the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. This lodge also sits on the edge of Denali State Park and in the perfect place for a complete view of Denali (Mt. McKinley). The problem is because of its height it needs to be a perfectly clear day to see the entire mountain. When the sky is cloudy the top of the mountain is hidden behind the clouds. Unfortunately it was cloudy during our stay, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the beauty of what we could see of the mountain. We also did one of my favorite excursions at this lodge. We went horse back riding on the McKinley Wilderness trail. We’re not avid horse people I think I’ve only been horseback riding one or two other times in my life. The highlight of the ride was the over look once you reach the top.

We spent the last night of our trip back in Anchorage, due to our flight not leaving until the next day. The entire trip the only thing my husband wanted to make sure to do before leaving Alaska was to enjoy the King Crab legs. There’s plenty of places around Central Florida you can get king crab, but I’m not sure if they are actually king crab legs, they are not as large as you would expect them to be. He really wanted to have authentic king crab legs in Alaska. On our last night before heading to the airport to fly home we made sure to find a restaurant and have those crab legs. It was a great way to end this amazing vacation!

We loved Alaska and would love to make it back there someday to explore more of this beautiful state. What’s the best place you have visited? Let me know in the comments below. If you liked this post please share it with your friends and make sure you have joined the email list so you are notified of upcoming posts!