In the first installment of our Alaska trip remembrances, we had reached Denali National Park. There we saw the first of many waves. In this case, they were in the air.

Waves over Denali — click to enlarge

After leaving Denali National Park, the train took us down to Whittier, south of Anchorage, where our cruise ship waited. The weather was nice on the trip down. The railroad has to pass through a tunnel to get to the port, which is on a narrow inlet. The mountain seemed to be holding all the dreary weather over the port.

The port of Whittier

Some people have their own cruise ships. We had to settle for a room with a view on the port starboard side. Apparently modern ships are not required to dock with their port side actually to the port. I think they parked that way so they could make a quick getaway, because once we were aboard the ship, it left. It may be that others boarded at or near the same time, but we’re a clannish sort, and took no notice of them.

The weather remained dreary, but the scenery improved.

The ship was big, but the mountains were bigger

And it wasn’t long before the weather improved.

It takes a large state to hold all that sky

It seems that Alaska has a flair for dramatic scenery.

Back in 2005 when Leah and I got married we took an Alaska cruise. I would never have expected to enjoy a cruise, but this was different. First, we flew to Anchorage, from where we took a train ride into the interior of Alaska for a few days. We got to stop along the way at a few interesting places, and then we went back to Anchorage and boarded the ship. The ship traveled mainly at night, stopping at several small towns for us tourists to do our thing. We thought we would share some of our pictures, a few at a time.

The plane trip had two legs. The first was from Atlanta to Seattle. We flew over Mount St. Helens just before we reached Seattle. The captain pointed it out. I might or might not have recognized the mountain otherwise. A few years earlier I had driven with some friends up to Mount St Helens, but it was so foggy we couldn’t see anything. This was actually quite a good view. Click on the pictures for larger views.

Mount St. Helens through the window of the airliner as we neared Seattle.

We spent one night in Anchorage before boarding the train for our trip inland. This was in late May, so the nights were not long. The hotel had really thick curtains to darken the room. It was broad daylight when we went to bed.

The mountains viewed from the train.

The train trip was fun, even not including the side trips for sightseeing. But we always knew there was one great, big sight awaiting at the turnaround point of our inland trip. I’m cheating a little here, because I could take pictures only out the side windows or from the last car, looking back from where we had been. So the only way I could get this shot was to take it as we left to return to Anchorage.

Denali, the Mountain formerly known as Mount McKinley

The highest mountain in North America is every bit as impressive as you might expect. This is a view from the lodge where we spent the night before a bus ride into the park for a closer view. We got closer, but close is a relative term in Alaska.

We’ll put up some more pictures later. I hope you enjoy them.