ALASKA GUIDE Glacier hiking
Exploring J
ournalists, eh? During the Klondike Gold Rush at the end of the 19th century, some 20-odd reporters made camp outside Skagway and filed stories to their respective papers in the Lower 48 telling would-be prospectors how easy it was to get to the Yukon. It wasn’t. Thousands risked life and limb – and many
died – trying to climb the steep Chilkoot Trail or narrow White Pass in search of their fortune. Thankfully, I’ve taken the much easier route along the White Pass railroad, which took just over two years to build and opened in 1900. It’s fabulously scenic, taking us over bridges, into tunnels blasted through rock and past snow as deep as the carriages. At the top, Canadian border guards check our passports and we hop back on the tour bus with guide Ben to drive back to the US, stopping off in Liarsville, the name given to the camp where the journos were based. The tour is one of numerous excursions Holland America Line offers in Skagway, as well as in Juneau and Ketchikan, the other ports we’re visiting on this cruise from Vancouver on board Koningsdam.
Cruising
with Holland America Line
ALASKA
The company is something of an expert when it comes to Alaska, having been cruising here since 1947. Koningsdam is a comfortable base from which to explore the sights, with plenty of places to eat, along with a lively Music Walk, where different venues have live bands playing pop favourites, bluesy soul and rock anthems. The line is also one of a select few allowed into Glacier Bay National Park,
an area bigger than Yorkshire with more than 1,000 glaciers, including the mile-wide Marjorie Glacier. We spend an hour there – 30 minutes on the port side, 30 on the starboard – so everyone gets a view. In Juneau I tog up in waterproof coat, trousers and gloves and set out on a bike
Private balcony view with American Cruise Lines
ride along roads and through forest – about 8.5 miles in all – to the mighty Mendenhall Glacier. It’s wet and windy, but no one minds. You don’t come to Alaska for a suntan. In Ketchikan, I sign up for a lumberjack show,
where two teams of timber sports athletes (there really is such a thing) do battle in a crazy contest that includes chopping a log while standing on it, climbing poles and throwing axes. It’s great fun and all is going swimmingly until somehow I find myself in an axe- throwing contest. I know, I know, what was I thinking? Let’s just say, it wasn’t my finest hour – I’ll stick to cycling from now on. Book it: Holland America Line offers a seven-day Alaska Inside Passage cruise on Koningsdam departing Vancouver on May 3, starting from £649 cruise-only.
hollandamerica.com
travelweekly.co.uk 23 JANUARY 2025 47
PICTURES: Silversea; Lucia Griggi; Page 45: Shutterstock/Maridav
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