Alaska Highway Cruises makes it easy for you to roam the Great Land in your roomy, comfortable RV before or after your cruise. See everything up close, with time to investigate, take photos, relax; rest. Here are a few of the high spots along the road.
Alaska
Anchorage is Alaska’s largest city, but you still sense the proximity of the wilderness and the frontier spirit. Among the sights: the world’s largest seaplane base, and the Museum of History and Art. Witness the tidal bore along Turnagain Arm (conditions permitting), when a wall of water up to six feet high rushes up the inlet.
Homer,
on the Kenai
Peninsula,
attracts
fishermen, artists and seekers of spectacular scenery.
Across the bay a timbered coastline rises to the
glacier-capped peaks of the Kenai Mountains. Visit
Homer
Spit, abustle with
fisherfolk, a small-boat harbor, canneries,
boat building shops and the occasional artist
with an easel.
 Denali
National Park and Preserve
is home
to North America’s tallest mountain, and to wildlife
in amazing abundance. Weather
permitting, you may catch a glimpse of 20,320-ft. Mt. McKinley long before
you reach the park, from the highway between Anchorage and Fairbanks. To
fully enjoy your time in the area, sign up for an optional tour, like the Denali
Jeep® Backcountry Safari.
Fairbanks began as a Gold Rush
town and has been thriving ever since. Here you may
inspect the TransAlaska Pipeline, just outside of town.
Or treat
yourself to a cruise on the old-style sternwheeler, Riverboat Discovery.
Pay a visit
to Gold Dredge #8, and try your hand at panning.
Skagway was one of the
liveliest towns in the hemisphere in 1898, when it
was the gateway to Gold Rush Country. And it hasn’t
lost a particle of its spirit.The whole downtown is a National Historic Park, with
its well-trodden boardwalks and false-fronted saloons.
Shopping is fun here,
for anything from gold nugget jewelry to
original works of Alaskan art.
 The
Alaska Highway
This historic road began as a one-lane supply line
to Alaska at the outbreak of World War II. Today it
runs from Dawson Creek, BC, for 1,520 miles to Fairbanks.
Along the way you might spot moose, caribou and Dall
sheep. Kluane National Park and Preserve, between Whitehorse
and Beaver Creek, is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It contains some of Canada’s highest peaks and
is a prime
wildlife-viewing area. The Alaska Highway skirts crystal-clear,
glacier-fed Kluane Lake for 40 miles while the snowclad,
7,000-ft.-plus Kluane Ranges parallel the highway to
the
west. Take sidetrips into the park for trout fishing,
gold panning, walking the tundra
and marveling at colorful wildflowers. The scenery
is incredible. You may glimpse
distant giants of the St. Elias Mountain Range.
The
Yukon
Whitehorse, capital of
Yukon Territory, is a friendly modern city that
provides vivid reminders
of its Gold Rush beginnings.
Here, on the banks of the Yukon River, the prospectors
who struggled up from Skagway
had their first chance to dry out after running
the treacherous rapids of the Yukon River.
You may visit the grand old sternwheeler,
S.S. Klondike, permanently anchored on dry land by
the riverside. Take the whole family
for an evening of hilarious history at the
Frantic Follies Vaudeville Revue.
Dawson City is a perfectly
preserved Gold Rush town. Hardly anything has changed
since the boom days when thousands
descended on the town to get rich quick. |
