Here’s the second installment of my and Luna’s trip to Alaska. Below a few more photos of Kantishna, at the end of the road in Denali National Park. Then on to Sitka, where we were met at the airport by a representative of Alaskan Dream Cruises, transferred to our hotel for the night, and given tips on what to do in Sitka that afternoon. The next morning we were met by a guide, Larisa, from our cruise and from then on, until we arrived at the airport for our flight home, we were in the hands of the cruise.
Matt, who I believe owns, definitely manages, Kantishna Air Taxi and Skyline Lodge, is a music lover. He organizes a yearly music festival in Kantishna, 92 miles by road from park headquarters in Denali.So what is this picture? I almost forgot to mention a very common form of Alaskan wildlife, some say the state bird: the mosquito. This is a view of them perched on our window screen in Kantishna, where they were especially numerous. I heard people use DEET as a verb.The Kantishna Air Taxi plane on which we flew back out to the Denali entrance. Our pilot, Dick, knew a lot about the mountain, having climbed it twice, by different routes (a fourteen to twenty one day undertaking) as well as having climbed Everest.The Russian Orthodox cathedral in Sitka. Settled by the Tlingit people thousands of years ago, Sitka was called New Archangel by the Russians who settled there in 1799. It is located on Baranof Island. Sitka, like many cities in southeast Alaska, an only be reached by boat or air.Bald eagles, along with ravens, were the most common birds we saw in southeast Alaska. This one was at the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka, where injured birds, even from distant states, are cared for and released if possible.
Luna compares her wingspan to the bald eagle’s.Chapel in the Russian Bishop’s House. The bishop for Alaska was housed in Sitka (New Archangel) under Russian rule.A native artist demonstration at the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka.After our guided tour of Sitka our group of thirty one passengers went on board an Allen Marine (parent company of Alaskan Dream) tour boat for lunch and a whale and wildlife watching tour north along the coast of Baranof Island to where our cruise ship, the Alaskan Dream, waited at sea. We passed this eagle nest. Bald eagles make the largest nests of any bird, but they keep working on it over many years and reuse the same nests.Trucks don’t go to Sitka. This is a container barge we passed on our way up the coast.Looking back at the start of the cruise. The Alaskan Dream towed an inflatable boat used to take passengers closer to glaciers.
Sylvia Patience, Author 