Today we visited the Mammoth Site! This is an archaeological site where many many Mammoths have been uncovered. It appears that a pit of sorts was present here and became a trap where many Mammoths died and their remains were preserved.
The Mammoth site is impressive and well designed for educating visitors. Various points of interest are marked with numbered flags etc and along the walking path there are numerous auto guide stops where you can listen to a description of what you are viewing.
Depending on time and day, you can also watch scientists at work examining samples.
At the end of the visit is an area with two hands-on displays. Below is a photo and linked a video of the Stream Table. We ended up spending quite a while experimenting with the water and sediment movement.
Wifey awoke today at 0500 hours and made it upstairs to save our viewing spot for the glacier around 0530. She was too late at that point for the optimal window. Not sure how early would have been "early enough" but apparently 0530 wasn't it. The situation wasn't improved by one individual who had taken several individual articles of clothing off and saved numerous seats ... and then left. Which, incidentally, is a violation of RC rules. Yes, security was notified.
Regardless, a spot was obtained, and we proceeded to get to know our neighbors and settle in for the next several hours wait as we headed towards Dawes Glacier.
Hubby practiced his Engineering skills and helped set up our travel tripod with the Osmo and backpack clip. It's a bit wonky ... but it worked!
The ships photographers were roaming around the top decks during our trip into the Fjord and our favorite stopped by to take a few quick pics in front or our hard fought for window:
Later, we we reached the actual Dawes Glacier, we went upstairs to the top deck and had a few pics taken in the cold :)
Once Ovation left the Fjord, we filled the rest of our day exploring the on-board activities .... specifically Bumper Cars!!! Wifey was more excited about this than Hubby, but ended up enjoying the experience fall less. As it turns out, two bumper cars going in opposite directions at high speed create quite the jolt upon impact.
Following Bumper cars, we cleaned up for our second Formal night and took some quick pictures. Pictures will be a theme of the night.
Formal pictures complete, we enjoyed another yummy dinner chatting it up with our table neighbors!
Quiche for an appetizer!
We both ate Lobster for our main ... only one picture was necessary!
We enjoyed Baked Alaska and a Molten Chocolate cake for desert!
We had missed several evening photos due to our land excursions, so we went back to our room to change clothes take some more pictures while the opportunity was open! The results did not disappoint:
Then we went back to our rooms ... changed cloths .... and took more pictures!
Sitka was the capital of Russian Alaska. We didn't have an excursion planned for here, but did have plans to walk down and visit a well recommended Chowder restaurant to visit. When we arrived, we found it closed. We also had plans to visit the Bishops House. It was also closed. We did find a random shop selling Russian Dumplings. Russell tried them, though the pictures with one exception have been lost to time as this post is going up 7 months late.
Skagway was our longest and busiest port day! We went into the day with two seperate excursions scheduled and tentative plans to find somewhere local to enjoy lunch along the way. Yesterday we enjoyed amazing weather in Juneau. Today did not follow. It rained basically all day.
This antique train runs along tracks originally built for accessing the Yukon gold fields in the late 1800s. In order to reach the Yukon, prospective wealthy men had to first cross the dangerous white pass. Men, and many many horses died making the attempt. The railway was to quicken and simplify the process. By the time it was built, however, the gold rush was pretty well over. Our ride on the railway was scheduled for 8:00 am and we disembarked the ship around 7:45. Apparently we could have and should have disembarked earlier as seating on the train was first-come, first-served.
After some deliberation, we settled into two seats on the rear-most train car and awaited our departure.
Due to Covid, each train car did not have its own narrator/guide, but instead the narration was provided via the train's PA system.
Being in the rear-most train car gave us the ability to take great photos from the back observation platform.
We did not disembark the train while on its journey (it wasn't allowed, and the train didn't stop). At the end of the route (just shy of the pass) the engine car detached from the remainder of the passenger cars, switched ends, and then was ready to pull us back down the mountain. Inside each train car, the seats flipped so they were facing forward again, and anyone on the 'uphill' side of the train had to switch seats with their opposite on the 'downhill' side. The downhill side has much better views.
2. Lunch -
After disembarking the train in downtown Skagway, we walked to the nearby National Park Visitors center in hopes of a great lunch recommendation. The staff was not willing to offer any. It seemed as though doing so was against the rules? We've had similar conversations with other NP staff, but those were in much larger areas than Skagway. Who knows! Anyway, we had an alternate plan, made while on the train via google, tripadvisor, and facebook ... Olivia's Restaurant.
Our lunch - Wifey ended up eating basically all the french fries and salad. Hubby ate most of the reindeer Reuben and the Elk pastry. We make a good team :)
Reindeer Reuben served on a long bun w/balsamic red slaw, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing & fresh cut fries
Creamy halibut chowder
Elk Puff served w/side of baby greens
Have I mentioned yet that it rained most all day? After lunch, we put our coats back on, and braved the weather to visit the National Park's museum on the Gold Rush! We still had several hours before our bike ride was scheduled to begin.
Video Link for mobile:
3. Bike Ride
Finishing up our education on the Gold Rush, we decided to go back to Ovation and check in with the excursion department to see if your biking excursion was a "go"! Seriously, so much rain! The answer came back that it was on, so we rested a bit, traded out some camera equipment, and headed back to town to meet up with our leaders!
We met up with a group of folks, boarded a van and began a drive back up the pass. We were driving parallel to the train tracks we had ridden on earlier in the day, just across the river.
Once we reached the border with Canada (or there abouts), we dressed in waterproof outer layers, started our fitbit tracking, and began our ride ... its all downhill from here (except where its not). Due to pretty excessive fog, our van drive tailed us for several miles.
LOOK AT THAT VIEW! STUNNING!
Eventually we broke below the fog and enjoyed some of the scenery around us.
It took us about 2 hours to reach the bike shop, a bit longer than I believe our guides intended.
Upon removing our 'water-proof' outer layers, Wifey discovered her leggings were soaking wet. What a day!
By the time we loaded back into the van, waited on one member of our group to ... waste more time ... and drove back to dock, we were back on board Ovation 2 minutes past our deadline. That deadline also happened to be exactly at our scheduled dinner time.
We went straight to the dining room, wet pants and all and it did not disappoint!
I'm not going to let freezing keep me from enjoying a yummy dinner!
