Category: Tour Bus Driving

Top of the World Highway to Dawson City

Yesterday we made the fairly short but spectacular drive from Tok, Alaska to Dawson City, Yukon. We were away from Tok at 08:30, and an hour later made our first rest stop below Mount Fairplay on the Taylor Highway. At 10:20 we reached Chicken, and the post office was...
Read More

Touring Alaska – Tok to Valdez

Yesterday our route took us on a route that is “off the beaten track,” from Tok to Valdez. In the early and mid 1990s I used to take tours to Valdez regularly, but haven’t been there in years, and I see few itineraries that include it. Most people like...
Read More

Haines Junction, Yukon to Tok, Alaska

Dawn light on the Kluane Mountains from our motel at Haines Junction yesterday morning at 06:55. Most of the folks walked over to The Village Bakery while I drove the rest over in the bus. It started raining lightly a few minutes after we arrived, and the rain got...
Read More

Touring the Yukon & Alaska with Road Scholar

I’m back on the road again, this time as Group Leader for a 15-day tour of the Yukon and Alaska for a company newly returned to the region, Road Scholar. I worked for them many years ago when they came north as ElderHostel, and it’s great to see tham...
Read More

Driving from Anchorage to Seward, and home to Whitehorse

This is a recap of the past 3 days – a tour of Anchorage, the drive to Seward where the group boarded the Celebrity Millennium, and my drive home to Whitehorse. This was the view up 4th Avenue from my room at the Historic Anchorage Hotel on Thursday morning...
Read More

Denali (Mt. McKinley) view, huskies & musk oxen

Yesterday we made the drive from Denali Park to Anchorage, with a few stops. As we were in Broad Pass, the clouds started to clear from Denali (Mt. McKinley). I stopped so my friends could get some insurance shots in case it closed in again a it usually does,...
Read More

A day on the Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali National Park

Yesterday was our day in Denali Park, on the 8-hour Tundra Wilderness Tour (TWT). The weather started off ragged, but the forecast was good. This is Mount Healy, right above our hotel. The lobby area of the hotel is a busy place in the morning, with hundreds of people...
Read More

Driving from Fairbanks to Denali National Park

Today I was by myself for much of the day, as the group took the Alaska Railroad to Denali while I went ahead with the bus. The first photo is the buffet that the group set up last night – good fun 🙂 The trip started off badly when...
Read More

Driving to, and exploring Fairbanks, Alaska

It’s already Day 7 of the tour – time does indeed fly when you’re having fun 🙂 Today the group takes the Alaska Railroad to Denali National Park while I go ahead in the bus. There’s a light rain falling but that’s forecast to quit soon. Let’s catch up...
Read More

Top of the World & Taylor Highways to Tok, Alaska

The adventure continues. Yesterday we crossed over a highway that strikes fear into the hearts of many RV drivers – the Top of the World. Most of those people actually use the name incorrectly, though, because it’s the Taylor Highway on the Alaska side that gets drivers’ heart rates...
Read More