Despite the very long silence here, I haven’t died since retiring from bus driving a few weeks ago – I’ve just been out having fun. The Outback is getting a good workout (to the right, crossing a creek on the Alsek Road), the Canon Digital Rebel an even better...

Getting ready to leave Anchorage at 2:10 a.m. on July 23rd, for the 735-mile day. That may seem odd (it certainly did to the hotel desk staff), but that’s when I need to leave to get home at a reasonable hour. A couple of bonuses are that I get...

July 20, 2006: Princess McKinley Lodge to Anchorage – 138 milesI got up just after 3:00 a.m. to see if I could catch the first light on Denali, but was a bit too early, and the light wasn’t good. This shot was taken at 5:50 a.m., with a fog...

July 18, 2006: Fairbanks to Denali National Park – 125 milesI dropped my group off at the Alaska Railroad for their trip to the park, while I went ahead with the motorcoach and got their luggage into their hotel rooms before meeting them at the Denali railroad depot. This...

The sign above the Trans Alaska oil pipeline interpretive site says “Canada my ass, it’s Alaska’s Gas!” – that’s one of the slogans used by the Alaskan Independence Party. It refers to the current controversy about building a natural gas pipeline down the Alaska Highway, which will require paying...

I’ve just returned from my final trip as driver/guide, for a motorcoach tour that took us from Whitehorse, Yukon, to Seward, Alaska, where my group boarded the Celebrity Summit for a cruise back to Vancouver. This was about the 8th trip I’ve done for W. P. Maher Tours of...

The hottest new active-tourism excursion in Alaska and the Yukon is the zipline tour. There are now 4 lines operating in Ketchikan and Juneau, Alaska, another in Whitehorse, Yukon, 2 more slated to open in Girdwood and Hoonah, Alaska, and another one possible in the Yukon. A zipline tour...

It’s 06:04 and I’m sitting in my room at Young’s Motel In Tok. The air conditioning in my motorcoach died a few hours after leaving Whitehorse and it’s been hot as hell. The itinerary for this tour is one of the type designed for people who want to spend...

I get a lot of really cool emails in my Inbox at ExploreNorth – here’s one I have to share with you. Ted Widen is a teacher in BC with a unique talent. While he had his Grade 10 students memorizing The Cremation of Sam McGee recently, he decided...

It’s great to be back home, but it’s only for a few days, and am I busy! The focus since I got home has been to get my cruise review/album posted, and that’s now up at my YourAlaskaCruise.com site (though it’s one of those big projects that I’ll be...