Alaska!

Author: By Richard P. Carpenter, Globe Staff

Date: SUNDAY, March 2, 1997

Page: M13

Section: Travel

This time the object of my affection is a land where eagles soar, bears prowl, salmon swim, whales dive and moose meander. It's a land of snow-streaked mountains, blue-white glaciers and cobalt-colored fiords. It's a land whose history is as colorful as its topography.

That land, of course, is Alaska.

Introducing me to my latest love, appropriately enough, was the Love Boat -- Princess Cruises, which conducts land as well as sea tours of our 49th state. That's wise, because the state is so vast -- our 26 smallest states would fit into it -- and so filled with sights that just to get an adequate introduction, a week on land as well as one at sea is helpful. At sea, there are sights aplenty while cruising the Gulf of Alaska and the Inside Passage and stopping at four colorful cruise ports. But the land portion adds such features as a stay at Denali National Park, a visit to the state's major cities and a long and luxurious train ride in a dome car. Thus you see more animals, more mountains, more scenery, more Alaska.

Of the many Alaska tours offered by Princess and other major lines, my wife, Linda, and I settled on a 14-day ``cruisetour'' that began on land in Fairbanks and ended at sea off Vancouver, British Columbia. In between, there were the scenery and wildlife as well as gold mines and pipelines, dining and entertainment, shopping and surprises. There, too, were the usual strains associated with long-distance travel (jet lag) and land tours (dealing with luggage). But these were minor. Here is just a sampling of the ways we spent our days on land.

Another surprise was the almost-endless daylight. It is one thing to read about days that are 22 hours long around the time of the summer solstice, but it is quite another to walk about at 11 p.m. and have it look and feel as if it is 11 a.m.

A third surprise, and a pleasant one at that, was our first lodging place: the Fairbanks Princess Hotel, on the banks of the Chena River, whose architecture blends easily with its surroundings. The three-year-old, 200-room hotel provided just what we were looking for after 14 hours either in the air or at airports -- a good meal and a good night's rest in preparation for our first full day in Alaska.

On that day, we would get a taste of the old and new Fairbanks, touring Alaska's second-largest city (population 31,000), riding a riverboat and panning for gold. Some activities may have been touristy, but that hardly means they weren't enjoyable.

The riverboat was the Discovery III, a sternwheeler that made a leisurely 20-mile round trip on the Chena and Tanana rivers, with beavers now and then swimming saucily by. At one point, the ship paused -- and for good reason. There on the bank was Susan Butcher, four-time winner of Alaska's famed Iditarod sled-dog race, accompanied by her dogs and her husband. Just happening to have a microphone handy, she told tales of the grueling 1,049-mile Iditarod and gave us glimpses of her life in Alaska (her baby's first word was ``dog''). We got off the boat to visit an Indian village, where Butcher's husband, David Munson, gave a sled-dog riding demonstration, and young Native American women modeled fur clothing.

More of Alaska's heritage -- the search for gold sparked by the first discovery in 1896 -- was brought to life in a visit to the El Dorado mine just north of Fairbanks. The El Dorado is still a working mine, but tourist gold is also mined nowadays. We climbed aboard the Tanana Valley Railroad, with its fiddle-playing conductor, for a guided tour through a permafrost tunnel and into the mining camp, where our hostess, Yukon Yonda (honest!), declared, ``Let's rattle some rocks!'' We were given a bag, or ``poke,'' filled with dirt -- paydirt, we hoped -- and a pan for swirling water through the dirt. We did find flecks of gold, not worth much in dollars perhaps but a wonderful souvenir -- one that my wife now wears in a see-through necklace bought at El Dorado.

And there was Fairbanks itself. ``When I was a kid,'' said our guide, ``there was a church and a bar on every corner. Now there's a church and a gift shop.'' True, there were lots of shops, selling everything from T-shirts to semicircular Eskimo ulu knives to Alaskan art, but there were also sights such as a portion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline -- that feat of modern engineering that carries crude oil some 800 miles, snaking its way from Alaska's North Slope through some of the world's harshest terrain to Valdez.

Fairbanks, too, was where so many of us were introduced to Alaskan halibut and salmon. Once you have tried these fish freshly caught in Alaskan waters, you will never again be satisfied with the kind caught elsewhere in the country, or Outside, as the Alaskans say.

Denali did not disappoint. On our first afternoon, an old schoolbus took us along the 14 miles of road we were allowed to travel over, and we scored what is called a Clean Sweep, spotting the Big Four of park animals: Dall sheep, moose, caribou, and grizzly bear. True, they were some distance away and looked small even with binoculars, but we did see them. (The moose refused to turn around, preferring to moon us.) The most exciting sighting, we agreed, was a blond grizzly, rolling and stretching and scratching.

There was also the tundra (snowless in summer), the trees and the Savage River to admire. And there was the Alaska Range, highlighted by Mount McKinley, the nation's tallest mountain, with its highest peak of 20,320 feet spearing the clouds. Those who took the optional helicopter trips the following morning reported excellent sightings of McKinley. But there would be even better views of the majestic mountain from our rail car en route to Anchorage.

At the park, we stayed at the rustic Denali Princess Lodge, with its 280 rooms. (This year, the new Mount McKinley Princess Lodge, the only cruisetour lodge offering a view of the mountain, has been added.) In the evening at the lodge, we dug into chicken and king crab claws while watching a lively show called ``The Music of Denali,'' singing enthusiastically along to such lyrics as ``track a little bear, drink a little hooch, tell a lot of bull, eat a little moose.''

Our trip was scheduled to take eight hours, but because of a major wildfire blazing in Alaska's Big Lake area, it took five hours longer than that. No matter: The onboard restaurant featured a full menu, from prime rib to reindeer chili, and the staff kept things lively during the delay by telling corny jokes, leading sing-alongs and passing out complimentary crackers with salmon spread, shrimp and raspberry silk pie. Sipping a Denali Ale now and then didn't hurt, either. We finally got to the hotel by bus, passing establishments such as the Dead Dog Saloon and Thunder Automotive. We had a brief but emotional reunion with our luggage and fell fast asleep.

The following day was dedicated to exploring Anchorage, which contains more than a third of the state's population of 599,000. The downtown is walkable, the Spenard neighborhood is hip, and there are trails, views, museums, parks, and, of course, shops. For some of us, there was an optional flight in a restored DC-3 with a magical 1940s ambience inside and glorious views of Prince William Sound outside. Then it was on the bus to our final land destination, Kenai.

The lobby of the main building, with its massive stone fireplace, is expansive, and the food was of cruise-ship quality. There were trails to walk and fresh air to inhale deeply. For a couple of bicyclists, there was a close and peaceful encounter with a moose near a stream.

Of all the places we stayed on land, this was my favorite. But I left my comfortable cabin quickly enough when someone shouted, ``Eagles!'' I was excited to see two soaring in the distance; little did I know what a commonplace sight those magnificent birds would become, especially toward the end of our trip.

Whales and glaciers were the sights the following day, with a drive to Seward and, from there, a six-hour excursion-boat trip on the Kenai Fjords, whose land and waters have been designated a national park. Almost at once we could see gray and humpback whales frolicking and diving near the boat. And as the sailing progressed past towering cliffs, there were bald eagles, black oystercatchers, murres, and those brightly colored, big beaked, wing-flapping delights, the puffins.

There also were Steller sea lions and Dall porpoises, which playfully swam alongside our boat and which resemble miniature orca whales. We stopped to watch a blue-white glacier ``calve,'' or shed masses of ice, accompanied by a crashing sound that the Indians call ``white thunder'' but which sounded to me more like volleys of rifle fire. It was a memorable trip, even if the water did get choppy at times, giving some passengers a touch of tummy turmoil.

Among the fascinating facts I learned: Some whales eat a ton of food a day. Which is right up there with cruise-ship passengers -- something we would soon become.

There are also port charges/government fees/hotel fees, with totals ranging from $125 to $280. Add-on air fares from Boston, under the Princess Seabird Air Program, would cost from $499 to $659.

Unlike on the ship, meals are not included on the land portion of the tour, but Alaska has all types of restaurants, with prices from relatively inexpensive to moderate to expensive.

The Midnight Sun Express Ultra Dome rail rides and other necessary transportation are included, as are some excursions (with ours, they were the riverboat ride, the gold mine stop, the Denali tour and the Kenai Fjords sailing).

Optional trips on the land portion of a cruisetour can range from $11 for a saloon show to $30 for a nature tour to $145 for a fishing excursion to $175 for a helicopter flightseeing tour to $463 for a special two-day trip to the Arctic. While the options do add to the cost, they also add to the enjoyment. My ride aboard a DC-3 ($130) was a special treat.

For more information, and to get an exact picture of the prices, including discounts, see a travel agent. For brochures, call (800) PRINCESS.

NEXT (in the March 16 cruise section): A week in Alaskan waters aboard the Crown Princess.