Buck1949 Loc: Phoenix

We did the land/cruise tour last year starting in Fairbanks and making stops along the way via Train in Denali, Talkeetna, Anchorage, and then boarding our Celebrity cruise ship in Seward.

At the time I carried a Sigma 100-400mm lens and a Sigma 18-250mm for a walk around lens with a Canon T5i. In all honesty I was a little disappointed in the 100-400 as it still lacked a little reach especially while traveling through Denali Park. There are so many sights - animals - etc in the park that hopefully you will have a nice driver who will make every effort to stop for photos as much as possible as ours did. The ride through the park is on school type buses so it is tight quarters and not the most comfortable ride but the views make up for it. There are no private vehicles allowed within the interior of the part after approximate 6 miles from the entrance. The bus tour we took was approximately 55 miles as I recall.

As to my reach of the lens comment - there were times where the animals were on hillsides and down in valleys that made it just a bit far for a good clear photo. You just never know where you will see moose, sheep, bears, caribou, reindeer, Eagles, etc which we saw lots of. I took along a monopod that helped a lot to steady those longer shots. I have since changed to a 100-400 Tamron lens and a 1.4x teleconverter to add some length in the future to the type of shots that I mention above. I think a 150-600mm lens may have been a bit too heavy/bulky to carry along in the bus - but of course you may like that or similar setup.

There are so many photo ops in that part of Alaska, that it is difficult to describe what I liked best and I’m sure your views and interest may be a bit different.

As to what to do in each of the ports. We used independent tours - except in Juneau where we took a ships tour. Time and your interest will dictate where and what you may want to see. We took a private tour via train/bus out of Skagway up to the Yukon / Carcross areas and stopped along the way for photos and to see a dog mushers facility. In Ketchikan we took a private car tour and was afforded the opportunity to get up close to eagles landing in trees right above our heads as well as a trip to a totem pole area that had few other tourist there.

Anyway, you can certainly venture on your own if you have a good grasp on what you want to see/photo and the time to do it. We just felt that having someone show us the areas worked best for us.

Good luck and enjoy your trip. (By the way) we are headed back to Alaska in August for our 4th cruise. Hard to beat the views.

Take care.

Friendly

OK. No Hiking.

When in Denali, if you can arrange a flight around the mountain (weather permitting) do it. Aircraft are 4 seats so no maneuvering room for a long lens. I used a iPhone 10. Sit in the rear to shoot from the side windows - shooting front will show the prop. If the Princess offers Zodiac tours to the glaciers take it - we got video of a glacier calfing up close and personal. I was shooting a Nikon D610 with a 28-300 zoom.