Anchorage AK

Anchorage is Alaska's largest city, on Cook Inlet with the Chugach Mountains behind it. Few cruise ships call here directly, and those that do, mostly Holland America, dock at the Port of Alaska, a cargo port about 3.5 kilometres north of downtown, with shuttle buses into town. Most Gulf of Alaska cruises start or end at Seward, about 125 miles south by road or rail, or Whittier, about 60 miles away. The city began in 1914 as a tent camp for the Alaska Railroad, and the 1964 earthquake, magnitude 9.2, destroyed much of downtown. The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail runs 11 miles along the inlet from downtown to Kincaid Park, passing Earthquake Park, where a neighbourhood slid into the sea in 1964. The Anchorage Museum covers Alaska's art and history, and the Alaska Native Heritage Center on the edge of town has full-size village houses. Denali is about 130 miles to the north and shows on the horizon only on clear days. Reindeer sausage is sold at hot dog carts downtown.