Trip Report : Southeast Alaska

[flyingpig11]

Well.. its been a while since I posted, but here is a brief trip report relating to our recent trip to Alaska via cruise.

First, I have never been on a cruise, and have nothing to compare this trip or boat to. Frankly, I could not imagine doing a cruise in many other situations than Alaska where you either need a boat or plane to get around. The trip was truly awesome, as I hope to share via pictures, which don’t do it justice at all.

We flew into Seattle on August 2, 2007. One of the coolest things about this trip, and there were many, was flying by Mt. Rainier when approaching Seattle, It literally felt as though you could reach out and touch it.

We landed, and got to our very cool boutique hotel called Hotel Andra. Very nicely done, comfortable place for under $200 a night in the middle of the City. There we met my extended family, 13 people in total. My wife, our two kids, age 6 and 9. My mother and step father, my sisters and their families. We took a wander around town, and ended up at a pretty funky Thai food joint on 3rd called the Noodle Ranch for dinner. It was cheap and quite good.

The time change seemed to take a toll on us, and dinner ended at about 10:00 pm west coast time, or 1:00 am from my neck of the woods. We CRASHED.

Next day we went down to the Pike Place Market and had some incredible chow. The group tasted everything from alder smoked salmon cocktail, to home made cheeses, to chowder, a chocolate croissant, pizza, mac and cheese, cuban sandwich… We felt like we didn’t scratch the surface. Although very touristy, it was full of locals as well, and truly bustling.

Next day…..all aboard. We went on a Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas ship, built in the early 90’s and is apparently now somewhat antiquated. There is little doubt that the staterooms could be updated a bit, but again, like Mexico, how much time do you actually spend in your room, even when you are limited to being on ship.

Let me tell you, 2,300 passengers, 11 floors, and this was a relatively small ship. A bit hard to get your bearings. Only took six days before I go the location of the main dining room correct. It is truly a floating hotel, with a very international staff. I will not go into the ship in any great detail, as this is really about Alaska/British Columbia. Service was very, very well done. These people worked very hard to ensure that you were happy, and reminded me of the hard working staff at places we stayed in playa. Boat has three full floors of uninterrupted full length picture windows for viewing scenery.

Our dinner seating was 8:30 pm, which when in Alaska, was 12:30 am eastern time. Needless to say the little kids were zonked. The wait staff knew exactly what to do, and in a formal dining room made beds of two chairs, napkins as pillows and simply let them crash while we ate.

We left Seattle at 4 pm on August 3, 2007,, and our first port was Juneau Alaska on August 5, 2007 at 11: am. Mostly smooth sailing, a bit of rocking and rolling in the open ocean on the way up.

En route to Juneau, we come across a whale feeding ground and over the courseof an hour and half, while eating breakfast, we see 30-40 whales, what we believe to be humpbacks. (I have lived on Cape Cod, and Nantucket and gone on many whale watches, and you still get excited/obsessed when you see a whale, wanting to see more.)

Juneau…..11 am …Cannot get to Juneau other than by boat or plane…no roads to connect it to the outside world. Pretty wild seeing it’s the Capital. Two other cruise ships already in port. 10,000 people getting off each day and back on and moving on to the next port. That is rather unappealing to me.




In any case, it is a beautiful area, a small city nestled in mountains and ocean. We took the Mt. Roberts tram and did a very nice couple mile hike. Apparently we just missed a black bear who had been feeding in a valley below, but by the time we got there, had gone into the bushes. We did immediately see two bald eagles, sitting at the pier or in a tree. Pretty cool.

Thereafter, before our planned excursion, which I will get into in a bit, we walked around town. Frankly, I quickly learned that, for me, Alaska is about the great outdoors, the scenery, the awe. Many shops in each port are owned by the cruise companies. That was a bummer, but I wasn’t there to be a consumer anyways.

After the walkabout, and no shopping, we were picked up and taken to an airfield for a helicopter trip up to, and landing on a glacier. We took three helicopters. The glacier we were on was eight miles long, one mile wide and at points well over 500 feet thick. We didnt even see each other once!!

The helicopter trip itself was amazing and well worth the price of admission. I would strongly recommend that everyone try a hele sightseeing tour once. What a cool feeling.

We landed on the glacier hiked around for a bout a half an hour, drank some clear icy glacier water. The glacier ice was this amazing blue, and moved boulders of granite the size of cars. It was really like being on Mars. Absolutely incredible. The fissures were incredible and quite scary. Rather chilly, multiple layers worn. More pics:






Me and my bird:



Back in the helicopter, back to the ship and off again.

[flyingpig11]

August 6, 2007. Skagway, Alaska. A town of 800 year round. Built up by cruise companies.

Wake up to a dreary, very wet, raw day. Get off the boat, onto a high speed catamaran ferry that transports people around the area like a metro bus. We get off in Haines Alaska, (about thirty miles form Skagway) which looks a bit like northern exposure. All of the sudden, the skies clear. There we meet Pam, who relocated to Alaska from the Seattle area with her children and started a tour company providing private tours down the Chillcat River, and investing in some gold mining land. A really interesting story and and pleasant woman.

There we did a river float trip in two rafts down the Chilcat, through the largest Bald Eagle Preserve in North America, if not the world. 50 to 60 pair of birds, who mate for life, live there year round, but when the salmon are running full force, upwards of 2,000 are on this river feeding away. In October you can see 15-20 on one limb at times. It was stunning country, very peaceful, and we saw about 8 eagle, and several nests.

Back to Skagway where it still rained. Mom took kids back to the ship and we headed to a microbrewery for a refreshing beverage or two and then back on ship.

Next day. A float, up the Tracy Arm Fjord….. to a glacier… which calves, leaving large ice chunks floating by. Again, cold, raw, misty. The boat is selling hot cocoa (all food included, water, ice tea, juice, milk included, other beverages must be paid for.) Beautiful, mountains rising 7,000 feet from waters edge…. Relaxing.

[flyingpig11]

Last Port, Prince Rupert B.C., a 17 hour ride to Vancouver or a two day ferry system ride. At this port, we were up early took a traxi to an airfield, boarded a floatplane, flew to the mouth of the Khutzeymateem River, and landed to meet our guide Greg Palmer. We boarded a zodiac boat, and proceeded into the 50,000 acre Khutzeymateem Grizzly Bear Preserve. 50 Grizzlies live there in this protected sanctuary. The water was like glass, the mountains were spectacular, and were a riding along when Mr. Palmer spots a grizzly way off in the distance. Looking through my binoculars a see what might be a fuzzy brown ear sticking out of the grasses on the bank. Closer we go. Closer we go. Now we see a head…. We get to about 15 yards, and see a mama grizzly that Mr. Palmer has watched for 25 years, with her two one year old cubs. My wife is tearing up. It is absolutely astonishing.

Down the way, we see two additional more mature cubs, that the mama had kicked out of her den over the last few years, and she was very protective of her new cubs and stared down the elder cubs, keeping them at distance. All in all, we saw six grizzly in the wild, within a few 100 yards of each other, from the safety of a boat. It was awesome.









Mr. Palmer, spends six months a year on his floating camp, floating a some huge cedar logs, with a little lodge with a clear roof, a generator, computer, fridge, boats. People can rent out an area for three day stints with tours, or four hour tours. Additionally, he has students who come and work for him in exchange for room and board in one of the most amazing places I have ever seen.
Palmerville - Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Tours Prince Rupert. Check it out.

His Floating Lodge:



The whole clan:



The view from the "front door" of his floating lodge: Gretchen and I:



The spit of land on the upper right is the area where we saw all six bear. Pretty vast area.



Back to our boat, back on the inside passage for a day and a half, back to Seattle, to the music project ( a music museum, with a great exhibit on Jimi Hendrix) and the Science fiction museum so our six year old can live out all of his Starwars fantasies, and then back home.

What was amazing about this trip was thatthe land was so unoccuppied. So few shelters, fences....etc.. just beautiful land

[jflattracker]

Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing them with us!

[flyingpig11]

Thanks. I felt badly posting this with the hurricane looming over everyone, but it is really the only free time I have had lately. No idea how to make the pics smaller. Sorry

[Andiline]

I haven't had the time to read your report yet but will surely do it later on. The pics look GREAT!!! Thanks for sharing, Alaska is on my to-do list as well...

[Marman]

Thanks for sharing ....I'm headed to Sitka to stay at a fishing lodge in only 11 more days! I cant wait!

[flyingpig11]

Originally Posted by Marman

Thanks for sharing ....I'm headed to Sitka to stay at a fishing lodge in only 11 more days! I cant wait!

Sitka is supposed to be great. Salmon or halibut? Boy did we see some nice catches while there. The salmon are just starting to run.

[TAPPY]

I love it when some one posts a new report !!!

This is a very cool report....love the pics.

[Marman]

Originally Posted by flyingpig11

Sitka is supposed to be great. Salmon or halibut? Boy did we see some nice catches while there. The salmon are just starting to run.

Halibut, Silver Salmon and Rock cod....I'm very excited to go.My boss went last week with a few friends and they shipped 500lbs of fish back.

[Rissask]

Thanks SO much for this! The pics are great, what beautiful scenery up there. I have always wanted to see Alaska.

[Bren]

Thanks for the great report ,we live along the coast of BC and watch the cruise ships pass by our house every day.It is truly a wonderful place we live in and it is nice that other people appreciated it the way we do. Hope you come back again and spend somemore time along the west coast.

[Commando]

amazing pictures, thanks for sharing.

[Jacko]

Wow..so rugged and raw...I would love to take a trip there some day.....thanks for posting!

[roni]

We are thinking of doing the Alaska Marine Highway (ferry) from Bellingham, WA through Southeast Alaska.