Itinerary
|
|
|
Destination |
Arrival |
Departure |
|
Whittier
|
5/21/2025 |
5/21/2025 6:00:00 PM |
|
Whittier, a once-isolated town, is gateway to Prince William Sound. The city is a historical landmark, established by the U.S. Army during World War II. Less than 300 people reside in the town supporting the Alaska State Ferry, the Alaska Railroad, the Alaska Hydra Train, the military tank farm for aviation fuel, the Small Boat Harbor and tourism. See wildlife, waterfalls (watch Horse Tail Falls flow up!), and more! Hike Portage Pass Trail or head to Salmon Runs, beachcomb, bird watch and pick berries. Watersports include boating, sailing, kayaking, and scuba diving. Winter sports include snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and snowmobiling. Begich Towers contains 198 apartments and are 14 stories high. The Buckner Building known as "the city under the roof" was central to this isolated Army outpost. Private developers built the Whittier Manor for civilian employees or military personnel ineligible for other housing. This building has been turned into condominiums. Whittier Visitor’s Center is housed in a 1957 rail car, originally built for Union Pacific as a cafeteria.
|
|
Hubbard Glacier
|
5/22/2025 |
5/22/2025 |
|
Seventy-five miles long and covering over 1,350 square miles in area, the Hubbard Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in North America. It is also one of the most impressive, a 300-foot wall of ice rising sheer and jagged from the ocean. You may hear the rumble and see the monumental splash as the glacier breaks off in great ice chunks, known as "calves."
|
|
Hoonah
|
5/23/2025 8:00:00 AM |
5/23/2025 8:00:00 PM |
|
Hoonah's founding people, the Huna Tlingit people, originally occupied Glacier Bay, but relocated due to advancing glaciers into the city's current place along the Inside Passage. Tall evergreens cover the mountains along the coast, and across the Icy Strait twenty-five miles north is Glacier Bay National Park, one of the seven small wonders of the world. Hoonah is a prime location to view birds and wildlife, as it hosts the largest brown bear population in the world, in addition to opportunities to view bald eagles and humpback whales.
|
|
Skagway
|
5/24/2025 7:00:00 AM |
5/24/2025 5:00:00 PM |
|
This "Gateway to the Klondike" watched as fortune-seekers headed to Chilkoot and White Pass Trails during Alaska's Gold Rush. Today, feel like a prospector in Skagway, as you walk along its rustic boardwalks and frontier-style storefronts. This cozy town offers a pleasant respite from the hustle and bustle of most cities. With classic cars and one of the oldest narrow-gauge railroads in the world, the city retains the flavor of days gone by and remains an important link to Alaska's history. A stroll down Broadway is a must. Highlights include Arctic Brotherhood Hall. Other buildings like the Trail of '98 Museum, Corrington's Museum of Alaskan History and the Alaskan Wildlife Adventure and Museum present different facets of prospecting times. Before hitting famous Chilkoot Trail, there are other well-marked trails to try. Hiking to Lower Dewey Lake is an easy, 20-minutes, and there are more adventurous trails to remote Sturgill's Landing, Upper Dewey Lake and Devil's Punchbowl. The White Pass Scenic Railway and Eagle Preserve Wildlife Quest provide additional options.
|
|
Sitka
|
5/25/2025 9:00:00 AM |
5/25/2025 6:00:00 PM |
|
Resting between snowcapped mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Sitka is one of the most beautiful seaside towns in Alaska and the biggest city in America - encircling 4,710 square miles on Baranof Island. No symbol shows Russian influence more than the landmark St. Michael's Cathedral. Original artifacts and icons, including the Sitka Madonna, were saved from fire and are on display. Visit Castle Hill, once site of a two-story log mansion known as Baranof's Castle, which overlooked Sitka Sound during the town's fur trading days. Only stone walls and mounted cannons remain from Russia's bloody battles against native Tlingit. Sitka National Historical Park offers information and artifacts relating to the Tlingits, including totem poles as a chronicle of early life on this fertile ground. Alaska Raptor Rehabilitation Center cares for as many as a dozen bald eagles and other birds at a time. The facility caters to rare wildlife recovering from injuries incurred in the wild. Among the more popular trails is Indian River Trail, which parallels a salmon stream, and the three-mile-long Gaven Hill Trail.
|
|
Ketchikan
|
5/26/2025 10:00:00 AM |
5/26/2025 7:00:00 PM |
|
Ketchikan is known as "Alaska's First City" because it's the first major community travelers come to as they travel north. The city is built on steep hillsides and is billed as salmon capital of the world. A quaint village, the town is three miles long and three blocks wide. With fishing boats sailing in and float planes ascending from the water, this seaside town is bustling with activity. With the world's largest collection of totem poles, Totem Bight State Historical Park offers insight into various native cultures of the Pacific Northwest. These wood-carved creations tell colorful, intricate tales – often showing a family history or depicting a local legend. Ketchikan has many options for adventure of relaxation, including mountain bike tours, sea kayaking, seaplane riding, or strolling down the boardwalk of Creek Street, Ketchikan's most famous section with a historic cable car and quaint boutiques. Blessed with an abundance of hiking trails, Ketchikan offers many breathtaking vistas, including the panoramic, 360-degree view from the top of Deer Mountain.
|
|
Prince Rupert
|
5/27/2025 7:00:00 AM |
5/27/2025 5:00:00 PM |
|
Prince Rupert is the Gateway City for Southeast Alaska and fishing center of the Northwest. Cow Bay is a must - with a fish processing plant, public water floats, and Cow Bay Gift Galley's pottery studio and sushi bar. Enjoy Civic Centre and Performing Arts Centre. Visit Museum of Northern British Columbia, Archaeology Harbor, and North Pacific Historic Village. Kwinitsa Railway Museum exhibits railway history of the area in a Grand Trunk Railway station. Old Field Creek Hatchery tours are offered. Firehall Museum's central exhibit is a 1925 REO Speedwagon Fire Engine. A walking tour has been laid to cover the city's historic and scenic points. The Pacific Northwest is home of Tsimpsean and Haida Indians, and scattered throughout Prince Rupert are authentic reproductions of historic and famous poles. An 18-hole golf course is located at Mt. Oldfield.
|
|
Inside Passage
|
5/28/2025 |
5/28/2025 |
|
Imagine being confronted with a myriad of mysterious channels. Following each fjord to the interior, encounter massive mountain ranges, towering cliffs, tumbling waterfalls, virginal forests of two-hundred foot tall spruce, while whales, bears, seals, salmon, eagles and other wildlife. Always they were stopped by an inevitable face of ice - glaciers pushing inexorably downward to meet the sea. What must have been a mapmaker's nightmare is today cherished as the continent's last great untouched wilderness, harbouring the world's largest temperate rain forest. An Eden of the North to captivate the every modern-day explorer. The string of islands of the Inside Passage create a protective barrier to the open sea running from the Washington State/Canadian border and the bottom of Vancouver Island all the way up to the top of Chichagof Island, where the Gulf of Alaska begins its curve westward, offering a supremely serene cruising environment in some of the most dramatic surroundings on earth.
|
|
Vancouver
|
5/29/2025 6:00:00 AM |
5/29/2025 |
|
Vancouver is a thriving metropolis surrounded by natural beauty. With parks, beaches, gardens, museums, art galleries and the second-largest Chinatown in North America, Vancouver lives up to its promise of offering something for everyone. With modern buildings set against green, rolling hillsides, this city is breathtaking; no location offers a more spectacular view than Stanley Park - with a zoo, aquarium, totem poles and honking geese. A short walk from the park leads to Robson Street, which offers the town's best window-shopping. Stores with European flavor share the avenue with delicatessens and tea rooms ready to serve. As architectural heart of the city, Robson Square features a central plaza with a food fair and an old provincial courthouse, which now houses Vancouver Art Gallery. Be sure to stop at 8 Pender St. - "the narrowest building in the world." Other points of interest include the Museum of Anthropology; Japanese-style Nitobe Memorial Garden; and VanDusen Botanical Garden. Capilano Canyon is site of the world's longest and highest suspension footbridge.
|
|