Frederick Sound and Stephens Passage, Alaska

If you're on an Alaska cruise and your captain or cruise director is kind enough to tell you when you'll be sailing through Frederick Sound and Stephens Passage, get out on deck beforehand and stay out the whole time.  You may see nothing but beautiful scenery.  Or...if the weather is decent and luck is with you, you may see lots of whales!  It's a common feeding ground for them, so it's not unusual to see some, but this last August we saw more than I'd ever seen before in one place.

Most weren't super close, but there were so many.  They don't live in pods, but they do sometimes travel together while feeding, and we saw three of these big groups of 8, 10, 12 individuals.  Incredible.  Plus various others alone or in pairs.  We saw spouts, humps, tails.  We saw breaches!  And for the first time, I saw fin slapping.  The breaches and fin-slapping were far away, small even in my binoculars, but it was fantastic.

Some pics:

A nice fluke

Blow this up and try to count how many you see.

A humpback's humped back

Breaching

For tips on having your own budget adventures in Alaska, read my travel guides:

Cruising Alaska on a Budget; A Cruise and Port Guide
Hiking Alaska from Cruise Ports; Hikes, Walks, and Strolls

     

Humpback Whales off Vancouver Island

On our August Alaskan cruise, we saw quite a few whales.  One of the best days was our first at-sea day out of Seattle, cruising up the west side of Vancouver Island.  It was beautiful.  

We also saw a parade of sunfish, which are strange creatures that look like dead shark heads floating by (no good picture, sorry).

If you go, spend a lot of time on deck with camera/binoculars.  You may be lucky like us, you may not.  But you'll never know if you don't sit outside watching.  

For tips on having your own budget adventures in Alaska, read my travel guides:

Cruising Alaska on a Budget; A Cruise and Port Guide
Hiking Alaska from Cruise Ports; Hikes, Walks, and Strolls

Gastineau Peak Hike, Juneau, Alaska

As many times as I've been to Juneau, Alaska, I've never taken the Mt Roberts tram.  It seems rather expensive for what you get ($33 in 2019).  This year in August, however, my mom and I decided we'd splurge.

We took the tram up to the nature center and explored around there a bit.  Here's something to help you visualize the size of a brown bear:

Then we took the Alpine Loop (which, according to my mom, wasn't as easy as I'd promised).  She made it all the way to the cross, however.  Look at those views!

Then we parted ways and I headed uphill toward Gastineau Peak (which comes before the summit of Mt. Roberts).

More nice views:

Salmonberry snack:

Blueberry snack:

Mountain goat:

Beautiful grouse:

Black bear!!! 
He poked around for a long time in those patches of snow.  He even rolled around like a cat.  So cute (from a distance). 

Beautiful valley:

Marmot:
(one of several, and this one came so close I hardly even had to zoom for this picture)

What a fantastic hike!  I'm not sure if I've ever seen more varied and spectacular wildlife on a single hike.  Plus great views, wild berries...and very few people. What a great day.

For tips on having your own budget adventures in Alaska, read my travel guides:

Cruising Alaska on a Budget; A Cruise and Port Guide
Hiking Alaska from Cruise Ports; Hikes, Walks, and Strolls

Pier 91 in Seattle--Budget Style

So, if you've read much of my blog or my books, you know I'm a budget traveler...who also likes cruising.  These two things are generally a bit at odds.

So, how does a budget cruiser get to the cruise port to board her ship?  Why, she takes public transportation or walks, of course.

Sometimes this is a snap, like in Vancouver.  Pier 66 in Seattle isn't too bad either, though it may require some stairs or steep streets.  But Seattle's Pier 91 (Smith Cove Terminal) is a bit more exciting.

We stayed the night before in Seattle, as I always advise, so we began our trip from downtown.  Since I was traveling with my mom, who is a super trooper--but cannot walk as far or as vigorously as I can--I'd booked a hostel (yes, a hostel, not a hotel) near a bus route that went straight to Magnolia, past the Smith Cove Terminal (currently buses #33 and #24).  The morning of embarkation, I dragged my mom and our suitcases to the bus stop, hauled everything on, paid our fare--in exact change--and set off.  This particular trip, the in-route entertainment was provided by a good mother singing and doing fingerplays with her cute little baby.  After a bit of a ride, we saw our ship and the Magnolia Bridge.  This is the point where you should ask the driver where to let you off.  Because...well...it's not exactly impressive or obvious.

The bus stopped and we were the only ones it dumped out on the side of the road on the Magnolia bridge.  I have a feeling only a small percentage of cruisers arrive by this particular method.

Here's the view:

See that staircase going beneath the bridge?  Well, here's a closer view:

Yup.  Walk toward that elegant loading dock with the topsy-turvy pile of cardboard boxes.  Then haul your suitcases down the rusty staircase into the dark underbelly of this concrete bridge:

Carry both suitcases on the stairs, but let your poor mom pull hers down the ramp:

Navigate through the closed gate, down more steps, and past the guardhouse where there may or may not be a guard who barks, "You can't come through here--you have to go back up" and then bursts out laughing at your faces.  Don't worry, he'll let you through.

Now all you have to do is walk to that ship in the distance.

My mom was amazing!

Price: $2.75 for adults, $1 for seniors
All the adventure and the humble-brag rights:  priceless

For tips on having your own budget adventures in Alaska and the Northwest, read my travel guides:

Cruising Alaska on a Budget; A Cruise and Port Guide
Hiking Alaska from Cruise Ports; Hikes, Walks, and Strolls

Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska

From my recent trip to Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska, mid August:

Sheer fjord walls carved by long-ago glaciers

Swimming-pool-blue water, the color caused by current glaciers depositing silt into water

One of the many waterfalls pouring into the fjord

For a bit of perspective, see that tiny-looking white boat on the bottom left?  It's not so tiny.  It's 143 feet long and has cabins for 54 passengers.

Views over the bow

Just another pretty view

Approaching Sawyer Glacier

Sawyer Glacier, impressive in white and blue.

We got far closer this trip than the first time we came. 

So blue and glassy on the far right side that I wonder if there was recently a big calving event there.  

Harbor seals hanging out on the ice.  Yes, those are all seals.

Here's a close-up:

And mountain goats

Sailing out in the afternoon.  A great day!

For more about Alaska...and how to see Tracy Arm for yourself, check out my books:

Cruising Alaska on a Budget; A Cruise and Port Guide
Hiking Alaska from Cruise Ports; Hikes, Walks, and Strolls

Free Town Shuttle in Ketchikan

If you're visiting Ketchikan, Alaska, consider yourself lucky.  I love the town.

To make it even better, there's a free town shuttle that runs every day May-September, every 20 minutes.  It'll take you to some popular Ketchikan sites, like:

-The entrance of Creek Street at Thomas Basin (Steadman Street/Thomas Basin is the closest stop, though you'll have to backtrack about 200-300 yards)

-The Totem Heritage Center (also the closest stop to the Deer Mountain trailhead, though the trailhead is still a bit of an uphill walk from there)

-The middle of Creek Street (The Museum stop is near the historical museum by the pedestrian bridge that crosses Ketchikan Creek)

-All the cruise ship docks

The free shuttle is super convenient for those with some mobility issues or those who want to save their energy for other walking.

Here's the Ketchikan bus schedule.  It includes both the free shuttle loop and the regular lines.  


For more on Ketchikan and more budget tips for cruising Alaska, check out my books:

Cruising Alaska on a Budget; A Cruise and Port Guide
Hiking Alaska from Cruise Ports; Hikes, Walks, and Strolls

Alaska Cruise Highlights

One of my favorite things in the world is cruising to Alaska.  The nature is gorgeous.  The history is interesting.  And cruising allows you to approach it all from the water…with a minimum of fuss.  Here are some of my highlights. 

1)  Watching for Wildlife

Most Alaska cruises have one or two at-sea days and a glacier day.  Plus, summer light lasts long into the evening and the sun rises early.  All this gives you a lot of time to hang out on deck or by a window and watch for wildlife.  How much wildlife you see depends a lot on luck, but it also depends on how good your eye is and how much time you spend watching. 

Some amazing animals you have a good chance of seeing from the deck of your ship:

Humpback whales

Orcas

White-sided dolphins

Dall's porpoises

Sea lions

Harbor seals

Otters

Bald eagles 

You might also see more elusive creatures like these:

Puffins

Mountain goats

Bears (yes, I saw one swimming across Glacier Bay once, and a mama with cubs on a distant shore)

Others you may see while you're on shore:

Pretty much all of the above, plus

Salmon

Deer

Porcupines

Moose

Marmots

Obviously you're not going to see all of these in a week (unless you're very, very lucky and eagle-eyed), but through my various cruises I've seen most of them, and on some cruises I've seen at least glimpses of all of the major marine mammals listed above.

2)  Hiking

I love hiking anywhere.  It's one of my favorite hobbies.  But Alaska is a particularly spectacular place to do it.  You can hike through old-growth forest or across streams jumping with salmon or up to ridges above the treeline with fantastic views of the surrounding mountains, water, and wilderness.  You can walk to a glacier.  You may even be able to walk ON a glacier.  It's paradise for hikers (both for casual walkers and hard-core enthusiasts…and people like me who are somewhere in between).  Many trailheads are easily accessible right from the ship, and plenty of others are possible with public transport.

 

Some of my favorites:

-Deer Mountain in Ketchikan

-Perseverance Trail in Juneau

-Upper Dewey Lake in Skagway

-Portage Pass in Whittier

-Harding IceField in Seward

For more on these an many more trails, check out my book, Hiking Alaska from Cruise Ports

3)  Glaciers

I love the miniature icebergs floating in the water as you approach a glacier.  I love the seals that rest on those bergy bits.  I love the massive walls of ice.  I love the sound of "white thunder" as the glacier calves.  I love the bright blue that peaks out of the crevasses.  I love the sound of growlers squeaking against the prow of the boat as you steam slowly through the ice.  I love thinking about how many years it has taken this ice to make its slow-motion journey from the place it fell as snow, miles away.  Glaciers are a magical thing.  Whichever glacier/s you go to on your cruise, be sure to bundle up and spend a lot of time on the deck absorbing the grandeur of nature.

4)  Skagway

 Skagway is touristy, no doubt, but there's a reason:  it's a darling town with a fascinating history you can explore for free through the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park's various free museums and sites. They also give free walking tours full of stories of Soapy Smith, Skagway's most notorious con man and criminal.  Add to that the gorgeous surrounding and top-notch hiking, and you have one of my favorite ports

5)  Salmon

These tenacious fish amaze me.  How do they know how to return to their place of birth when it's time to spawn?  How do they find the strength to make such journeys, often long distance upstream or over waterfalls and through rapids?  Do they realize that the only thing that awaits them after this long journey is the chance to procreate…and then die?  Yes, salmon are amazing.  So is the lifestyle people have built around them.  So is seeing Ketchikan's Creek Street or Juneau's Steep Creek or Sitka's coastline or many other places boiling with the homeward-bound fish.  If you want to see them in action, consider planning your trip late in July or August. 

Alaskan cruising is an awesome thing.  To read more about how to discover (or rediscover) it for yourself, check out my book, Cruising Alaska on a Budget.