2019 Alaska - Kenai Fjords and Seward

It was sunny but hazy in Seward this morning. A wildfire started by lightning three weeks ago is bringing the haze. In some places it's so bad they are handing out dust masks, but it's not too bad here.

We disembarked from the Noordam this morning, and headed straight to a marina to take a 6 hour boat tour of the Kenai Fjords. 

Like the other Alaska towns we've visited, Seward hugs the coast, tucked against mountains. Here the mountains have snow. Seward owes its founding to the sea otters which still can be found here. Their dense fur (up to a million hairs per square inch) was prized by hunters in search of this "wet gold." Between 1741 and 1911 they were hunted so aggressively worldwide that their population plummeted from 150,000-300,000 to 1000-2000.  Conservation efforts and an international ban on hunting have improved their status, but sea otters are still considered an endangered species. 

This big guy obligingly swam next to our boat to vigorously groom and preen. His webbed feet are huge and effective in the water, but make for awkward going on land.

We were hoping for marine animal sightings on the cruise and were not disappointed. There were not lots of anything except birds, but we saw a wide variety of critters.

Tufted puffin

Humpback whale (another conservation success story)

Steller (or northern) sea lions. A bull with his harem. Much larger than California sea lions, a male can be up to 11 feet long and 2,500 lbs!

Kenai Fjords National Park includes the Holgate Icefield, which covers a mountain range under a thousand feet of ice and sources 38 glaciers. We saw two at sea level on our cruise of the fjords, and several on the surrounding mountains.

Harbor seals on ice floes by Holgate Glacier were unperturbed by possible calving.

Glacier fed waterfalls tumbled hundreds of feet down fjord walls.


We followed a pair of orcas for a while but never saw more than a dorsal fin and a tail display.

But this guy was more cooperative.

After the cruise, Greg and I dashed to the nearby National Park visitors' center to stamp our NPS passport books before our bus left for the Windsong Lodge. 

It's now 10 PM. I'm sitting on our balcony writing and it looks like this:

The birds don't know to go to bed. 😴

2019 Alaska - Scenic Cruising

Scenic cruising was a bust. All day. The fog horn sounded every 2 minutes from 3 AM onwards.

At least the timing was good!  Couldn't have happened on a better day.

2019 Alaska - Glacier Bay

We were up in the Crows Nest lounge at 7:30 this morning to hear the National Park Service rangers start their daylong program as we cruised Glacier Bay. Again we were blessed with glorious weather, perfect for seeing the Alaska that, as Greg commented, one pictures when they want to visit this northern state. 

Some people picture cruising the Inland Passage with calving glaciers lined up across the water from their balcony. That is closer to the case in Antarctica. Most of this route to Alaska is heavily forested (we're still adjacent to the enormous Tongass National Forest) and until you are well north, you have to delve deep into fjords to find tidewater (the calving kind of) glaciers.

But today, we did see them. Two cruise ships a day are permitted into Glacier Bay, always under the auspices of the National Park Service. The rangers, accompanied by a Tlingit woman who presented her own interesting cultural program, boarded our ship from a small boat when we approached the bay. They provided a running commentary throughout today's cruise on the geologic features and history of the park. We went about 40 miles up the main channel to Grand Pacific and Margerie Glaciers, which is about 35 miles further than Captain George Vancouver could sail in 1794. 

The deeper we went into the bay, the less established the forest along the coast. When glaciers melt or retreat, they leave only rock, water and soil. It takes decades to establish ground cover, then shrubs and finally mature trees. 

We finally reached Margerie Glacier, where we spent an hour idling, taking in the sights and sounds of the calving glacier.

An intrepid sailor had ventured deep into the bay. 

Margerie Glacier


Johns Hopkins Glacier. Seals nesting on the glacier necessitated we keep a 5 mile distance from the ice. The noise of the glacier provides sound camouflage from predators for the pups.

Silt line demarking runoff from the Johns Hopkins Glacier. (Lamplugh Glacier in the distance)


Lamplugh Glacier has receded100 yards in the last year.  The huge chunk of dark ice in front of it fell off last summer.

View along Johns Hopkins Inlet

The bow platform on the 4th deck was open only today, and we spent a couple of hopeful hours there in the late afternoon with about 20 other people. Wildlife spottings were sparse, but we did see orcas spouting in the distance, one closer whale, and a few solitary seals and sea otters. Oh, and one inquisitive eagle who scoped us out.

That little white speck near the middle of the shore line? Yeah, that's a whale exhaling.

Evening cruising north continued to be lovely.

2019 Alaska - Skagway and Railroad

We started the day by walking into Skagway and visiting the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. After getting our NPS passports stamped we joined a ranger tour that wandered around town, focusing on the environmental impact of the gold rush.  

I occupied myself by earning my Junior Ranger badge while Greg was geocaching. 

Like Deadwood, South Dakota, Skagway sprung up practically overnight. Quickly progressing from a tent city to rough wooden structures, the town acquired saloons, mining supply stores, brothels and the other necessities of frontier life. Today it is like a living history museum, with a generous smattering of jewelry stores and souvenir shops. The population swells from around 800 to 2500 during the cruising season, with an additional two to three times the larger number offloading from ships each day.

It was another spectacularly clear day, and actually almost uncomfortably hot (high 80s) in the sun. We decided at the last minute to bypass the Travel With Alan "included" coach tour up the route of the White Pass Trail. Instead, we took the historic White Pass & Yukon Route railroad up to White Pass Summit. 

The Klondike gold rush started after gold was accidentally discovered in the Canadian Klondike in 1896. The news reached Seattle in 1897, spurring tens of thousands of prospective prosecutors to travel up the Inside Passage to Skagway. From there, they had a roughly 35 mile brutal trek over the coastal mountains to Lake Bennett in British Columbia. At the lake, prospectors had to built a boat and then float down the Yukon River to the Klondike. The distance from Skagway to the gold fields was about 600 miles.

Fearing a massive famine among the hoards of inexperienced greenhorns flooding into the harsh and remote Yukon, Canada passed a law requiring the prospectors to bring a specific list of items to get them through a year. Essentials included 350 pounds of flour, 150 of bacon and 100 each of sugar and beans. The resulting list totaled about a ton in weight, requiring the prospectors to effectively climb the Chilkoot or White Pass trail 20 to 30 times to shuttle all of their required goods up to Lake Bennett. 

It quickly became apparent that a railroad up the mountains would make the entire endeavor more sustainable. The narrow gauge track was completed in July 1900, only 26 months after construction began. Plenty of labor was available, both people who came specifically to work on the railroad, and stampeders (prospectors) who found themselves in Skagway lacking sufficient funds to finance their trip to the Yukon gold fields. Over 35,000 people worked on construction of the railroad. Challenges included blasting two tunnels, laying track along steep glacial canyons, building trestle bridges high over rushing rivers, all with a track grade of 3.9 %. Remarkably, only 35 people died in the process.

The 4 hour train trip was great. Wonderful views while crisscrossing streams and climbing about 3,000 feet.

Inches to spare along the rail bed

Across the valley we could see a train descending along the track we were on. 

It was so clear today that from Inspiration Point, about 10 miles (and an elevation change of over 1/2 mile) from Skagway as the crow flies, we could see a cruise ship in Skagway Harbor. 

From Inspiration Point, the harbor is the pale spot in the middle. You'd have to zoom to see the cruise ship to the left.

This trestle bridge looks to be weeks from collapse. On closer inspection, one section right of center had already fallen. As we approached, we were relieved to be diverted past it...

... and taken over a newer bridge.

The route ended just after the US - Canadian border. The 5 flags are USA, Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon and Canada. 

The train took a victory lap around a loop at the top of the pass and headed back down the same track. 

One of the tunnels

Avalanche zones across the valley, where we were headed. Train tracks can be seen near the bottom. Every spring the tracks must be plowed clear by special cars. 

Plow car

Part of the original White Pass Trail lies adjacent to the track. Abandoned barrels, tools and other gear can be seen rusting along the trail. It's hard to imagine two lines of people, animal and equipment struggling along the narrow path.

This is our last port until we disembark in 3 days. Lots of scenic cruising ahead. No chance to post again until Sunday.

2019 Alaska - Juneau

Today we are in Juneau. It's 9:30 PM, sunny and 76 degrees. I'm sitting on a deck chair in short sleeves. Not bad for Alaska. However, I read today that the near record temperatures in Skagway (a bit north, where we stop tomorrow) are causing so much glacier melt that the river and part of the Chilkoot Trail are flooding. As much as I love weather karma, this is not good.

Like Ketchikan, Juneau is surrounded by the Tongass National Forest, at 16.7 acres the largest national forest in the United States. This encompasses the world's largest temperate rain forest, with 100 inches of snow and 90 of rain annually.

Surrounded by icefields 50 x 100 miles long, Juneau is, like Ketchikan, accessible only by sea and air. Ketchikan owes its existence to fishing; Juneau to gold.

The US bought Alaska from Crimean War strapped Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million dollars. Russia was happier to see the territory in American hands than those of their then foes, the British. After gold was discovered in 1880 and then the oil boom in the 1970s, I bet they wish they'd have hung on to it a bit longer.

While Russian territory, the capital of Alaska was nearby Sitka, then called New Archangel. In 1906 during gold mining days, the capital moved to Juneau. At that time there was no Anchorage (founded in 1915) or Fairbanks.  There were several campaigns over the last 50 years to move the capital, but at this point, it seems unlikely to change. It would be expensive, and many of the previous arguments for a move have become moot with the advent of the internet and electronic access to the state government.

Today Juneau has about 33,000 year round residents. The primary business in the capital is government, followed by tourism and then fishing.

We had a 4 hour excursion today that was included in our travel package. We traveled by coach to a city viewpoint that, conveniently, had a geocache. 

Next stop was the Mendenhall Glacier, located within the Tongass National Forest.

Greg and I walked a mile out the trail to Nugget Falls, which 30 years ago was behind the glacier instead of before it. The glacier has retreated almost two miles since it first became a tourist destination in the late 1800s, and a third of a mile just since 2007.

Nugget Falls, with the glacier to the left.

Mendenhall Glacier, from the visitors center. Nugget Falls on right.

Along the trail

Our final stop was the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery, a non-profit hatchery that was started as a home project in a children's wading pool after record low salmon counts in 1974. The current location opened in 1984 and now releases just over 130 million chum, king and coho salmon annually. 

Incubation tanks, teeming with salmon fry about 3 inches long.

Outside is a fish ladder from which the fry will be released into Juneau's Gastineau Channel when they are about a year old, and to which they will return several years later. The adult fish spawn in large tanks beyond the top of the ladder. The eggs are harvested, hatched into fry and the cycle begins again. A few weeks from now the fish ladder will become a frenzy of salmon striving to get home, but today we didn't see a single returning fish.

Fish ladder

In case we don't see another one, here is a breaching humpback whale in the Gastineau Channel.

After dinner we went to a BBC film on Alaska that was co-produced with Holland America to commemorate their 70 years of Alaska cruises. (They were the first cruiseline to come here.) Accompanied by live music including the string quintet that plays in Lincoln Center Stage, it followed a year's cycle of Alaskan wildlife. Nicely done, beautifully photographed.