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www.maxpages.com/alaska49 May is a good time to head to Alaska to see the late spring eruption of activities in the northernmost state. May is also the driest month in Anchorage and one of the driest in Juneau while temperatures are starting to reach their early summer highs. All in all, the prospects for a good voyage were encouraging and, like the wild geese, the urge to go north was unmistakeable. The Coral Princess has had good reviews and its Alaskan itinerary was quite suitable with its scheduled visit to Glacier Bay and its terminus at the new cruise port in Whittier. As it turned out, the Coral Princess was an excellent choice as it afforded all the conveniences, amentities and delights one has come to expect of the large modern cruise ship. 8 May. Saturday Vancouver departure 1730. The vibrant city of Vancouver, Canada is always a pleasure to visit. I arrived a day early on Friday to do a little evening exploration of this touristic city and prepare for a Canada Place noon boarding of the ship on Saturday. The weather was excellent and it would continue in like manner throughout the week-long cruise. Alaska is much better in sunshine for sure. Vancouver has so much to offer the traveler ... from parks to mountains, from seashore to shopping, from Chinatown to Granville Island. I found that it is an easy walking city with the port near downtown, Gastown and Chinatown and the aquabus an easy alternate when negotiating the more southerly False Creek area near Granville Island. The late afternoon departure from Vancouver was most pleasant with good weather and good views of the harbor, Stanley Park, Lion's Gate Bridge and West Vancouver. Variable northerly courses were set for the rest of the night (Map 1). The night would see us transit Seymour Narrows, a notorious stretch of water where the tidal stream is funnelled through a narrow gap and speeds can reach 16 knots at maximum flood. Passing through at close to slack water, we headed north through Canadian waters (Map 2). 9 May. Inside Passage cruising. The Coral Princess had all the proper credentials for an Alaska journey. The inside pool which had a movable glass roof was most enjoyable, the various amenities from dance floors to restaurants were more than adequate and the fellow passengers were interesting and companionable. The day at sea was useful to explore the ship and enjoy its many delights. All voyages should start with a day at sea to allow one to get acquainted with the vessel and begin either the wind down or the wind up process. For me it is usually the wind up direction that I choose to go. The so-called inside passage (Map 2), (Map 3), (Map 4) to Alaska utilizes the many offshore islands to screen the heaviest Pacific seas from adversely affecting the ship's motion. It usually results in a very quiet journey which is preferable for most passengers. It certainly was the case for this voyage. And seeing nearby islands is always pleasant. 10 May. Ketchikan 0630/1430. Sometimes referred to as Alaska's First City inasmuch as the cruise passenger will usually stop here first upon entering the great state of Alaska (map), this salmon fishing center is known as much for its heavy rainfall of just over 160 inches per year as for its southerly location or its prominence in the fishing trade. The port town of Ketchikan is easy to negotiate on foot and it is only a short walk to the Deer Mountain Fish Hatchery a few blocks inland and its nearby Totem Heritage Center that houses some very old Tlingit totem poles. The Tlingit fish hatchery also contains a bald eagle sanctuary that is certainly a close up and personal experience. One has to visit Creek Street, one of the most popular picture-taking points in the state, which is even closer to the cruise ship quays. There is even a short tramway that take one up to the Westmark Hotel for some views of the port and a small park display of totem poles. Then poke around the downtown area where there are plenty of shops to get familiar with the type of Alaskan tourist goods that one will see quite a few times more. One should not miss the old saloon on the wharf next to the moored cruise ships and across from the road tunnel that features an extraordinary collection of ships up on rocks, aground in various surprising attitudes, on fire or covered with thick rhime ice. It gives an immediate appreciation of the most hazardous occupation in America - that of the Alaskan commercial fisherman. During the night, the ship traveled from Ketchikan to Juneau (Map 4) in the usual smooth and seemingly effortless manner even though the route led through relatively narrow channels between numerous islands the entire night. 11 May. Juneau 0700/1930. Juneau is the off-center capital of Alaska and the third largest city in the state (map). It is a good cruise port especially as the easily accessed Mendenhall Glacier is just some fourteen miles to the north and a most worthwhile visit. One can get there by city bus and a mile walk or one can join a van tour easy enough. The glacier can be approached on foot from the visitor's center with about a ten minute walk to an excellent viewing point of the glacier and a nearby waterfall. It was still early in the season so no one was there except a single ranger who was trying to keep visitors away from some Arctic Tern nests on the banks of a small nearby lake that is the result of glacier melt water collection. It was an unusual and appealing scene. Incidentally, the park visitor center has a short but rewarding video highlighting the area's natural and wildlife attractions. Juneau is the center of a number of shore excursions that might appeal to the cruise passenger. At quayside is a relatively new tramway that ascends about a thousand feet up the slope to a lookout and walking area. Of course, the downtown area next to the ship's landing is full of shops that cater to the tourist. The ship had a real treat for its passengers as the first woman dogsled champion Libby Riddles provided her first hand account of the famed 1,049-mile Iditarod Race. I had heard her before and she was just as enthralling as the first time. 12 May. Skagway 0700/2030. Skagway is an unusual cruise port. It is certainly small with only some 300 permanent inhabitants which, as you might expect, grows three or four times as large during the summer season with something like 360 ship visits. The town commemorates the Yukon gold rush days and a number of shops are actually museums that are run by the park service. The big attraction, of course, is the pricey train ride up to White Pass near where the would-be miners had to cross. A picturesque alternative is to take a drive up the Chilkoot Highway which is on the other side of the deep river valley (map), which was the original goldrush route of the miners, and which has an unobstructed view of the railroad route. I think of it as superior to the train ride as no stops are available when using the train. I took the popular and excellent Frontier Excursions 2.5-hr Summit and City Tour which parallels the White Pass Trail of '98 and crosses the Canadian border into Yukon Territory. With snow still on the ground it was a fairyland experience and included everything that has made Skagway famous. The very knowledgeable driver was happy to stop repeatedly for viewing and picture opportunities. Starting at noon, I was met by a zodiac at the Skagway marina to take me to Haines which is some ten miles south of Skagway (map) and the terminus of the Alaskan State Ferry System for those wanting to head straight for Alaska overland. Normally one would take a fast catamarn from Skagway to Haines but as it was early in the season, I was the sole passenger. Dolly Varden Alaska Tours will start bringing in three more catamarans this summer and it should be easy for the cruise passenger to get back and forth to Haines. This port town (aerial view) is famous for its annual meeting of eagles which occurs in November when the Chilkat River is still unfrozen and not only some 5,000 eagles congregate but also the brown bears all come to feast on the flood of salmon still available before the winter sets in. I was met in Haines by the most-hospitable owners of locally owned Eco Orca Tours to begin a boating tour down the Chilkat River through the famous eagle preserve area. Stops along the river were possible and exploring the gravel bars for bear prints and bird watching made for a most interesting run. The enthusiastic owner and guide made the trip most enjoyable with his never-ending observations and stories of the area. He even introduced me afterwards to the new creator of a wildlife experience camp, the Kroschel Films Wildlife Park, which features wolves, coyotes, caribou, lynx and you-name-it animals of the Alaskan scene. He is a former Disney photographer who has a unique way with wild animals and his exhibit shows it. He, incidentally, was able to finance this endeavor with fantastic films made of avalanches. He put cameras into survivable boxes with GPS-equipped location transmitters, set off charges and would sometimes find these cameras in the snow a quarter mile away from their original locations. I flew back from Haines to Skagway in a four-seater aircraft which took about fifteen minutes and had some spectacular aerial views of the Lynn Canal, the longest fiord in North America. 13 May. Glacier Bay cruising 0600/1500. Glacier Bay National Park is a celebrated marine wilderness preserve which was very recently covered by glacial ice and now, with less snowfall, is a large convoluted bay still with tidewater glaciers (photos) very accessible by water. The ship was able to loiter near Margerie Glacier near enough for passengers to witness some ice calving and hear the sharp crack of the slumping ice. The good weather really helped keep people at the rail and interested in the drama. Park rangers boarded the vessel early in the day for a series of lectures covering the natural and wildlife attractions of the park. These naturalists did a very fine job and stayed on the ship the entire time we were in the bay. Not too much wildlife was actually on display; however, there was a rather heart-tugging scene where a bald eagle and a large raven were worrying a mother seal on a bergy bit (a piece of floating ice the size of a very large truck) and apparently had drawn blood from a seal pup while the mother was waging a losing battle to shield the offspring from the birds. She could not dive apparently because the pup was probably unable to swim by then. When we left the scene it was still a stand-off but the outcome was not too difficult to imagine. During the night, the ship traversed the Gulf of Alaska (Map 5) and although one can expect heavier seas in the open ocean the increased motion was not too marked. 14 May. Prince William Sound Early morning saw us enter the huge and attractive sound (Map 6) which is protected from the Gulf of Alaska by some very large islands. We proceeded north to Bligh Reef, near the entrance to Valdez which is now infamous as the scene of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, to pick up two pilots for the last leg of the cruise to College Fiord which was navigated 1500/1800. Similar to Glacier Bay in many ways, the fiorded area still has tidewater glaciers and exhibits all the attractive characteristics of a fiorded area. Incidentally, College Fiord is the most northern point on this itinerary at 61° North Latitude. 15 May. Whittier 0200 arrival, 0800 debarkation. I picked up a station wagon in Whittier and began touring Alaska for eight days before boarding the Veendam in Seward 23 May for the return trip to Vancouver. Log distances in nautical miles (average speed in knots): Vancouver to Seymour Narrows 93 (10.3) Seymour Narrows to Pine Island 112 (16.6) Pine Island to Ketchikan 297 (16.8) Ketchikan to Juneau 276 (19.4) Juneau to Skagway 94 (10.0) Skagway to Glacier Bay 113 (13.3) Glacier Bay to Cape Spencer 20 (13.3) Cape Spencer to Bligh Reef 382 (19.8) Bligh Reef to College Fiord 57 (20.0) College Fiord to Whittier 85 (12.6) Total 1,530 nm. Index of travel articles by the author. Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved. |
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