North America: Part Two

Alaska

We reboarded our ship on July 1^st in Vancouver; unfortunately, we sailed out that very night, so we missed out on the fireworks.  However, we’re glad to be home and we enjoyed our brief stay in Vancouver.  First up we had two sea days as we sailed the inside passage towards Alaska.  It was kind of a relief to just have a few days to get organized and settle back into life on the ship.  We walked the decks and decompressed while enjoying the breathtaking scenery.

Ketchikan, Alaska

Our first stop in Alaska is Ketchikan and of course Mike managed to find a mountain to climb.  We made a brief pass through town to check out the salmon ladder and then headed for the trailhead.  After a fairly steady climb up a paved road, we headed off into the trees for a long, steep slog up Deer Mountain.  We really didn’t do very much in the 6 weeks we were back in Canada, and we felt it.  There were three great viewpoints on the way up the mountain.  The last one gave us a great view over Ketchikan and a view of the final peak from what was essentially a false summit.  At this point we decided we weren’t up for the final climb and to be safe we decided to head back down.  The trail was steep, wet and covered in roots and shale rock.  It was slow going heading down and you really had to watch your footing.  As much as we were disappointed that we didn’t make the summit it was the right decision for us.

Wrangell, Alaska

We are both sore and feeling our hike from yesterday, but the best thing to do is stretch out.  Wrangell has a lovely nature trail on the edge of town, so we warmed up with a leisurely stroll through the forest and muskeg.  Afterwards we headed for the Dewey Mountain lookout which is a short hike with a view.  It was a steady climb on stairs and boardwalk, but it went by quickly.  On the way back down, we detoured down a side trail that luckily led back down to a road that led into town. 

After lunch we headed back out to see the petroglyphs on the beach.  The scenery was just beautiful.  When we got back to town we went hunting for binoculars.  We’ve seen several whale spouts, but they’re usually pretty far out.  Mike has the super zoom camera, but I tend to miss out, so I wanted a way to see further too.

Icy Straight Point

On the way to Icy Straight Point, we had a sea day.  The weather started to turn, so it was cool, cloudy, and rainy throughout the day.  Mike braved the weather to get his laps in, but I chose to work on the blog inside.

Icy Straight Point is essentially just a cruise terminal just down the road from the town of Hoonah.  They’ve built up an area with shops, a museum, and restaurants for tourists to visit.  There is also a gondola that will take you to the top of the mountain where there are hiking areas.  They also have an adventure park for kids.  We were the only ship in port for the day and the gondolas weren’t running, so we walked the 5 kilometers to Hoonah.  It was a cute little town, but not much was open.  On the way back we did a nature loop hike that took us over to the other cruise pier through the adventure park.  It was a beautiful spot, and the shop area was pretty cool too.

Juneau, Alaska

After another sea day where we saw quite a few playful whales, we made our way into Juneau which was a tender port for us.  Being the most recent booking, we were unable to secure a berth, so we anchored and shuttled into town using our tender boats.  Luckily, this went much smoother than previous attempts. 

Mike found us another mountain to climb, so we headed into town and up the ridge towards Roberts Peak.  We didn’t hike to the actual summit, but we hiked up past Father Brown’s Cross and got some great views.  On the way down we cheated and took the tram.  It’s a third of the price if you only buy a one-way ticket. 

Once we got back to town we wandered through some of the shops and then made our way to the grocery store for snacks. It was a ton of walking, but we had a really good day.

Skagway, Alaska

We arrived in Skagway and again had to tender.  There was a landslide back in 2022 that blocked off access to some of the cruise piers and they still haven’t finished remediations.  We were docked alongside but still had to tender over to actually disembark.  From here we hiked up to Lower Dewey Lake; it was a short climb, but I wasn’t up for the ascent to Upper Dewey Lake.  Once back down we walked all the way through town and out the other side to reach Lower Reid Falls which were pretty impressive.  We ended up getting rained on all the way back to the ship, but all in all it was a good day.

Tracy Arm (Sawyer Glacier)

From Skagway we had 2 sea days and then we sailed through Tracy Arm fjord to view Sawyer Glacier.  The weather wasn’t great, and we weren’t able to get as close to the glacier as we would have liked, but the sail though the fjord was fantastic.  The mountains, valleys, and waterfalls made for epic views wherever you looked.

Hubbard Glacier

One more sea day brought us over to Hubbard Glacier which isn’t very far inland.  It is a massive glacier at 122 kilometers long and one of the few that is still growing.  The face of the glacier that reaches the water is over 9.5 kilometers wide.  Our ship got really close to the glacier and we were able to hear the sounds of it moving as we watched chunks of ice falling into the water.  It was a pretty powerful sight.

College Fjord 

College Fjord contains five tidewater glaciers, five valley glaciers and dozens of smaller glaciers.  Mike got up early to film our journey through the fjord and I joined him once we reached the end where most of the tidewater glaciers sit, in particular Harvard Glacier.  Tidewater just means that they still terminate in the water.  The glaciers are all named after prominent colleges, thus College Fjord.  I hope the pictures do it justice, but all I can say is that Mother Nature is insane.  We also got to see a group of seals lounging on an iceberg.

Harvard wasn’t as active as Hubbard, but it was calving occasionally.  It was less dramatic, but still amazing to watch.  I thought we got close to Hubbard Glacier, but we got even closer to Harvard. 

Homer, Alaska

The cruise pier for Homer is located on the Homer Spit, a long strip of land with restaurants, shops, campgrounds and beaches.  They also provided a shuttle into town, so on the first day we hopped on the shuttle and wandered around town for a bit.  After a visit to the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, we walked all the way back to the ship.  There really wasn’t much to see in Homer, but the views of the surrounding mountains more than made up for it. And I got to pet an adventure cat!

On the second day we were going to be leaving early, so we explored the end of the spit.  We saw an otter napping in the marina while some seals swam around.  The shops were interesting and we stopped for some snacks (mac and cheese, seafood chowder, and mini donuts) before wandering back to the ship.

Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska and weirdly empty.  There were quite a few vehicles during rush hour, but there really weren’t a lot of people walking around downtown.  Cruise ships don’t generally dock in Anchorage because there isn’t much to do and the tide is wicked.  They have to dredge the channel daily to keep the port accessible.  During low tide they had to shut down access to our ship because the gangway became unsafe.  Most cruises visit Seward instead, so Villa Vie set up a bus to take us if we wanted to go from Anchorage.  We thought about it, but it was over 2 hours one way on the bus, and we decided we’d spend our time in Anchorage stocking up for the Pacific Ocean crossing instead. 

On the first day we took the shuttle from the ship to the William Egan Conference Center and then walked all the way to Costco with a couple of other stops and then took an Uber back to the conference center.  One stop was Bass Pro where we saw some wildlife...lol. We have 10 days at sea while we cross over to Japan, so it was important to stock up on snacks and essentials. 

On the second day we wandered around town a bit more and them made our way via the Valley of the Moon Park to the Walmart. We saw an old steam engine, a memorial, and a rose garden on the way to the park. The park was full of pathways and underpasses for pedestrians and bikes. It was a nice change from walking on the main roads.

We had fantastic weather while we were in Anchorage and got to experience Alaska’s first ever heat advisory. It wasn't that hot, but it was unseasonably warm. Hot weather used to come through as a special weather statement, but they made changes to the system and now they are considered advisories. It was still really warm for July in the mid 20s. 

Kodiak, Alaska

Our last stop in Alaska was the city of Kodiak, on Kodiak Island home of the Kodiak bear.  This was a tender port, so we were a little worried we weren’t going to make it.  Fortunately, the weather cooperated, and we were able to get in no problem.  Mike was determined to walk as much as possible before our 10 days at sea, so we headed out to explore.  We tried to walk to Spruce Cape Trailhead which leads out to a point on the island, but we ran into a fence that said no public access, so we ended up at Walmart instead. 

Afterwards we wandered back to the main area of town and checked out a few shops.  We had a drink at the Kodiak Brewery and then took the tender back to the ship.  It was a good day and a lot of walking.

We really enjoyed our time in Alaska and would love to come back to explore further inland. Excursions aren't really our thing, but they probably would have given us a better perspective of the wilderness. Alaska is stunningly beautiful and a wild and wonderful place.

Pacific Crossing

Now we are gearing up to cross the Pacific Ocean on our way to Japan.  We’ve got 7 hours of time change and crossing of an international date line in our future.  The captain is keeping us close to land and going through the Bearing Sea to avoid some weather developing in the open ocean.  It’s going to be a long stretch confined to the ship, but we are looking forward to exploring Japan.