Behm Canal

Behm Canal is located in the Alexander Archipelago. Separating Revillagigedo Island from mainland Alaska, this 108-mile-long natural channel is actively used as a United States Navy submarine sound testing range. It is also home to New Eddystone Rock, a pillar of basalt jetting from the sea.

Chatham Strait

Located in the Alexander Archipelago, Chatham Strait is a narrow passage that sits between Chichagof Island and Baranof Island to the west and Admiralty Island and Kuiu Island to the east. This 150-mile-long strait connects the open sea with the Lynn Canal and Icy Strait.

Endicott Arm

Endicott Arm is one of two narrow fjords that make up the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness area. Over 30 miles long, it ends at the stunning and breathtaking Dawes Glacier. With calm waters and only the sound of glacial caving, harbor seals, bears, deer, wolves and a wide variety of birds call this area home.

Halfway up Endicott Arm sits Fords Terror, a narrow passage that is accessible by small boat. As the tides change, water is pulled or pushed through this shallow and narrow opening, making it almost impossible for boats to pass through. Time it right and you will be able to see some of the best waterfalls in Southeast Alaska.

Fords Terror Wilderness

Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness was designated in 1980 by the United States Congress. Today, it has over 653,000 acres of breathtaking scenery.

Bounded by Canada on the east and bordered by the Chuck River Wilderness to the south, the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness is highlighted by two sheer-walled fjords, Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm, both narrow and deep and over 30 miles long. At the head of both fjords, tidewater glaciers calve regularly into the sea. Permanent ice covers about one-fifth of the Wilderness.

Frederick Sound

Frederick Sound is a body of water approximately 45 miles wide in the central part of Southeast Alaska, at the confluence of Portage Bay (West), lower Stephens Passage (North), and Chatham Strait between the communities of Juneau (North) and Petersburg (South). Frederick Sound is only accessible by boat or air.

Abundant krill (small, shrimp-like crustaceans), zooplankton and herring thrive in the glacially fed waters of Frederick Sound, making it one of the premier places in Alaska to observe feeding humpback whales. It is estimated that over 500 of the 1,000 humpbacks that migrate annually to Alaska from Hawaiian breeding grounds head particularly to Frederick Sound to feed in its super nutrient-rich waters.

Marine mammals in the sound also include orcas (killer whales), Steller sea lions, Dall’s porpoise, and harbor seals. A variety of seabirds thrive in this region as well and can be observed flying overhead or flocking after the whale’s watery leftovers, creating a great clue to where the humpbacks might be. Surrounding the sound are the majestic craggy snow-covered mountains of the Coast Range rising from the sea to grand heights of 10,000 feet.

Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve

Glacier Bay Park and Preserve is reportedly the most sought-after park to visit in the United States and it is no wonder. Where else will you find a 25 mile-long river of ice still carving the land just as it has for the past several thousand years? When Captain Cook and George Vancouver sailed by in 1879, they saw a 20-mile wide glacier where today the entrance of the park lies, as well the wilderness lodge and park headquarters.

Over the past 200 years, this wall of ice has retreated an astonishing 65 miles north, splintering into a vast number of tributaries spaced throughout the entire park. Each glacier has its own name and character; our captain will decide which to visit for the day depending on ice conditions and wildlife sightings.

Visiting Glacier Bay Park is also like visiting a wildlife park. Here bears, goats, moose, whales, sea otters, and all the creatures of the water and forest flourish, completely protected from man. A National Park Ranger joins us for our entire journey to explain the park's geology, glaciology, wildlife, and its deep roots in Tlingit culture.

Icy Strait

Icy Strait is a body of water in Southeast Alaska located between Chichagof Island and the mainland. It extends 40 miles northwest from Chatham Strait to Glacier Bay and Cross Sound. Icy Strait’s nutrient-rich waters are abundant with marine mammals and seabirds, and the scenery is spectacular.

Juneau, Alaska

Surrounded by the rich, green Tongass National Forest, and located on beautiful Gastineau Channel, Juneau is an important port and a popular tourist destination. Unique because it is the only state capital in the United States that is inaccessible by road, Juneau sits at sea level below the steep mountains that are home to the Juneau Icefield and the Mendenhall Glacier. Its temperate climate produces remarkable scenery with miles of hiking trails through woods and alpine meadows providing a glimpse of just how rugged the rainforest of Southeast Alaska is.

The Auke tribe of Tlingit Indians were the first settlers in the Juneau area. They lived there peacefully enjoying the abundance of food and natural resources until the gold rush began. First named Rockwell and then Harrisburg, Juneau was finally named after gold prospector Joseph Juneau. In 1880, he and his partner, Richard Harris, discovered gold nearby, and the city quickly developed into a gold rush town.

During the lucrative 60 years of gold mining in the area Juneau was home to three of the world's largest gold mines: The Alaska Juneau mine, the Alaska Gastineau mine, and the Treadwell mine. These three mines produced $158 million worth of gold making Juneau one of the world's major gold mining areas until the 1940s when costs outstripped the value of the gold. However, since 2005 the gold mining industry has been experiencing a resurgence.

Officially designated the capital of the Territory of Alaska in 1900, it did not function as the capital until the government offices were moved there from Sitka in 1906. In 1959 Juneau became the official state capital when Alaska was admitted to the United States. Today, its approximately 31,000 citizens live within a 3,255 square mile boundary, an amount of land that makes Juneau's city limits the largest state capital in the United States (and the only state capital that borders a foreign city.)

Along with its delightful small town ambiance, Juneau has a number of art galleries, boutiques, historical sites, and museums. In town you can visit the Alaska State Museum, the House of Wickersham, the Patsy Ann Statue, the 5-stories-tall totem pole outside the Capital Building, the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, the Alaska-Juneau gold mine or the salmon hatchery.

One of the most popular attractions in the area is Mendenhall Glacier, located only 13 miles outside the city. Although it’s receding, it is an amazing work of nature. Other attractions include the Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge (providing a look at Alaska’s salt marshes and the migratory waterfowl protected there); the Juneau Icefield; the Mt. Roberts Tram (rises 1,800 feet and presents sweeping views of downtown Juneau and Gastineau Channel.) There are more than 205 trails within and surrounding Juneau. They range from fairly flat hikes accessible to wheelchairs and stroller to medium hikes up and down forest trails to strenuous uphill paths for serious hikers.

Ketchikan, Alaska

Known as the “Salmon Capital of the World,” Ketchikan has a rich and diverse history—all of which you can see elements of today. In the late 1800s it built a fish saltery, which was soon followed by a salmon cannery and general store—salmon still spawn in the Ketchikan Creek that runs through the middle of town.

In the surrounding hills, gold, copper, and molybdenum were mined. As an important trading community with miners and fishermen frequenting the town, Creek Street became the red-light district of Ketchikan. Over 30 bordellos lined the street at one point. Mining never really took off, but the fishing industry and new timber operations began to grow with the establishment of the Ketchikan Spruce Mills early in the century. Ketchikan was crucial for supplying lightweight cedar for the construction of airplanes during WW II, and for the next half century, it was synonymous with the timber industry. In 1954, Ketchikan Pulp Mill was completed but today, the logging industry has nearly disappeared, replaced by tourism.

Wildlife sightings are also an every day encounter in this fascinating port. Over 100 species of migrating birds including bald eagles, black bears, Sitka black-tailed deer, mountain goats, marten, mink, sea otters, seals, orca, humpback whales, and an abundance of salmon can be found in the Ketchikan area.

Hanging above the salmon stream are the pilings supporting the historic structures that once housed the red light district and helped bootleggers move their whisky unseen at high tide. Today, the historic district along Ketchikan’s famed Creek Street hold souvenir shops, bookstores, and restaurants. There are a number of museums in town that tell its history from a pioneer, native, and modern perspective and the Tlingit village of Saxman, a historical town site, displays totem poles and a proud sense of its cultural past. Another unique point of interest is the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, a first-class education center with true-to-life displays of temperate rainforest, salmon streams, and native structures.

Learn about Ketchikan’s local Native cultures, and the history and importance of fishing and the arts through the Ketchikan Story project. www.ketchikanstories.com

Misty Fjords National Monument

Misty Fjords is south of Ketchikan on the border with Canada. As you journey into Behm Canal, the seemingly quiet entrance becomes more and more narrow as you pass New Eddie Stone Rock. This geologic oddity is the remnant of a “volcanic plug” rising out of the middle of this passage, and named for resembling a lighthouse back in England by Captain George Vancouver. It is just the first glimpse at many of the geological features seen while in the Misty Fjords National Monument.

This national monument was created in 1980 and consists of over two million acres. Misty Fiords was carved out by the last great North American glaciation, leaving narrow winding granite walls to guide our ship deep into the wilderness. Many of these winding passageways open to large granite amphitheaters of rock rising some 3,000 feet out of the water. This protected wilderness area is a place where we may spot brown bear and mountain goats.

As if by magic, the forest holds onto these steep walls and flourishes on incredibly abrupt slopes coming down to the waters edge. It is common to see bald eagles here swooping down from these trees to take salmon out of the water. Often the mist and clouds will hover throughout the fiord, shrouding your whole experience in what seems like a dream. Cruising through Misty Fiords is like traveling through a mystical storybook, with epic walls of rock and deep, dark forests winding through small canyons and passages. You will never know or guess what lies around the next corner.

Stephens Passage

Running between Admiralty Island to the west and Douglas Island to the east, Stevens Passage is a 170-km channel in the Alexander Archipelago.

Stephens Passage was named in 1794 by George Vancouver, probably for Sir Philip Stephens. It was first charted the same year by Joseph Whidbey, master of the HMS Discovery during Vancouver's 1791–95 expedition.

Thomas Bay

Northeast of Petersburg, Thomas Bay is known for glaciers and its abundance of wildlife. Moose, bears, and wolves are just a few of the animals you may see while traveling through this bay. Rich with gold, quartz, and lore, Baird Glacier drains into the bay.

It is also known as “The Bay of Death,” due to a massive landslide that claimed over 500 lives in 1750. It also has gained the name of "Devil's Country" when in 1900 several people claimed to have seen devil creatures in the area.

Wrangell, Alaska

Located on the northern corner of Wrangell Island—part of the Alexander Archipelago—the city of Wrangell is seven miles from the mouth and delta of the Stikine River, a very important freshwater contribution to the Inside Passage. The powerful Stikine Tlingit tribes inhabited the region for thousands of years, developing a very important trade center at the mouth of this river with the interior Athapaskan tribes. Along the beach north of town remains a very extensive collection of petroglyphs. It is thought that these rock carvings may have been primitive boundary markers for the First Peoples that lived in this area, establishing its importance.

Wrangell is one of the oldest non-native settlements in Alaska. The first to document this region were the Russians, who arrived in 1811 and began trading with the native Tlingits for beaver and sea otter furs from the Stikine River. In 1834 the Russians built a stockade, which in 1839 was leased by the British Hudson Bay Trading Company causing controversy over the use of Tlingit trade routes. The fort was abandoned in 1849 after depleting the sea otter and beaver stock in the area, but remained under British rule until Alaska was purchased by the U.S. in 1869.

Its colorful pioneer history grew with gambling, bars and Gold Rushers, and even tout Wyatt Earp in their guest book of famous visitors when he stopped in Wrangell en route to the northern gold fields. John Muir also has his place in the Wrangell history books, staying here in his early days of Alaska exploration. A disastrous fire in the early 1950s destroyed most of the downtown area including the Bear Totem Store, a curio shop built in 1920 which housed a collection of Tlingit arts, crafts, and irreplaceable totem poles. For many years, this rough and rugged Wild West town was supported primarily by the logging and fishing industries.

Today, Wrangell continues to redefine itself. The lumber mills have been upgraded and refashioned into a sustainable forest products industry, and the town has become a unique outpost for tourism. Visit Chief Shakes Island and Tribal House Monument, Totem Park, the Wrangell Museum, or walk among the petroglyphs at Petroglyph Beach State Park for a glimpse into its history.

Wrangell Narrows

Wrangell Narrows is one of the two narrowest waterways in Southeast Alaska, with Peril Straits near Sitka being the other. It is approximately 21 miles long, and is a very narrow and shallow waterway separating Mitkof Island and Kupreanof Island. Depending on tide activity, Wrangell Narrows is one-half mile to 100 yards wide, with its snake-like path winding around 46 total course changes.

More than 70 navigational aids mark this course, giving Wrangell Narrows its nickname of “Christmas Tree Lane,” reminding folks of the red and green holiday lights when all the buoys are lit at night. This waterway averages just 19 to 22 feet deep, depending on the tide. Large boats require more than two feet of water above average low tide in order to navigate this challenging waterway safely. The southern point of Wrangell Narrows is the confluence of Sumner Strait, and its northern point is the small, quaint fishing village of Petersburg and the confluence of Frederick Sound, with the tides entering and exiting from both ends.