Explore Tlingit and Russian culture in Sitka.

Sitka lies in the shadow of the Mt. Edgecumbe volcano. This dormant volcano is unlikely to erupt in your presence, as it has not done so in 6,000 years. The ancient crater adds to the energy of a landscape that is interwoven with the Tlingit and Russian cultures that make up Sitka’s past and present. Sitka was the Russian Capitol of Alaska before it was sold to the United States in 1867. The remnants of its architecture, also known as the “Paris of the Pacific,” are all still apparent, especially with St. Michael's Russian Orthodox Cathedral which dominates the town’s skyline. In the middle of town, the Tlingit ceremonial long house will also capture your attention. It is these two cultures, the Russian and the Tlingit, that in times past clashed and fought fiercely in Sitka. The Tlingit ultimately were defeated in their right to govern themselves here, however it is the Tlingit who persisted and live here today.

No visit to Sitka is complete without visiting the Sheldon Jackson Museum. This museum represents a vast collection of artifacts from all over Alaska, presented in an intimate and fun way you can explore on your own. Immediately adjoining the museum is the Sitka National Historic Park, where many totem poles stand in the mist-shrouded forest. When you walk here among the icons of the Pacific Northwest in their natural setting, it is as if you are stepping back to a time long forgotten. Sitka is situated on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, and it is here that the raw swells can be seen crashing on the islands protecting its inner harbor and fishing fleet.

While in Sitka, there are options to kayak, hike, bike, and/or visit the world famous Raptor Rehabilitation Center where you can come within inches of bald and golden eagles, just to name a few. These birds are here for medical attention and recovery from injury. Some may not have the ability to re-enter the wild. A guided tour of the facilities and a demonstration showing how magnificent and noble these raptors are will be available, and often leaves our guests speechless.

Visit the bustling port of Prince Rupert.

Prince Rupert is located on Kaien Island at the mouth of the Skeena River, on the southeastern edge of the U.S./Canada water boundary of Dixon Entrance. Prince Rupert is approximately 40 miles south of Alaska's southernmost boundary, 950 miles north of Vancouver, and 447 miles west of the city of Prince George on Highway 16. The city's population is 14, 643, and annual precipitation averages approximately 8 feet. Average summer temperature is 60 degrees F; winter averages 28 degrees F.
The community of Prince Rupert began as the western terminus of the second Canadian transcontinental railroad and continues today as a transportation center, linking the northern Canadian Pacific Coast to the rest of Canada as well as to Alaska by state ferry or to Vancouver Island on the British Columbia ferry system.

The bountiful North Pacific has always provided well for the coastal inhabitants of British Columbia. Tsimshian and Haida First Nations have lived on the shores of this region for thousands of years. Some archaeological sites of ancient villages are dated back 5,000 years or more on the islands around Prince Rupert. The Historic Museum of Northern British Columbia has documented this history of their First Nations from contact with fur traders and missionaries on to present day activities.

The economic heart and passion of Prince Rupert is commercial and sport fishing of salmon, halibut, crab and prawns. Prince Rupert is also a leading Northwest port, exporting lumber, grain, coal and potash in the billions of dollars each year. Today this port offers all the amenities of a larger city with a friendly small town attitude. A tour of this community reveals a performing arts center, golf course, swimming pool, and civic center with reproductions of cedar totem poles that were carved hundreds of years ago.

As Alaska's largest city, Anchorage is the hub of the state.

Anchorage is the largest community in Alaska with 270,000 residents. The town was founded in 1914, and within 1 year, the Alaska Railroad made Anchorage its hub. In 1915, Anchorage became a tent city of 2,000 people following the "Great Anchorage Lot Sale." The land auction sold lots for an average of $225 each. The city of Anchorage became officially incorporated in 1920. Major military impact allowed for the growth of Anchorage between 1939 and 1957. Roads were built and airports were constructed, allowing for continual growth of the city, and the port of Anchorage was completed in the early 1960s.

In 1964, the Good Friday Earthquake demolished a large part of the town. The quake registered 9.2 on the Richter Scale, killing 131 people. Downtown Anchorage and residential areas suffered massive land slide damage. During the 1970s, Anchorage experienced another major economic boom with the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. The economy continues to thrive on natural resource production, along with finance and real estate, government agencies, tourism and transportation.

Downtown Anchorage offers a variety of shops and enjoyable cafes and restaurants. You will enjoy your day of sightseeing, traveling south along the Turnagain Arm, a beautiful trip by motorcoach to view Cook Inlet, and looking for mountain goats along the Chugach Mountain Range. You will visit the Alyeska Resort and partake in a scenic tram ride to the summit. Later in the day you will travel northeast to the Alaska Native Heritage Center and have the wonderful opportunity to learn about the various native cultures in Alaska. Members of different tribes conduct education workshops, discussing their history, customs, and way of life.

Bring lots of film when you cruise Prince William Sound.

Prince William Sound is a must-see if you believe that "big things come in small packages." Roughly the size of Puget Sound and 3 times the size of San Francisco Bay, Prince William Sound stretches nearly 70 miles both across and from top to bottom. Sailing the Sound brings visitors up-close and personal with centuries-old glacial ice, from small cirque glaciers (shallow bowls on high mountain peaks) to large tidewater glaciers (glaciers that end with their faces in water). It's exciting to watch these large rivers of ice drop huge pieces into the water right in front of you! Listen for the sound of the mass moving along; large fissures crack like rifle shots as the plummeting chunks of ice smack the water. As the glacier calves, it creates a chain reaction in the water, moving ice bits, bergs, and the sea life with it.

This area is steeped in history, with a diversity of names that indicate the people who left their mark here. You'll find Native, Russian, English, and Spanish names reflecting the pioneers who explored and lived in this area. Because the rugged and tall Chugach and Kenai Mountains cut off Prince William Sound from the interior, it's easy to pretend you are one of the first explorers to sail in these waters.

One of the shaping forces of Alaska is out in the Sound, the collision deep in the earth of the Pacific Plate with the North American Plate. It has lifted up the world's greatest coastal mountains, the Chugach. The highest peak in the Chugach Range, 13,176-foot Mount Marcus Baker, towers above Harvard Glacier in College Fjord. It's no wonder that copper, gold, and silver ores, among others, were found aplenty.

The incredible scenery -- narrow waterways, forest-covered islands, sea caves, marine mammals, and sea birds -- keeps visitors busy photographing, and with a maximum 19 hours of daylight around the summer solstice, there is plenty of time in which to do it. This is definitely color photography at its best. The color of the water changes from an eye-popping copper sulfate blue to the violet blue of the deep ocean. Close to glaciers the water turns a turbid gray from the glacier "flour" or silt that occurs as glaciers grind the rock on which they slide. We are able to get very close to these spectacles, making the experience richer, more poignant, and the photographs more spectacular: like being in a movie instead of just watching it. This is one place you shouldn't forget to bring plenty of film.

About 12,000 years ago, the glaciers that created this area began to recede, leaving 3,000 highly convoluted miles of shoreline surrounded on 3 sides by the Chugach Mountains and the Kenai Mountains to the west. The glaciers scoured the Earth's crust down to the granite roots of the Chugach range and dug out deep fjords, glacially carved valleys filled with seawater, creating the Sound and the rugged, sculpted Chugach Mountains. There are more breathtakingly beautiful tidewater glaciers surrounded by precipitous mountain peaks here than in the rest of Alaska. In all, there are over 20 glaciers terminating at sea level; numerous others cling to precipitous mountainsides. Of these, we see over half up-close and personal.

Watch the glacier parade in College Fjord.

In the summer of 1899, railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman, president of the Union Pacific Railroad and the Washington Academy of Sciences upon advice from his physician to take a sea voyage as an antidote to stress, funded a scientific expedition along the Alaskan coast. The two-month expedition, intended initially as a family vacation, eventually gathered an illustrious group of scientists, naturalists, writers, and artists, and combined scientific research with leisure activities.

It was the Harriman Expedition party who named College Fjord as well as the glaciers that line it. The dozen or so glaciers lining this fjord were named for the Ivy League schools that members of the party attended. On the northwest side of the fjord, the glaciers were named after the women's colleges, such as Smith, Bryn Mawr, Vassar, Wellesley, Barnard, and Holyoke. On the southeast side, the glaciers are named after men's colleges Harvard, Yale, Amherst, and Dartmouth.

Some of these glaciers have retreated since the original Harriman Expedition, but not the largest of them, Harvard. Harvard Glacier is 1-1/2 miles wide, approximately 225 feet high at its terminal face, stretches below the waterline up to about 120 feet, and reaches back to the Chugach Icefield nearly 24 miles away. This giant of College Fjord is slowly advancing, calving literally tons of ice into the fjord each day. These glaciers parade down from the steep mountains. Nowhere else is there such a density of tidal glaciers.

There are often harbor seals hauled out on the ice floes in front of Harvard Glacier throughout the summer. It's also not unusual to see large rafts of sea otters together, grooming their luxuriously dense fur, slipping beneath the surface to dine on crab,