Day 1: Arrive in Anchorage
Transfer to the Sheraton Hotel. Day 2: Sail from Whittier
Enjoy a tour that includes a visit to the Museum of History and Fine Art. Board a motorcoach in Anchorage to travel to Whittier. This two-hour scenic drive follows a significant portion of Turnagain Arm, named by Captain Cook in 1778, because his crew, exploring up the fjord in a small boat was forced to turn back. Watch for Dall's sheep clinging to the rocky precipices. The marsh flats are the perfect habitat for a variety of birds and grazing moose. Look for lurking coyote and lumbering bears on the perimeters of the marshes and forests. In mid to late summer, the small beluga whales with bulbous foreheads are sometimes seen feeding on spawning salmon making their way up the arm. Sail from Whittier, located at the northern end of Passage Canal in Prince William Sound. The Sound is about 100 miles wide with an amazingly intricate coastline deeply cleaved by fjords and inlets. Prince William Sound is about the same size as Puget Sound in Washington and three times larger than San Francisco Bay. The steep, jagged Chugach Mountains crown this coastline. The snowy peaks capture much of the significant rainfall that occurs here, creating one of the larger ice fields in the world. Prince William Sound contains one of the largest concentrations of tidewater glaciers in Alaska and you'll visit most of them. Continue down Passage Canal, lined with hanging and valley glaciers and fringed by the verdant rainforest. Enter Blackstone Bay with its glacially carved valley lined with eight glaciers of various types, hanging, valley, or tidewater. Keep an eye out for sea otters, harbor seals and the occasional river otter. BD Day 3: Wilderness Cruising
The waters between the Alaska mainland and Kodiak Island are filled with intrigue. Be on deck to see the rugged coastline of Kenai Fjords National Park. Your Captain will determine the best spots to explore today based on the local conditions. We may conduct inflatable excursion craft tours to get an up-close view of the spectacular geology and wildlife. You will see thousands of seabirds off the Chiswell Islands, including black-legged kittiwakes, rhinoceros auklets, fulmars, puffins and murres. Granite Island is home to a rookery that draws birders from near and far. Look for other marine wildlife including humpback whales, Steller's sea lions, harbor seals, Dall's porpoises, sea otters, orca and minke whales. BLD Day 4: Kodiak
The Kodiak Archipelago is a large group of islands about 30 miles off the coast of Alaska. The archipelago is about 177 miles long and encompasses nearly 5,000 square miles, roughly the size of the state of Connecticut. At 3,588 square miles, Kodiak Island is the largest island in the group and the second largest island in the United States. Only the island of Hawaii is larger. Kodiak lies exactly on the line of demarcation between coastal spruce forests around the Gulf of Alaska and the treeless expanse of the Aleutians. From this point on you won't see any trees until you reach Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula 1,600 miles away. At one time the Aleutians did support trees, but the last ice age 20,000 years ago stripped the islands bare. Reseeding is difficult here on the islands, with weather working against it. The seeds need dry weather and wind to scatter and take root, and here the wet weather and winds blowing from the south make it nearly impossible. However, the trees are slowly making their way back on the island. Those first tenacious seeds to take hold were likely carried by the wind or by birds, floated on a log to the beach or were brought by the Natives. At any rate, the forest of Kodiak is slowly creeping southward at a rate of about one mile every 100 years. Today will be action packed, showing you several aspects of life on Kodiak Island. Sightseeing includes the Baranov Museum, the Alutiiq Museum and the Fish Tech Center. At the Fish Tech Center, a huge aquarium filled with interesting local specimens is the center of attention. You'll also hear the passion and enthusiasm of the St. Innocent's Academy Choir. BLD Day 5: Katmai National Park / Geographic Harbor
The setting of Geographic Harbor will take your breath away. As you look up at the sweeping bowls and valleys between the peaks, be careful not to mistake ash for snow. On June 6, 1912, Novarupta Volcano erupted becoming the largest 20th century eruption in the world, 10 times more forceful than the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. The blast produced the only historic welded ash flow sheet deposited entirely on land at an estimated depth of 820 feet (250 meters). This ash can still be seen on the hillsides of Katmai. Inflatable excursion craft will take you into quiet coves and harbors where huge brown bears forage on the beach, digging for clams BLD Day 6: Shumagin Islands
Conditions permitting, visit Unga Island. This is your first opportunity to really explore the tundra. When viewing the tundra from the ship it looks flat, but when you step into it you find out that the vegetation is thick, dense and very spongy. Take a guided nature hike and look for foxes, birds, tundra flowers and sea lions. Look across the broad uninterrupted expanse of the island - not a tree in sight. On the beach look for deposits of petrified wood, the remains of a metasequoia forest that once grew on this island. Evidence from fossils indicates these trees were once important components of circumpolar swamp forests and the only surviving native forest is in Szechuan, China. Watch for the 8,200-foot Pavlov Volcano and seals, seabirds and sea lions hauling out on Haystack Rock. BLD Day 7: Dutch Harbor / Unalaska
The Unangan Natives inhabited Unalaska for over 9,000 years and encountered many different explorers and cultures from Russian fur traders to Captain Cook, all of whom left traces of their heritage on the island. Evidence of Russian habitation stands stoically in the form of the Holy Ascension Russian Orthodox Cathedral, one of the oldest cruciform-style churches in the country. Just recently the people of Dutch Harbor were able to purchase the original drawing of an Unangan woman done by a crew member of Captain Cook. It hangs proudly in the Museum of the Aleutians. Dutch Harbor has prospered and grown in the past few decades with the booms of the fishing and crabbing industries. A large migrant population comes from around the world to work during the fishing season. See the Museum of the Aleutians, and the World War II Memorial Park. BLD Day 8: Pribilof Islands
This group of flat-topped rocky islands is located in the middle of the Bering Sea. Taking inflatable excursion craft to seldom-visited St. George Island, you see fur seals and cliff-side seabird rookeries, led by locals who will share stories with you along the way. Tour the town, with its Russian Orthodox Church and quaint general store. St. George is a prime viewing site for fur seals and reindeer. Also watch for puffins, auklets, and murres. BLD Day 9: Wilderness Exploration
Go to remote islands such as Nunivak, part of the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. You may spot wild musk oxen and caribou. BLD Day 10-12: Exploring the Bering Sea
Clear customs into Russia and take a tour of Provideniya. Search the rugged shoreline of Russia's Chukotka Peninsula. In three days of exploration, you may also visit these villages: Little Diomede - Seperated from Russia's Big Diomede by less than two miles and the International Date Line. Novoye Chaplino - This Yupik village claims kinship to Alaskan Eskimos. Yanrakynnot - These Chukchi subsistence hunters go after walrus, whales and other sea creatures. Nearby, Whale Bone Alley runs along the shore for miles. Savoonga - Hailed as the "Walrus Capital of the World," the natives here are subsistence hunters, living off the sea and land. You'll be astonished that humans can live in this inhospitable place. Winds are so strong that no trees could stay rooted and the weather is so cold in the winter that the dead cannot be buried until summer. Their way of life is endangered by the slowly retreating ice pack. These people rely on the ice to live. With the ice come the whales, seals, walrus and polar bears they hunt and harvest. The ice is used for transportation and the permafrost soil is used to preserve and protect their food between hunting seasons. Although life may look like it is hard and unforgiving, these people find joy in the simplest things and are happy. BLD Day 13: The Arctic Circle
Cruise far north today into the upper reaches of the Bering Sea very near where it opens up into the Chukchi Sea and far enough to cross the Arctic Circle where it intersects with the International Date Line. The waters we sail today are vast and beautiful. Possible whale sightings include grays, minkes, humpbacks and bowheads. BLD Day 14: Nome to Anchorage
In 1899 gold was found on the beaches at the edge of Nome. Thousands of people rushed north to see if they could strike it rich on the beach. Today dredging for gold is still part of everyday life in Nome. You will see tents set up on the beach and all manner of equipment, dive rafts and vacuums used to separate the gold from the gravel and sand on the beach and in the water. You will have the opportunity to try panning for gold yourself. Enjoy a sightseeing tour of Gold Rush Nome before your included flight departs for Anchorage. You will learn why it is so hard to get rid of anything and how expensive it is to buy a vehicle and ship it to Nome. Stop at the home of a former dog musher who will give you a look at the life of an Iditarod racer. Your tour ends upon arrival at the Anchorage airport. BL Reverse Itinerary:
Day 1 - Arrive in Anchorage
Day 2 - Fly to Nome, Board the Spirit of Oceanus
Day 3 - The Arctic Circle
Days 4-6 - Exploring the Bering Sea
Day 7 - Wilderness Exploration
Day 8 - Pribilof Islands
Day 9 - Dutch Harbor
Day 10 - Shumagin Islands
Day 11 - Katmai National Park
Day 12 - Kodiak
Day 13 - Wilderness Cruising
Day 14 - Arrive in Anchorage |
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