1. 58 Ensemble Vacations®
You will, however, manage to get a very good
taste of its grandeur from an Alaskan cruise.
Sailing from western Canada, a variety of cruises
is available, gliding past immense glaciers, vast
cities of ice, and along the Inside Passage.
Watchful passengers will be readily rewarded
with extraordinary sites including humpback
whales bursting through the water’s glassy
surface and crashing down with a resounding
splash; majestic eagles, circling overhead,
surfing on ribbons of wind as carefree as a
dream; a humpback grizzly sunning himself on
a rocky promontory or thrashing around at the
water’s shallow edge for a wayward fish. Here,
in America’s final frontier, the extraordinary
becomes the every day.
There is a baker’s dozen of must-see
cities during your sojourn to Alaska; happily,
most of them are featured in the most
popular Alaskan cruise itineraries. When
sailing Alaska’s Inside Passage, which
weaves between the Alaskan coastline and a
splattering of coastal islands through a series
of straits and inlets, you will likely call on one
or more of the following ports: Ketchikan,
Juneau, Haines and Skagway.
Ketchikan, a community of about
8,000 inhabitants, is one of the first major
ports north of the Canadian border to be
reached by way of the Inside Passage. It’s
a fitting introduction to Alaska. Located
on Revillagigedo Island, its modest, pastel
coloured wooden homes line the water’s
edge for some distance before tracing off into
a thick expanse of woodland and mountain
crest. Its waterfront is a forest of masts and
halyards, bobbing rhythmically to the motion
of the sea and bearing silent testimony to
the city’s strong dependence on fishing for
its economic stability; logging is equally
important. A floating airport of seaplanes is
anchored nearby.
In addition to fishing and logging, Ketchikan
takes great pride in its local craftsmen and
artisans. The native community is skilled in the
ancient craft of carving totem poles, several
of which can be viewed at the local Totem
Heritage Center. Depending on the time of
year you might see a lumberjack show or a log
rolling competition. This is also a great starting
point for a hiking, biking or kayak tour. Just 30
miles east of Ketchikan is Misty Fiords National
Monument, a 2.3 million acre area filled with
streaming rivers, deep Fiords, rocky cliffs,
waterfalls and populated with black and brown
bears, moose, mountain goats, sea lions, seals
and bald eagles.
It somehow seems fitting that the state
capital, Juneau, is inaccessible by car and can
be reached only by sea or air. Like most of the
Alaska:
The final
frontier
Wondrous. Enormous. Awesome. Massive.
None of these quite measure up to the indescribable size and
profound beauty of Alaska.

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major cities in Alaska, Juneau began rather
haphazardly, as a mining town, and gradually
evolved into its current status as a modern,
cosmopolitan centre complete with high-rise
office buildings, shopping plazas, cultural
centers, the state legislature, sporting facilities
and a fine selection of restaurants, bars and
clubs. The city of Juneau is something like the
New York Philharmonic dressed in hiking boots,
dusty dungarees and ski vests: its rugged
exterior combined with its urban sophistication
results in perfect harmony. Where else can you
salmon fish in the morning, relax in a spa in
the afternoon and watch the sun fade behind
the soaring peak of a glacier in the evening?
Juneau, like so many other cities within the
state, has such an oversupply of natural beauty
that it spills over into the inky blue waters of the
northern sea and is stock-piled in the form of
ice-capped mountain peaks trimmed with dark
spruce and hemlock forests.
About 70 miles north of Juneau,
surrounded by a grand spectacle of
extraordinary mountain peaks, massive glaciers,
vast motionless lakes and cascading rivers is
the town that many people visualize when they
imagine Alaska in their mind’s eye: Haines.
Here you will see how the continent must
have appeared in the 16th century to the likes
of Samuel de Champlain and Jacques Cartier.
The air here is so clean and fresh that it stings
your nostrils. At the northern tip of America’s
longest fjord and on the border of some 20
million acres of protected wilderness, it’s
entirely possible to forget there are such things
as office towers, strip malls, mega-plexes and
10 lane superhighways. It is just you and nature;
as it should be.
For outdoorsmen, Haines has almost too
many available options. In addition to rafting,
Article by Clear Communication

3. 60 Ensemble Vacations®
canoeing, kayaking and jetboating, you’ll find
some incomparable trails that penetrate deep
into the forests of pine and hemlock and up
onto summit peaks. From here you are also
less than 25 miles by air from Glacier Bay
National Park and a flyover is an unforgettable
treat. Haines is also home to several museums
showcasing its rich cultural heritage and some
contemporary local artists.
Summer is by far the most popular time
to visit Alaska, but a winter sojourn should
not be discounted, as it’s in winter that you’ll
experience Alaska in its real arctic splendour.
Winter is salmon spawning season and while
you’ll no doubt spy several bald eagles at any
time of the year, in winter they’re present in
force. Eagles cloud the sky in the thousands
as they feed on those unfortunate salmon that
never make it back to the spawning grounds.
It’s also during the winter months that you’ll be
most likely to experience the famed Northern
Lights, and it’s the perfect time of the year
for superb cross-country skiing, snowshoeing
and, something that you’ll never experience in
the city: dogsledding.
Dogsledding is the environmentalist’s
answer to NASCAR. The sled dogs cannot
contain their excitement from the moment
they see a team being assembled. Dressed
in their thick winter coats and staring with
penetrating gray eyes, each dog howls and
yelps and leaps about in an effort to be chosen
for the team. And, not unlike the last few kids
in the schoolyard that were not selected for
a game of dodgeball, the canines that are not
chosen to harness up can hardly contain their
disappointment. Don’t
miss the opportunity to
experience dogsledding
first-hand.
No visit to Alaska
would be complete
without a call on
Skagway, one of the
most popular stops on any Alaska cruise.
Known as the gateway to the Klondike, this is
where it truly all began. It was from Skagway
that Jack London made his trek to the Yukon
gold mines, forever celebrated in his most
famous works, The Call of the Wild and To Build
a Fire. There are constant reminders of the
Klondike days throughout Skagway, and several
of them are worth a visit. In some respects,
downtown Skagway is a living museum, which
you’ll appreciate as you embark on a walking
tour of the downtown and learn that many of
its buildings make up the Klondike Gold Rush
National Historic Park.
Just north of Skagway you’ll find
Chilkoot Trail. Historically, this difficult
route was hiked by many a fortune-seeking
prospector at the turn of the century, in
search of the gold fields of neighbouring
Yukon. Eventually, the White Pass and
Yukon Route rail line was constructed,
making this three day expedition by foot
unnecessary, but it remains a favourite
hiking route for summer visitors to this
region. Today, the White Pass and Yukon
Route Railroad stretches in front of the
modern cruise ship harbour, allowing ease
of transfer for cruise passengers that wish
to explore the interior.
As spectacular as an Alaska cruise
is with stops at one or more of the cities
already described, and it is nothing less than
spectacular, nothing can compare to spending
a few days in Alaska’s profoundly inspiring
interior. Denali National Park and Preserve
stretches for over 6 million acres and
encompasses Mt. McKinley which, soaring to
over 20,000 feet, is North America’s highest
mountain range. Mt. McKinley is so large
that it can often be seen from as far away as
Fairbanks, 120 miles to the south. The top of
the Mountain is often shrouded in a veil of
cloud and mist, so you’ll need to plan to stay
at least five days in the Park if you plan to see
its peak, and you’ll need to rise early, before
the clouds settle in.
You’ll find no shortage of ways to
occupy your time with a few days in Denali.
First Rule: Bring lots of film. In addition the
majesty and grandeur of McKinley, you’ll
undoubtedly encounter grizzly or black bears,
wolves, curly-horned Dall sheep, moose,
caribou and countless varieties of birds in
the wilds of Denali. This is great backpacking
country, or you can take advantage of the
regular schedule of busses that is offered by
park services, picking up and dropping off
Park visitors all along the main road. There
are a number of public and privately run
campgrounds throughout the Park, but in
summer months it is always advisable to call
and reserve.
Alaska is exhilarating. It’s renewing. It’s
reinvigorating. To stand on the fringe of a vast
blaze of fireweed that engulfs the land in a blaze
of crimson, with morning’s first light burning
the shroud of mist off of the glassy surface of
Wonder Lake, and Mount McKinley stretching
out against the endless horizon, is something of
a rebirth. It’s to be born again into a world that
is vast, new and unspoiled.
The winter months are the perfect
time of year for superb cross-
country skiing, snowshoeing and,
something you’ll never experience
in the city: dogsledding.