“The mountains are calling and I must go,” words written by the famous American naturalist, John Muir, were ringing in my ears when I decided to join my father and little sister on a trip to discover southeastern Alaska. Muir, who was the first to claim that much of Alaska was formed by glaciers, often traveled alone taking only a tin cup, a handful of tea, bread, and his copy of Emerson. Feeling inspired, I attempted to pack light: my Fjallraven backpack, a 35mm camera, trusty boots, and way too many jackets, and headed off to discover the last frontier. Knowing next to nothing about Alaska, except that the unabashed Sarah Palin resided there and that nature reigns, it had quite an impressionable impact on my New York pessimism. The pristine landscapes revealed to me a place where, simply put, life is different. The blue glaciers dating back to the ice age, the wildlife, and the small port towns elicited a spiritual recognition and undiscovered appreciation for the natural environment within me.

Traveling along the inside passage of Alaska, a narrow strip of land that borders British Columbia, we stopped in three port towns on the way to Glacier Bay National Park and College Fjord. Our first stop was in the southernmost port and salmon capital of the world, Ketchikan. The historic town houses the world’s largest collection of totem poles, which we were able to watch a local artist make in the Saxman village. The lovely Ketichikan creek flows through the middle of the town forcing shops and houses to be built above and around it. After gorging on fresh fish and chips and tons of kettle corn, we made our way north to the capital Juneau. 

Juneau has no roads leading out of the city and is only accessible by boat or plane. The high country, forested mountain slopes, rocky shores and salt marshes of the island's channels mark a distinct Alaskan ecosystem and makes perfectly for a wildlife expedition. Along with a naturalist expert, we jetted around the waters of Juneau and were lucky enough to see not only humpback whales but also two orca--a.k.a killer whales--as they were diving! Before reaching Glacier Bay National Park we made a final stop in the small town of Skagway, population of about 700. This town was born at the turn of the century during the Gold Rush days and was known as the “Gateway to the Klondike.” We boarded the White Pass Railroad, which takes you up through Alaska on the Yukon route, the very same path taken by hopefuls looking to strike gold.  Along this incredibly scenic passageway I saw some of the best landscape views of Alaska as well as the Steel Cantilever Bridge, an architectural feat considering the terrain it was erected on.

But what is perhaps the most defining gift of Alaska are its Ice Age glacial formations. Often thought of as static, these colossal and incredibly dense structures are very much active, continuously dropping icebergs into the sea as well as slowly melting changing the Alaskan landscape. Winding through mountains, Glacier Bay National Park spans 3.3 million acres of inlets that move the tide from the glaciers towards the sea. Up the coast on the pocket of Prince William Sound the 16 tidewater glaciers that form College Fjord are all named after Ivy League schools that represent the scientists that discovered the area in 1899.





FILED UNDER: alaska , travel , fjallraven , pendleton , ocny