Big ship or small ship? The best way to cruise Alaska's Inside Passage
If you take a cruise through the Inside Passage of Alaska, you are likely interested in photographing wildlife and beautiful glacier landscapes. That was my goal. The best way to achieve that goal is on a small ship.
I knew I would be traveling more or less a specific route, and that success in capturing memorable photographs depended upon the weather and the vagaries of wildlife habits. There would be no getting off to drive elsewhere; I could not return the following week when the weather improved. Forrest Gump pretty much summed up the situation: “You never know what you’re gonna get.”
The foredeck of the Safari Endeavour.
After researching the options, I booked a late May passage on the Safari Endeavour, an 88 passenger UnCruise Adventures expedition vessel out of Juneau, Alaska. Sailing with a cohort of adventure seeking passengers was a draw. Being on one of those behemoth ships that bulldoze through the waterways, albeit at a substantially more economical price point, did not match up with what I wanted to experience.
My list of “must-have” photos was short and sweet: bald eagles in flight; whales breaching. That’s it. A very focused list. Anything more would be a cherry on top of my icy glacier snow cone. Having never been up close and personal with a glacier, I didn’t know what to expect.
Because Safari Endeavour was relatively small and maneuverable, it could slow down and alter course if called for by the sudden appearance of wildlife on land or on water. When that happened, there was plenty of room on deck for everyone to stand at the rails and compose their photographs. One day, we watched in self-satisfaction as a giant cruise ship plowed on by while we lay to near shore at Gloomy Knob, watching elephant seals to starboard, mountain goats and bears to port.
A bald eagle soars from atop the trees.
As fortune would have it, a bald eagle “shot of a lifetime” photo opportunity occurred while I was scrunched shoulder to shoulder with ten other passengers on a pontoon skiff. An eagle unexpectedly soared out from the trees, wings spread to the horizon, and bore down on fish in the water just ahead of us.
Bald eagle with a fish in its talons.
Bald eagles are not the best of fishers, and it missed its catch. The eagle came back, though, for a second pass. Rising from the water, it carried dinner in its talons. What an exciting moment, being so close to the action.
Another morning, otters floating on their backs entertained us by cracking shells open. Later in the day, the crew sighted humpback whales not far away. The captain idled the engines. For the next two hours, our ship mainly drifted with the pod. We were spellbound, not only by orcas circling on the starboard side, but humpbacks breeching off the bow, and exhaling mist into the fading evening light.
A humpback whale breaches near our ship.
The face of Dawes Glacier.
The fjord canyon walls dwarfed our ship as we approached Dawe’s Glacier. It is awe-inspiring to behold a glacier rising several hundred feet above the surface of the water. From a distance, we saw what looked like four-wheel drive vehicle tracks on the surface of the ice. How did they get there? With the Safari Endeavor anchored out of harms way, our skiff approached the glacier to within about a mile; the spinning propeller cracked repeatedly against growler ice floating in the water. From a closer vantage point, we were amazed to discover those “tracks” were enormous scars of dirty glacial debris inching relentlessly towards the glacier’s face.
Sunset on the Inside Passage.
Shaman mask in the Alaska State Museum.
Postscript:
The morning before boarding the cruise ship in Juneau, I uttered a personal incantation to a shamanic mask in the Alaska State Museum, asking for good weather and many great wildlife photo opportunities. Things seemed to work out that way, didn’t they?
