16 Days,All-Alaska Tour - $4,350

Seattle to Wrangell and Anan Bear Sanctuary, Juneau, Alaska State Ferry to Sitka, Anchorage, Seward, Kenai Fjords & Denali Parks, Fairbanks, option to Barrow; July 13-28, 2008

Day Zero (7/12, Sat) We gather at Seattle’s SeaTac Clarion Hotel at 7:00pm for an hour’s orientation. This gives us a chance to meet one another, tag our luggage to help prevent loss or delay, and discuss plans for our trip. Most people will need to have a hotel room on Monday night (not included—we have special rates for our group at the Clarion.) We’ll help match roommates.

Day One (7/13, Sun) Following 5:15am breakfast in the hotel we’ll fly at 7:55am on Alaska Air #65 to Wrangell, arriving at 10:22 am. It’s 3.5 hours in the air but we gain an hour with a time change. Marie Oboczky, a naturalist who owns Rainwalker Expeditions, will meet us at the airport. Her bus will transport us to the Alaskan Sourdough Lodge, a rustic B&B retreat. It’s real Alaska, but very comfortable. And Bruce Harding, the owner, is a great cook. We’ll have time to get settled into our rooms before enjoying a soup and sandwich lunch at the lodge. After lunch, we’ll split up into two groups. One will go with Eric Yancey by boat to Anan Bear Sanctuary to look for bears on an uninhabited island 30 miles away. The observatory is reached by a moderately easy half-mile walk on a scenic boardwalk trail. The US Forest Service permits only 60 people daily for safety and environmental reasons The pink salmon run in Anan Creek will be near its height. Both black and brown bears can be seen fishing for them, though the black bears are the most plentiful. Bald eagles will be all around. Meanwhile, the other group will take a tour of Wrangell with Marie, who met us at the airport. Marie will drive the group to see dozens of petroglyphs carved into rocks along the shoreline and to visit the Chief Shakes Tribal Lodge, a reconstructed Tlingit community house. The title of "Shakes," or as it was originally known, "We Shakes," was conferred upon Chief Gushklin of the Tlingit settlement near present day Wrangell after a victory in war against the Niska Indians of British Columbia. The Niska Chief We-Shakes, rather than submit to the degradation of being a slave, removed his "killer whale" hat and placed it on Chief Gushklin's head, giving him his own name "We-Shakes." For reasons unknown, the name has since been shortened to "Shakes." The Lodge will be opened especially for us by a member of the tribe who will tell us how her people once lived in similar buildings. Marie will also take us on a walking tour of Wrangell to its new museum that houses some of the original totem poles from the Lodge. Both groups reconvene at the Alaskan Sourdough Lodge for a delicious dinner, and a well-deserved night’s rest.

Day Two (7/14, Mon) Breakfast is at 7:00am in the lodge. After breakfast, the two groups switch activities from what they did yesterday afternoon. Following your scheduled activity, you have the rest of the day to explore Wrangell on your own. Lunch($) and dinner($)are on your own. (Whenever you see the ($)symbol, it means that you are responsible for paying for the designated meal. Yesterday, you did not have to pay for any of your meals. Today, you pay for two of them. Overall, WhaleCoast Alaska pays for an average of two meals per day.) Wrangell is a small, sleepy logging and fishing town. During your afternoon, you have time to explore one of many nature trails, rent a bike or kayak, golf at the only USGA rated golf course in Southeast Alaska, or enjoy walking leisurely around the town.

Day Three (7/15, Tue) Breakfast is at 7:30am. After breakfast, a bus will take us to the Wrangell airport for our 11:03am flight on Alaska Air #65 to Juneau, arriving at 12:50pm. Lunch($)is at the airport. A bus takes us to the Alaska State Museum, then the Mendenhall Glacier and Visitors Center, where you can see a glacier that has been retreating for decades. The Juneau UUs host a dinner party for us. In the past, we had a picnic in one of the shoreline picnic shelters, regardless of the weather. This year they may have us indoors in their rented space. Most of us will stay at UU homes for the night, while others will stay in a hotel or commercial B&B.

Day Four (7/16, Wed) Everyone who comes to Southeast Alaska has heard of Glacier Bay, but we don’t go there. We’ve found a place with tidewater glaciers calving icebergs into the sea that is more beautiful, with mountains and 2,000 foot granite cliffs rising straight up from the water in incredibly deep and narrow fjords that are truly awesome: Tracy Arm Fjord. At 8:30am (after breakfast) our hosts will take us to a Juneau boat dock for an all-day trip there. The fjords wind past waterfalls to massive glaciers, their icebergs dotted with hundreds of fur seals. Humpback whales are a common sight, and killer whales (Orcas) sometimes come here. Look close on the mountain slopes and you may see mountain goats, especially near North Sawyer Glacier. Few of the cruise ships that come to Southeast Alaska come here because they are too big to get in. The great nineteenth century naturalist John Muir noted that the fjord was “shut in by sublime Yosemite cliffs, nobly sculptured, and adorned with waterfalls and fringes of trees, bushes, and patches of flowers, but amid so crowded a display of novel beauty it was not easy to concentrate the attention long enough on any portion of it without giving more days and years than our lives can afford.” Modern-day visitors come away equally impressed. You can buy your lunch($) on the boat, usually a sandwich and chips. When our boat comes in at 6pm, you will be close to several good restaurants. Your hosts will come to pick you up, and we suggest that you take them to dinner($) to get to know them a bit more and thank them for their hospitality.

Day Five (7/17, Thur) After breakfast in your hotel or with your hosts, we take the Alaska Ferry to Sitka, once the capital of Russian Alaska. Sitka is about 95 miles apart as the raven flies, but a trip by water is about 150 miles. The scenic waterways on the route offer a wealth of wildlife viewing opportunities. Sitka is situated on Baranof Island facing the open Pacific Ocean and protected by a myriad of other small islands and Cape Edgecumbe. A dormant volcano that is a Mount Fuji look-alike, Mount Edgecumbe rises 3,200 feet across the water from the community. After our arrival, we will drop off our luggage at the UU Chapel, eat a quick lunch ($) and a half mile walk to the Sheldon Jackson Museum. This jewel of a museum is Alaska’s oldest. It contains a superb collection of Indian cultural artifacts gathered from 1888 to 1898 by a missionary. In the 19th century Jackson and representatives of other Christian religions divided Alaska into territories that “belonged” to the different faiths, each having exclusive rights to evangelize in its area. Each faith still dominates among Native Alaskans in its area. Each summer skilled Native artisans from throughout the state demonstrate their specialties including totem carving, mask and basket making, ivory and silver carving and weaving. We will walk back to the UU Chapel for a delicious dinner, often featuring locally caught salmon, and a chance to meet the Sitka UUs. The Sitka UU Fellowship is about the same size as our group. Some of us will stay with UU hosts, while others stay at a nearby hotel.

Day Six (7/18, Fri) After breakfast, at 9:00am, a fascinating local raconteur will take us on a walking tour of Sitka to tell us about the battles between the local Tinglit Indians and the Russians and how Sitka was changed into the town you see. We will enjoy lunch at the Twin Dragon restaurant. Afterwards, we walk across the street to the Tlingit community house, Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi, for their dance performance at 1pm. The large structural beams, central fire pit and tiered seating of the community house provide an ideal ambiance. It all starts with the smell of burning cedar that is lit during the introduction of the first dance. The deep sound of the box drum fills the room as Tlingit dancers enter wearing beautiful regalia. They sing ancient songs that have been handed down for generations. The main actor-narrator begins with a Tlingit story and then interprets and explains all that is seen and heard. A dozen members of the tribe, also wearing traditional outfits, sing and dance three songs. The program is a half hour, but the dancers stay to visit with audience members who are so inclined. Next on our schedule is the Bishop’s House, which at one time was the center of Russian Orthodox Church authority in a diocese that stretched from California to Siberia. A Park Service ranger will discuss local history and the relationships between the Native Alaskans of the area and the Russians conquerors. Many of the original furnishings and icons of the house are preserved inside. Dinner($) is your choice of many nice downtown restaurants.

Day Seven (7/19, Sat) After breakfast with your hosts or at the Totem Inn, we’ll walk to the Marina at 8:30am to board a semi-submersible 40-passenger glass-bottom vessel. It’s a safe and comfortable way to visit the amazing underwater world of Sitka Sound. Huge windows four feet below the ocean's surface allow us to peer directly at sea life while we remain warm and dry. A driver will bring us other rare critters from the sea bottom to view, and we might even see a wolf eel. Lunch is at Van Winkle & Sons, a fine downtown restaurant. After lunch we will walk to the Sitka National Historic Park Visitors Center, an easy third of a mile walk (taxis are also available). It houses the Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center where Tlingit craftsmen carve totem poles and make silver jewelry. There’s a Sitka Spruce forest behind the Visitor’s Center with many totem poles along the ocean shore. This is the location of the final battle between the Tlingits and the Russians, and with its soaring spruce trees the forest feels like a natural open-air cathedral. You could easily spend all afternoon here, or take some time to explore Sitka. You’re on your own for dinner($).

Day Eight (7/20, Sun) Rise and shine! We have a 6:00am flight to catch. That’s right, Alaska Air #73 is waiting to fly us to Anchorage. We try to avoid travel this early, but in this case there is no better alternative. After we collect our luggage, we travel to the Anchorage UU Fellowship for their Sunday service. Afterwards, we’ll have lunch($) at the Raven’s Call Café. The café is located within the Alaska Native Heritage Center, where five indigenous groups--Athabascan, Yupik, Inupiaq, Alutiiq and Tlingit/Haida people--have created a veritable living museum. Reconstructed Native dwellings surround around a small lake. Native docents at each of the structures explain the traditions of their people. Contemporary artists, dancers and storytellers put on performances every half hour in the main hall of the museum while Native craftspeople in another wing will be demonstrating their work and talking about their craft and heritage. The Anchorage UUs will host a dinner for us. Afterwards, they might present a show with music performed by their members or lead a discussion about life in Alaska’s largest city. The Anchorage fellowship is large enough for all of us to be placed with UU hosts for the night. Pack a small bag with what you will need for our next two nights in Seward, and leave the rest of your belongings with your host.

Day Nine (7/21, Mon) This morning you can “sleep in,” because our train to Seward doesn’t board until 6:15am. We travel along the ocean and past glaciers on one of America’s most beautiful rail trips. We’ll watch for sure-footed Dall sheep. On one trip, a half dozen scampered gracefully down the steep cliff by the tracks. It was such a good sighting that the train stopped for a few minutes so we could watch them. Seward UUs will greet us as we arrive. You’re on your own for lunch($), with waterfront and other restaurants to choose from. In the afternoon we’ll visit the Alaska SeaLife Center, a unique cold water marine science facility. We’ll see arctic marine life in huge saltwater tanks and watch puffins and murres “fly” underwater. In a “Behind-the-Scenes” tour scientists will tell us about the research they’re doing and how they rehabilitate rescued wildlife. At 5:30 we’ll walk three blocks to join the Seward UUs at the dinner they’ve prepared. They often serve wild game dishes such as caribou stroganoff and roast bear. Many of the local UUs as well as members of other UU Fellowships all over Alaska depend somewhat on hunting and fishing. There will also be dishes for vegetarians. Last year the Seward UUs introduced us to an informative Alaska Trivia quiz show that they invented. Their fellowship is very small, so many of us will stay in commercial B&Bs or hostels.

Day Ten (7/22, Tue) At 9:30, after breakfast with the Seward UUs, we board an all-day boat trip takes us through Kenai Fjords National Park. You can only visit it by water. Wear clothing in layers; there can be a large range in temperature as we move about the ocean and along the shore. There are two large heated cabins but you’ll be popping out on deck as soon as the first marine wildlife is spotted. That will probably be a sea otter before we get very far from the dock. They’re often seen floating on their backs in Resurrection Bay as we head out into the National Park. An Orca breached next to the boat here during one trip, and a fin whale once surfaced in the middle of a pod of Orcas. We often see humpback whales. We’ll see sea lions and seals, and perhaps a grizzly bear strolling along the shore or swimming to an offshore island. There will be arctic birds by the thousands—puffins, auklets, murres and others—and a tidewater glacier calving icebergs into the sea. Our lunch of halibut or chicken will be on the boat. For dinner we will stop at undeveloped Fox Island where a grilled salmon (or chicken) dinner is served. Vegetarian meals may be requested. The evening is on your own.

Day Eleven (7/23, Wed) After breakfast with the Seward UUs, we board a charter bus for Anchorage. Along the way, we stop at the Exit Glacier Nature Center. In addition to the hands-on exhibits, there is a beautiful half mile trail to an overlook that brings us face to face with a massive wall of ice. We continue to Anchorage on a different route than the one used by the railroad. In Anchorage, there are a variety of restaurants that serve lunch($). We visit the world-class Anchorage Museum of History and Art and tour the Alaska Galleries with a docent. The museum has superb collections of Native and contemporary Alaskan art and exhibits on Alaska’s cultures from the earliest inhabitants to the 604,000 people living in the state today. You can explore the museum all afternoon if you like, or take some time to stroll or shop downtown. Your hosts will pick you up at your pre-arranged time. It would be a good time to take your hosts out to dinner to get to know them and to thank them for their hospitality.

Day Twelve (7/24, Thur)At 7:45am, we board the Alaska Railroad to Denali National Park. This is another of the most beautiful train trips in the world, following rivers much of the way as huge mountains rise up all around us. We pass only a couple of towns during the seven-hour trip. Lunch($) will be in the dining car with linens on the table. It's a delight to eat while you watch the scenery go by. There's a dome car where you can enjoy the natural splendor, and for snacks, a bistro car with a high ceiling. Keep a watch out the windows as we approach Hurricane Gulch to see Denali (the name Alaskans call Mt. McKinley), the highest mountain in North America at 20,306 ft. Measured from base (2,500 ft.) to peak, Denali is the tallest mountain expanse in the world, bar none. We arrive in Denali Park at 3:30pm. For those who would like to try whitewater rafting (option $62), this is the time. When my father visited me two years ago for his 80^th birthday, he went whitewater rafting for the first time with my family and loved it! Other options include hiking, flightseeing, and a gentle float trip. You’re on your own for dinner($), with several restaurants to choose from. But don’t stay up too late. Tomorrow we have another early start.

Day Thirteen (7/25, Fri) Breakfast buffet is at 5:00am at the McKinley Lodge. At 6:00am we board a Wilderness Tour bus to take us into the park. When I first came to Alaska in 1981 “just for the summer” it was to drive this same tour.I’ve lived here ever since. This 6-8 hour tour is a great way to see many animals – moose, caribou, sheep, Grizzly bears, wolves, unusual birds, etc. -- and get a feel for the sheer expanse of Denali National Park. It’s the size of Massachusetts. If we’re fortunate enough to see Denali (it’s only fully visible a few days per month) we’re in for something spectacular. Nothing is guaranteed except the box lunch included with the tour. Upon returning, we load our luggage onto a chartered bus for a 3 hour trip to Fairbanks. Our stop is Pioneer Park, a municipal park showcasing the history of this gold rush town. Dinner is at the Alaska Salmon Bake which is within the park. The salmon is delicious, the deep fried halibut is Alaska’s best, and the prime rib is tender. Our hosts from the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fairbanks will pick us up at Pioneer Park and take us to their homes for the night – and for me, that means sleeping in my very own bed!

Day Fourteen (7/26, Sat) Today is a day of options. Option 1 ($420): You may choose to spend the day in Barrow. Your host will drive you to the airport for the 7:30am flight. You will experience a cultural tour in Barrow led by an Inupiat Eskimo guide, including electrifying Eskimo dancing, discussions, a museum, the traditional blanket toss and a walk on tundra and along the shore. You can join the Polar Bear Club by taking a dip in the Arctic Ocean. The water is 32 degrees, and the air is not much warmer – perhaps in the 40’s. Bring your swimsuit. Lunch($) is in Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant. Alaska Air #52 is scheduled to return you to Fairbanks at 9:21pm. Your host will pick you up. Option 2 is to go to the UAF Large Animal Research Station (locals call it the "Musk Ox Farm") where docents specially trained in the biology of the large mammals will tell us about them. We’ll see musk ox, caribou and reindeer there. The Musk Ox lived through the last ice age, and is the only successful large terrestrial mammal to continuously occupy the arctic for the past 10,000 years. We’ll go on to the magnificent University of Alaska Museum of the North that opened last year. The building is exciting inside and out, and the exhibits and art it contains are outstanding. It now rivals the great Anchorage Museum with a special show on Native Alaska contemporary art and its exhibits on Alaskan animals and the arctic environment are the best. One permanent exhibit by Fairbanks composer John Luther Adams is in a room titled “The Place Where We Go To Listen.” It creates music from data streams measuring the rhythms of night and day, the phases and positions of the moon, the changing sky conditions, seismic readings, and disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field. Lunch($) is either at the museum café or the student center café/pizza shop. After lunch, the local UUs will treat us to a special afternoon in their hometown. We will divide into small groups, and each group match up with a local UU driver. The afternoon will be specially tailored to each group’s particular interests, such as nature walking, hiking, local history, gold mining, fishing, etc. You might even venture to a nearby spring, lake, organic farm, or rock formation, depending on the group’s interests. Fairbanksans tend to be passionate about their town. That’s why I’m not over-planning this afternoon. Instead, I’m allowing my fellow Fairbanks UUs to follow their passion – and yours! I know this will be a unique and delightful day for everyone who participates. Dinner($) is on your own. Your “tour” will end downtown, where there are many fine restaurants to choose from. This would be a good time to take your host to dinner to thank them for their hospitality.

Day 15 (7/27, Sunday) Another fine summer day in Fairbanks! After breakfast with your hosts, you are invited to join the local UUs at 8:30am for a canoe trip on the gentle Chena River, right up to the UUFF sanctuary for their 10:30am service. No experience is necessary, since they match novices with experienced locals. Last year we saw 5 beavers and a moose. If you would rather sleep in, that’s just fine. Your host will drive you to the service. After the service, we will have lunch($) nearby. At 1:30pm we begin our riverboat cruise. The Discovery, Alaska’s last sternwheeler paddleboat, goes up the Chena and Tanana rivers. On the way, we'll stop at a kennel whose dog mushers compete in the grueling 1,000-mile Iditarod race, and watch the dogs work out. Then Dixie Alexander, an Athabascan woman, will welcome us to her fish camp to show us how she catches salmon in a fish wheel, cleans and smokes them. We'll meet her again in the reconstructed village and see her sewing gorgeous parkas from different furs. Native Alaskan young people, home from college for the summer, are docents in the village. When we return at 5:30pm, the local UUs will bring us back to their beautiful fellowship building for a dinner party. This farthest north UU church in the world was partially financed with funds they earned hosting WhaleCoast Alaska tours. The Fairbanks UUs have lively entertainment for us, and they’ll take us home for the night.

Day Sixteen (7/28, Mon) Our tour ends this morning. Your hosts will bring you to the airport if you have a morning flight. If your flight leaves later in the day, you can ride with your hosts downtown when they go to work and continue your Fairbanks visit, taking a bus or taxi to the airport to catch your flight. WhaleCoast Alaska can arrange for an extended stay with Fairbanks UUs if you wish to continue your Alaska experience on your own. We hope you had a wonderful adventure with WhaleCoast Alaska!