Alaskan Cruise: Cold Water Rafting (Valdez, Alaska 6.13.26)

Dave's favorite shore excursions are the outdoorsy ones.  On June 13, 2026, we went river rafting near Valdez, Alaska.

 

Valdez is the terminus for the North Slope oil pipeline.  It is infamous as the place where the Exxon Valdez tanker ship spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into the pristine waters of Prince William Sound at 4 minutes after midnight on March 24, 1989.  The skipper had drunk heavily that evening and went to bed, leaving an inexperienced junior officer to navigate the huge ship through the reefs offshore.  The ship crashed onto Bligh Reef.  For months after, clean-up efforts attempted to save wildlife covered with oil and to rid the sound itself of oil.

Dave and I climbed into dry suits to protect us from the freezing water if we fell off our raft.  We then drove by bus through gorgeous scenery to our push-off point.

The raft trip was billed as gentle, but it felt like Class 3 rapids to us, with several sections of serious white water.  We had to stow our cell phones in dry bags, and so we didn't get photos of the thrills!

Watching the rafting crew stow the rafts four high was memorable, itself!

When we returned from our rafting adventure, Dave and I walked into town, noting the many large, industrial-looking hotels and apartments.  We assumed that is where people who load the oil from the pipeline onto the tankers stay.  Another time, we'll skip the rafting and visit the museum that tells us all about it!

Alaskan Cruise: Riding a Logging Trail (Icy Strait Point, Alaska 6.12.26)

Before we visited Icy Strait Point on June 12, 2026, I had never heard of it.  Icy Strait Point and Dutch Harbor were my favorite ports of the entire cruise!  Icy Strait Point is a remote town on the Inside Passage which has slid back into obscurity after both its canning and lumber industries crashed.  The Inuit, or native people, have received lots of money from the Alaskan state fund which receives royalties on oil from the North Slope.   The representatives of the Icy Strait tribes have poured that money into developing a tastefully designed tourist hub.  Luckily, we were the only ship that docked on June 12, and the area still seemed authentic.

We entered Icy Strait Point through a visitors center which was a renovated salmon canning factory.

Inside were shops selling Alaskan arts and crafts, including modern art such as this bear poster.

There were also displays of canning equipment and procedures, such as this authentic salmon cleaning table with fake bloody salmon on top!

Other displays showed the machines for canning the salmon, and the boxes the cans were packed in.

Outside were crab traps and the lines and buoys used to mark the traps' place in the water and then haul up the crabs.

The fishing pier could have dated to the 1890s, when Icy Strait Point bustled with logging and fish.

Our shore excursion was a ride in a UTV (utility task vehicle) along an abandoned logging road.

Our caravan of UTVs splashed through streams and drove through thick forests higher and higher on the mountain.

We finally reached a viewpoint where we could see across the bay to mountains beyond.

We paused at a streambed where an avalanche had torn down the hill.

We also paused next to the seemingly impenetrable forest on both sides of the road.

When we returned from our ride, we wandered among the totem poles, statues, abandoned boats, and quaint old houses in the area near the pier, as well as staring at the sheer beauty of the mountains, forests, and sea.

And then, back to the ship.

Alaskan Cruise: Critters (Sitka, Alaska 6.11.26)

Sitka was the first capital of Alaska.  It was also the headquarters of Russian settlement in Alaska during the 1800s.  There is a wonderful Russian Orthodox church and a park filled with historical totem poles in Sitka.  So why did we spend May 11, 2026, hanging out with the bears, seals, and eagles?  We'd seen all the great Sitka historical sites on prior trips, and we just felt like being with the critters. Our three-part tour included a boat ride into Sitka Sound, a visit to the Alaska Raptor Center, and a stop at a bear rescue center.

The Alaska Raptor Center had  a large aviary for free-flying eagles, which are plentiful in Alaska, along with owls and hawks.  It also included several areas where injured birds rehabilitated, and an enormous eagle nest that we could walk within. This eagle had a broken wing, which prevented it from being released back into the wild.

Eagle nests are huge--up to 10 or 12 feet in diameter.  We could walk inside this one!  Later, as we saw eagle nests in trees, we realized how strong the trees had to be to hold them!

We never saw an Alaskan bear in the wild, but we saw the next best thing--many bears at a Sitka bear rescue center.  The center gathers bears who are injured or who are orphaned by car accidents.  If they can be released back into the wild, the center does that, but many of its charges must stay in its bear rescue areas. 

We enjoyed watching this bear eye a log in its pond, wade out to it, and then climb on top like a circus animal!

 

And then it was time for a snooze!

Alaska has several varieties of bears, including both brown and black ones.

The third part of our excursion was a boat trip around the sound, where seals, otters, and whales cavorted.  The photography was not great without a telephoto lens--just a few dark heads and tails poking out of the water for an instant and disappearing.  

We did enjoy the drama of a group of seals climbing onto and off of a buoy, and pushing each other around in the process.

And, as always in Alaska, the views of clouds, trees and water were gorgeous.

Alaskan Cruise: Misty Fjords (Ketchikan, Alaska 6.10.26)

This cruise was Dave's and my sixth trip to Alaska.  We've seen the typical sights in the tourist trail cities like Ketchikan, Juneau, and Sitka.  This time we picked less usual shore excursions.  On June 10, 2026 in Ketchikan, we skipped the lumberjack show, fun as it is, and toured Misty Fjords National Park by small boat.  The scenery was so spectacular that a picture of me with my camera is the most authentic image there could be!

The Melinda Leigh was our boat--small enough to get inside the narrow fjords, but big enough to brave stormy weather.

There was a map in the boat's cabin to show us where we were going, and an old seaman to tell us stories and facts about this wild area in the Inside Passage.

And, of course, I had my trusty guidebooks.  I brought five books on the cruise about Alaskan history and sights, and I read four of them.

And, 

There were beautiful, tiny islands as we headed into the fjord.

We passed the Raold Amundsen ship steaming out of the fjord as we went in.  That is one of the two expedition ships which HK Expeditions sails through the Northwest Passage. It carries 495 passengers, since ships with 500 or more passengers are not allowed to dock in Arctic and Antarctic areas, as I understand. If we are lucky enough and rich enough, Dave and I will sail the Northwest Passage with HK Expeditions in 2028.

The mountains rose high around us as we sailed into the fjords.

Dozens of waterfalls poured off the cliffs.

The dark water, dark sky, brilliant green trees, and red rock made stunning combinations.

The combinations of colors and textures, where the rock walls reached the water, were beautiful.

The outskirts of Ketchikan are picturesque.  Well-spaced cabins and houses have their own docks.

Ketchikan, itself, is a crowded warren of small, bright-colored houses.

Ketchikan is usually a good place to eat king crab legs, one of my very favorite luxuries.  Unfortunately, the price has skyrocketed as king crab has been over-fished.  At this Ketchikan cafe, a one-pound serving of king crab legs cost $135.  Dave was horrified.

We bought half a pound, to go, so they'd be cheaper.  I sat on a bench in a mall hallway and ate every smidgen, dipped in cups of melted butter.

We wandered the streets of Ketckikan, pausing at a store that sold upscale Alaskan art.

The owner of the store showed us his collection of mastodon tusks, selling for from $20K to $60K. I have a small pendant made of a mastodon tusk that I bought in Victoria, Canada, years ago.  But a whole tusk?  "Who buys those tusks?" we asked.  The owner replied that wealthy tourists, such as sports stars, buy them on a whim!  We bought our St. George house on a whim, I admit, but never a mastodon tusk.

And then it was time to return to our seafaring "home."