“Didn’t you just visit Alaska?” friends have asked. Well, yes, we took our RV there on an 8500-mile, 11-week trip in 2023. See the blue route below for the area of Alaska (and a bit of the Yukon Territory and British Columbia) that we visited in 2023.
But there are a lot of places in Alaska that you cannot drive to, including most of the Southeast (Panhandle) portion that cruise ships typically visit (think: Inside Passage and Glacier Bay). So, that’s what our 2025 trip was all about–cruising Southeast Alaska to visit several towns, villages, islands, and peninsulas that are completely inaccessible via a road, the portion roughly circled in red on the map below.
So, off we flew at the end of August to Sitka, Alaska, where we boarded our boat for a 9-day adventure. Many people do an Alaskan cruise on a very large ship, but we opted for a different experience on the Baranof Dream with the Alaskan Dream Cruises company. This ship/boat has only 25 cabins, and we were 2 of 32 guests on board. After our orientation and after-dinner discussion, the boat headed out to Glacier Bay, traveling all night. (All photos are from Hank or Cindy’s phone or camera, unless otherwise noted.)
We woke up to humpback whales feeding just outside Glacier Bay National Park! It’s always a thrill to see wildlife on our trips.
An afternoon paddle in kayaks around Dundas Bay in the national park gave us sightings of a dozen sea otters and beautiful terrain.
Once again, we traveled all night, this time into one of longest fjords of Glacier Bay National Park (Tarr Inlet), and we woke up to small floating icebergs and chilly temperatures. We visited Margerie Glacier (a tidewater glacier) and Grand Pacific Glacier (a terminal moraine that carved most of Glacier Bay), looking across the ice to British Columbia, Canada.
As we left these two glaciers, we enjoyed scouting for wildlife at Gloomy Knob and South Marble Island, spotting numerous stellar sea lions and adorable tufted puffins! Definitely a highlight!
No trip to a national park would be complete without stopping at the visitor center for my national park passport stamp, so we exited the boat at Bartlett Cove, did a beautiful short hike through the temperate rain forest, where we saw some gorgeous mushrooms and fungi, and got ready for the polar plunge, a jump into COLD water (less than 50 degrees F), earning us certificates and lots of congratulations. Glacier Bay National Park is the 55th national park (out of 63) that we have visited together!
We traveled all night and woke up in Juneau, Alaska’s capital, and the only U.S. capital city that you cannot drive to from other parts of the state. Not on an island, but sort of on a peninsula surrounded by high mountains you can’t drive over, Juneau is a popular stop for big cruise ships, which made our little boat look like a toy. We had a bus ride up to the Mendenhall Glacier, where we enjoyed the Nugget Falls Hike, Photo Point, and Steep Creek (where we saw only dead salmon).
Back in town, we visited the Alaska State Museum, with its historic and authentic displays of indigenous artifacts (many from Alaska Native groups such as the Tlingit, Haida, and Athabascan people). We enjoyed viewing dugout canoes and sealskin rain parkas, as well as modern quilts of Alaskan scenes.
For dinner we traveled to a small island and enjoyed a lavish dinner (including s’mores) at Orca Point Lodge. This whole area reminded us so much of southern Puget Sound in Washington, complete with barnacles and sandbars.
Heading south once again, we woke up in Endicott Arm, another long fjord with two beautiful glaciers at the end, North Dawes Glacier and Dawes Glacier. Harbor seals, icebergs, and waterfalls gave us lots of beautiful views, including Wedding Cake Falls. Our new vocabulary word for the day was bergy bit, a chunk of glacier ice floating in the sea, less than 15 feet in size. Our boat crew picked up some bergy bits and made cocktails out of some pieces, and gave us a contest to try and guess when a large chunk would completely melt (Hank came in second place!).
Next day, our boat anchored in Ideal Cove near Frederick Sound for two new adventures. We got onto jet boats to race up close to Le Conte Glacier (maybe the most beautiful glacier of the trip). Next we landed on a nearby island and hiked to a few lakes. No bear sightings, but we did see a porcupine!
On to the town of Wrangell next, where we had a personal tour of some Tlingit (indigenous) petroglyphs given by a young Tlingit tour guide. We also walked through town to the Chief Shakes House and enjoyed the thousands of artifacts in the Wrangell Museum.
Humpbacks and sea otters were a delightful sendoff from Wrangell as we headed further south that evening.
On the huge Prince of Wales Island, we docked at the small Haida (indigenous) town of Kasaan, where we were treated to a personal tour by Mike Jones, President of the Organized Village of Kasaan. His guided hike, complete with Haida myths, and tons of history about the Haida people and their totem poles, was definitely a highlight.
Next morning, we arrived in Ketchikan and exited the Baranof Dream. It was an amazing week of gorgeous scenery, lots of learning, and being with a very attentive crew and lots of great fellow travelers. (Next post will focus on the cities of Ketchikan and Sitka.)
Fabulous! Love the reports and pix of your wonderful trips. I am amazed and impressed at the polar plunge. I can’t even put a bare foot into the Pacific, so I’m pretty sure I couldn’t manage that!
Lynn, it was colder than they told us for sure but not as awful as it might sound. We both swam pretty fast back to the ladders to get out of the water and into the sunshine!
Fabulous reliving of a wonderful trip. Thanks so much.
Loved the Baranof Dream and the memories of the friends we met!
What a fun trip! I much prefer smaller cruise type adventure ships. The area you went to is one we had considered pre covid and just had not seemed to circle back to that. It looks absolutely stunning and I love the variety of wildlife. Dave was very impressed that you took the ‘Polar bear plunge’. The puffin was a wonderful bird to see in person.
Small ship was perfect for us. It allowed us to get up close to all of the glaciers. Yeah…love those puffins!
Dear Cindy and Hank,
Thank you for sharing your great photographs-which by the way are greater than ours! It is very nicely done. It was lovely spending time with our Californian friends.
We look forward your next adventure.
Take care.
Andres and Ines
Andres/Ines! Thanks for replying. So much fun with you two on the trip. Cindy is doing another blog on the time we spent in each city after we left the Baranof. Sitka and Ketchikan. We spent a few days in each of those cities before heading back to SoCal.
Thank you for sharing a lovely synopsis of our SE Alaskan adventure. What an amazing experience. And such fun to explore with a great group of fellow travelers. Wishing you two many more memorable adventures.
So great to meet you both, Shannon! What a wonderful adventure!