Our hiking tour will assemble in Juneau and spend the Day 1 exploring the Mendenhall Glacier, just minutes away from the city. A popular cruise ship destination, this forest service visitor center gets a lot of traffic, but it will take just a few minutes up the trail to lose the throngs and become surrounded by wilderness as we approach the receding base of the glacier.
After a night in Juneau, we proceed on to the National Park. There are no roads that lead to Glacier Bay National Park, so we arrive on Day 2 by ferry, with a chance to explore the coves, bays and channels of the Gulf of Alaska along the way. The town of Gustavus is considered the gateway to Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, and we will be shuttled from there to the lodge. Glacier Bay Lodge is the crown jewel of the Mission 66 initiative to build roads, hiking trails, visitor centers and lodges in America’s national parks. The architecture reflects the cultural and scenic heritage of Glacier Bay and its Tlingit influence, and this will be our home for two nights. From here, we will walk the Bartlett River Trail, which starts out through northern rainforest, along the shoreline of Glacier Bay, then veers away from the shoreline, and becomes surrounded by tall fir trees and lush ground cover vegetation. Everything is moist everywhere, and good mud resistant boots are recommended. The end of Bartlett River Trail comes out next to the tidal flats of the Bartlett River. On a clear day, views of the Fairweather Mountain Range can be seen in the distance.
Our next day in the park, Day 3, we will spend the full day on a boat tour to the tidewater glaciers. On the high-speed catamaran, whale, seal and puffin and bear sightings are common as we approach the glaciers through the cold waters of the Glacier Bay and Park Waters. Our destination is the Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers, two towering masses of ice and snow rising 245 feet above the ocean and stretching another 100 feet beneath the water. With no land access to these glaciers, this is the way to watch the ice that calves from the face of the two glaciers.
On Day 4 we have the entire day to explore the shoreline of the National Park towards Point Gustavus. Rather than an official trail, this beach walk allows us to explore tidepools, watch for whales, comb the beaches for treasures and take in the salty sea air. At the end of the day we shuttle back to Gustavus for an evening flight to Sitka. There is a layover in Juneau long enough for our evening meal, before continuing on to our hotel destination in Sitka.
Along with its gorgeous scenery, Sitka, Alaska is the sight of some fascinating history. It is here that the rich and sophisticated Tlingit people lived, until the Russians set up a headquarters in the late 18th century. Their interest was in the trade of sea otter fur and some bloody battles were fought to secure ownership of the area. The cannons of the Russians were no match for the Tlingits and they retreated across the Peril Strait. Nearly a century later the transfer ceremony for the sale of the Alaskan Territory from Russian to the United States took place at Sitka. Our morning on Day 5 in Sitka will continue to focus on the water, as we take a guided kayak tour into Sitka Sound on our quest for whale sightings and storytelling. In the afternoon we take a hike to Herring Cove and Beaver Lake for an up close experience in the largest National Forest in the US – Tongass .
Our last morning on Day 6 we can enjoy a leisurely breakfast and one more hike on the Indian River Trail to a hidden waterfall. We return to town for a quick lunch before concluding our Glacier Bay and Sitka Boot and Boat tour.
