Glacier Point Wilderness Safari in Skagway

Skagway is located in a narrow glaciated valley at the head of the Taiya Inlet, about 90 miles (143 km) northwest of Juneau.  With a population just over 1,000 that doubles during the tourist season, the town sits on the northernmost point of the Inside Passage in southeast Alaska.  In its heyday during the Klondike Gold Rush, Skagway was a bustling rough-and-tumble boomtown with over 80 bars to lubricate the prospectors.  Now the town offers a sense of the old times for tourists, including a restored historic district, dog sled rides, and the revived White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad taking passengers through the mountains to Canada and back.

We take Glacier Point Wilderness Safari from Skagway which starts with an hour-long catamaran cruise through the Lynn Canal, North American's longest and deepest fjord.  After arrival at Glacier Point Beach, we ride a restored school bus (that had to be brought in by barge) to the base camp where we are outfitted with life jackets and paddles and hike a quarter mile through the forest to our canoes for a trip across the lake to a point where we can hike toward the face of the glacier

Arriving in Skagway

Cruising through the fjord

Catamaran to Glacier Point Beach

Glacier Point is located at the nexus of two massive mountain ranges, the 1,000 mile (1,610 km) Coast Mountains stretching along the coast of Alaska and British Columbia to Vancouver and the St. Elias Range which boasts the world's tallest coastal mountain, Mount Logan at 19,551 feet (5,956 meters).  The two ranges together create a string of mountains about 1,500 miles (2,415 km) north to south.

Riding through the forest to the base camp

Fashionably outfitted

Forest path to the lake

Hopping in the canoe

Walking toward the glacier

Views of the glacier

We all get our pictures

Leaving the glacier, heading back to the canoes

Return through the forest to base camp

Glacier edge in earlier times

On our return cruise on the catamaran through the fjord back to Skagway, we pass more beautiful snow-covered mountain views, waterfalls, and seals sunning themselves in the warm (comparatively), sunny weather.  Also, many bald eagles are flying along with us, resting in the trees along the shore, and occasionally circling over the cruise ship.  With wingspans as much as 8 feet (2.4 meters), the bald eagle population was on the brink of extinction, with only 50 mating pairs in the entire United States in  1963.  Now, Alaska's population is estimated at more than 30,000 (300,000 in the lower 48 states) and we see them everywhere.

Mountains

Waterfalls

Seals

Bald eagles

We didn't have time to visit historic downtown Skagway and the recreated boardwalk, saloons, and shops, but we did see spectacular sights and wildlife (luckily, no bears, although all our guides carried bear spray and had recently seen bears emerging from hibernation and looking for food).