Admiralty Island is not just any island. It’s 100 miles long and has enough scenery and wildlife to last a lifetime. The deep wilderness, covered with ancient old growth rainforest, is nicknamed Fortress of the Bears and has the largest concentration of nesting bald eagles in the world. I’ve been doing variations of this amazing trip since 1999 (except for a Covid break) Expect whales, ice–and of course–spectacular scenery. We may have some bears, although since this trip is scheduled for July, not that many, as the salmon (the bear’s favorite food) won’t be running. With a 55-foot live-aboard, eat-aboard boat as our base, we can take up to six people. You’ll be pampered by a great cook, naturalist/first mate and captain who has an encyclopedic knowledge of everything connected with Alaska natural history. And I’ll give you photography tips so that you come back with some truly memorable photos.Truly, this is the trip of a lifetime! Because we’re on the Inside Passage, we seldom encounter rough water.
This 8.5-day trip starts and ends in Juneau, Alaska’s capital city. We’ll spend a lot of time in whale waters west of Juneau, along mighty Chatham Strait and in Frederick Sound, where about 1500 humpback whales spend the summer feeding before migrating in the fall to winter in Hawaii. Typically we see several smaller groups at a time, and with luck we’ll see breaching and the group feeding behavior known as lunge feeding. Sometimes we see orcas. After enjoying our time in whale waters, we motor up long Endicott Arm, with its dramatic scenery, to Dawes Glacier, a tidewater behemoth that thunders blue, blue ice into the bay. We’ll linger by these icebergs in appreciation of the unique, fleeting beauty of each crystalline formation.
The trip fee includes boat travel and guiding, meals and sleeping accommodations. Not included is roundtrip airfare or gratuities for the first mate and cook. We do short shore walks almost every day. You must be able to climb a few steps up and down a ladder to the main deck of the boat. Otherwise the boat is suitable for all ability levels.