The final stop on our Ketchikan excursion was Totem Bight State Park. Situated on 11 acres of rainforest just north of Ketchikan, this park displays restored and replicated totem poles and a representative clan house. In the early 1900s, Native Americans were forced to migrate away from their villages, leaving behind totem poles and clan houses to be swallowed up by the woods. In 1938, the US Forest Service began a program to save as many of these native artifacts as they could and to hire Natives to recreate the ones that could not be salvaged. Totem Bight State Park …

The second stop on our private Ketchikan tour was a hike in the Tongass National Forest. We walked the Ward Creek Trail, which our guide billed as a “locals” trail. Indeed, we saw a handful of people out walking their dogs but not a single other tourist. The start of the trail is an old gravel road. The trail is wide and primarily flat, with just a few easy sloping hills. It passes through lush rainforest as it follows along the creek. We had barely gotten into the rainforest when our guide Natalie spotted a black slug on the trail. …

We booked a private tour with Wild Wolf Tours to take us to Herring Cove, on a rainforest hike, and to Totem Bight State Park. Our tour guide Natalie met us at the end of the dock and we loaded up into the van and headed to our first stop, Herring Cove. We were really hoping to see bears in Ketchikan (although we had already gotten lucky and seen one in Skagway so it took some of the pressure off). We knew that a floatplane to a remote area was the best chance to spot bears but had decided against …

After our combined whale watching and Mendenhall Glacier tour, our tour guide offered to drop us off in town or back at the dock. Our immediate family opted to eat lunch and explore town, while the extended family went back to the boat. Corey gave us a few lunch suggestions and we took off exploring. Juneau is Alaska’s state capital. Surrounded by the rugged Mount Juneau and Mount Roberts, Juneau cannot be reached by land. Like Skagway, the town got its start during the Gold Rush days, although it played a much smaller role in the gold rush. I didn’t …

After we finished our whale watching adventure, another tour guide (Corey) from Alaska Galore Tours picked us up from the harbor to take us to Mendenhall Glacier. Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area is only about 5 miles from Auke Bay Harbor, so it was a quick trip to get there. Corey dropped us off and went to park the van. The glacier was literally right there. I was stunned at how close we were and how beautiful it looked. It’s tough to beat a view like this right off the parking lot of a recreation area. Mendenhall Glacier is 13 miles …

Whale watching was a high priority for us on our Alaska trip. I knew we wanted to get a more personalized experience and go out on a smaller boat. We wanted a relaxed, easy viewing experience and didn’t want to be jostling for position on deck with 50 or more people. After pricing out various small boats, we discovered that booking a private excursion for our group of 10 was a very reasonable option. We booked ours through Alaska Galore Tours. It was another super foggy day when we docked in Juneau. In fact, we could barely see the shore …

Skagway was our longest port day (7:15 am to 8:00 pm), so even though we had a 7.5 hour excursion we still had plenty of time to explore the town. After getting off the White Pass & Yukon Route train, we walked down Broadway, the main road through town. Broadway ends in the Port of Skagway. Historic buildings line the street leading to the cruise ships, with Mount Harding standing tall in the background. The street is lined with Gold Rush era buildings and wooden boardwalks, making you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. Two of the town’s most …

When gold was discovered in the Klondike River in 1896, it set off the Klondike Gold Rush. Some 100,000 stampeders came to the area between 1896 and 1899 in search of gold. They had two options to get to the Klondike, located some 600 miles from Skagway over treacherous mountains: the Chilkoot Trail or the White Pass Trail. The Chilkoot Trail was shorter but steeper, and since the Canadian government required each person to carry a year’s worth of supplies (weighing roughly one ton) on their journey, it was extremely challenging. The White Pass Trail was longer but less steep. …