Wilderness Explorer - An Un-Cruise Adventure



Saturday afternoon, July 16, we boarded the Wilderness Explorer for a one week trip exploring the inside passage of Alaska as well as Glacier Bay National Park. This cruise is offered by Un-Cruise Adventures. For us, the attraction to Un-Cruise was the small ship size (72 passengers) as well as the active adventures and wildlife viewing, with no stop in cities. The Un-Cruise brochures stated: Unrushed, Uncrowded, Unbelievable. They delivered on their promise. Activities offered were kayaking, paddle boarding, shore walking, bushwhacking, skiff tours, snorkeling and just plain sight seeing.



Our Seven Day - 500 Mile Itinerary

Our room, 310, was on the top deck near the bridge.

Small Boat - Small Cabin
Enough Said

On our way to an unbelievable week.

Getting trained on kayak safety.

Neah Bay.
Kayaks and skiff are ready to go.

Relaxing after a day of adventure.

Sunset over the Fairweather Mountains.
10:30 p.m.

Captain woke us up at 6:30 a.m. for our first view
of Margerie Glacier at Glacier Bay National Park.

Margerie Glacier with Mount Fairweather (15,300 feet)
 in the background.

Polar Plunge (Brrrrr)

Enroute to another tidewater glacier

Glacier Bay became part of a binational
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

 

Johns Hopkins Glacier

We had exceptional weather for our "Glacier Bay Day".

 



Approaching Marble Island in the National Park.

We were very lucky to see these three birds together
on Marble Island.
Common Murre, Horned Puffin and Tufted Puffin

Marble Island is a favorite hangout for
Stellar Sea Lions.

Still plenty of daylight at 7:30 p.m. for a stop
and hike at the visitor center.

A skiff ride to shore for bushwhacking with
our guide Michele.

This is a wilderness area, there are
no established trails

We got a lot of use out of our rubber boots and rain
pants during wet shore landings and crossing streams.

Preparing for our afternoon skiff ride.

Kayaking was one of our favorite activities.

Ok, lunch was good, but when is the next adventure.

Preparing for a shore walk.

We saw brown bears on multiple occasions.
Humpback and orca were an everyday occurrence.

Cushion Sea Star

Sea Cucumber

We must have kayaked 30 miles

The Fantail made it easy to launch/return our kayaks.

 

Juneau, Alaska

In the summer of 2003 it seemed like we drove every paved road in Alaska. We always wanted to return to Alaska and explore some of the state not accessed by road. On July 12, we started an adventure into the inside passage flying from Seattle to Juneau. We spent four days in Juneau, followed by a seven day wilderness cruise ending with two days in Sitka.

 

While in Juneau, we stayed at a quaint boutique hotel called the Silverbow Inn. This 11 room hotel was right in the heart of downtown Juneau. We were so happy to find our room was ready when we arrived at 9:00 a.m.  This left us the entire day free to take a walking tour around town.

 

Downtown District

View from the historic House of Wickersham

St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church
Built in 1894

We really enjoy visiting state capitol buildings. We were disappointed that the Alaska State Capitol Building was under a major reconstruction since 2013 and is closed until later this year. We guess it will be nice when it is finished.

Alaska State Capitol

Alaska's Most Accessible Glacier 

 We made a whole day of visiting Mendenhall Glacier. The visitor center is 13 miles from our hotel. We researched how to get there, a taxi was $70 each way, a Glacier Transport bus was $30 round trip per person and only gave you one hour at the glacier. After talking to some locals we found we could take the city bus which dropped us off just one and a half miles from the visitor center. We opted for the $2 bus ride which included good exercise on a nice trail.

 

At the glacier we stopped at the visitor center, enjoyed a film and walked down to the glacier and water fall. We took the Trail of Time and the Nugget Falls Trail.

Mendenhall Glacier

 

 

Goldbelt Mount Roberts Tramway

The 1800 foot ascent to the top offers great views
of Juneau and the Gastineau Channel.

The statue of the bull terrier, Patsy Ann, sits on the
Juneau docks. She was a deaf, blind "official greeter"
 who in the 1930's met every ship
as it came into the docks.

Newly Renovated Alaska State Museum

Alaska State Governor's House

Bonsais, Cars and Locks

On July 1 we moved 60 miles south to a new "Base Camp" in Gig Harbor. This quaint town is only a couple miles from the Narrows Bridge which connects us to downtown Tacoma and from Gig Harbor RV Resort it is only a short walk to downtown Gig Harbor. We can board the trolley at the corner and from that we are able to connect with the entire Seattle/Tacoma transit network consisting of bus, light rail and train service. On the 4th of July, Pierce Transit was providing free service, network wide, so we hopped on a couple buses for a "tour" of Tacoma.

Home on Site 44

Gig Harbor is a picturesque small town with
easy access to lots of things to see and do.

Outside of the Gig Harbor History Museum

PACIFIC BONSAI MUSEUM

After our Saturday shopping trip to the Tacoma Sam's Club and Walmart, we visited the free outdoor Pacific Bonsai Museum.

Weyerhaeuser Company opened the Collection in 1989.

Some of these trees are over 500 years old.

Many beautiful examples are showcased throughout
this one acre garden.

LEMAY CAR MUSEUM

We spent Tuesday in downtown Tacoma at the World Famous Lemay America's Car Museum. This modern 165,000 square foot car Museum kept us occupied all day.

1957 BMW Isetta
Top speed is 53 mph, 300 cc, 1 cylinder
1 door (the front opens), emergency hatch in roof.
Kurt remembered riding in his Uncle's Isetta

1959 BMW 507 Roadster

1961 Chrysler 300
followed by a '69 Corvette, 427 L88

View from Kerry Park overlooking Seattle
on our way to the Lake Washington Ship Canal

LAKE WASHINGTON SHIP CANAL

The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks first opened July 4, 1917 connecting the fresh water Lake Washington to Puget Sound. This engineering marvel is still in operation today 99 years later. In fact, this is the number two tourist destination in Seattle. We were just in time to catch a guided tour starting in the visitor center of the locks and 21 step fish ladder viewing area.

This is the only Army Corps of Engineer
Botanical Garden.
This 7 acre garden contains trees and plants
from around the world.

There are two locks, operating in parallel.
One for large vessels and one for small.

On busy days up to 100 pleasure craft are passed
through the lock in a single operation.

West Point Lighthouse at Discovery Park was
a nice place to walk while we waited for
Seattle rush hour to pass.