Alaska Marine Highway - Cross-Gulf - Juneau to Whittier
For the last leg of our journey, we boarded the MV Kennicott in the capital city of Juneau for the 40 trip across the Gulf of Alaska. The first thing we noticed is that they tied all the cars down, in case of rough seas. The Kennicott is newer and built for the cross-gulf trip, with more enclosed areas, including the solarium, which made it somewhat cramped. We were thankful we had booked a small "roomette" with bunkbeds for sleeping.
Throughout the Lynn Canal and Icy Strait, there was lots of whale, sea otter and porpoise activity. The humpbacks were bubble net feeding, surfacing and even breaching!
The Glacier Bay area is amazing and diverse with snowy glaciers and treed cliffs all backed by tall snowy peaks.
We stopped in the small town of Yakutat and visited the National Park office for both Glacier Bay and Wrangell-St. Elias. Upon leaving the bay, we were treated to fantastic views of the St. Elias range.
The weather was perfect and the seas were calm, only getting to five feet. Mostly it was smooth as glass and a beautiful ride into Whittier.
Adios!
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