Page 43 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

A POR TR AIT OF ALASK A  41

Planning a Cruise
Cruises through the Gulf of
Alaska are usually part of a one-
way trip from either Vancouver
or Seattle to Anchorage and
also include the Inside Passage.
Ships dock in Seward or Whittier
and passengers travel to or from
Anchorage via train or bus.
A tour to Denali will take at
least three nights; the train trip
is spectacular (see pp286–7).
For more information on book-
ing and planning see pp256–63.
Valdez, a coastal port between the two flanks
of the vast Chugach National Forest, is notable
for being at the end of the famed Trans-Alaska
Pipeline. Large cruise ships do not stop here.
Hubbard Glacier (see p31), Alaska’s
longest tidewater glacier, stretches
across 6 miles (10 km) of Yakutat Bay’s
headwaters. Massive columns of
ancient ice tumble from the glacier’s
face with the sound of thunder
Valdez followed by a dull splash.
Key
Prince
William Suggested route Malaspina Glacier, at 1,500 square miles
Sound Cordova (3,890 sq km), is the largest piedmont glacier in
North America. It was named for the 18th-century
Spanish explorer, Alejandro Malaspina.
Alaganik
Cape Yakataga
Montague
Island
Kayak Island
Icy Bay was formed
within the last century
when four tidewater
glaciers retreated. Its Yakutat (see p155), a tiny
Bering Glacier dramatically icy waters provide Tlingit town on the route to To the Inside
surges forward up to 328 ft spectacularly isolated Hubbard Glacier, boasts one Passage (see
(100 m) per day about every 20 sea kayaking. of the most dramatic coastal pp38–9)
years, sometimes filling the lake locations on the continent.
at its foot with calving icebergs.

Cordova, inaccessible
by road or rail, is an
occasional port of call for
small ships. Originally the
terminus of the Copper
River and Northwestern
Railway (see p187), which
served the copper mines
at Kennicott, today it is
a pleasant fishing town.

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