Thread: Juneau Excursion Ideas

another view of the dogs

Alisa, those pictures are fantastic. Did you take them? Did you get the book I recommended?

Mike - I haven't gotten the book yet. Its on my list of things to get to. Hopefully soon.

Yes, I took all the pictures myself. Thanks!

here's another Orca shot from my whale watching trip to whet your appetites!!

here's one last picture of a humpback's tail

Did you see a lot of whales when you were there?

First trip to Alaska in 1996, we saw a lot of whales in and around Glacier Bay National Park. We even had one that breached about 10 times right off the side of the ship as we sailed away from the park. The Capt, later joked that the ship listed to one side as the pax all went to the side where the whale was putting on quite a show for us!

On the second trip to Alaska in 2003, I took a whale watching excursion.. thats where the above pictures came from. We saw 3 orcas and about 10 humpbacks. Later, on the cruise itself in Glacier Bay again, we saw 2 orcas and about 5-7 humpbacks. No breaching whales this time.

This most recent trip to Alaska, we saw more whales than we've ever seen before. Depending on the direction to approach Juneau, either a few hours before you reach Juneau if you are coming from the South or a fewhours after you leave Juneau if you are coming from the north, there is a place called Admiralty Island. There tends to be lots of whale activity there. On the night we left Juneau people started spotting whales as we were eating dinner. The captain made annoucements through the PA system. We probably saw 20-30 whales that night. Some at a distance though, so a good pair of binoculars is recommended. No breaching whales though. Then later in the trip as we sailed through Misty Fjords we saw 3 orcas.

So your chances of seeing whales is high. But you also need to know where whales are most often spotted and you also need to have patience.