Cruising Southeast Alaska’s Islands

From Icy Bay, northwest of Yakutat, to Dixon Entrance, the southeast region of Alaska spans roughly 500 miles. It consists of a narrow strip of land with a few islands just off the coast of British Columbia. In several locations, the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains serve as the international border. The Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the US, which covers the vast majority of Southeast Alaska. Few flat expanses break up the steepness of the area’s massive ice fields, glacier-scored peaks, and steep valleys. More than a thousand known islands and several unidentified islets and reefs are part of this area. The largest cities in the region are Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan.

Cruising Southeast Alaska’s Islands

The Tlingit and Haida tribes of the area, as well as the steamships of the gold rush era, used this passageway frequently. In the present day, it serves as a vital passageway for cruise ships and ferries on the Alaska Marine Highway. The area south of Glacier Bay is home to the Alexander Archipelago, which is made up of thousands of islands of varying sizes. The Inside Passage, a section of the coast further inland, is protected from rough seas by the islands in this chain.

Navigating Southeast Alaska is challenging due to the area’s steep, rocky terrain and numerous islands and fjords. The two northmost towns in the area are Haines and Skagway, which have access to the Alaska Highway. In general, only boats and planes can get you from one island to another or from one city to another.

Alaska Native people

Over the past ten thousand years, Southeast Alaska has been home to maritime people. They have ties to the earliest settlements of the Northwest Coast Tribes. The Alaska Native people keep up their “connection with nature” by maintaining their own cultural practices. There is a wealth of oral history that has been passed down through the generations, telling of a continuous presence on the continent since “time immemorial.”