Welcome to First Alaska Cruise!
Welcome to First Alaska Cruise! The purpose of the website is to provide useful information to folks who are cruising Alaska for the first time and to whittle down the massive amount of information available on the internet. We are going to keep it simple for you as we wish someone had done for us when we were researching our first cruise in Alaska! Pictures and maps on our site can be enlarged by just clicking on them. We tried to keep most information brief, but like Alaska, some subjects are extensive, in which case you can read more by clicking on the links provided.
All advertisements on our site will be on the "Merchandise" page and will include links to proven vendors and products. Links that you see on our other pages will take you to reliable information most do not have advertising, but some do.
All advertisements on our site will be on the "Merchandise" page and will include links to proven vendors and products. Links that you see on our other pages will take you to reliable information most do not have advertising, but some do.
Where are you on a cruise in Alaska?
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The Inside Passage or Panhandle
Southeast Alaska, often referred to as the Inside Passage or Panhandle, is where you'll spend most of your time cruising in Alaska. It is the closest region of Alaska to the lower 48 states. After the Alaska Purchase, it is where most non-indigenous peoples settled. It contains the state capital, Juneau, and the former capital, Sitka. The Inside Passage runs from Washington State through British Columbia, Canada, through Southeast Alaska to the most northern port, Skagway. Your cruise will include a small part of Southcentral Alaska. From the cruise ship, you will view some of the most magnificent sights of scenery and Alaska wildlife. Video Alaska's Inside Passage |
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The Alexander Archipelago
You will be cruising through 300 miles of 1100 beautiful islands. They are the tops of a submerged section of the Coast Mountain Range. The Archipelago was named after the Czar of Russia, Alexander II, by the United States in 1867. The largest island is Prince of Wales Island (review map of the top 16 islands). The Alexander Archipelago wolf is a subspecies of the gray or timber wolf--it does not exist on all islands. Its range is from Yakutat Bay down to Dixon. The exceptions are Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof Islands. Alexander Archipelago from NASA |
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The Tongass National Forest
Right at 17,000,000 acres, the Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the United States. It also holds the record as the largest temperate rainforest in the world.
President Theodore Roosevelt established it in 1907. More than 80 percent of Southeast Alaska is in the Tongass with 11,000 miles of coastline. Old-growth forests with trees 800 years old and 200 feet tall, glaciers, fjords, abundant wildlife, marine mammals (whales to sea otters), land mammals (bears to shrews), birds (hundreds of species), wildflowers (fireweed to devils club) and much more make up the Tongass National Forest.
Watch The videos from USDA: Shades of Green series.