This is the most incredible experience - if you are in SE Alaska, carve out time to go. Expect to…read morepay $250-300 per person if you don't have your own boat to cover the permit fee and transportation. If you have a boat, you can pick up a permit for $10 during high season at the Forest Rangers stations in the area. Anan is a bear observatory and you will see brown and black bears fishing their hearts (and bellies) out. You'll also see a ton of eagles hunting for the same reason. No food, gum, etc past the ranger station. Eat a hearty breakfast before you go because 4-5 hours will pass in a blink watching bears before you have a chance to hike back out to eat.

This is a wonderful state park. It's a pretty easy walk from the port - which is good because…read morethere's no Lyft or Uber. The park has great signage and it's wonderful to wander among the 8000 year old art works. Do wear solid shoes and do go at low tide. It's easy to twist an ankle here. Wrangell is such a small place I didn't expect to find anything this fascinating here.

Such an awesome experience to walk around and find the treasures that the Elders of the island have…read moreleft for us.

We had the very good fortune to spend the day enjoying the glorious scenery of Endicott Arm…read more Endicott Arm was named as such in 1889, by US Naval Lieutenant Commander H.B. Mansfield. It was named after William Crowninshield Endicott, who was the US Secretary of War under President Cleveland. We were treated to majestic waterfalls, plunging valleys and rugged mountains as we made our way to the Dawes Glacier. The mass of ice that makes up Dawes Glacier begins with the Stikine Icefield at an elevation of 5,200 feet. From this source, the ice flows slowly where the first visible sign that there's a tidewater glacier ahead of us is the presence of small pieces of ice, looking like sculpted crystals, floating by the ship. To us, they look like icebergs, but they call them bergy bits or growlers depending on size. As we came upon the glacier in all of its glory, we were struck by the heavenly blue color and the dark stripes flowing lengthwise down the glacier. These are signs of the tributary glaciers that flow into the main glacier. Along the outside edges of glaciers, they carry rocks and sediment that fall or scrape off the cliffs onto the surface of the ice, creating artistic streaks when they join the main glacier. We only wished we were able to see the glacier calving. We had never seen so many icebergs, water so blue, snowcapped mountains, birds, wildlife, sea animals, and lush green forests. We were in awe of God's creation.

Icebergs, bears, and seals... OH MY!!! This was truly the highlight of our Alaskan cruise. How many…read moreYelpers can say that they checked in to a glacier in Alaska? This was seriously exciting & fun! Our Norwegian Bliss cruise ship transported us through Endicott Arm. According to Wiki, it's a fjord in the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness that is 30 miles long. I'd say we were in it for a total of 3-4 hours. Honestly, I never in a million years thought I'd see glaciers this close. It all started at the mouth of this fjord. I think we spotted it right away, and even identified it before hearing about it from the cruise director. It was the Sumdum (a Tlinget name meaning "Big Noise") Hanging Glacier. What a sight to see! It's said to have been once connected to the Dawes Glacier, but no one knows for sure. As we were cruising into the fjord we heard what sounded like a clap of thunder. Apparently, it was the calving of icebergs from the Dawes Glacier. We would eventually find that out later. We saw wildlife along the way as we started to see iceberg pieces all around us. We even saw a brown bear by a tree on the shoreline. We had to use binoculars after it was pointed out to us by a cruise photographer a deck below our stateroom. But hey, we finally saw one. Our biggest discovery was the Harbor Seals. They were so cute as they floated by our ship. I wanted to hug them. Lol! There was also a flock of sea gulls sitting on a rather large iceberg, but they kind of blended in with the ice in pictures. A picture doesn't do anything that we saw any justice. You just have to experience it. Of course, the biggest finale was the Dawes Glacier. Honestly, it was much closer than people say when viewing it from a cruise ship. There is an excursion where you can pay big bucks to get closer to it, but it certainly wasn't necessary IMHO. We were able to get a great view from our corner aft suite on deck 9. What I liked most was that we didn't get the chilly winds that everyone up front experienced when traveling through the fjord. The Captain makes 2 donut turns in front of it so that everyone gets a great view. Amazing!!! Okay, we did get chilly when turning toward the Glacier. Fortunately, it wasn't a constant wind for us. We really loved this experience. I don't know what else to say. Just book a cruise to Alaska. You won't regret it.