Discovery Voyages Hike & Kayak Voyage

Arrive in Anchorage and transfer on your own to your downtown Bed & Breakfast (included) for a comfortable night stay. Accommodations offer convenient access to the Anchorage Trail System, a network of developed hiking and bicycling trails throughout the Anchorage area. We recommend a walk or bike ride this afternoon or evening, if time allows. The views of the Alaska Range are spectacular! Dinner on own this evening. A great selection of restaurants are within easy walking distance of your B&B.

Van transfer pick up by Discovery staff at 10:00am for the scenic ride along the Turnagain Arm, known for its tremendous tidal flats and frequent sightings of Beluga Whales. Continue south through the Chugach Mountains to rendezvous with the captain and crew in Whittier for a warm welcome aboard the Discovery. While the crew prepares for departure, relax in the Discovery’s cozy salon and enjoy specially prepared appetizers of smoked salmon or halibut spread with crackers, fresh baked breads, fruits, and a plentiful selection of fine beverages. Leave Whittier, sailing east and south for our first kayaking and hiking destination.

This region serves as a favorite kayak destination, due to the intimate shore side views along both sides of the narrow passage. While enroute, the Discovery crew will orientate all visitors to the use of the kayaks and gear necessary for our first paddle excursion. After everyone is well situated in their kayaks, the Discovery sails ahead and will meet the group in a few hours with a delicious evening meal. After dinner, a shore-side hike reveals a wonderland of tundra pools and vegetation, reminiscent of a Japanese garden. Giant vertical cliffs pour water down their rock faces into streams and ponds. Return to the Discovery and sail for the evening anchorage.

Mornings aboard the Discovery are usually relaxed with a casual open breakfast served from 8:00 a.m. till 10:00 a.m. works well with guests from various time zones and individual morning routines. Enjoy a variety of warm fresh breads, muffins, rolls, fruits, cereals, various warm egg dishes, juices, coffee and tea. Underway in the morning, the Discovery sails through Knight Island Passage and Dangerous Passage towards Icy Bay.

At midday, the Discovery navigates her way through Icy Bay’s Nassau Fjord. Several miles of icebergs and brash ice (smaller pieces of glacial ice) lay between the fjord entrance and the massive, calving face of Chenega glacier, named after the local native community of Chenega. The massive, 200-square-mile Sergeant Ice field funnels ice down a wide mountain valley, forming a one-mile-long, 200-foot-high wall that topples giant blue chunks into the sea. This active tidewater glacier, with its daunting size and mammoth sounds, offers a remarkable opportunity to experience firsthand the tremendous natural forces that move these spectacles of nature. There are a multitude of kayaking and onshore hiking opportunities available in this region, and we will decide what activities to pursue depending on the weather and everyone’s preferences.

Hundreds of harbor seals make Icy Bay their summer home, using the floating ice as resting platforms and safe places for birthing. The rocky mountainsides around Chenega glacier support a healthy, frequently visible population of mountain goats; binoculars serve as helpful aids in sighting these skillful mountain climbers. Later in the day, the Discovery exits this ice-laden fjord for Bainbridge Passage, where you can try your luck fishing for Pacific Halibut and Rockfish. Late afternoon and early evening provide opportunities for Orca and Humpback whale watching.Enjoy a relaxing dinner while the Discovery travels along Knight Island, into the uncharted narrows of Long Channel for the evening’s anchorage.

Guests awake to a casual breakfast and an exciting day of some of the world’s most spectacular scenery–corridors of breathtaking beauty, sprawling glaciers and a panoramic skyline of mountain grandeur. Harbor seals and sea otters hauled out on the flotillas of icebergs watch closely as the Discovery navigates the icy, blue waters of Barry Arm. The enveloping mountains of this inlet stretch skyward to nearly 10,000 feet, with glacier after glacier descending the terraced mountain valleys. Alaska’s lush rainforest vegetation drapes the hillsides in green as streaming waterfalls fall from the rocky cliffs.

Listen to the cracks, pops and thunderous roars of the Cascade, Barry and Coxe glaciers while the Discovery, dwarfed by blue and white walls, drifts silently by these actively calving rivers of ice. From Barry Arm the Discovery sails to the face of the Surprise glacier, for more glacier phenomenon. Kayak the Southern shores of Harriman Fjord and enjoy a picnic lunch in the grassy meadows prior to a hike up the surrounding hills for a matchless view of Mount Muir, Mount Gilbert, and Mount Gannet rising high from the coastal shores.

Join the Discovery for your final journey back to Whittier. Passing through Port Wells, where you’re entertained by families of playful sea otters foraging the shellfish-rich shallow waters of their favorite feeding ground. As a protected species, these otters exhibit little concern for human presence, offering great opportunities for photos and up-close observations. Nature offers few chances to see animals in the wild as adorable as these mothers with young pups. Appetizers are served while taking in the final sights of Passage Canal prior to docking in the Whittier Harbor and your van transfer to Anchorage. Overnight in Anchorage.

Enjoy breakfast this morning at your Bed & Breakfast. Transfer on own to the airport for departures home or you may choose to extend your stay in Alaska.