Spectacular is one of the superlatives to describe the experience with Captain Al and the Northern…read moreExplorer. We hiked, saw bears, doll porpoises, and the most amazing scenes of glaciers from Blackstone Bay. The food was a culinary delight, Christian out did himself each night. Rena oozed hospitality and exceeded our every need.

We just returned from our two week trip to Alaska. The middle part of that was 5 days and 4 nights…read morewith Captain Al and his crew for our cruise. Unexpectedly, we ended up being the only guests as others had backed out. We started out of Seward with a nice trip from Anchorage with Joan and Jeff as our shuttle team. They were both very personable and a pleasure to make the trip with to Seward. We were greeted with champagne and quickly got underway. Our accommodations were exactly as described in the Master suite. After two days of being wined and dined, we finally had to say, the "food is amazing, but we don't eat this much in a day. We need to slow down on the amount" LOL Certainly all you could possibly eat and nicely prepared. En En set beautiful tables for every meal and and our wine glasses were never dry. The weather was not the best for the first few days, so with everyone's agreement, we decided to roll the dice and cross the Gulf of Alaska to head towards Whittier. At that point, the weather became amazing, we did kayaking and had a 13,000 year old cocktail (Bourbon on Glacier ice). Who knew we would go to Alaska to get a tan? We spent the entire time cruising out on the deck getting sun. Captain Al and his team were wonderful hosts. I guess I could address every complaint that has been posted, but I'm not going to give it much credibility by spending any time on it. Yes, the boat is not brand new, but we had no issues on board (except the battery, but that's a little joke between Captain Al and us.). I can't speak to any of the other accommodations because we did not see or use them, but there were absolutely no complaints with ours. We are already considering the possibility of taking friends and going again some time. Thanks for everything Captain Al, En En and Christian! It was the trip of a lifetime! Thanks for being a part of it! Lori and Bob

Alaska Coastal Wildlife and Brown Bears…read more I did this tour in August 2023. It is a photography-centric tour and it lived up to the hype. We had bears. Lots of bears. Bear cubs. Carl Donohue was our Expedition Leader and did a great job. It was great to have someone with tons of bear experience, as it was close sometimes! It was a boat-based tour so that we would have the freedom to move to where the bears are. Day one we had bears. Day two we had weather, lots of weather. We were in Alaska after all. From there on out we were in bear heaven. I shot literally thousands of images (shooting at 30 frames per second will do that) and I really struggled to delete down to the 400 or so that I'm at now. It's tough to delete amazing photos because you have some that are even more amazing and you just don't need them all. The boat (yacht?) at 98 feet was super comfortable for our small group of photographers. The crew was awesome and the food was very good, certainly more than you would expect for a boat-based trip. I can't imagine how good you have to be at planning to pull that off. Every day I took "shot of a lifetime" photos of bears.

This is my second photography tour with Carl Donohue of Expeditions Alaska and all I can say is…read morethat he delivers on what is promised. The first was the Bald Eagles in Haines in November 2022. Recently, in April 2023, I went on the Hungry Whales trip in Sitka, photographing bubble-net feeding whales. In both cases the awesome photo opportunities far exceeded my expectations. If you're looking for creature comforts go on an Alaska Cruise. If you are a dedicated photographer, seeking unique photos, stick with Carl. He does his best to connect you with the subjects and help you capture those stunning shots you seek. If other opportunities arise, such as eagles feeding on fish in the whale tour, you'll get those as well. I strongly recommend Expeditions Alaska for your photo needs in this beautiful state.

I've never had more fun!…read more These guys are professional and so much fun! Pop-corn was our guide he was a total hoot! I've done a buch of these this was the most exciting and I fest safe the entire time ...nice job all !!

This was an experience of a lifetime! They began by giving us a thorough training on what to…read moreexpect, so I went into it with confidence. Im convinced we had the best guide of all the groups, no one from our raft fell out! I'm hooked!

We enjoyed a wonderful morning out on the Matanuska Glacier with Nova and would definitely…read morerecommend them! Our guide was very knowledgeable and gave us lots of information about this and other glaciers as he safely got us up close to experience all its different features, all while being humorous, fun, and a great photographer. Loved this experience!

Carsen was a great guide on our glacier tour. She was very…read morethorough, had a great personality and we enjoyed visiting with her while we experienced this incredible glacier. Took our 3 daughters and we had a great time. Very cool experience.

Compared to the usual hikes occasional hikers and/or tourists do (Flattop et al), this hike is…read morelonger. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. That means the grade (steepness) is much more gradual and, to many folks, it "feels" less steep. The trail starts out low and in the brush. In my opinion, this is the scariest part. Why? Well, you never have to scramble up rocks and use your hands on this trial, but that's not why. The why is simple: BEARS. I definitely recommend hiking with friends, or being loud, or taking bear spray, or all of the above. The lower parts of the trail have many blind-turns and overgrown areas where you could surprise Ballou. Soon you'll leave the brush though, and take a gentle cruise to the summit of Wolverine. The views from the top, looking east (away from Anchorage) are pretty incredible.

Hiking Wolverine Peak was my first activity in Alaska and it left me sore for the rest of the week…read more However, the climb as well as the views made it all worthwhile. The hike is well known locally and is about 10 miles round trip. It can be strenuous as Wolverine Peak is 4500 feet above sea level and most of the hike is straight uphill. The first 2 miles aren't too bad but the trail gets narrower and steeper as you go along so I was huffing and puffing halfway into it. You have to make your way carefully in certain parts where the trail gets narrow cuz there's this plant called Cow's Parsnip (I think that's what it's called) and something on the flower reacts to sunlight so if you brush up on the flower and it gets sunny, you will have very nasty blistering sores. Be careful! Throughout the hike the guide stopped periodically so that I could check out the scenery and the wildlife. There was a moose and her calf.. and we picked wild blueberries on the trail for a little snack. And the views of the peaks and valleys were so lovely. Just really hard to describe... Take lots of water and a nice lunch to enjoy at the top. A great way to spend the day.

Man, how am I just now getting around to hiking this?!…read more Falls Creek is located at ~Mile Post 105.6 on the Seward Highway. In relation to other trails: To the West: Rainbow Trailhead (https://www.yelp.com/biz/rainbow-trailhead-anchorage) To the East: Indian Valley Trailhead (https://www.yelp.com/biz/indian-valley-trail-anchorage) Stats: Mileage: 2.7 (one-way) Gain: 2,900 ft About a 1,000 ft/mile, steep but not *too* steep. The trail starts out...next to a falls! It closely follows Falls Creek for the first half of its length. As the water is loud and the brush is thick, I'd highly recommend doing some trail karaoke with your friends to make sure you alert any bears in the area that you're coming. Eventually, you get out of the brush and the valley expands. It's gorgeous. It's wide and it's bright-freakin'-green (my favorite shade of that color), or at least it was in mid-June. This is going to sound odd but, it actually reminded me of some of the valleys I hiked in Hawaii! It made me a little butthurt that I am only just-now getting around to hiking the trail. The trail ends at a lake. I'm not sure what the name of it is, so I'll just call it "Falls Lake". The lake frequently has snow on/in/around it, up until July. But, there is an ample amount of vegetated, snow-free flat area around the lake, this would be a perfect "Baby's First Backpacking" trip. (no permits required, just load yourself down and hike up) You can continue up past the lake, onto the ridge between South Suicide Peak and Indianhouse Mountain. The path will quickly change from "hiking" to "scrambling" though. I'd only recommend going up South Suicide if you are confident on your feet, and I'd only recommend going up Indianhouse if you have a rope and a partner! If you're quick enough, this can be done as an after-work hike. If you're slow or looking for a casual stroll, you can easily make a day of this hike.

I'm still sore. Dragged my spouse and our neurodivergent son with me to do this hike on a sunny…read moreSeptember Saturday. We parked at 1pm (parking lot was packed). Got back to the parking lot after 5pm. You'll need most of your day to do this hike if you're not a professional. This hike is beautiful but it is challenging for sure. You are going uphill the entire time. On the way down it's so steep you're jamming your toes trying not to fall. We did the bulk of this hike with nothing but backpacks full of snacks hahaha. Everyone that passed us up or down had poles, guns, bear spray, bells, dogs, the whole enchilada. I don't recommend hiking this area the way we did, we just got lucky :) It was a beautiful day and we were never alone for longer than 15-20min at a time. Weather was perfect, it was sunny and warm but the breeze was breezin'. The falls are a sight to see and made this strenuous hike completely worth it for my water-loving son. I can't wait to return soon and make it further.

This is such a beautiful state park. I had the pleasure to go here during my stay in Alaska. I…read morewould highly recommend going and just taking it the beautiful site.

I still stand by my original statement that Chugach State Patk is the best park about living in…read moreAnchorage. However, many of the lane expansion and safety measures that are ongoing on Seward Highway do and will a have lasting impact on much of the easily accessible entry points of the park. Some of my favorite points, such as Windy Corner, are going to be completely eliminated in one of the lane expansion projects for the highway, with no plans for remediation or replacement. For Tourists, I would also like to point out another very impoont I failed to mention in my previous review. Make VERY CAREFUL REVIEW OF STATE AND FEDERAL website maps to be sure you understand where the boundaries between Chugach STATE forest and Chugach NATIONAL forest are. This will ensure you understand fees and the location of campsites, cabins, and accessibility.

We had a great time catching sockeye salmon in Soldotna. Was one of the highlights of our trip to…read moreAlaska. Shipped the fish home, we have been eating it for months. Thanks!