Image Courtesy of Galen Freysinger
This slide gallery was recorded by John Barnes while he, Ellen, and about 1200 other folks were on a cruise aboard ms Zuiderdam, a Vista Class cruise ship operated by the Holland America Line. John and Ellen spent one pre-cruise day sightseeing in Vancouver BC. We were attached to the ship for slightly less than 7 days. Two of those days were under way steaming on Alaska's Inside Passage. Four days were spent visiting scenic locales.
For your convenience I broke the gallery by days as indicated by the Table of Contents. Each link points to an index page for a group of thumbnail images. Clicking on a thumbnail brings up a larger image of the subject. In some cases there is more than one index page. With a little practice you should find it quite easy to navigate through the collection. "Next", "Previous", or "Index" links facilitate moving from one image to another within a given day.
Closing any index page or large image page in your browser will bring you back to this gallery entrance page, where you can select a different day.
Most of the Alaska Portion of the Inland Passage lies within the Tongass National Forest. Development is sparse. Since there are no highways that link the coastal towns, goods must be brought in by ship. Ketchikan does claim an International airport. Alaska airlines offers service from DC area airports to Ketchikan, but it is a grueling schedule with a long layover at a west coast connecting airport. Cruise ships spend only a little time in ports and quite a lot of time at sea. This makes it hard to make a close acquaintance with potentially interesting places..
Nonetheless, we found the trip to be an enjoyable one. We saw a lot of interesting places and picked up a good bit of interesting history. We are glad to share our experiences with you :).