REMOTE ALASKA

BIRDING & NATURE EXPEDITION
Tour Description

Tour beginning April 18, 2012
with multiple optional trips
to July 16, 2012

Nature lovers, this trip is for you! We've designed a comprehensive Alaskan expedition that concentrates on finding the state's spectacular wildlife, including dozens of northern mammal species - Grizzly & Black Bears, Caribou, Dall's & Stone Sheep, Snowshoe Hare, Beaver, Sea Otter, Hoary Marmot, Moose, Red Fox, Beluga and Killer Whales, Sea Lions and many more.

We will meet in Bellingham, Washington, and travel together via Alaska ferry and our RV's to Homer, Alaska.  From there you have the choice of some or all of seven trips to wild Alaska.

This trip is more exploratory than most Alaskan caravans, so be prepared for a bit more dry camping, somewhat colder weather at the start (the lakes will still be frozen in May, but the roads are open and ice free), and lots of adventure. With our earlier start and our visits to more remote areas, we will maximize our chances of seeing wildlife, one of the greatest thrills of visiting Alaska.

Past customers have praised this trip for the flexibility and freedom it affords. The exclusive caravan size - limited to 10 customer rigs - provides more personal time with the naturalist/birding guide, allows camping at special sites not open to large groups and enables side trips not otherwise possible. The extended schedule allows a more leisurely trip while at the same time showing you more of Alaska than all other caravan trips. In particular, the optional side trips to remote islands and to Nome on the western edge of the Alaska mainland along the Bering Sea, and to Barrow at the northern tip of Alaska on the Arctic Ocean give you a complete view of Alaska that very few people have the opportunity to visit.

This caravan trip isn't for everyone, but if you love nature and want adventure, this is the one for you.

Part 1. Bellingham to Haines via Alaska ferry; Haines to Homer by RV.
18 April to 13 May 2012.

[Dates subject to change for ferry schedules, air flights and convenience]

We will meet at the Washington State port of Bellingham on 18 April 2012. After our rendezvous meeting we will board our RV’s onto the ship and check out our private sleeping cabins for the trip. The ferry ship will travel between Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia, continue northwest beside Canadian coastal islands, passing Prince Rupert and cross into Alaskan waters near Ketchikan. Once in the Inner Passage we will pass by snow-covered mountains and icy glaciers and pass Wrangell, Petersburg and Sitka. Expect to see magnificent scenery, bears, whales and seabirds.

Our first stop will be Ketchikan, where we will have 3 days (2 nights) to explore this remote Alaska outpost, with its Totem Park and Heritage Center.  Ketchikan is a small port on a big island called Revillagigedo Island. The city is many miles long, but narrow as it builds up the mountain behind it, capping at 2,500 to 3,400 ft.  We will visit Ward Lake in the Tongass National Forest, on the lookout for Pacific Wren. We will take a different ferry ship for the passage to Juneau, passing Wrangell, Petersburg, Kake and Sitka en route.  We will stay in Juneau (3 nights), where we will be able to explore the area. Juneau offers a close-up view of Mendenhall Glacier as well as the state capital town with its backdrop of snow-covered mountains. Nine days after our Washington departure we will disembark again in Haines, Alaska, famous for the Bald Eagles that congregate at Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.

On a good all-weather road, not often taken by Alaska tourists, we travel north from the coast through snow-capped mountains, beside the Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness and along Deszadeash Lake to Haines Junction, Yukon Territory. Skirting the edge of Kluane National Park, our next day takes us to iced-over Destruction Bay. From there we thread northwesterly and enter Alaska again near Tok. In route to Anchorage we will stop to find Great Gray Owls at a spot we’ve seen them on other visits. We continue southwest into the Kenai Peninsula and reach our goal at Homer in time for the 2012 Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival on the special anniversary of their 20th year of Alaska’s largest wildlife viewing festival. Over 100,000 shorebirds pass through the bay area and previous festival weekends have tallied 120+ species. Our early arrival to Homer gives us a chance at finding species that are no longer present later in May, such as Yellow-billed Loon and Eurasian Wigeon. You will be delighted with the activities planned for the festival, including up to three pelagic trips, one of them to the the Barren Islands.

Included in the price for this part are the Alaska ferry [extra charge for lengthy vehicles], private berths on the ferry, admission to the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, excursion fees for four days of festival activities, campgrounds and services of the social director and the birding guide.

Highlights from prior trips: Sea Otter, Harbor Seal, Grizzly Bear, Black Bear, Dall’s Porpoise, Harbor Porpoise, Killer Whale, Humpback Whale, Snowshoe Hare, Dall’s Sheep, Moose. Greater White-fronted Goose, Brant, Trumpeter Swan, Common Eider, Harlequin Duck, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, American Scoter, Common Merganser, Spruce Grouse, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Pacific Loon , Common Loon, Red-necked Grebe, Northern Fulmar, Sooty Shearwater, Short-tailed Shearwater, Red-faced Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Bald Eagle, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Northern Goshawk, Sandhill Crane, Semipalmated Plover, Black Oystercatcher, Solitary Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black Turnstone, Surfbird, Red Knot, Sanderling, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Dunlin, Short-billed Dowitcher, Red-necked Phalarope, Black-legged Kittiwake, Bonaparte's Gull, Mew Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Aleutian Tern, Arctic Tern, Pomarine Jaeger, Parasitic Jaeger, Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Marbled Murrelet, Kittlitz’s Murrelet, Rhinocerous Auklet, Horned Puffin, Tufted Puffin, Great Gray Owl, Vaux’s Swift, Steller’s Jay, Black-billed Magpie, Northwestern Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Boreal Chickadee, Pacific Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Townsend’s Warbler, Fox Sparrow, Rusty Blackbird, Red Crossbill, Common Redpoll, Pine Siskin.

Following the festival, on your own, you can visit Seward and other parts of the Kenai Peninsula before meeting up again for Part 2.

Optional tours (click each for details)

• Leg 2. Adak Island in the Aleutian Archipelago - 19 May to 27 May 2012
• Leg 3. St. Paul Island in the Pribilofs - 28 May to 1 June 2012
• Leg 4. Nome and the Bering Sea - 2 June to 8 June 2012
• Leg 5. Anchorage area - 9 June to 15 June 2012
• Leg 6. Denali National Park and Denali Highway - 16 June to 24 June 2012
• Leg 7. Barrow and the Arctic Ocean, plus Steese Highway to Arctic Circle - 25 June to 2 July 2012
• Leg 8. Kodiak Island and the Aleutian Islands to Dutch Harbor - 8 July to 16 July 2012

SPECIAL: This is an exclusive caravan, limited to only ten customer rigs (plus one or two extras to allow for later cancellations) and less than half the size of most caravans. Based on customer surveys we are restricting the size of our group. This gives the distinct advantage of easier caravan travel and parking, and more flexibility on side trips and accommodations at great birding spots not available to traditional caravan sizes. Greater attention from the birding guides, the social directors and the staff significantly enhances the value of this specialized caravan trip.

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Revised: October 14, 2011.