Alaska Is More Than Her Coastline

I keep seeing people posting about Alaska cruises lately, and it has me thinking about our own trips to Alaska.

We cruised the Inside Passage and absolutely enjoyed it. The ports of call are beautiful, there's interesting history everywhere, the glaciers are incredible and the coastline is stunning.

But honestly, what we fell in love with about Alaska wasn't along the coast.

It was her interior.

We actually did our land trip first and cruised Alaska a couple years later, and looking back, I'm really glad we experienced it that way.

There's something about being out on the tundra and walking through landscapes that are simply breathtaking in their wildness. Seeing how quickly everything transforms from a harsh winter to the awakening of spring, and then into a full-blown summer because Alaska doesn't have much time to waste before winter comes back around.

I remember walking beside rivers flowing with such fury from the ice melt that you could actually feel the ground vibrating beneath your feet.

Then there was walking up on a sleeping mama moose with her babies nearby. We immediately got quiet and slowly moved along, very aware that we were in their home.

There were times when you could almost feel the eyes of the wildlife and the forest watching you while we quietly talked to each other and walked through a land that belonged to them long before we showed up.

Those are some of the things I remember.

We visited a musher camp and listened to people who actually run the Iditarod tell their stories. Not just the glorious wins either.

They talked about the tragedies and triumphs, the amount of training these dogs do, how much food they eat, how much they genuinely love running and pulling, and the respect the mushers have for their dogs.

What really struck me was listening to them talk about these dogs as the athletes they are and how the dogs come first. Their health, their safety and knowing when they're able to continue matters more than a finish line.

Then there was simply experiencing how people live in Alaska.

Walking through cities and towns that many people call home, where life feels a little slower and the daylight lasts much longer than you're used to.

We visited an ice museum. We saw WWII statues and learned about the part that history played in making Alaska what it is today.

Of course there's the Gold Rush. That's the history most of us immediately associate with Alaska, and it definitely brought a whole lot of attention and people looking for their fortune.

But Alaska's story didn't end when the gold decided it was time to win the game of hide-and-seek and send all the seekers home. 

There's so much more.

And I think that's what I've been thinking about as I see all these Alaska cruise posts.

Cruising Alaska is wonderful. We did it and I would absolutely do it again. The Inside Passage and its coastal communities offer wildlife, glaciers, history and some spectacular scenery.

But you don't have to be a cruiser to experience Alaska.

Want to see whales and other marine life? Spend a day out on the water.

Want glaciers? There are ways to experience those without spending seven days on a ship.

And if being on a cruise ship has never appealed to you, please don't cross Alaska off your list because you think that's the only way to see it.

It's not.

Not everyone has enough vacation time to do a land journey and a cruise together. We didn't, which is why we did them separately.

And having now experienced both, I'm glad we did.

The coast showed us another beautiful side of Alaska.

But the interior is where we fell in love with her.

So, if someone came to me and said, "I want to go to Alaska," I wouldn't automatically start with cruise ships.

I'd start by asking what they want to experience.

Because Alaska isn't just a cruise destination.

And to think you've experienced everything she has to offer simply because you've seen her from the sea?

Well...

That's a little like saying you read the book when all you did was look at the cover.