Kangerlussuaq is a settlement in western Greenland in the Qeqqata municipality located at the head of the fjord of the same name (Danish: Søndre Strømfjord). It is Greenland’s main air transport hub and the site of Greenland’s largest commercial airport. The airport dates from American settlement during and after World War II, when the site was known as Bluie West-8 and Sondrestrom Air Base. The Kangerlussuaq area is also home to Greenland’s most diverse terrestrial fauna, including muskoxen, caribou, and gyrfalcons. View less

The settlement’s economy and population of 512 is almost entirely reliant on the airport and tourist industry.

Kangaamiut (the People of the Fjords) is a settlement which clings to the shoreline of Greenland’s Arctic Circle region, backed by some of the country’s most spectacular fjordlands. The nearby pinnacle-shaped mountains gave the Danish-Norwegian colonial settlement its original name of Sukkertoppen (Sugarloaf) and the town recently celebrated its 250th anniversary. Here, one can experience small-town Greenlandic culture at its most authentic. The town is scattered across a small hill, displaying all the colourful buildings of the town at once; it is impossible to take a bad photo here. View less

A system of staircases and boardwalks leads to the top of the hill, an area used to helicopter transport which offers jaw-dropping vistas of the wilderness around the settlement. The locals are proud of their Inuit history and culture, and the people of Kangaamiut are friendly and welcoming to vistors. Depending on the day, one could see local men selling fresh fish or reindeer meat from the surrounding fjords or flensing their catch on the rocks of the harbour, local women selling intricate homemade beaded necklaces and carvings, or even be invited into a local home to share a pot of coffee with some of the friendly residents, who are always happy to have visitors. Although the scenery is world-class, as in many towns in Greenland, wonderful memories of the welcoming residents are the most treasured.

Evighedsfjord (Eternity Fjord) is a large fjord northeast of Kangaamiut in southwest Greenland. The fjord has a length of 75 kilometers and several branches with numerous glaciers coming down from the Maniitsoq Ice Cap to the north can be seen. The Evighedsfjord has several bends and whenever the ship reaches the supposed end the fjord continues in another direction and seems to go on forever. Qingua Kujatdleq Glacier is at its southeastern end.

At the northwestern end a U-shaped valley has seven glaciers coming down from the mountains but not reaching the water. The glaciers had their maximum extent around the year 1870 and have gone through several cycles of advance and retreat. The mountains on either side of the fjord can reach in excess of 2,000 meters and the fjord has a depth of up to 700 meters. Evighedsfjord’s snowline is at 1,100 meters and the Evighedsfjord region is famous as one of Greenland’s best heli-skiing areas.

In the bustling capital city of Greenland, you could be forgiven for forgetting you are in such a vast and isolated country. Nuuk is Greenland’s economic and social hub, home to more than a third of Greenland’s population, and although it feels like a world capital, scratch the surface, and a uniquely Greenlandic character can be found underneath. Nuuk Cathedral overlooks the gorgeous old Colonial Harbour district and the Greenland National Museum, resting place of the legendary Qilakitsoq mummies, the true highlight of the museum’s archaeological collection. View less

Above the Colonial Harbour sits downtown Nuuk, with lines of Scandistyle apartments, a bustling shopping district, the Greenlandic Parliament, Nuuk City Hall (which welcomes visitors to see its artwork) and even outdoor cafes selling locally produced food and beer. These nods to modernity compete for space with local artisan boutiques, the meat market selling the catch from Nuuk’s vast fjord-lands, and the stunning Katuaq Cultural Centre, where blockbuster movies, as well as local and foreign performers entertain the people of Nuuk. Although Nuuk has long been a melting pot of Danish and Greenlandic ideas, this is a city where Greenland displays its sophistication, with the Country’s only traffic lights, roundabouts and University. Most of all, expect to find a multitude of friendly people who are proud of who they are, and equally proud of the city they call home.

Sisimiut (‘The People of the Fox Holes’) is Greenland’s second city, the largest Arctic City in North America, and a hub between the warmer South and the frozen North of the country. With a young, dynamic population, including students from all over the country, Sisimiut is one of the fastest growing cities in Greenland. View less

Inhabited for more than four and a half thousand years, the Danish Colonial Era saw the rapid development of the city into a trade centre, and the old buildings and artefacts can be seen at Sisimiut Museum, a collection of beautifully restored buildings displaying everything from ancient turf houses to modern Inuit art. The local artisans are considered some of the best in Greenland, and often sell their wares direct from their communal workshop in the harbour, where they barter with hunters for raw materials. Today, modern industry focussed on processing sea food and shipping; KNI, the state-run chain of general stores operating in even the most remote settlements is based in Sisimiut. Most residents still live in the colourful wooden houses Greenland is so well known for. Sisimiut’s vast back country offers excellent opportunities for hiking and fishing, and the locals often use sled dogs or snowmobiles to get around their vast mountainous playground during the long winters. In the summer, one can walk as far as Kangerlussuaq International Airport, a trail also used for the gruelling Polar Circle Marathon, one of the toughest endurance events in the world.

Ilulissat is a coastal town in western Greenland. It’s known for the Ilulissat Icefjord and for huge icebergs Disko Bay, shed by the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier. Trails run to the Sermermiut settlement for dramatic views over the ice. The Ilulissat Museum traces the area’s history and the life of local-born explorer Knud Rasmussen. The area is home to thousands of Greenland dogs, used for dogsledding.

Located in northern Baffin Island Pond Inlet is a small predo¬minantly Inuit community with a population of roughly 1 ,500 inhabitants. In 1818 the British explorer John Ross named a bay in the vicinity after the English astronomer John Pond. Today Pond Inlet is considered one of Canada’s “jewels of the North” thanks to several picturesque glaciers and mountain ranges nearby. Many archaeological sites of ancient Dorset and Thule peoples can be found near Pond Inlet. View less

The Inuit hunted caribou, ringed and harp seals, fish, polar bears, and walrus, as well as narwhals, geese, ptarmigans and Arctic hares long before European and American whalers came here to harvest bowhead whales. Pond Inlet is also known as a major center of Inuit art especially the printmaking and stone carving.

Austere, remote and a rather severe, Devon Island is as close the closest thing to Mars on planet Earth. The rocky terrain, dry, cold climate and 14-mile wide crater on the north of the island have made it home for a team of research scientists from NASA, who live in the small research station during the Arctic summer. Other than these few men and women, Devon Island is completely unpeopled, and the largest uninhabited island in the world.

There was human habitation as recently as 1951, when a Canadian Mounted Police post that had been on the island since 1924 to monitor illegal activities such as whaling closed. At 320 miles long and 80–100 miles wide, it is the largest of the Parry Islands. Dundas Harbour is found in the south of the island. Then island is set in the icy Arctic Ocean, south of Ellesmere Island and west of Baffin Bay. This make it Canada’s sixth largest island. Discovered by English explorer William Baffin in 1616, the island did not make it on to any maps until William Edward Parry’s exploration of the Arctic in 1820. Despite the desolate conditions, the island does show signs of having sustained human life as many as 3,000 years ago, with the remains of a Thule settlement dating back to 1000 A.D., including tent rings, middens and a gravesite providing testament to the fact. The island is named Talluruti in local Inuktitut language, literally translating as “a woman’s chin with tattoos on it”, as from a distance the deep crevasses resemble traditional facial tattoos.

Devon Island is Canada’s sixth largest island and was first seen by Europeans in the early 17th century. The Thule culture had already settled there many centuries before, and left behind qarmat homes, made of rocks, whale bones, rock and sod walls, and skins for roofs that tell a story of over 800 years of human habitation. Other striking finds in this area are the many fossils of corals, crinoids and nautiloids that can be seen.

Just across Lancaster Sound is Prince Leopold Island, a Canadian Important Bird Area, a federally listed migratory bird sanctuary, and a Key Migratory Bird Terrestrial Habitat site with large numbers of Thick-billed Murres, Northern Fulmars and Black-legged Kittiwakes that breed there.

Beechey Island is a small island off the southwest coast of Devon Island, separated by a narrow waterway called the Barrow Strait. Captain William Edward Parry was the first European to visit the island in 1819. His lieutenant, Frederick William Beechey, named the island after his father, the artist William Beechey (1753–1839). Beechey Island played a significant role in the history of Arctic Exploration. During the winter of 1845-46, Sir John Franklin and his men camped on the island as part of their ill-fated quest to find the Northwest Passage.

Mummified remains of three of Franklin’s crew were discovered, giving a better understanding of what happened before the disappearance of the expedition. In 1850 Edward Belcher used the island as a base while surveying the area. Later, in 1903, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen stopped at the island at the beginning of his successful voyage in search for the Northwest Passage. Subsequently, Beechey Island has been declared a “Territorial Historic Site” by the Northwest Territories government in 1975 and a National Historic Site of Canada in 1993. It now is part of Nunavut.

Resolute is one of the northernmost communities in Nunavut and Canada with slightly more than 240 inhabitants. The name goes back to HMS Resolute which was trapped and abandoned in the ice in 1850 while searching for traces of the lost Franklin Expedition. On the southern coast of Cornwallis Island it has long winters and as such is known as Qausuittuq (place with no dawn) –with darkness from early November to early February. View less

Although Pre-Dorset, Dorset and Thule remains indicate the area had been used for some 2,500 years, it was only in 1953 and the government enforced High Arctic relocation of Inuit that residents were not related to the weather station or the Royal Canadian Air Force base. Immediately north of Resolute’s strategically important airport is Tupirvik Territorial Park where fossils can be found on the beach, a former old seabed. The waters south of Resolute are part of the core area for migrating beluga whales, while neighboring Bathurst Island has the Polar Bear Pass National Wildlife Area, permitting polar bear travel in spring and summer. Rocky coastal bluffs, rolling hills, moraines and small lakes are habitat for arctic birds, including King Eider Ducks and Greater Snow Geese.

Peel Sound is a 30 mile wide, 125 mile long channel separating Prince of Wales Island to the west and Somerset Island to the east. It was named in 1851 by explorer Vice Admiral Horatio Austin in honour of Sir Robert Peel, a former prime minister of Great Britain. Austin, however, was not the first person to sail through the sound. Five years earlier, in 1846, Sir John Franklin had passed through the strait, just before his ships became icebound. Peel Sound is not always open. Several explorers, including Francis Leopold McClintock in 1858 and Allen Young in 1875, were unable to pass because it was blocked by ice.

Southeast of Victoria Island and in Queen Maud Gulf, Jenny Lind Island is roughly 20 kilometers in diameter and covers an area of 420 square kilometers. The uninhabited island is named after a famous Scandinavian opera singer and was put on European maps in 1851 when Dr. John Rae of the Hudson’s Bay Company was searching the Canadian Arctic for indications of the fate of Sir John Franklin’s Northwest Passage Expedition. View less

The island is a Canadian Important Bird Area with large numbers of Lesser Snow Geese and Ross’s Geese breeding there and a Key Migratory Bird Terrestrial Habitat recognized by the Canadian Wildlife Service. The island has a mix of flat and undulating terrain with low-lying wetlands and sedge meadows and supports a small herd of muskoxen. The island has been the site of a Distant Early Warning Line radar station until the 1990s and still is part of the North Warn System.

Isabella Bay is about 100 kilometers south-southeast of Clyde River, on the northeast coast of Baffin Island. Designated in 2010, the Ninginganiq National Wildlife Area not only covers Isabella Bay, but also its islands, shores and the adjacent open water of the Davis Strait out to 12 nautical miles from shore. View less

In the 19th century Isabella Bay had been an important center for whaling and this National Wildlife Area is still an important marine habitat –today a sanctuary- used for feeding and resting by adult and large adolescent bowhead whales during late summer and fall. Bowhead whales gather here to feed on the abundant copepod zooplankton blooms that occur in two deep troughs in Isabella Bay. The single largest concentration of bowhead whales in Canada has been recorded here with up to 100 whales. The Ninginganiq National Wildlife Area is Canada’s largest with more than 336,390 hectares. Although this is a sanctuary, resident Inuit have according to the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement the right to harvest wildlife on lands and waters throughout the Nunavut settlement area and therefor are allowed to hunt the whales, polar bears, ringed seals and narwhals found in Isabella Bay. King Eiders, Long-tailed Ducks, Little Auks and Northern Fulmars also call Ninginganiq (“the place where fog sits”) their home.

Found north of Kent Peninsula and south of Victoria Island, Nunavut’s roughly 160 kilometer long Dease Strait was named after Peter Warren Dease of the Hudson Bay Company. Sir John Franklin, who had been sent on an early attempt to map northern Canada and to search for the Northwest Passage, had received useful information from Dease at Fort Chipewyan before heading north during his first expedition. Traveling down the Coppermine River, Franklin then took 3 canoes entering Coronation Gulf heading northeast. Reaching Cape Flinders and continuing on to Point Turnagain in August 1821, he had effectively entered Dease Strait which continues on east to Cambridge Bay, Victoria Strait and Queen Maud Gulf. Seals, white foxes and rabbits were hunted on Kent Peninsula and 73 bird species recorded. Musk oxen as well as the endemic Dolphin and Union Caribou, which are different from the wide-spread Barren-ground caribou, can be occasionally seen on both sides of the strait.

At the northwestern end of Amundsen Gulf and the Northwest Passage, the Amundsen Trough is a submarine glacial trough leading into the Beaufort Sea. South of Banks Island and its Migratory Bird Sanctuary, northeast of the Anderson River Delta Bird Sanctuary, and north of Tuktut Nogait National Park, all within the Northwest Territories, the submarine feature and gulf are named after Roald Amundsen. Plough marks of iceberg keels with a width of up to 150 meters and a depth of up to 10 meters have been identified on the sea floor. Seismic research in 2014 has shown that at least nine Quaternary ice streams advanced through the Amundsen Trough, implying it was a major route for ice and sediment towards the Arctic Ocean.

Sachs Harbour is a small community of some 130 residents on the southwestern side of Banks Island, Canada’s fifth-largest island. It is the only settlement on Banks Island and the northernmost community in the Northwest Territories. The name goes back to the 30-ton schooner Mary Sachs, one of three ships in Stefansson’s Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-1916. Sachs Harbour is surrounded by the Banks Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary No 1. View less

To the west dry mud cliffs can be found, while the tidal mud flats, river deltas, wetland meadows and barren grounds with Dryas are used by some 95% of the Western Arctic’s Lesser Snow Geese, apart from Ross’s Geese, Black Brants, an estimated 25,000 King Eiders, several thousands of Long-tailed Ducks, Tundra Swans and Sandhill Cranes as key species. Banks Island is also home to more than half of the world’s muskoxen, found mainly on the northern side, and Sachs Harbour has been called the “Muskox Capital of Canada”. For the Inuvialuit Sachs Harbour’s indigenous name is Ikaahuk “Place to which you cross” or “Place where one crosses”. The community was started in 1929, when Inuit families from the Mackenzie River Delta came to settle hunting mainly white foxes.

The Northwest Territories’ Smoking Hills show a natural phenomenon which has probably been active for thousands of years. The hills close to the Beaufort Sea were seen by John Franklin in 1826 during his second Canadian expedition looking for indications of a Northwest Passage. Franklin observed that the rocks and soil around Cape Bathurst seemed to be on fire and produced acrid white smoke. They were therefor named “Smoking Hills”. View less

The reason behind this phenomenon is neither human-induced burning nor volcanic activity, but the subsurface exothermic reaction between the bituminous shale, the sulfur and the iron pyrite of the area. The heat being released through the oxidation of pyrites in the Cretaceous mudstones along the sea cliffs leads not only to high ground temperatures, but also to hot sulfurous gas being driven off and the possibility of spontaneous combustion. The fumes that are seen contain sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid and are noxious.

Take advantage of the brief summer thaw and enjoy the spectacular peculiarities of the Beaufort Sea. Frozen for most of the year, the Beaufort Sea is only navigationally possible during the short summer months of August and September when a channel near the Canadian and Alaskan shore opens up. Despite the sea being frozen for a sixth of the year, it is home to a myriad of wildlife, so lucky Northwest Passage travellers will be richly rewarded. Be on deck with binoculars and cameras at the ready for sightings of fish like Arctic char, birds like the king eider, marine mammals like beluga and bowhead whales, and, if you’re lucky, predators like the polar bear. However, circumstances in the rapidly changing Arctic might soon change the species habitations and have many scientists and ecologists are worried that the future of the wildlife of the Beaufort Sea hangs in the balance. Dispute has arisen regarding how long the shores have been populated by humans. Some say that the Beaufort Sea supported human life as long as 30,000 years ago, while others disagree, saying that the livelihoods and cultures of the Inupiat, Inuvialuit and Gwich’in peoples who live on the shores is much more recent. In any case, recorded discovery is less than 200 years old. The sea is named after Sir Francis Beaufort, the British 18th century naval officer whose observation of the wind and sea state resulted in the Beaufort scale.

Three kilometers off Yukon’s north coast, only Workboat Passage separates Herschel Island-Qikiqtaruk from Ivvavik National Park. The low-lying treeless island of 116 square kilometers was Yukon’s first territorial park. View less

Herschel Island-Qikiqtaruk has been declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1972, classified as a Nature Preserve in 1987, designated a Natural Environment Park in 2002 and as an example of the technologies and techniques used for living and construction over the past several millennia it is now on the tentative UNESCO WHS list! The island is also an important area for Ice Age fossils. Normally snow-covered from September to June, the island shows abundant and diverse wildlife, with many migratory birds, including the largest colony of Black Guillemots in the Western Arctic, caribou, muskox, polar bear, and brown bear on land and bowhead and beluga whales, ringed and bearded seals, and occasionally walrus in its surrounding waters. Seasonal hunting possibilities from spring to fall have led the Inuvialuit using the area for hundreds of years. When Franklin arrived in 1826 he saw three of their camps. Remains of their old dwellings are still visible near Simpson Point. This is where in the late 1800s, American whalers established a now abandoned station. At the height of the Beaufort Sea whale hunting period there were 1,500 residents. Several of the historic buildings by whalers, and later missionaries, traders and the RCMP are still standing –although some had to be moved further inland to escape the rising sea level.

Whales dominate life at Point Hope (Tikiġaq) settlement in the extreme Northwest of Alaska. Tikiġaq, the Inuit name of the settlement, means finger. It describes the shape of the point jutting out into the sea upon which the settlement sits. It is a good location for hunting as Bowhead Whales and other marine mammals swim close to the shore as they round the point on migrations. The Inuit people of Point Hope still rely on hunting for much of their food.

Nome is located on the edge of the Bering Sea, on the southwest side of the Seward Peninsula. Unlike other towns which are named for explorers, heroes or politicians, Nome was named as a result of a 50 year-old spelling error. In the 1850’s an officer on a British ship off the coast of Alaska noted on a manuscript map that a nearby prominent point was not identified. He wrote “? Name” next to the point. View less

When the map was recopied, another draftsman thought that the “?” was a C and that the “a” in “Name” was an o, and thus a map-maker in the British Admiralty christened “Cape Nome.” The area has an amazing history dating back 10,000 years of Inupiaq Eskimo use for subsistence living. Modern history started in 1898 when “Three Lucky Swedes”, Jafet Lindberg, Erik Lindblom and John Brynteson, discovered gold in Anvil Creek…the rush was on! In 1899 the population of Nome swelled from a handful to 28,000. Today the population is just over 3,500. Much of Nome’s gold rush architecture remains.

St. Matthew Island is an extremely remote island in the middle of the Bering Sea more than 200 miles from the nearest Alaska village. Even by Alaskan standards it is a lonely place. At the most southerly point of the 32 mile long island at Cape Upright the black sand and gravel beaches give way to massive sea cliffs that exceed heights of over 1000 ft. These are home to countless nesting murres kittiwakes cormorants and other sea birds.

The city of Saint Paul is located on a narrow peninsula on the southern tip of St. Paul Island, the largest of five islands in the Pribilof Islands. These islands are located in the middle of the Bering Sea between the United States and Russia. St. Paul lies 240 miles north of the Aleutian Islands, 300 miles west of mainland Alaska, and 750 air miles west of Anchorage. The city of St. Paul is the only residential area on the island. The first non-natives to ‘discover’ St. View less

Paul were Russian fur-traders in the late 1780s, led by the navigator, Gavriil Pribylov. Today, this small city has one school (K-12), one post office, one bar, one small general store, and one church, a Russian Orthodox Church that is registered as a National Historic building. In summer, this island is teeming with wildlife, including about 500,000 northern fur seals and millions of seabirds, including Tufted Puffins.

Kiska Harbor is an inlet on the east coast of the island of Kiska in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Kiska Harbor is bounded by North Head on the north and by South Head on the south. Little Kiska Island lies off the coast of Kiska Island immediately east of Kiska Harbor

Atka Island is the largest island in the Andreanof Islands of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. The island is 50 miles east of Adak Island. It is 65 miles long and 2–20 miles wide with a land area of 404.6 square miles, making it the 22nd largest island in the United States.

With Bald Eagles soaring overhead, emerald-green volcanic peaks chafing the clouds, and raw ocean scenery as far as the eye can see, this far-flung destination is the definition of remote and wild. Part of the outlying Aleutian Islands archipelago, which spirals out across the Bering Sea into the wilds of the Pacific, Dutch Harbor offers a dramatic backdrop and rich military history – as one of the few pieces of US soil to be directly attacked by the Japanese during World War II.

The town settles into the embrace of a vast deepwater harbour, which helps to protect from the unpredictable churn of the Bering Sea. Enjoy hikes along coastal trails to birdwatch among more than 100 different species – and look on as huge clouds of cawing seabirds float on gusts of wind, filling the air with their raucous calls. Dutch Harbor is famous for its crab fishing industry – a dangerous, challenging pursuit – and the town is well known to many Americans as the setting of the television show Deadliest Catch. The Aleutian WWII Visitor Center and the Museum of the Aleutians provide extensive information on WWII in the Aleutians, prehistory, the Russian period, Unangan (Aleut) culture and recent history. A visible reminder of the Russian past is the Holy Ascension Cathedral, the oldest cruciform-style Russian Orthodox church in North America and a National Historic Landmark.

With Bald Eagles soaring overhead, emerald-green volcanic peaks chafing the clouds, and raw ocean scenery as far as the eye can see, this far-flung destination is the definition of remote and wild. Part of the outlying Aleutian Islands archipelago, which spirals out across the Bering Sea into the wilds of the Pacific, Dutch Harbor offers a dramatic backdrop and rich military history – as one of the few pieces of US soil to be directly attacked by the Japanese during World War II.

The town settles into the embrace of a vast deepwater harbour, which helps to protect from the unpredictable churn of the Bering Sea. Enjoy hikes along coastal trails to birdwatch among more than 100 different species – and look on as huge clouds of cawing seabirds float on gusts of wind, filling the air with their raucous calls. Dutch Harbor is famous for its crab fishing industry – a dangerous, challenging pursuit – and the town is well known to many Americans as the setting of the television show Deadliest Catch. The Aleutian WWII Visitor Center and the Museum of the Aleutians provide extensive information on WWII in the Aleutians, prehistory, the Russian period, Unangan (Aleut) culture and recent history. A visible reminder of the Russian past is the Holy Ascension Cathedral, the oldest cruciform-style Russian Orthodox church in North America and a National Historic Landmark.

Unga is a ghost town on the southern end of Unga Island in the Aleutian Islands. It was once a bustling town of over 100 people originally settled by Aleuts in 1833 and named Delarov, for Evstrat Delarov, the first Greek explorer and merchant to visit Alaska. In 1836 it had a name change to Ougnagok, and the post office was established in 1888. The name was changed again to Unga in 1894. Life was challenging in Unga, and the population decline gradually over time.

Unga is a ghost town on the southern end of Unga Island in the Aleutian Islands. It was once a bustling town of over 100 people originally settled by Aleuts in 1833 and named Delarov, for Evstrat Delarov, the first Greek explorer and merchant to visit Alaska. In 1836 it had a name change to Ougnagok, and the post office was established in 1888. The name was changed again to Unga in 1894. Life was challenging in Unga, and the population decline gradually over time.

Hubbard Glacier, off the coast of Yakutat, Alaska, is the largest glacier in North America, with a calving front that is more than six miles wide. One of the main sources for Hubbard Glacier originates 76 mi inland. It has been a very active glacier, experiencing two major surges in the past 30 years. This glacier was named after Gardiner Greene Hubbard, a U.S. lawyer, financier, and philanthropist. He was the first president of the National Geographic Society.

Elfin Cove sits snugly on the southern shore of Cross Sound, which leads in eastwards to the Inside Passage. Northwards and across the Sound from the small community lies Glacier Bay National Park and the Fairweather Mountain range. Elfin Cove is a quaint little harbor clustered with attractive timber houses built into the wooded hillsides on stilts. The population swells to about 200 during the summer months, from a rather meager 6 or so during the snowy and isolated winters.

Its commercial hub consists of a Post Office, mini-Museum, a General Store, the Coho Bar and numerous sports fishing businesses. In the summer months Rufous-backed Hummingbirds visit feeders scattered around the community.

On the northern tip of Chichagof Island Point Adolphus, is a well-known area for humpback whale watching. Enjoy an aperitif or a hot cup of tea while you are on the outer decks, looking for humpback whales as well as orcas, or simply enjoying the landscape.

Sitka began as a major Tlingit Indian village and was called “Shee Atika,” which translates roughly as “settlement on the outside of Shee.” “Shee” is the Tlingit name of Baranof Island.
In 1799, Alexander Baranof, the general manager of the Russian American Company, decided to move his base of operations from Kodiak and set up camp at what is now called Old Sitka, 7.5 miles north of the present-day town. He called the settlement St. Archangel Michael. The Tlingit Indians of the area resisted the occupation and, in 1802, with Baranof away, burned the fort and massacred the Russian settlers. Two years later, Baranof returned and besieged the Indian fort. The Tlingits withdrew and the area was once again in Russian hands. This time, the Russians built the new city on a different site and called it New Archangel.
For over six decades, New Archangel was the capital of the Russian empire in Alaska. By 1867, the Alaska colony had become too much of a financial burden to Russia. William Seward, U.S. Secretary of State, negotiated with the Russian Czar to purchase the Territory of Alaska for $7.2 million. The American press scoffed at Seward and the U.S. government for purchasing what they called “Seward’s Folly,” “Seward’s Icebox,” and “Walrussia.”
On October 18, 1867, the Russian flag was lowered at New Archangel and the Stars and Stripes were raised over newly renamed Sitka. The name comes from the Tlingit word “Sheetkah,” which means “in this place.” All Russian citizens living in the former colony were given the opportunity to become American citizens. Many went home, although a few stayed or migrated to California.
Sitka remained the capital of the Territory of Alaska from 1867 to 1906, when it was moved to Juneau. The move was a direct result of the gold rush. In plain terms, Sitka did not have any and Juneau did.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Sitka became a full-scale naval base. At one time during the war, Sitka had a total population of 37,000. With the end of World War II, however, the city settled into a quieter existence. The biggest boom in modern days for Sitka came in 1959 when the Alaska Lumber and Pulp Company built a pulp mill at Silver Bay, near the city.
Today, picturesque Sitka is known for its fishing and of course its many historic attractions.

Mountaineer John Muir (aka “Father of the National Parks”) said of Alaska “To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world”. If you don’t believe him, then one trip along the Behm Canal will change your mind. Separating Revillagigedo Island from the Alaskan mainland, the roughly 100 miles long Behm Canal is located within the Tongass National Forest.

The National Forest supports abundant wildlife, so keep your eyes on the skies for Bald Eagles, Northern Goshawks, and Marbled Murrelets, not forgetting to scan the shores for brown bears, wolves and Sitka black-tailed deer. All five species of Pacific salmon call Behm Canal home. Tongass extends over a massive 16.9 million acres and is the largest wilderness area in Alaska’s forests and the second largest forest in the nation. Originally charted in 1793 by George Vancouver, the Behm Canal is the western border of Misty Fjords National Monument. The “Mistys” take their name from the eponymous shroud of near constant mist that crown the towering mountains. Although this does not detract from it dramatic beauty: with 3 million acres of breathtaking fjords, lakes, glaciers, waterfalls and towering ancient forests with snow-capped peaks, it is unsurprising that the Misty Fjords National Monument is considered as the “Yosemite of the North.”

Painstakingly sculpted by the slow grind of colossal glaciers, the fjords of Rudyerd Bay are some of the Inside Passage’s most spectacular and humbling. Gouged to the south-east of Alaska, just 40 miles from Ketchikan, hordes of salmon splash in the region’s streams, while basalt pillars – left behind by ancient volcanoes – puncture the slow flow of the waters. A litany of plunging waterfalls gives sheer, monolithic cliff faces added life and vitality. View less With crowds of pine trees and snow-tipped mountains surrounding you everywhere you look, Rudyerd Bay is one of the Misty Fjords most precious and inspiring locations. One of the best ways to survey this magnificent landscape is to take to the skies in a floatplane. Look down as you skim just below the clouds, over an immense scene of snow-coated mountain peaks, and deeply etched fjords. If you’d rather stay grounded, cruise through the majestic setting on a boat journey, to be dwarfed by the gigantic granite walls and cascading waterfalls. The abrupt cliffs of Punchbowl Cove rocket upwards, 900 metres above sea level, with forest clinging on desperately and smudging various shades of green across them. Cloudy-blue glacier lakes add to the spectacular palette of natural colours. Be sure to keep an eye out for the area’s majestic wildlife – as orcas surface, and black bears and wolves slip between the dense banks of forest on the shore.

Since the late 19th century, Metlakatla has been the major settlement of the Metlakatla Indian Community of the federally recognized Annette Islands Reserve, the only remaining reservation in Alaska. It is located on Annette Island, and in 2010 had 1,405 residents. Membership in the community is primarily by lineage and is comprised primarily of Tsimshian people. Metlakatla comes from a Tsimshian word meaning “Salt Water Passage”. View less

In 1886, William Duncan, an English tannery employee and lay member of the Church Missionary Society, along with a devoted group of Tsimshian followers, decided to leave his home village in British Colombia. Duncan went to Washington, D.C., asked the U.S. government to give his group land in Alaska. The U.S. gave them Annette Island after a Tsimshian search committee in seagoing canoes discovered its calm bay, accessible beaches and abundant fish. The group arrived in 1887 and built a settlement laid out in a grid pattern like a European town. They named the town New Metlakatla, after the town they had left behind, but later dropped the “New.”

Boasting mountains, sea, culture, art and so much more, many cities claim to have it all, but few can back it up like Vancouver. Famously livable, just visiting this highrise city – surrounded by staggering natural beauty – is a thrill. Offering all of the creature comforts of an ultra-modern, worldly metropolis – even downtown has a hint of mountain-freshness to its air – and part of Vancouver’s appeal is how easily you can swap the skyscrapers for whale-filled oceans and mountain-punctured skies. View less

Head up to the Vancouver Lookout Tower for the ultimate 360-degree views of the city glistening, amid the beautiful embrace of the beckoning wilderness beyond. But what to see first? Art lovers might choose the Vancouver Art Gallery or the Contemporary Art Gallery. Nature lovers might rush for the ferry to visit Vancouver Island – where they can encounter grizzly bears, whales and orcas. Culture vultures, on the other hand, will probably head for the sights and sounds of Canada’s biggest Chinatown. From steaming dim sum for lunch to Chinese apothecaries offering herbs to soothe any illness, it’s all here thanks to the migrant workers of the 19th century. The one-of-a-kind treasure of Stanley Park brings wild wonder and natural beauty to this cosmopolitan city’s doorstep, and the pine-tree clad park offers isolated trails and amazing views. Wander the Seawall that encircles it – a 20-mile coastal path, full of joggers, whizzing skaters and wandering couples. Grab a bike and cycle between Coal Harbour and Kitsilano Beach. You can top up your tan on the shore, as you soak in the glorious views of the mountains and cityscape from the sands.