{"id":11670,"date":"2025-10-19T07:09:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T15:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/?p=11670"},"modified":"2025-10-20T13:02:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:02:55","slug":"cruising-alaska-inside-passage-seattle-vancouver-anchorage-kodiak-valdez-skagway-ketchikan-grenville-channel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/2025\/10\/19\/cruising-alaska-inside-passage-seattle-vancouver-anchorage-kodiak-valdez-skagway-ketchikan-grenville-channel\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruising Alaska – Inside Passage – Seattle – Vancouver – Anchorage – Kodiak – Valdez – Skagway – Ketchikan – Grenville Channel"},"content":{"rendered":"

It as a two week Alaskan cruise from Vancouver, British Columbia that was preceded by a two night stayover in Seattle, Washington.<\/p>\n

Along with pictures of whales, bears, glaciers, killer whales, and Alaskan crab, it was hoped that I would be able to capture images of the Northern lights. I watched many youtube videos about photographing the Northern Lights. I brought as very fast 24mm lens that would only be used for the Northern Lights, and I had to bring a tripod on the trip, which I never do when I travel. ( too much weight, for very little reward )<\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/p>\n

“Fortune favors the prepared mind” – Louis Pasteur<\/p>\n

None of the videos I watched about photographing the Northern Lights mentioned doing it while on a ship moving at 10 knots that is extremely well lit so that passengers can see where they are going while moving about the ship. Turns out the best spot to view the Northern lights would be your cabin’s balcony if you were on the correct side of the ship. Our room was on the starboard side of the ship, which just happened to be facing North when we left Vancouver on the first night of the cruise. Around 10PM I went out on our balcony to see if the Northern Light were visible. We were about 50 miles North of Vancouver at the time.<\/p>\n

At the point, I believe I was the only person on the ship that realized you could see the Northern Lights. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, they became more visible. So the next step would be to tell my wife about the lights and pull out the camera gear I brought to photograph it. A photo confirmed what my eyes were telling me. The Northern Lights were arcing across the sky. It isn’t enough to capture the Northern Lights, you need something in the foreground to make a good photograph. So after taking several photos from our cabin’s balcony, I headed outside to the observation deck (10th floor) to make photos with the ship in the foreground. Remember how I mentioned the ship was well lit? Well it was so well illuminated, the lights of the ship overpowered the Northern Lights. Back to the cabin and our dark balcony.<\/p>\n

I took photos for the next 30 minutes trying every composition I could think of. By 11:00 I was done, and gave up for the night thinking there would be other chances as we got further North during the trip. Had I known the future, I would have got up at 4:30AM the next morning and taken more photos as we were closer to the Northern Lights. I didn’t. Turns out the first night of the cruise would be the only clear night for the next 14 days. Also the Northern Lights went into a extended two week period of very low visibility, so that even if there were some clouds, it would still not be visible.<\/p>\n

\"Ice<\/p>\n

Ice that has calved from the Columbia Glacier viewed from one of the Stan Stephens Glacier Cruises <\/a>that we took from our stop in Valdez, Alaska.<\/p>\n

\"44<\/a><\/p>\n

Forty four pictures that capture the entire 17 day adventure in Alaska, Seattle, and British Columbia.
\nThe photo is linked to a much larger version of the photo that will fill your screen and can be enlarged.
\nSo just click on the photo.<\/p>\n

Photo descriptions<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nPicture 1 – Bald Eagle missed feeding attempt
\nPicture 2 – Northern Lights seen from many hundreds of miles away – Level Kp: 7
\nPicture 3 – Brown Bear at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center
\nPicture 4 – Glacier Ice from the Columbia Glacier 40 miles boat ride from Valdez, Alaska
\nPicture 5 – Lions Gate Bridge Vancouver
\nPicture 6 – Sunset at Sea
\nPicture 7 – Turbo Prop Plane flying over Seattle to land
\nPicture 8 – Sunset over Holland America Noordam
\nPicture 9 – Sillouttes on 10th Floor (Observation deck) of MS Noordam
\nPicture 10 – Sea Otter on Glacier Ice
\nPicture 11 – Vancouver Downtown at Night
\nPicture 12 – Arctic Charm out of Nanaimo, BC Canada
\nPicture 13 – LIdo Deck of MS Noordam docked in Anchorage, Alaska
\nPicture 14 – Seattle International Airport – Waiting to cross the runway while Air France jet takes off
\nPicture 15 – Pulling into port – Juneau, Alaska – 6:23AM Alaska Daylight Time
\nPicture 16 – Maximilien Restaurant – Pike Place – Seattle, Washington
\nPicture 17 – Bloody Mary and Strawberry\/Banana Smoothie on Balcony
\nPicture 18 – Humpback Whale “Barnacles” (SEAK-2070) lifts her tail to dive – She is mother to at least 3 calves
\nPicture 19 – Fresh crab pulled from pots
\nPicture 20 – Sunset view cabin balcony
\nPicture 21 – Rays of sunlight glimmer on the Lido Deck (9th floor MS Noordam)
\nPicture 22 – Kodiak Alaska Harbor
\nPicture 23 – Fresh fruit ( Raspberry – Blueberry )for sale at Pike Place in Seattle, Washington
\nPicture 24 – Porpoise escaping Killer Whates
\nPicture 25 – Between cars on the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway
\nPicture 26 – View from Photo Point Trail Mendenhall Glacier
\nPicture 27 – Fourth cruise ship arrives at Skagway, Alaska – 6:17AM Alaska Daylight Time – Royal Princess – Noordam – Koningsdam – Norwegian Bliss
\nPicture 28 – Cloudy Sunset seen from room balcony
\nPicture 29 – Tender boat returning from Kodiak, Alaska to MS Noordam
\nPicture 30 – Cruising to Columbia Glacier in Valdez Straights
\nPicture 31 – Celebrity cruise ship Solstice passing under Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver, BC
\nPicture 32 – Sea Lions enjoying the Sunlight
\nPicture 33 – Fog
\nPicture 34 – Cruise ship passengers watching the scenery from Deck 3
\nPicture 35 – The Misses
\nPicture 36 – Vancouver Container Port Centerm at Sunrise
\nPicture 37 – Mountains, Trees, Clouds and Sunrise
\nPicture 38 – Cruising the calm waters of Valdez Arm before docking at Valdez, Alaska
\nPicture 39 – Snow capped mountians in Alaska
\nPicture 40 – Whale watching
\nPicture 41 – Columbia Glacier
\nPicture 42 – Cloud Reflection
\nPicture 43 – White Pass and Yukon Railroad
\nPicture 44 – Southwest Airlines Flight into Oakland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It as a two week Alaskan cruise from Vancouver, British Columbia that was preceded by a two night stayover in Seattle, Washington. Along with pictures of whales, bears, glaciers, killer whales, and Alaskan crab, it was hoped that I would be able to capture images of the Northern lights. I watched many youtube videos about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[]},"categories":[2877,3,2919],"tags":[47,2347,1067,3024,2534,3022,3023,2990,1995,3006,89,182,2986],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11670"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11691,"href":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11670\/revisions\/11691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksimonian.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}