Whale watching was a high priority for us on our Alaska trip. I knew we wanted to get a more personalized experience and go out on a smaller boat. We wanted a relaxed, easy viewing experience and didn’t want to be jostling for position on deck with 50 or more people. After pricing out various small boats, we discovered that booking a private excursion for our group of 10 was a very reasonable option. We booked ours through Alaska Galore Tours.
It was another super foggy day when we docked in Juneau. In fact, we could barely see the shore out our port hole window! It was actually way foggier than it had been in Skagway, which I couldn’t have imagined the day before. But I took heart in the fact that the Skagway weather had cleared and hoped for the same in Juneau.
We were met at the end of our dock by Andrea from Alaska Galore Tours. She drove us to Auke Bay, where our boat was waiting for us in the harbor. Unlike Skagway where it got foggier before clearing, we could already see some blue skies by the time we made it to the boat in Juneau. And it ultimately turned out to be a gorgeous day.
We boarded our boat and got ready to head out. Since we booked a private tour, there were only the 10 of us on the boat, plus our naturalist (Andrea) and our captain (Mickey). The boat had plenty of indoor seating (including tables with benches) and outdoor viewing areas on the front and rear of the boat. The cabin was heated and had a restroom, and non-alcoholic drinks and snacks were provided.
We were treated to some pretty incredible views on our way out of the harbor. We passed glaciers and rugged mountain terrain. It was a stunning backdrop to our whale watching adventure.
It wasn’t long before we spotted our first tell-tale sign of a whale: spouting! Off in the distance, we saw (and heard!) a puff of air shooting up from the water. When whales exhale, warm air escapes from the blowhole on the top of their head and we see the resulting “spout”.
It was so exciting to see our first whale spout. Our captain turned the boat in that direction and brought us closer, where we anxiously waited for the whale to surface. We were didn’t have to wait long. Soon we saw the arch of his back, then his dorsal fin, and then his tail. It was an absolutely incredible experience to see our first whale.
As blown away as we were by this first spotting, the sightings only got better from there. At one point, we had a mom and baby whale right next to our boat. Like a game of follow the leader, we watched the mom arch its back and surface, and then the baby do the same while the tail of the mom kicked up. They were so close to our boat that I couldn’t catch them in the same frame because I had the zoom lens on my camera.
It’s tough to get a perspective on how large these amazing creatures are from most pictures. I love the shots below because you can see the size of the whale’s massive tail relative to the people standing on the boat watching.
In all, we saw 8 different humpback whales (some multiple times) during our 3 hours on the water. Andrea, our naturalist, taught us a lot about these magnificent creatures and also helped us identify the different ones we saw. All the known whales (150 have officially been documented in Juneau’s waters) are named and can be identified by the unique markings on their tails. Andrea had a poster with pictures of many of the local whales’ tails and their names. It was fun for the kids to try to match them up to what we saw.
I was surprised that so many whales live in these protected waters. I had assumed we’d have to go out into open water to spot them but we were in sight of land on two sides at all times. It seemed like such a calm and peaceful place for them to live and we loved having the chance to see them in this environment.
We also had an amazing bonus in that we spotted stellar sea lions twice on our trip. The first time there was a group of them playing in the water near the shore, but we weren’t able to get too close to them because it was too shallow. The second time there were just two playing together out in more open water. It was so amazing to see them pop their heads up and swim around. One even got a fish!
And as if that wasn’t enough, we got one final treat on our way back to the harbor. Off in the distance, a whale was slapping its pectoral fins against the water. We thought it was nice of him to say goodbye to us like that!
This trip was absolutely fantastic. Most whale watching tours in Juneau guarantee sightings (and many offer money-back guarantees), so I knew we would see something. But I had no idea that we would see so many and that the sightings would be so amazing. It was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.
