Welcome to our John Hall Alaska Tour Video page.

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7-05-06

The marine wilderness of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve includes tidewater glaciers, snow-capped mountain ranges, ocean coastlines, deep fjords, and freshwater rivers and lakes. This diverse land and seascape hosts a mosaic of plants and a variety of marine and terrestrial wildlife and presents many opportunities for adventuring and learning about this unique and powerful place.

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Humpback Whales & Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve boat transfer, Alaska. Large video

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Tlingit (pronounced klink-it) Indians and their ancestors inhabited much of what is now Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, with both permanent and seasonal settlements. Food and other resources were abundant. The small population of Tlingits thrived, living close to the land, and a rich culture developed. Near the end of the Little Ice Age, about several hundred years ago, advancing glaciers forced the Tlingit people to abandon their villages and move to Hoonah, across Icy Strait from Glacier Bay. Today, many Hoonah Tlingits still regard Glacier Bay as their ancestral home, and feel a special connection to it.

As recently as 1750 a single glacier thousands of feet thick filled what is now a 65-mile long fjord. But with the invention of the SUV in the 1700s things changed...

Enter Glacier Bay and you cruise along shorelines completely covered by ice just 200 years ago. Explorer Capt. George Vancouver found Icy Strait choked with ice in 1794, and Glacier Bay was a barely indented glacier. That glacier was more than 4,000 feet thick, up to 20 miles or more wide, and extended more than 100 miles to the St. Elias Range of mountains. But by 1879 naturalist John Muir found that the ice had retreated 48 miles up the bay. By 1916 the Grand Pacific Glacier headed Tarr Inlet 65 miles from Glacier Bay's mouth.

Glacier Bay National Park Ranger in the ship's theater tells about the park. A bit hard to watch.

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In 1794, as the mother ship H.M.S. Discovery, Captained by George Vancouver, lay at anchor in Pt. Althorp, a survey crew under the command of Lt. Joseph Whidbey painstakingly maneuvered their longboats through the ice-choked waters of Icy Strait. The remarkably accurate chart the survey produced shows a mere indentation in the shoreline, "terminated by solid compact mountains of ice," where Glacier Bay is today. The great glacier that filled the Bay was by then in rapid retreat, and was the source of the floating icepack that so hindered Whidbey. Any visitor who came by at the glacial maximum, a few decades earlier, would have found the glacier’s tongue extending out into Icy Strait almost to Lemesurier Island.

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Glacial Bay, Alaska as viewed from the MS Veendam, John Hall's Alaska 2006. One of the best parts of the trip. Steaming up through the ice to the terminal ends of two neighboring glaciers

Large View

Whidbey was not the first to see Glacier Bay; his record includes mention of the natives who paddled out in their canoes from what is now Pt. Carolus to meet his boats and offer to trade. Were these descendents of the people who once lived in the Bay but were forced out by the advancing glacier? Tlingit oral history is corroborated by modern science, it appears that lower Glacier Bay was habitable for many centuries up until about 300 years ago, when a final glacial surge would have forced the human habitants to flee their homeland.

How long they might have been there is unknown. There were people living over 9,000 years ago at nearby Groundhog Bay, but we may never know who they were. A site on Baranof Island shows that people with an unmistakable northwest coast culture have been in the region for at least the last 3,000 years.

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Poolside Alaska Cook Off on the MS Veendam

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More Movies in Alphabetical Order

Palmer Visitor Center, Palmer Alaska

Raccoon thong bought in Ketchikan

Rare Humpback Whale Bubble Feeding footage, Alaska extended version

Rika's Roadhouse, Delta Junction, Alaska

Roast Duck and... Ramen Noodles on the MS Veendam

Roger says hello to his long lost brother Pete

Rooms and Towels on the MS Veendam

Rough Seas from a Cabin Window on the MS Veendam

Salmon Bake in Fairbanks Alaska 2006

Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska

Saying Hello to Abbe Eyre

Saying hello to the Mythical KSLD Radio Station

Sheep Mountain Lodge Alaska

Susan Butcher in Memorial. Our dinner and tour of Susan's

The Alaska Pipeline

The Coon Lake Beach Lounge

Website & Film by

On The Beach Solutions

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Bear Fights Cougar

Movies in Alphabetical Order

A short clip on Fairbanks Theater, Golden Heart Review, Fairbanks

A wonderful drink called the Moose Mary

Alaska Engagement

Alaska Veteran's Memorial

Alaska Wild Berry Products - World's Largest Chocolate Fall

Alaska, The Anchorage Saturday Market, on Sunday

Anchorage drive through

ATV riding in Denali Alaska

Breakfast at McKinley's Alaska

Breakfast on the MS Veendam with Phil, Carol, Roger, Nancy and Mike

Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge

Copper River Salmon Fishing

Dave Pahl's Hammer Museum, Haines Alaska

Day One, the flight

Denali Tundra Bus Ride Into The Park with Joshua Weisner, Part 1, Part 2

Denali Tundra Bus Tour Part Three, Drumming with Joshua Weisner

Depression by the pool & Roger buys a watch

Dessert Extravaganza on the MS VeenDam during a gale storm.

Driving to the MS Veendam in Alaska

Eielson Air Force Base

Fairbanks Hotel

Fellow traveler snags a salmon on the Copper River, Alaska

First Day Life Boat Practice on the MS Veendam

First night in Denali, John Hall's Alaska, Horse back riding, ATVs and a show

Force 8 gale on the top deck of the MS Veendam in Alaska

Formal Dinning on the MS Veendam

Glacial Bay, Alaska as viewed from the MS Veendam, John Hall's Alaska 2006

Gold Dredge Number 8, Fairbanks Alaska

Grizzly Lodge, Denali, John Hall's Alaska 2006

Gwennie's Stuffed Bear, Gwennies old Alaska restaurant, Anchorage Alaska

Haines to Trains, Skagway Alaska White Pass Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Humpback Whales & Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve boat transfer, Alaska

Humpback Whales, Rare footage of Bubble feeding in Alaska.

Iditrod Trail Race Headquarters & Museum in Wasilla Alaska

Ketchikan Alaska, Salmon fishing of the world, first city of Alaska

Ketchikan locals mooning Green Peace ship Rainbow Warrior

Lake Hood Seaplane Base, Anchorage, John Hall's Alaska Tour

Last Night on Deck, MS Veendam

Liarsville, Alaska

Life boat practice on the MS Veendam in Alaska

McKinley Train ride to Denali from Fairbanks. John Hall's Alaska 2006

Meeting with Catherine on the MS Veendam

Meier's Lake Roadhouse

Millennium Hotel Anchorage Alaska, race headquarters for the Ititarod

MS Veendam, an overview for the John Hall Alaska 2006 trip.

Nancy helps sell on the train

Nazi Boat Captain

North Pole Alaska, Santa comes on board the John Hall tour bus

On the streets in Ketchikan Alaska

One fast boat in Alaska. Four 800 HP Caterpillar Engines, jet thrust, 45 knots

Our group meets for one last time onboard the MS Veendam

Paddle Wheel Boat Discovery III Steamboat Landing Fairbanks Alaska

The Sour Dough (sourdough) Bar in Ketchikan Alaska, Salmon fishing capital

The Tundra Tour Bus takes a break in Denali

Train Snow Blower, Skagway Alaska

Two 11th Airborne Vets meet on a Tundra Bus in Denali Alaska.

University of Fairbanks Museum, Alaska

Visiting with John our Guide on the John Hall's Alaska Land Tour

Waking up in Denali Alaska

Wrangell Saint Elias visitor center, Alaska

Abbe Eyre and Mike Stokes their Denali Engagement

Summer temperatures average 50 to 60 degrees F (10 to 15 degrees C). Winter temperatures rarely drop into the single digits, with average nighttime lows of 25 to 40 degrees F (-2 to 5 degrees C). Rain is the norm in southeast Alaska. April, May and June are usually the driest months of the year. September and October tend to be the wettest.