WhaleCoast Alaska

13/01/2025

Have you met the WhaleCoast Alaska Tour Director, Maya Kaup? Maya is a seasoned traveler and is always seeking her next adventure. She lives in Anchorage, Alaska with her dog, Diego, and cat, Simba, and all three of them enjoy watching the birds and squirrels out the window at home. Maya loves Alaska for it's natural beauty, wide open spaces, wildlife, and shared community of outdoor lovers. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, hiking, bird watching, and practicing wildlife photography. She has a passion for connecting people with beautiful places and wildlife. Maya truly treasures sharing Alaska through WhaleCoast tours with fellow Unitarians to bring the wonders of Alaska and the joy of traveling to everyone!

Want to join Maya on a tour this summer? Visit the website at: https://whalecoastak.org/

05/12/2024

Have you seen our photo slideshows? For each tour, we create a slideshow to share with guests so they can remember their wonderful Alaska experience. Here is the slideshow from the All-Alaska Tour last summer! To sign up for a 2025 tour, visit our website at: https://whalecoastak.org/

Highlights from WhaleCoast Alaska's 2024 All-Alaska Tour.Visit https://whalecoastak.org for information about our current tours.

22/11/2024

The landscapes of Alaska are awe-inspiring! From the snowy peaks, tundra, and lakes of the interior to the foggy forrests, waterfalls, and glaciers of the coast, Alaska has so much beauty and incredible sights to see! Visit and see for yourself with a WhaleCoast Alaska tour: https://whalecoastak.org/

13/11/2024

It's Wildlife Wednesday, and today we'd like to share a photo taken in Kenai Fjords National Park on our National Parks Tour! This beautiful bird is a horned puffin. Early sailors called puffins "sea parrots" because of their brightly colored beaks. Their beaks actually change color with the seasons. During the breeding season, puffins' beaks are bright and flashy to attract mates. After mating, the beaks fade to a duller color.

Come search for puffins with us on a tour next summer! We still have space on both our tours, so visit our website to learn more and reserve your spot: https://whalecoastak.org/

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04/11/2024

Happy Moose Monday! This big bull moose passed in front of our bus in Denali National Park this past summer. Alaska has an estimated 200,000 moose, and they are a common sight in forested hills and river valleys. We hope you can join us on a tour in 2025 to spot one of these majestic animals! Visit our website to view our tours and sign up: https://whalecoastak.org/

01/11/2024

The time has finally come! Our unique and wonderful 2025 tours have been posted and reservations are now open! Whether you'd like to visit Alaska for the wildlife, scenery, culture and history, or home stays with Alaskan UUs, our tours have it all. Learn more and reserve your spot today at: https://whalecoastak.org/

11/08/2024

Reminiscing about sunnier, warmer days in Denali National Park as rain and snow falls around Anchorage right now. We saw our first termination dust (or first snow) of the season on the Chugach mountains yesterday, indicating the beginning of winter. With all the rain we've been getting, I've been staying indoors and have begun planning the 2025 WhaleCoast summer tours, so stay tuned for them to be posted to the website this fall!

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06/08/2024

And just like that, the 2024 WhaleCoast Alaska tours are complete! We had great luck with wildlife and weather this year, and raised a total of $66,271 for the four Unitarian Universalist congregations in Alaska! Stay tuned for our 2025 tours to be posted this November.

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30/07/2024

We had incredible luck in Sitka during our All-Alaska tour, seeing four humpback whales, including a mom and baby breaching together! Humpback whales migrate to Alaska every spring to feed in nutrient-rich waters where food is abundant. Humpback whales filter-feed on small crustaceans (mostly krill) and small fish. They use several techniques to help them herd, corral, and disorient prey, including using bubbles, sounds, the seafloor, and even their pectoral fins.

24/07/2024

Happy Wildlife Wednesday! Yesterday we had the pleasure of seeing this beautiful bull moose amongst the blooming fireweed in Denali National Park.

17/07/2024

It's Wildlife Wednesday! Sea otters are keystone species that play a vital role in the ecological health of Alaska's nearshore ecosystems. They have also been important to Alaska Natives for hundreds of years, who have used their soft, insulating fur for warm clothing, bedding, ceremonial objects, artwork, and more. Sea otters were nearly wiped out in Alaska and along the Pacific Coast in the late 1700s and early 1800s due to hunting by Russian, American, and British fur traders. By 1850, only a few isolated groups remained, mostly in the Aleutian Islands. In 1911, the Fur Seal Treaty was signed by the United States, Great Britain, Russia, and Japan, giving sea otters full protection.

We often see these adorable otters on both our tours each summer. We saw these two a few weeks ago in Resurrection Bay on the National Parks Tour!

22/02/2024

Mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, glaciers, wildlife, Alaska has it all! Experience all the magic Alaska has to offer on our National Parks Tour! From Denali National Park, where you'll see incredible landscapes, interesting plants, wildlife, and America's only national park sled dog rangers, to Kenai Fjords National Park, with its incredible calving glaciers, you won't be disappointed! Just two spots are left on this tour. Learn more and sign up at: https://whalecoastak.org/alaska-national-park-tour-denali-and-kenai-fjords/

26/01/2024

Whether you come on a WhaleCoast Alaska Tour with friends or make friends along the way with Unitarian Universalists from all over the United States, friendship is a big part of our Alaskan tours. As Unitarian Ralph Waldo Emerson says, "friendship…is for aid and comfort through all the relations and passages of life and death. It is fit for serene days and graceful gifts and country rambles, but also for rough roads and hard fare, shipwreck, poverty and persecution." Friendships made on WhaleCoast Alaska Tours tend to last. We love that our tours connect people and create enduring friendships!

Thinking of joining us on a UU fundraising tour in Alaska? We still have space on our National Parks Tour! To learn more and sign up, visit: https://whalecoastak.org/

25/01/2024

Did you know bald eagles can weigh up to 15 pounds? That is a lot for a bird! Their wingspan can reach up to 7.5 feet. Bald eagle nests, called aeries, are the largest recorded bird nests in North America. They are typically 4-6 feet across, though the largest recorded was 8 feet across, 18 feet tall, and weighed close to two tons!  

Come see Alaskan bald eagles with us! We still have space on our National Parks Tour this coming June. To learn more and reserve your space, visit: https://whalecoastak.org/

16/01/2024

Glaciers are one of Alaska's most treasured natural wonders. There are over 100,000 glaciers in the state, covering 23,000 square miles! They form in land areas where annual snowfall is greater than annual snowmelt. On both our tours, we are lucky to see glaciers in all their glory. Now is a great time to visit Alaska to see glaciers since, sadly, climate change will likely accelerate glacial retreat. We still have space on both our tours, so visit https://whalecoastak.org/ to join us this summer!