Cruise to Alaska: Where The Mountains Meet the Sea (ft. Gwyn Manser)

Movie.
In the hullaballoo of our daily lives, it's easy to
feel like the center of the universe. We manage our schedules,
prepare our meals, meet deadlines, and make time to spend
with others. At a certain point, our lives can start
to feel like the whole world. But what happens when
we're placed in the midst of something so grand and
so ancient that we have no choice but to assume
our position as a small speck on a much larger
planet Earth. Welcome back to Wayfinder Life Changing Travel. This
podcast goes beyond the guidebooks into the heart and soul
of real life travelers as they journey around the world.
I'm your host, Daniel Scheffler, and I have seen firsthand
how our stories connect us and inspire us. In today's episode,
I'm chatting with Gwynn Manza, a photographer and outdoor adventure creator,
alongside her wife Army. A few years back, Gwynn and
Amy sailed on their first Alaskan cruise, not knowing too
much about cruisers at the time. What they discovered there
was a surprise and something much grander than a vacation. Okay,
so let's start with the fact that I love Gwyneth
because well, you know Gweneth, but gwyn tell me gwyn.
Yeah, my full name's Gwyneth. My parents named my sister Emily,
she's five years older than me, and then everyone on
the planet was named Emily, and I have Welsh heritage,
so my parents picked out a Welsh baby named Book
and we're like.
We got to pick a weird name.
And Gwyneth Paltrow didn't really exist at that time, so
they were like, oh, this is a cool name.
Love it, love it, love it. So where do you
live now?
My wife and I live in Spokane, Washington, so we're
almost in Idaho. We're at the far eastern side of
the state. Very different climate than what you would expect
west of the North Cascade Mountains, but a little bit
more affordable, really beautiful area. It's a smaller city. It
kind of reminds me of Portland in that way, where
it feels very compact and drivable, there's not so much sprawl,
and then we really love the nature out here. It's
very different than again that kind of classic mossy, rich,
lush Pacific Northwest vibe that you get closer to Seattle
and in the North Cascades nice.
So how did you fos get into travel and then
eventually become a travel creator.
I grew up in a family that really prioritized travel.
We didn't spend a lot of money on like I
wore all my sister's old hand me downs, and you know,
we didn't really go out to eat. But the one
area that my parents really wanted my sister and I
to experience was travel. That was super important to both
of them and still is.
So yeah, we did quite a bit of travel as kids.
And then my wife and I met when we were
living in Portland, Oregon, and I was a masters student,
and neither of us had like any money, so we
would just kind of do cheap outer activities as like
our dates in and around the city. And then eventually
we moved to California, where I did a PhD. And
while we were there, the pandemic happened and we decided
to build a camper van. And the goal of the
camper van wasn't to be like a van life couple
for us. It was about the future adventures that it
would enable. And neither of us grew up in our
v families, so it was definitely a stretch and kind
of an unusual move for both of us because we're
not like the most exciting people on the planet, just like,
you know, cautious, I guess, and maybe it is a
good way of putting it. And so we did this
huge build out, kind of build our dream van, and
then it became about the adventures we could do in
the van.
So we went to.
Most of the national parks in California. We traveled all
over the state, all over the West, and now we
have truck camper instead of van.
But I think it's really.
Taught me a lot about travel and how much there
is to explore, especially in the US.
Before Alaska entered the picture, auto exploration was already central
to the lives of Gwynn and her wife Army. But
then came the opportunity to leave the van life for
a moment and explore by way of the open water.
It was back in twenty twenty two and this was
my first time as an adult on a cruise. We
flew into Vancouver, BC. That was our departing port city.
We spent a day in Vancouver, where we had been before,
so it was nice to revisit some of our favorite sites.
And go to the beautiful park out there, and then
we sailed up the inside passage to Ketchikan, Juno Skagway,
and Glacier Bay National Park. Those were the four main
stops and kind of highlights of the trip, along with
the sailing itself, which is of course beautiful.
It is one of the best ways to see Alaska,
I'm told, right, that's.
What I've heard.
I mean, I think it depends what your goals with
your trip are. We do a lot of road trips
where you obviously have a lot more control over how
long you spend in a place and what your itinery
looks like. But I think in particular Juno and ketch
A can and also Glacier Bay National Park, there's no
other way to get to them than by plane or
by sea. So you can't drive to these places, at
least not in the traditional sense. You can load a
car into a ferry, but it is unique, so there
is a magic to seeing them by cruise. In particular,
it is one of those locations where I think cruising
to Alaska is really worth it because you're going to
see a totally different side of the state and also
parts of the Canadian coast.
Than you would if you traveled by other means.
I didn't know what to expect, and the ship itself
was just I mean, obviously it was huge, but it
was a really cool way to travel because you are
in like the self contained floating hotel, and they have
all these fantastic decks which are perfect for watching the
landscape as you're passing by, so we're able to look
out at the incredible views as we're sailing up a
Canadian coast, and then of course the Alaska Inside Passage.
One of the things that really struck me was you're
on the water and you're sailing past the mainland and
the mountains just terminate in the water, which is something
you kind of get in places like a Kadia National
Park up in Maine or parts of the Pacific Northwest
coast as well. But there's just a more dramatic darkness
where the water and the land meet that's really striking
and really interesting and feels very Alaska and.
Unique to me.
It really is just a magical landscape, and so much
of it is so remote, so as you are sailing
along the coast, for the most part, you aren't seeing houses,
you aren't seeing people like you really are immersed in
a landscape more so than you would be pretty much
anywhere else, and so, you know, does capture.
That rugged, stark beauty of nature.
Yeah. I guess like it's interesting to think about how
in order to understand and to really like let your
body be in that scale of grandeur. Right, It's sort
of nice that everything's taken care of. You don't have
to worry. You can sit on your veranda and just
feel that. Like I've cruised a little bit and I
find it very meditative. Look, there's party cruise blah blah blah,
and then there's this. This feels very different to me.
Yeah, I mean what you're saying is really reminding me
that with cruises you're being kind of toted along and
you do get to really lean into enjoying the scenery
and getting to like really immerse yourself in what's happening
around you. And then of course you get to plan
your time on land at each of the port destinations
and be intentional with how you're spending your time at port.
And I will say also, I love that it's a
multi generational way to travel. I think that is one
thing about cruising that sometimes gets overlooked, but you can
go with a family with very different needs in terms
of their ability to walk around or explore. It can
be in all ages and all abilities experience. I think
there's just such a beauty in that. Yeah.
Wow, that's a good thought.
Yeah, that's something that I really appreciate.
With much of the journey already behind them, Gwinn and
her wife docked in the polt city of Skagway.
The town was founded in eighteen eighty seven, and it's
this really beautiful little gold rush community, so it's got
a lot of history to it, and it's situated in
an inlet at the terminus of the Skagway River, which
I'm guessing is how it got its name. And it's
this beautiful braided river, so you have a lot of
sediment and the river is kind of moving back and
forth in this very sinuous, lovely pattern, as rivers do.
We were there on a cloudy day and there's just
such a freshness to the air, like it's a little moist,
and you know, you are in a rainforest, and so
just like with the Pacific Northwest, the air just feel
so clean and so pure, and there is you know,
not a lot of pollution because you're in a very
remote area. We were also there during peak fall colors
in early to mid October, and I think that was
really special because the trees still had all their leaves
on them. The snows hadn't started yet, but the leaves
were changing, so we had like beautiful red colors, lots
of pops of yellow that was kind of the dominant
color in the Alaska landscape, besides green, because there's also
a lot of evergreens, and all these beautiful rocks, like
browns and kind of purply colors that you sometimes get
in rocks and mountains.
It really is picture perfect.
It's tucked in this inlet with mountains on either side,
beautiful trees everywhere, the water's right there, the rivers right there.
You have glaciers in the distance, and you have all
these really cool historic buildings, and the downtown is just
this grid of streets with these homes, cute little businesses
in this little bowl surrounded by mountains. We were there
for like eight hours, and we crammed in as much
as humanly.
Possible there in the magnificent surroundings of Skagway. Gwynn and
her wife wasted no time.
One of the hikes we did was to a place
called I'll try and say this correctly, Yako Tania Point.
And so it's this hike that's just to the left
of town and you go over the Skagway River and
then you're in this park area and it was really
striking to me, like you have the main tourist area
in town and it's really bustling and busy, and there's
all these tourists and then you go out, you cross
the river and it's just so peaceful.
It's quiet.
You know, there's other people on the hike, but you
feel like you've just escaped and you're miles away from civilization.
You're looking out at these mountains, you're looking out at
the inlet and the water, and it's just incredibly beautiful
and kind of same experience. The other hike that we
did was to a place called Dewey Lake that's to
the right hand side of town, and you go up
a mountain and so you actually look down at the
town and it literally looks like this little almost like
a Christmas village or like a story book, Like you're
looking down at these tiny little buildings and yeah, they're
often like really bright and unique architecture because there's so
much history and you can see it all laid out
in front of you, and it's so beautiful and unique.
And then you're just up in the mountains, you're at
this beautiful lake and it's so cool to have all
that in such a small space. And then we were
supposed to take the White Past Summit Scenic Railroad, which
is this really famous railroad ride that you can take,
but I forget if it was one day or two
days before we landed in Skagway. There was a rock
slide that went over part of the rail line and
so they actually had to close down the rail and
so we couldn't do that particular activity. So instead they
re routed us onto another tour and it was a
musher's camp and s'mores roasting activity. It was a cool experience.
Exploring the historical buildings and beautiful scenery of Skagway. Was
only the tip of the iceberg for the glacial excursions
still to come. But first, some of Gwenn's favorite food
spots in Skagway and beyond.
There's a place called Klondike dough Boy, which is really
famous for their frybread and I swear you can smell
that throughout the town. And if you don't know what
frybread is, it's kind of like a doughnut. It's basically
just fried's dough with cinnamon and sugar on it. So
really delicious and this kind of classic snack you can
find in various different areas throughout the US. You should
absolutely go to Amalga Distillery in downtown Juno. That's one
of the things from the trip that really stood out
to me. It's just this beautiful Gin distillery, super cute
little space, great drinks, and that's one of the more
memorable food experiences we had. I know my wife also
took advantage of the salmon. I don't eat fish, but
she had a salmon bake well in Alaska and that
of course was fantastic. But we also get salmon in
the PSIF Northwest, so I'll give our salmon a shout
out to here.
Newly nourished by dough Boy, frybread and the hike to
Dewey Lake, Gwinn soon found herself on yet another adventure,
a helicopter tour to meet Glacierlcier.
Was probably the top travel experience I've ever had, so
the way We kind of opened our time in Skagway
was we got on a helicopter tour of the glacier.
You know, you can't just like walk out to this glacier,
you do have to get in by air. This was
the first time I had ever ridden in a helicopter,
so I didn't really know what to expect.
And they give you these.
Ear covers kind of like the ones I'm wearing now,
but you know, industrial strength. The helicopter is enclosed, of course,
but it is quite chilly up there, and you are
just like sailing over the earth. I was worried it
would be super rough and that I would feel really ill,
but it was super smooth. And one of the cool
things was we actually had a female pilot, which got
me really excited because that's a pretty uncommon experience. It's
about I think forty minutes in the air total. We
flew out over the mountains. You see waterfalls everywhere, You're
seeing glaciers everywhere on top of mountains, and just this
incredibly and remote landscape. It's as far as I can go,
just nature mountains, remote beautiful Alaska, and you're flying out
to one of the remote glaciers and I think they
change up where you stop. I want to say that
we went to the Mead Glacier and they give you
these like special boots that you wear for walking on
the ice because you had to land on the glacier
in the helicopter.
And then we touched down on the glacier and it
was so still and so quiet.
You hear the glacier itself, You hear some of the
cracking as it moves a little bit. You hear the
rush of water that's moving underneath the glacier and on
top of the glacier. But other than that, and the
people walking around on the glacier surface that you rode
in with, there's just silence. It was really profoundly beautiful.
It's hard to find that level of silence in the world.
There were no planes overhead, like there's nothing, and even
in the most remote parts of the Lower forty eight
you're gonna hear an acasual airplane go up above you.
And so yeah, just that silence. And it's in this
sinuous valley. So the glacier kind of curves around various
mountain ranges and it's so much more organic. As a
little kid, I always thought of glacier. So it's like
this drive block of ice, but it's much more sinuous,
and the helicopter just looks absolutely tiny on this massive
field of ice with these huge mountains surrounding you. There's
no trees, obviously, And I think what surprised me most
for my first time on a glacier, which I had
never thought about before, and it's so obvious in retrospect,
was there were just rocks everywhere on the glacier surface.
And so there's actually this picture of me in my
ridiculous little ice walking boots and I'm wearing this like
bizarrely bright rain jacket, and I'm holding my arm up
and I'm standing on the glacier and there's stunning mountains
behind me, and then I am just surrounded by boulders. Like,
if you didn't know you were looking at me standing
on a glacier, because you can kind of see the
bright blue ice poking through, you wouldn't necessarily look at
that photo and be like, she's on a glacier because
it's really dominated by these rocks.
It's out to worldly. It's amazing.
Yeah, it really does feel like another world. And it
was really interesting because the glacier also has so much
texture to it, where it's melting or lifting up or
calving or whatever. And so as you're walking around, you're
kind of navigating this really dynamic, icy, rocky landscape and
I couldn't believe.
How blue the ice was, you know.
Of course, one of the activities you do is you
kind of are set free to like roam around the
glacier for a while, and then your guide brings you
back and you learn a little bit about the glacier,
and then you also get the option to drink some
glacier water, which my wife did of course, and so
there's just water rushing across the surface and yeah, you
stick your mouth and pick a cup in, and of
course that's such.
A cool experience.
After we took off from the glacier, looking down at
what you just walked on, like, it really is incredible
how textural the ice is. There's places that look really
crumpled up, and there's places that are rocky, and there's
places that are pretty clean and clear, and you just.
Have this like kaleidoscope of colors.
There's blues and whites and purples, and obviously the rocks
are adding something to and it's such a textural experience
and such a unique place.
To visit.
In the scope of these glacial surroundings. Gwynn was amazed
by how small she felt and surprised by how quiet
and dynamic Glacier terrain could be. It was an experience
that now comes highly recommended. In addition to a few
other of Gwinn's favorite activities from her Alaskan crews, I.
Would say, if you ken spring for it, getting a
veranda room, so a room with a deck or at
least with a window, is absolutely worth it for that
particular cruise, because so much of your experience is just
sailing past the most beautiful places in the world. One
of the most incredible parts of this cruise, and probably
one of the highlights for a lot of people, is
going out to Glacier Bay National Park. You can't hike
to it, you can't drive to it. You experience it
from the water primarily, and so you sail in to
Glacier Bay and there's these incredible mountains, there's waterfalls cascading
down literally everywhere. And the cool thing is you're in
a national park, so the park rangers actually come on
the boat. They boat out to your cruise ship. They
come on in their park ranger uniforms and they are
giving presentations. They're coming on over the lad speaker to
tell you about what you're seeing, and my last thing
would be to keep your eye out for the northern light.
So it was my first time seeing them and it
was really incredible.
Okay, so the last thing we're going to do is
a little reflection. How did you feel different at the
end of this trip than when you started.
It really felt like it ignited such a passion for
travel and reminded me of the beauty of seeing places
a little farther afield. Because so much of what we
do is within driving distance, and especially in the West,
you can get phenomenally diverse landscapes like the Grand Canyon
and North Cascades National Park and Olympic National Park are
all totally different, but there's nowhere quite like Alaska, and
so I think there is such a beauty in exploring
places that are a little harder to get to. Whether
that's just because of distance or because of logistics or
whatever it is, but it's so worthy effort. And I
think the other thing that I really took away from
this tripe was that sense of climate change in a
more visceral way, like you really are struck by the
grandeur of nature, but it's amazing how fragile it is
as well.
And there's that weird juxtaposition.
If like you're looking at this huge device that seems
just immutable, like it's just so big, so powerful seeming,
but it's also vulnerable and retreating. And the way that
impacts communities is really profound and really bittersweet when you're
experiencing that.
I take a lot of joy.
From our experience in Alaska away, but there is some
sadness there in knowing that will my kid be able
to experience this one day? I'm not sure, Like these
places will look different, not that Alaska won't exist, but
the Menden Hall Glacier experience is going to be different
in twenty years than it was when I visited. And
so it is a really profound, beautiful, stark landscape that
really has so much to offer, And the people we
met were all so nice. Everyone in Alaska just is
really incredible. It takes a special type of person to
live there, and I think that really comes through in
your experience of the place and your interactions with folks
that live there.
That's really the thing about life changing travel, right. It's
like the bit of Swede. It's the horror and the
beauty all kind of wrapped into one. And that is
what travel teaches you. And sometimes it's hard to feel it,
to really really feel it. But that's the sort of
true magic of travel is that it does this thing.
So it's amazing that you felt that.
Yeah, for sure, every place teaches you something, and Alaska
has a lot to teach you.
Before this trip, Gwynn didn't quite know what to expect
from an Alaskan cruise. But somewhere between the mountains meeting
the sea, the historic streets of Skagway, the northern lights,
and the vast shifting surface of the glacier, Gwen was
no longer the driver of her experience, but a witness
to the immensity of all that surrounds her. Sometimes when
we least expected, we get an invitation for adventure and
were brought face to face with experiences that change our perspective.
My message to future travelers and a lass and cruise
is to embrace the experience, have fun, explore widely, be
nice to the locals, and leave no trace.
Wherever your path leads. Next, may you follow the prompts
that carry you to places you never could have imagined.
We Finder Life Changing Travel is a production of Iheart's
Ruby Studio. I'm your host Daniel Scheffler. Our show's executive
producer is Sierra Kaiser, supervising producer Kelly Kyle, and story
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