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Hubbard Glacier, off the coast of Yakutat, Alaska, is the largest glacier in North America, with a calving front that is more than six miles wide. One of the main sources for Hubbard Glacier originates 76 mi inland. It has been a very active glacier, experiencing two major surges in the past 30 years. This glacier was named after Gardiner Greene Hubbard, a U.S. lawyer, financier, and philanthropist. He was the first president of the National Geographic Society.

Since the late 19th century, Metlakatla has been the major settlement of the Metlakatla Indian Community of the federally recognized Annette Islands Reserve, the only remaining reservation in Alaska. It is located on Annette Island, and in 2010 had 1,405 residents. Membership in the community is primarily by lineage and is comprised primarily of Tsimshian people. Metlakatla comes from a Tsimshian word meaning "Salt Water Passage". View less In 1886, William Duncan, an English tannery employee and lay member of the Church Missionary Society, along with a devoted group of Tsimshian followers, decided to leave his home village in British Colombia. Duncan went to Washington, D.C., asked the U.S. government to give his group land in Alaska. The U.S. gave them Annette Island after a Tsimshian search committee in seagoing canoes discovered its calm bay, accessible beaches and abundant fish. The group arrived in 1887 and built a settlement laid out in a grid pattern like a European town. They named the town New Metlakatla, after the town they had left behind, but later dropped the "New."

Navigate through the intricate outlays of some of Alaska’s most staggering winter scenery, threading a needle between craggy, snow-dusted islands, and slipping glacial giants. To cruise this 500-mile stretch of Alaskan beauty is to sail through a living work of natural art - with perfectly sculpted mountains soaring from the shoreline, and clutches of islands scattered across the dark waters with delicate attention to detail. A common sailing route due to its calm sheltered waters, gorgeous natural set pieces constantly play out here - whether it’s killer whales accompanying you through the breathtaking icy passages, harbour seals catching a break on floating hunks of ice, or wisps of cloud clinging to distant mountain peaks. Witness Mother Nature at her most dramatic and elaborate along this Alaskan coastline, where glaciers groan and creak melodramatically, before finally releasing colossal shelves of ice, allowing them to free fall into the waters below, and explode with angry booms and thunderous splashes. While fundamental displays of nature’s power always awe and amaze, it’s the tranquil beauty of this passage - amid still waters, splitting only to reveal the smooth backs of breaching humpback whales – that is relentlessly moving. A journey of glaciers, remote hidden villages, and carved fjords - the Inside Passage is a breathtaking voyage through the intricate mesh of Alaska’s fractured, raw and spectacular coastal landscapes.