North America

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By Mark Stratton

JUNE 19, 2024

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North America overview

The triumvirate of Alaska, Northwest Pacific Canada, and Mexico’s Baja California collectively offer the most incredible wildlife experiences outside Antarctica. The only way to explore them intimately is by small-ship expedition.

These extreme environments of heat and cold top-and-tail the North American continent. Whether poking into bays with tidewater glaciers seeking spirit bears around western British Columbia’s temperate rainforests or encountering sociable grey whales in the Sea of Cortez, wildlife-watching will never be so up close and personal.

Our Destination Guides explore these great North American expedition cruise experiences in detail. Alaska is a vast wilderness and state in the extreme northwest USA covering 1.7 million square kilometres (665,000 square miles). Cruises explore its extreme north, the realm of polar bears. You can sail into the western Pacific entrance of the Northwest Passage or explore the Aleutian islands, arcing towards Russia. Yet the best fit for expedition vessels is further south; a tiny slither of Southeast Alaska known as the Inner Passage. One specialist small ship operator describes it as a ‘pristine wilderness where the bigger ships can’t reach’.

Adventures typically last 10-12 days and are contingent on the tides. Departing ports include Sitka, Petersburg, and Ketchikan. Voyages will experience the best grizzly and brown bear sightings imaginable and will cruise around icebergs and into nutrient-rich sounds where humpback whales feed in teams. Frederick Sound, Admiralty, and Baranof Islands are spectacular. When spawning salmon return in July, a frenzy of grizzlies, orca, and bald eagles are waiting.

Not a million miles away, expedition vessels have carved out adventures among the temperate rainforest of western Canada, above Vancouver Island. The Haida Gwaii archipelago is referred to as the ‘Galapagos of the North’. Typically, weeklong cruises depart Old Masset to visit densely forested islands with abundant sightings of baleen whales and black bears. It’s here that the Haida First Nation culture has occupied these islands for 13,000 years. Heritage totem poles and UNESCO World Heritage cultural sites like SGang Gwaay Llnagaay are part of their ancient lineage.

Closer to British Columbia, experience Ursus galore in the Great Bear Rainforest during small vessel coastal safaris. With bear-hunting ended, driven by First Nation communities such as the Kitasoo Xai’xais, it has become one of the planet’s wildlife spectacles. Sightings include grizzlies, the famed white spirit bears, and coastal timber wolves and orcas. Expeditions typically last around eight days and and commence from Kitimat, Bella-Bella, or Prince Rupert.

There’s a massive shift in temperature and geographical zones heading to Baja California’s 1200-kilometre-long (745-mile) peninsula in Mexico, south of San Diego, which encloses the biologically rich inland Sea of Cortez. It is set, almost incongruously, in a semi-arid desert; its mega-biodiversity was popularised by John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez.

Cortez cries out for exploration by small vessels, not least when grey whales crowd close around your zodiac dinghy. Ship departures leave the likes of San Carlos port. You may cruise along the Pacific coastline and visit bays and fertile lagoons for extraordinary birds and calving whale displays. Frigatebirds are always wheeling overhead, and from October to May, whale sharks come to feed in great numbers. Snorkelling off the ship encounters turtles and playful sea lions. Expect manta rays, bottlenose dolphins, fin whales, and orcas between the coast of La Paz and Loreto. Specialist photographic expeditions can help you capture this wildlife utopia in greater clarity.