Outdoors Subscribers
How to pack for a week on the Alaska Marine Highway
Layers, a sleeping pad and patience: a practical list for traveling Southeast Alaska by ferry.
The ferry is how much of Southeast Alaska gets around, and a trip up or down the coast is one of the great slow journeys in North America. You pass through narrow channels lined with forest, stop at towns with no road to the rest of the world and watch whales from the same deck where families sleep in tents. It rewards travelers who pack for comfort rather than speed.