These are highlights of a recent trip (mostly via the Alaska Marine Highway ferry) through Alaska and the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia. The rain was phenominal - Juneau alone gets 200 inches of rain compared to Victoria's 26 inches of rain a year. That doesn't include snow. Many days were extremely dark, foggy and rainy. Places in Alaska include: Anchorage, Prince William Sound, Whittier, Valdez, Haines, Juneau, Petersburg, Admiralty Island, Tracy Arm / Sawyer Glacier and Ketchikan - including the inside passage to Prince Rupert, B.C. I also visited one of Canada's most remote corners -- the Queen Charlotte Islands -- where Haida culture and art is very strong. Many of the grizzly bear (actually, Alaskans prefer you call them "Alaskan Brown Bears") encounters were at dusk and dawn and lighting was a huge issue so I shot at 1600ISO (just wanted to explain the extra grain). I couldn't help but continue to take pictures though -- they were amazing to watch. Haines was the highlight of the trip as far as close-up grizzly watching was concerned. You can park right next to the creek where they fish for salmon and we saw about nine bears (mostly femals) with cubs right at dusk. I also went to Pack Creek on Admiralty Island which has the highest concentration of grizzly bears in the world. There is one bear for every square mile. Only 12 people receive permits to visit Pack Creek a day you can only get there via float plane or boat with a qualified guide. We saw about 15 bears and cubs, but most were from quite a distance away.