Travel»Pacific Northwest»Alaska’s Softer Side

Alaska’s Softer Side

Avid adventure traveler David Hanson sets out to discover coastal Alaska’s less rugged, more indulgent attributes: hot-stone massages, gourmet food, leather-bound wine lists, and complimentary bathrobes.

Photographer Annie Schlechter

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Great Outdoors

The next day I join Diane, naturalist Deb, and a couple from California on the boat tour to nearby Halibut Cove. We curve around the headlands enclosing China Poot Bay, pass Peterson Bay, and swing into the quiet waters of Halibut Cove. Wooden houses with pitched roofs and sundecks cling to the rocky shoreline, a few dozen feet above the high-tide mark. Snowcapped, glaciated mountains make the backdrop.