Set sail to explore the Inside Passage on an Alaskan cruise

Its native peoples called it Alyeska, "the Great Land," and no wonder: Alaska has many eye-popping and mind-boggling attributes to richly justify that name. Consider it has 586,000 square miles (equivalent of one-fifth of the lower contiguous 48 states). It has more than 3 million lakes larger than 20 acres, 39 mountain chains with 17 of the 20 tallest peaks in North America, more than 3,000 rivers, 1,800 islands, 100,000 glaciers and a whopping 33,904 miles of coastline.

By Georgina Cruz, Special Correspondent

February 15, 2013