The Alaska Cruise Explorer by Joe Upton

The Alaska Cruise Explorer by Joe Upton

For 20 years Joe Upton traveled the Alaska coast, catching fish, taking photos, collecting stories, and making maps. This easy to use large format book includes detailed anecdote-rich maps of Alaska and the Inside Passage and information on the ports and important elements of Alaska cruising, plus links to Upton's short video documentaries at specific places along the coast. But as in all of Upton's books, the stories from his years on the coast, from homesteader in a roadless fishing community to Deadliest Catch crab fisherman decades before the TV series, are the reasons for his books' enduring popularity.

Traveling Northwest waters as a commercial fisherman since 1965 in small craft and large, Joe Upton gained intimate knowledge of the coast from Puget Sound to the Arctic Circle.

In the 1970s, Upton lived and fished out of a tiny roadless island fishing community in Southeast Alaska. His first book, Alaska Blues, based on those years, was hailed as One of those books you want to proclaim a classic, by the Seattle PI.

In 1995, Upton started Coastal Publishing, to produce illustrated maps and guidebooks for Alaska cruise passengers. In 2010, he began working with film maker and commercial fishermen Dan Kowalski to film many of the stories that he had heard over the years.

Upton lives with his wife on Bainbridge Island, WA and Vinalhaven Island, ME.