Around Haines, Alaska

Haines is a quaint little village that has some interesting things to explore. If you are into hiking and the outdoors, there are a couple state parks and the eagle preserve that would be very much to your liking.

We started out by checking out the bald eagle preserve. It is a strip of land between a river and the mountains and in the fall, as many as 3500 eagles come here. The port is ice free and they come for the climate and the fish. Unfortunately, we didn't see any wildlife on this visit, but it was an enjoyable drive. We did see an old cemetery along the road and nothing that identified it, so I will have to investigate that a bit. We drove out to the Roadhouse 33 and had lunch, then turned around and headed back into town.

Once back in town, we went out the other direction to the Chilkat State Park. Getting there was a bit tricky. Once you get off the main road in Alaska, there are dirt roads. . . and worse, NON-maintained roads. But it wasn't too bad and on the way back there we did see eagles. We saw one group which may have been a family. There were two adults and three juveniles. Pretty awesome. We wandered back to a camp host cabin and enjoyed the view from his deck. There were two glaciers visible, one called Rainbow Glacier that had a large waterfall at the bottom.

We drove back into town and passed through the Ft. Seward grounds. This was a fort and when it was abandoned, it was purchased by some veterans who have maintained it and use the buildings for many different things. It has been declared a national historic site.

Tomorrow we are heading to Juneau. We may do a little more sightseeing in the morning.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Skagway to Haines, Alaska

A bad internet connection sure makes posting a chore. I try to write every day even if I can't post and select the pictures I want to use, but then I have to go back and finish it up at a later date while still blogging for the current day. Whew!

Today we had some time before we had to be in line to board our ferry, so we shopped again downtown. We didn't find much of anything different, but it was still fun. There have been cruise boats in every day, but there were fewer people in town and in the shops than the very first day we were here. The ships just come in overnight and leave the next evening. So people have a full day to shop and they do shop!

Once we were done, we drove over to the ferry terminal and got in line. there weren't a lot of vehicles, but several truck campers and some small motorhomes. No trucks or large motorhomes, although the boat can handle them. We got checked in and officially measured, then they came around and sealed our propane hatch. We had previously emptied the freezer of it contents and put it in insulated boxes and sealed them in order to keep everything frozen while the propane was shut off. We weren't worried about the contents of the refrigerator so much but we had some items in the freezer we didn't want thawed.

The trip across the bay was very smooth. Whales were swimming off the nose of the boat; we could see their "spouts" and occasionally one would roll. The waterfalls along the shore were beautiful, falling from high up on the mountains. We saw a couple glaciers when we rounded the point to Haines. The trip was only 15 miles and took about an hour and ten minutes. We enjoyed the trip and the seats were comfortable.
 
We got off the ferry and made it to our campground, the Haines Hitchup RV Park. This is by far the classiest park we have been in. The grass is perfectly manicured and the sites are spacious with full hookups. It is expensive, but no more than others we have been in that have fewer amenities.

Till next time. . .

Dale