On June 1, we boarded the ferry in Wrangell for the last leg of the journey through the Inside Passage. This fulfilled another dream I had for many years since reading a book called The Voyage Of the Stella.
It was written by one of my favorite authors, naturalist R.D. Lawrence. He wife died after suffering a stroke at a young age. He bought a boat and headed to the Inside Passage with his grief. The book shares the story of his journey and his healing.
This 20-hour ride would take us through Petersburg, Juneau and finally Haines, Alaska. We, of course were watching for whales, porpoise, sea otters and any other form of wildlife while enjoying the amazing scenery.
Departing Wrangell.
We were fortunate to sit near a gentleman named Terry who owns an RV park in Petersburg. He taught us a lot about the area as we moved through the Passage. The buildings above are fish camps where many fishers fly or boat in to enjoy the amazing fishing of Alaska.
He also pointed out this boom of logs that are grouped and waiting to be picked up by a log hauling boat. It was the first sign of logging that we had seen in Alaska. All we had seen before was in British Columbia.
We entered a part of the passage called Wrangell Narrows. We noticed several crew members in the bow watching for small craft or any obstacles like floating logs that might damage the ferry. Terry told us that there are over a hundred channel markers through this area.
This is our approach to the sweet looking town of Petersburg. I wish we had stayed here for a few days. We were told that this town has not been effected by tourism as much as some other towns like Ketchikan.
Leaving Petersburg and Terry (from Frog's RV park.)
A picture of the Matanuska in harbor at Juneau.
It was Incredible to see the way the deck hands helped us get on and off. You can tell perhaps that we were pointed the opposite way from the other vehicles. They shifted us around since most were departing in Juneau while we were going along to Haines.
There was a two-hour period when a weather change was coming. Rain was predicted, and it seemed the wildlife sightings got more abundant. We saw many Pacific White-Sided porpoises racing on both sides of the ship, several Humpbacks a few hundred yards in front of us, and this rookery of sea lions along the shore. The sea lions have brown fur when they are dry. (We did look up spout shapes and learned that Humpbacks have a tall straight geyser, orca more of a rounded spray, and gray whales have two blow holes and a spray looks more like a heart.)
I spotted an Orca a long way off from the ship but clearly saw the white patch so felt confident of the sighting. A Sea Otter swam in front of the bow on it's back with all four feet in the air. It was an awesome two hours.
On Eldrid Island sits one of the ten lighthouses along the Passage. This unique structure is octagonal, and two storied.
More of the mountain beauty with glacier in the middle picture.
One of the birds we saw from the ship was the Pacific Loon. This picture from Internet.
We landed in Haines and quickly found a place to camp and a place to eat. We heard that the Pioneer Bar had the best fish and chips, so we headed right for it. Of course, we wanted to capture this lovely picture for a great memory of our stay in Haines!
I think she would make a lovely addition to the chorus line!
The next blog will start in Haines, and share how we traveled into BC again, on through the Yukon Territory and then back into Alaska at Port Alcan. From there we traveled 600 miles through the interior of Alaska to Palmer. One more post will bring you up to date.
We are camping in Palmer tonight and will drive through Anchorage tomorrow and will reach the Klondike RV park!! Let the "hosting" begin!
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