Advertisement
Published: August 22nd 2008
Edit Blog Post
Alaska is the thing of the past, to us anyways. We are officially "on the way home". We don't have a lot of time to write this blog so maybe I will try to hit some of the highlights.
the one that got away
We went fishing in Haines the afternoon before we boarded the inside passage ferry. It was really fun. Jesse hooked a big halibut but after the captain got out the harpoon (that's right we were going to have to harpoon this baby to get it in the boat), it ran away with the bait and our hopes of a huge fish to bring home to our families. We did catch a few Cod, Flounder and one other small Halibut that was really good eating for dinner that night. Yum.
Lots of bear and wildlife viewing in Haines, saw them really close and really big! what amazing animals. One of the highlights of alaska for us was watching a female grizzly fish, capture and eat a salmon right in front of us.
Mendenhall Glacier
Early Tuesday morning we boarded the ferry to Juneau. It was a beautiful day (although a bit
cold, as usually), but the sun and clear skies is pretty rare in this temperate rainforest) we enjoyed the mountain scenary and saw tons of glaciers coming off the Juneau icefields. Was awesome. There are 38 glaciers coming off of that icefield and only one is gaining ice...they are all being affected by climate change and the only reason why the one is growing is because there are warmer temperatures at higher altitudes, allowing for snow at higher altitudes then ever before..meaning the snow accumulation is actually increasing in a few places because of climate change - but this is due to the overall warming trend, very concerning for scientists and those concerned about global warming.
We got into Juneau around 1:30 and drove around the city. It's a pretty amazing place, we felt like it was the northern version of a Caribbean port which caters almost exclusively to the huge cruise ships. Lots of giftshops, not as many restaurants. A beautiful place to be sure. We had some dinner, but the highlight was definately exploring the beatutiful Mendenhall glacier.
It was a tidal glacier, which means it goes right to the water. It was just beautiful,
with multiple waterfalls coming off. We took a hike to the base of one of the waterfalls. It was amazing and we dont have the words right now to adequately talk about it.
the big ship
Around 9pm we went back to the ferry terminal. We got in line with all the folks getting out of dodge. It was pretty interesting. We got on the ferry about 11pm and got our room assignment. 9B on the Taku (the ship's name). It was a tiny stateroom, but fairly comfortable. We should have just slept on the top deck as some did - but we weren't aware of that option when we booked the ferry. It was a great experience. The scenary was fantastic, it was a bit foggy and rainy for most of the day Wednesday, but we had a great time. We spent a few hours in the bar on the ship and made friends with the Aussie, that was of course near the beer! (haha). He was taking his motorcycle through the americas. He was a real interesting guy and I think he got Jesse even more excited about maybe one day going on a motocycle tour. I'm trying to convince him this is a bad, dangerous idea...it's an ongoing discussion!
We saw a bunch of humpback whales and other marine mammals on the boat. If you looked out at the water long enough, you were bound to see something cool - this is Alaska's inside passage afterall.
We got off the ferry at 5:30 am on Thursday at Prince Rupert B.C. - that's right 5:30 am...an early morning that created a tired day. Although we were tired we drove about 8 hours to get to Prince George BC tonight (B.C's northern capital). Along the way we stoped in Hazelton and New Hazelton. A very interesting place with a rich history of First Nations people. The Gixtsan people have a rich tradition of arts and culture, all of which were on display at an interesting museum and recreated village of Ksan. We also visited the first nations community which is the home of many beautiful and old totempoles. The totempoles are a constant and continuing part of the culture in the community and members of the community still work on new poles every winter.
A very cool stop. We also had lunch on a refurbished old steamship.
We drove, and drove and drove though the tiredness and finally got to Prince George around 9pm, had some chinese food we had been dreaming about for a few hours and found a good cheap motel, where we write this blog.
We are off today, somewhere in B.C. - we want to see a bit of B.C. before heading back over the rockies and back home.
Moral of this story - the inside passage is awesome and worth doing. We recommend it to all 😊
haines, fishing, bears, ferry, tired
Advertisement
Tot: 0.167s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0605s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb