Blogs from Haines, Alaska, United States, North America - page 3

Haines, AK pop.1,525 This town deserves more description than I gave it in our last blog. We planned to stay 2 nights and ended up staying a week. Its 152 miles south from the Alaska Highway. It’s only at the end (or beginning) of the Haines Highway. To go anywhere else from Haines in a car is by ferry. A few days a week, a small cruise ship docks for the day. There’s not the big influx of tourists that is seen in other towns. The drive on the Haines Highway is scenic with snow capped mountains and rivers running along side the road. In some places they are obscured by aspens and evergreen trees. At that point it’s easy to feel that you’re on some other northern road until the next bend when the ... read more

hey, another great day in haines. we took the boat out into the chilkoot for some fishing. we dropped two lines, one for salmon and another for halibut. nothing was biting so left them out over night so will check them later. we also put out the crab cages and caught four males and a female. they have rules in alaska that protects the fishing so had to throw the female back and kept the males. We then took them to craig and josie (manuel and laura friends) for dinner, tried the crab, its an acquired taste. on our way home we stopped off at a river and managed to watch a brown bear fishing for salmon. another eventful day!! ... read more

At the northern end of the inside passage taken by cruise ships and the Alaska Marine Highway System (ferries) is a narrow fiord. On the west side of the fiord sits the town of Haines, and on the east side lays Skagway. These towns originated in the late 19th century as jumping-off places for those adventurous souls seeking their fortune in the numerous gold stampedes. From Skagway they made the arduous climb over the White Pass into the Yukon Territory and the Klondike Gold fields. From Haines the trail led to the Alaskan mining areas of Fairbanks and beyond. These towns are only a few miles apart by boat, but over 400 miles by road, and they are as different as night and day. Haines, while it has bars, restaurants, etc., has retained the feel ... read more