Day 30-33 Valdez to Tok to Haines and Juneau

Back up on the Alaska Highway, we proceeded south just about a hundred miles to Haines Junction before taking another detour to go to another oceanside port/fishing village. The drive down was much like we’d experienced going to Homer and Valdez. You go way up in the mountains and then drop way down to sea level. For the rv, that means very slowly (like 20 mph tops) going up the hills and constant downshifting and braking to keep the speed down going down the hills.

Arriving in Haines was different however than the other towns. There isn’t really much of a town at all. It’s quite spread out, the buildings are very old and somewhat rundown. We were surprised to see a cruise ship dock as it wasn’t a very big bay. But the views were spectacular. Our rv park is right on the beachfront again.

We had booked a cruise from Haines to Juneau and it turned out to be a wonderful trip. A catamaran picked us up from Haines. It had come over from Skagway partly full and filled up on people waiting in Haines. Then it was about a 2 hour trip to Juneau. It was somewhat overcast but we saw beautiful mountains, glaciers, waterfalls and even a remote lighthouse out on a rock to warn of very shallow water at the entrance to the bay.

There is no road between Juneau (the big city around here) and Skagway or Haines and there is no main highway out of Juneau in any direction. There is a marine ferry (the same one that also goes down to Bellingham), a high speed ferry, our boat and airplanes. So the boats are a well-used means of transportation for tourists and the locals.

On the way out and back, we saw lots of small fishing boats. It seems that the day before, the fish and wildlife department gave the ok for unlimited salmon fishing. They reported that there were enough salmon that had returned to the spawning grounds and opened fishing to sport and commercial fishers. They were putting out large nets and hopefully making a good haul.

Juneau was fun. The boat dropped us about 10 miles outside of Juneau and a bus picked us up for a tour. Several of the people who came over on the boat with us were flying out of Juneau and the bus dropped them off at the airport. The bus driver was a young man with the driest sense of humor. He cracked me up with his droning monologue about Juneau and his witty but corny one-liners.

The bus dropped us off in downtown Juneau which was bustling with several cruise ships in port. We had a good lunch and enjoyed walking around the port and seeing what there was to be seen. A lot of it was catering to the cruisers (one of the dry comments from our bus driver was “gee, I wish we could get a jewelry shop here in Juneau”. The joke is that there are 3 or 4 on every block selling jade, First Nation arts and crafts, diamonds, gold and a lot of just plain junk. The vendors stand in the doorways and try to lure you in. We weren’t in the market for any jewelry so we passed them all by.

We were tempted to take the tram up the mountain right outside the cruiseship docks but it was so cloudy up there, we didn’t think there would be much of a view. Later in the day, when it cleared up a little and we were tempted to go up, the line was too long so we never did get up there.

When the bus picked us back up after a couple of hours, we were taken to the Mendenhall glacier park. It was great! We are always up for a good glacier and this one didn’t disappoint. It was a ways in the distance but a short walk around the grounds took us to several viewpoints, to the visitor center and to a bear-watching boardwalk over a stream. Lots of salmon to be seen but no bear (wrong time of the day).
Back on the bus, we were again taken to a dock outside Juneau where our boat was waiting. The captain had a nice surprise. He had hinted in the morning that we might be able to see some humpback whales on the way back and he spent the time that we were in Juneau, out scouring around for where the whale were feeding that afternoon. And bless his heart, he took us right to them.
It was quite spectacular and exciting to see these whales (6 or more of them) come up out of the water together and blow. They work as a group to surround a school of fish and it was the most amazing thing. The captain put a microphone underwater and we could hear the leader let out a sharp keen to let the others know that it was time to blow and up they would come out of the water all at the same time and swallow up all the little fish.

They put on this performance multiple times for us until finally the captain said that we needed to head back to Haines. We left them continuing their feeding and headed back. The ride back was as scenic and interesting as the ride over. Glaciers, waterfalls, another view of the lighthouse, and some eagles, dolphins and seals. Life is good!!!

We see evidence of so many wildfires as we drive through Yukon Territory and Alaska but this was especially poignant. This display has some burnt trees and a colorful sign explaining that there used to be a town here that was destroyed in a wildfire.

 

Midday we usually get a little road weary and take any excuse to stop for a while. This day all it took was a "Frosty" sign and we pulled in for ice cream.

 

Craig loves these roadside statues/displays that commemorate the soldiers who worked on the Alaska Hwy during World War II. This one has a lifelike looking statue of a soldier driving a genuine 1940's road grader.

 

Beautiful scenery on the Haines highway.

 

Another relic from the war. This Quonset hut was converted to a church after the war and is still in use in Haines Junction, Alaska.

 

Around every curve on this highway, another beautiful view.

 

Welcome to Haines!



 

Our rv is just the right size for us but in this picture you can see that we are pretty small compared to our neighbors. They were traveling from Arkansas and were waiting to get on the Alaska Marine Ferry to go to Bellingham and start their drive back home from there.

 

Beautiful sunset the first night we were in Haines.

 

Captain George was not only a great skipper of the catamaran, he was also a wealth of information about Haines and the seas we traveled to get to Juneau and back.

 

 

Beautiful waterfalls through the morning mist.

Lighthouse warns boats of very shallow waters in this fjord. It is out on an island way out in the channel and automated these days. It must have been quite some duty back in the days when it was staffed as it's very isolated and in a precarious position for weather and high seas.

Lots of boat traffic - both commercial and personal watercraft. We even passed a cruise ship and a marine ferry on our trip.

Wake behind the boat and the sun trying to peak through the heavy cloud layer.

We saw several glaciers along the way.

An eagle welcomed us into port in Juneau.

Juneau waterfront.

We love taking cruises and I guess I would say right now we are land cruising in our rv.
(By the way, Craig loves his selfie stick. He uses it frequently to get great shots and to take pictures of us!)

The tram we didn't take to the top of the mountain above Juneau. Too cloudy to see much of anything.

Mendenhall Glacier and waterfall. This view from the visitor center observation deck.

Inside the visitor center,
Craig was surprised that the ice was cold. Actually he wasn't expecting real ice as we were looking at mock ups and recreations of things and he was taken by surprise that this was real ice.

A pod of humpback whales emerging from the water.

It was interesting that the birds were very in sync with the whale and seemed to know when they were going to "blow" all the fish up to the surface so they could take advantage of the easy fishing.

This 'blow" was what you would see when they were about to come up out of the water.

This shot we were close enough to see them circling just below the surface. It was quite thrilling! We have seen a lot of orcas in our day but I think this is the first time for us watching humpback whale.

Male sea lions on an isolated beach. They were massive creatures!

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