ALASKA- Sitka day two

July 26 Thursday The Tlingit have lived continuously in Stika for over 50 centuries. We visited the Sitka National Historical Park (known as Totem Park by the locals) and the adjacent Sitka Cultural Center this morning. Here, totems carved by the masterful hands of the Tlingit and Haida Indians can be seen along a pathway that meanders through the rainforest. We went on a guided walk with a young park ranger who is a member of the Tlingit tribe. Very beautiful and very interesting. This is also the place where the Russians attacked the Tlingit in 1804. There are 12 Totems on the walk. 

Tlingit Potlach (ceremonial gathering) early 1900's

Beautiful path through Totem walk

Totem pole on the walk- Totems often told family history

Memorial totem usually for a tribal leader- burial urn  was placed in the bottom of pole

 

We also visited the Russian Bishop's House which is another site in the Sitka National Historical Park. The first Russian Bishiop in Sitka was known as Bishop Innocent and earned the respect of the Tlingit people converting many to the Russian Orthodox Religion. 

Russian Bishop's House

Also saw Saint Michael's Catherdral which was a Russian Orthodox Church built in 1844-48. It burned to the ground in January 1966. Many of the icons & religious objects were salvaged & are in the rebuilt structure.

St. Michael's Cathedral at the end of Main Street

We will be up early in the morning to catch the 5:45am ferry. We will travel to Ketchikan which is a 24 hour trip! This will be our last stop in Alaska-- can you believe it? The next ferry will take us to Prince Rupert, Canada and we will head to Washington – should take about 3 days from there and we will be back in the lower 48!!

ALASKA – Juneau Day 3

July 24 Tuesday Woke up to see a ptarmigan right outside the RV. I think this is the first ptarmigan I have seen in person in Alaska. Then as we headed to downtown Juneau we were driving behind this big, fluffy dog wearing goggles! What a hoot! 

Ptarmigan in the campground

Dog with goggles!

It was so delicious yesterday, we decided to go back to Tracy's Crab Shack for lunch. Love this place! 

Tracy's Crab Shack--best legs in town (crab legs that is!)

Mr. Skunk was wondering how far we are from NYC, so he climbed up on this sign to have a look. 

Hmmm....still pretty far from NY!

Just chilled the rest of the day!

July 25 Wednesday Had to be at the Juneau port at 6:45am to catch the 8am Fairweather ferry to Sitka. 

Jeep and RV in line to drive onto the ferry

View from the RV as Gary drives on

Coffee in the forward lounge

Our last look at the Juneau ferry port and Mendenhall Glacier

Docked at Sitka around 12:30pm. After parking the RV at the Sitka Sportsman's Club RV Park we headed into to town to see the sights. First stop, Castle Hill, the place where the Russians signed the contract of sale of Alaska to the Americans on October 18, 1867. Sitka was the capital of Russian Alaska. 

Castle Hill

We then headed to the Alaska Raptor Center. What an amazing place. They take in injured birds, mostly eagles, but also other Alaskan birds, and treat their wounds and, hopefully, rehabilitate them so they can return to the wild. If they cannot , they will live their life out at the Center. Typical life span of an eagle in the wild is 35 years. When we got there, two trainers were out with two eagles. Eagles are huge up close...Gary got some great pictures! 

So majestic!

"Quit taking my picture!"

ALASKA– Juneau

July 22 Sunday The ferry ride went well...ate dinner in the dining room...it was cafeteria style but had some good entrees. Then we found the small movie theater and watched “Joyful Noise” with Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah. Not a movie we would normally have chosen but it was entertaining and helped pass the time. Our trip was about 4.5 hours long. Arrived in Juneau about 11pm and had to drive to our RV park in the dark. We had good directions and we easily found it. The owner, Corinna, was waiting up for us and led us to our campsite. That was SO nice of her! By the time we settled in and wound down, it was about 1am. This is a very wooded campsite... a little reminiscent of the Adirondacks.

Spruce Meadow RV Park

In the morning we went to the office to finish our camping registration and Corinna was a wealth of knowledge about where to go and what to do in Juneau. First thing we did was head to downtown Juneau. There were 3 huge cruise ships in port. We will probably see a lot of cruise ships on this leg of our trip since we are on the inter coastal waterway. Juneau kind of reminded us of San Francisco...many narrow, steep streets all headed toward the port. Busy, busy, busy downtown with all of the cruise ship tourists coming ashore. We had lunch at Tracy's crab shack which Corinna recommended....scrumptious crab bisque! Tracy has won awards for it at competitions in Boston and elsewhere in New England. Lucky for us, we could buy it frozen so some is in our freezer to bring back....IF we don't eat it all on the way home.  Checked out the Red Dog Saloon...many saloons in Alaska from the gold rush days.   This was very entertaining...great older guy playing the piano and engaging the crowd.

Steep, narrow street in downtown Juneau

Main St. next to the port...notice the huge cruise ship!

Steep stairs

Downtown Juneau

I look a little nervous, don't I?

Piano player inside the Red Dog Saloon

 Stopped by Mendenhall Glacier which is less than 2 miles from our campsite.   Beautiful!

Mendenhall Glacier

Didn't do much else today...kind of tired from our trip here.

July 23 Monday Weather is overcast, about 58 degrees, same as yesterday. We went to Glacier Gardens one of the spots Corinna recommended. Beautiful!! This a rainforest and they have rides to the top that offer views of Juneau. Of course, it was a bit overcast so the views weren't as stunning as if it were sunny,. But, it was still an interesting tour...the tour goes through a section of the Tongass National Park, the nation's largest national forest. It covers most of Southeast Alaska, surrounding the famous Inside Passage and down through the lower 48 states...Washington, Oregon and California.

Upside down trees...flowers planted in root systems.

Inside Glacier Garden shop

More flower arrangements inside

Mr. Skunk waiting for his ride up through the rain forest.

  

Looking back down the twisty, steep road we traveled to the top.

At the top!  View of Juneau Airport behind us!

 

After lunch we checked out the Juneau Gold Mining Company which was opened from 1897 – 1944 and during that time mined over $80 million of gold. This was mountain mining into solid rock.

Bridge to mine in 1912

Same bridge --- 2012

Inside the mine -- early 1900's

Oh no!   Gary is getting gold fever! Panning in the creek by the mine.

We made a stop at Eagle Beach....loaded with bald eagles! Alaska has tons of bald eagles, bears and glaciers! 

So many eagles here!

Our last stop of the day was at St. Theresa's shrine. This is a beautiful, peaceful, spiritual place by the inter coastal waters . There is a shrine to St. Theresa and a lovely Catholic Church built of beach stones. The walk to to the church has the stations of the cross also built of beach stones. This is an active church and there is a picture inside of one of the Pope's visiting this location.

Walk through the forest up to the church.

Closer view of the church...St. Theresa Shrine in front

ALASKA – Haines-days three & four

July 20 Friday Another beautiful day! We could get used to this weather! We had chores to do today. The RV needed a bath and laundry was piled up! The Duck In RV&Car wash was right across the road from our park, so we spent an hour and fifteen minutes there cleaning the RV. Then I headed to the park's laundry and did the wash. It wasn't bad, I used that time to make calls home and visited with Mom, Laurie, Angela and Brooklyn. 

 Haines Hitch Up  RV Park

After all of the work was done we drove out to Chilkat State Park. There are two state parks in Haines, Chilkoot and Chilkat, named after the native tribes there. Both are scenic drives. 

Gary took this great picture of bald eagles in Chilkoot State Park

Scenic view at Chilkat State Park

July 21 Saturday Today is our last day in Haines...at 6:30PM we will be on the Alaska ferry to Juneau. We saw that a farmer's market is held each Saturday AM in Haines at the site of the South Eastern Alaska State Fair Grounds. It is much smaller place than the NY State Fair grounds, but this is a much smaller population. The farmers market is small, but quaint. 

Entrance to the Haines farmer's market

Mr. Skunk enjoying the music

View of the farmer's market

We had to get in line for boarding the ferry at 4:30ish. Gary was driving the RV on and I was driving the Jeep. This is a new experience for us, but we will get used to it as we will be doing this 4 times: Haines to Juneau, Juneau to Sitka, Sitka to Ketchikan, and Ketchikan to Prince Rupert. Each time we will put the RV & car on and then take them off at each stop to spend a few days.

 

Our ferry (Malaspina) to Juneau

RV in the ferry

  

Bow of the ship

Solarium

Docking at Juneau -- 11PM

ALASKA - Haines- day two

July 19 Thursday Another beautiful sunny day! We made plans today to take the fast ferry to Skagway and ride the White Pass and Yukon Route train. The fast ferry to Skagway takes about 45 minutes from Haines.  It is a pleasant, beautiful ride.  As we approached Skagway, which is a tiny town, the first thing we noticed were 5 cruise ships in port!  Even a Disney Cruise! We were told before we left Haines that the cruise ships "own" the town, and this was evident.  There are at least 21 jewelry stores in this small place and tons of tourists milling around the streets and buying the jewelry and furs.   We had about two hours to look around before our train left.

 Before the train was built to the White Horse pass prospectors took the steeper Chilkoot Trail in 1897 to get to the Klondike. They thought that pack animals could be used to transport the ton of supplies which they were required to carry up the trail.   Three thousand horses died on this trail because of the tortures of the trail and the inexperience of the stampeders. I can't imagine hiking this trail...very difficult, not to mention that probably most of these people were not prepared for the climate or the terrain.  They just had gold fever!  And most of them never found gold.

 The train ride was very informative. There was  an interpretive guide on the train who narrated points of interest along the way.

Headed to Skagway on the fast ferry

Downtown Skagway

Inside train -- I am in the second seat on the right from the front of this car.

Our train heading into a tunnel over a bridge -- there are two tunnels on the ride

Part of the original trail...you can see a sign which marks the "Trail of 98"

Another view of the old Chilkoot trail

 

 

 

 

 

Traveling through a very narrow pass

After the train ride, we had another two hours to spend in Skagway waiting for the return ferry to Haines. We decided to stop in at the The Red Onion Saloon,  a saloon which was in the original gold rush town in 1898.   It still keeps its' character of those days.  We met a very nice guy who has lived

in Alaska since he was 19...came for adventure.  It is always great to spend time visiting with "locals".  He was originally from Wisconsin and currently lives in Anchorage and is planning a trip to Nepal.                                                                                                                                                    

We headed back to Haines.   Another beautiful ride.  Haines looked so pretty as we approached it.

Mr. Skunk enjoying the fast ferry ride back to Haines.

Isn't this a beautiful view of Haines?

After docking, we decided to take a ride out to Chilkoot State Park.   There is a weir out there that keeps a count of the salmon.   And, we had heard it was a very scenic drive.  So true! We were driving through the campground at the park and came across a ranger looking for a bear that had just been spotted.   He was carrying a gun, but was not intending to kill the bear.  Apparently they just shoot them with a "bean bag", which stings and scares them from the camping area.  On our drive back we saw this neat lawn decoration...lots of stones placed in interesting formations.

 

Fishing in the park

Ranger looking for the bear

Stone formations