Haines (July 11-13)

Fort Seward B&B

We absolutely loved staying at Fort Seward B&B, originally built as an Army officer's residence and perched up on a hillside overlooking the town and harbor. Owner Norm Smith served homemade blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs with his catch of the day each morning. I see that, sadly, the Smith family no longer runs the B&B.

View from Fort Seward B&B porch

Nestled between the equally incredibly blue waters of Chilkoot and Chilkat Inlets, surrounded by a backdrop of mountains, glaciers and waterfalls, I can't think of a place more beautiful than Haines.

View from lookout at Chilkoot State Recreation Area (note eagle flying by)

Art galleries will have to wait until our next trip to Haines, but we did enjoy a visit to Alaska Indian Arts and saw a large totem carving in process. One of our few souvenirs besides photos, we also brought home a Tlingit print featuring hummingbirds and columbines. Later in our trip we spotted a serigraph print that we loved, and bought it online after we were home. As it turned out, the artist's studio is in Haines!

Totem pole in progess at Alaska Indian Arts

Another really enjoyable activity in Haines was watching bald eagles, one of Mike's favorite raptors. They seemed to hang around by the dock and we got to see both adults and juveniles fishing (and feeding on dead fish).

Bald eagle fishing at the pier

Mike at Haines Brewing Company on White Fang set

Dinner at the Fireweed Restaurant was really good. Upscale yet affordable and a down-to-earth feel, we will go back. I can't find a website, but check out their Facebook page for some yummy photos of their dishes.

Another fun place to visit near Haines is the fairgrounds, which includes part of the set used in filming White Fang. There's also a pretty decent brewery there which of course we had to visit and sample their wares.

We spent one afternoon cruising up the stunning Lynn Canal to nearby Skagway on an Alaska Marine Highway ferry. The Lynn Canal is the deepest fjord in North America and one of the longest and deepest in the world. Skagway was unlike anything we'd experienced in Alaska. The town, or at least the main street, was "Disney-fied" for the cruise ship visitors and just didn't seem real.

Downtown Skagway

Cruise ship docked in Skagway

Historic photo of endless chain of men on the Chilkoot Trail

The Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park Visitor Center had historical interest and we enjoyed seeing an old rotary plow locomotive.

We walked around the shops and found a place to get a good beer, but mostly we just wanted to get back to Haines. Norm warned us and we should have listened to him! I don't think we'd come back to Skagway, unless it was to hike the famous Chilkoot Trail.

Probably the most enjoyable part of the trip to Skagway was when we were on the water going there and back.

Onboard the ferry to Skagway

 

Salmon weir on the Chilkoot River near Haines

After visiting Chilkoot Lake and observing bald eagles apparently gathering nesting materials we worked our way down the Chilkoot River where we saw something new to us -- a weir across the river to facilitate a salmon monitoring and counting project. The weir had a small gate where a human sat and counted every sockeye salmon going through! The gate was even closed at night or when the guy needed a bathroom break. What a job!

Common Merganser family

As we've mentioned before, Alaska served to pique our interest in birdwatching and we had a wonderful experience on the Chilkoot, just downstream from the salmon weir. We saw a small duck-like bird on the water, with a bunch of small ducklings. We moved closer to watch and someone told us they were Common Mergansers. The mama was beautiful and her babies were incredibly cute, hanging close to her on a rock in the water, and even climbing up on her back for a ride. Here's a short video clip of the family on the water.

All in all, we both agree that the beauty of Haines, combined with our experiences there make it probably our top pick for any return trip. But before we left Haines, we signed up for one more adventure, which will be our next post.

Here's a map of the area showing Haines and the ferry route up the Lynn Canal to Skagway.

View Larger Map

Chitina to Haines (July 10-11)

We barreled through the 490 miles between Chitna and Haines Junction in one long day, bopping to lots of U2 on the iPod.

We did stop at the Wrangell-St. Elias Ranger Station at Slana, AK, but dang, it was closed.

Other signage nearby indicated not everyone shared our excitement about National Parks, and we're still puzzled by the rebel flag.

Only the stretch from Glenallen to Tok was new to us. We then cruised past familiar Alaska Highway road construction and Kluane, finally arriving at good old Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, Canada. The Raven had no vacancies this Friday night, so this time we stayed at the clean but uninspiring Stardust Motel.

Road construction slowed us down in a few places

The next morning we got going fairly early with only 240 miles to Haines, Alaska. Mike had learned on our way to Fairbanks that the Haines Highway was supposed to be stunning, and we were not disappointed. It was rugged mountains, good weather, and fireweed all the way down to the Dalton Cache border crossing back into Alaska.

Mike with Fireweed and the mountains of the Chilkat Pass

Mountains along the Haines Highway

Just north of Haines we spent a little time at the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve where hundreds and sometimes thousands of Bald Eagles congregate from October to February.

Soon we arrived in jaw-droppingly beautiful Haines, where we spent three marvelously sunny and haze-free days.

Chilkat River, just north of Haines, AK

Mountain backdrop behind Haines, Alaska

Here's a map of the drive from Chitina to Haines Junction and on to Haines.

View Larger Map

Chitina & Wrangell St. Elias (July 8-10)

As we left Valdez on the east side of Prince William Sound we were heading back into less populated interior areas. But come to think of it, all throughout Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula and on around to Valdez, we had encountered no crowds, no lines, and probably wouldn't have needed any of the advance reservations we made. It was so nice! Maybe tourism was down because of the 2008 financial disaster, or maybe this was just Alaska -- 586,000 square miles of land with only about 650,000 people.

National Park Service area map

Mike was especially keen to see Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve, the largest national park and part of a 24.3 million acre UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with Glacier Bay NP and Canada's Tatshenshini-Alsek and Kluane parks. But name recognition of Wrangell-St Elias is low and visitors few -- less than 50,000 a year. Most of the Park is backcountry and getting there is not easy. About 120 miles north of Valdez, you turn east onto the unpaved Edgerton Hwy (AK 10) for about 35 miles to reach tiny Chitina (second "i" is silent). Another 60 miles past Chitina on the slow-going gravel McCarthy Road gets you inside the Park at McCarthy (duh!)

But instead, we made a plan to fly to McCarthy from Chitina the next day, combining transportation with flight-seeing. In our entire hiking "careers" this is the first time we've ever taken an airplane ride to get to the trailhead. :-)

Juvenile bald eagles patrolling the fish wheels

That evening we were fascinated by all the fish wheels on the Copper River just east of Chitina and we stopped to watch juvenile bald eagles fishing. Then we headed out to sample the first 17 miles of the McCarthy Road, going as far as the Kuskulana River Bridge. Built with steel girders in 1910 for the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad, it spans 525' across and 238' above the gorge carved by the Kuskulana River.

Kuskulana River Bridge in Wrangell-St. Elias

Our hotel in "downtown" Chitina

We stayed two nights at the historic Gilpatrick's Hotel Chitina. This is really the only choice in "town" for dining and lodging. Our room was small but very comfortable, and the restaurant was great! And, as most everywhere in Alaska, the people were very friendly and helpful. We were amused to be given a small yellow button that said, "Where the hell is Chitina?"

Early the next morning, we got up to drive the few miles to the tiny airstrip to catch our air taxi. Soon we were loaded up with one other passenger and were in the air, taking off in only a few hundred feet. Interestingly, the pilot who flew us in spent his winters not far from us near Ward, Colorado!

It's hard to get a good photo out of an airplane window, but WOW! What views we had from that little plane. Even with some haze from the fires, the views of the glaciers and mountains were still magnificent.

View from our air taxi to McCarthy; Mt Blackburn (16,390') in background

We landed on the unpaved airstrip in McCarthy, but our final destination was Kennicott Mill Town, a short van ride away. Kennicott was the site of the richest known copper deposit in the world. It was mined in the early 1900s until the late 1930s. Kennicott still has many standing buildings providing a rich historical perspective on the copper mining once done there. The town has been a National Historic Landmark since 1986 and most of the town site was acquired by the National Park Service in 1998.

Kennicott Mill Town

After we got to Kennicott we walked around a bit before we took a guided half-day hike onto the Root Glacier with the St. Elias Alpine Guides (SEAG).

Hiking toward Root Glacier (center). If you enlarge this, you can see tiny figures on the ice.

This was a much more serious adventure than the previous glaciers we'd visited, requiring crampons and poles.

Susan with our guide, Nathan, just arriving on ice and putting on crampons

Two professional guides kept us safe along the way and showed extraordinary patience with a needy and poorly prepared Belgian woman in our group. (I'm just saying, I wouldn't have hiked back to find her dropped sunglasses!) They also helped us coordinate our flight in and out. We would definitely use SEAG again.

A bluish icy canyon in the glacier carved by melt water

Our lunch spot where we watched ice climbers on the glacier

Final approach over fish wheels to the Chitina airstrip

After enjoying our SEAG-provided box lunch on the ice with our group, we began our hike off the glacier and back to Kennicott.

Back on the air taxi in McCarthy, Mike was amused that the pilot who flew us back to the Chitina airstrip was so small she had to sit on a booster seat to see out of the cockpit.

If we are able to go back, next time it would be fun to stay the Kennicott Glacier Lodge and have a little more time in Kennicott.

Here's a map of the Chitina and Wrangell-St. Elias area.

View Wrangell-St Elias in a larger map

Palmer & Valdez (July 4-7)

After covering the leisurely 200 miles from Kenai we got into Palmer around 8PM and checked into The Colony Inn, a former teacher's dormitory in the heart of an Alaskan agricultural area. The Inn was very cozy, full of warm woods and old fashioned charm. We probably could have used more than an overnight stay at this point in our trip, and I would have loved to catch the Inn Cafe for lunch.

Palmer has an interesting history because of the waves of people who settled the area. Of course the first humans there were were the native Dena’ina and Ahtna Athabaskans who were followed by the Russians who arrived in the 1740s. In the mid-1880s, an entrepreneur named George W. Palmer built a trading post on the Matanuska River, near present-day Palmer. The town was later named after this Alaskan pioneer. In the late 1800s, the US began to exploit the rich coal deposits in the area and built railroads to get the coal out for use in US warships. Finally, Roosevelt's New Deal moved in over 200 families from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin to settle 40-acre plots made available by lottery.

Susan on the Matanuska Glacier

But Valdez awaited us, some highly scenic 250 miles ahead along the Glenn Highway as Alaska Route 1 was known here, then down the Richardson Highway (Alaska Route 3).


On July 5th we stopped to hike on our first glacier, the Matanuska, with easy access off the Glenn Highway (Wikipedia says it's the largest glacier accessible by car in the US). Glaciers are such a fun place to play!

Mike on the Matanuska Glacier

In Copper Center we stopped for a quick sneak preview of Wrangell St-Elias' Mt Drum as we headed south on Richardson Highway. We'd be coming back up this way soon enough.

Mt Drum in Wrangell-St Elias National Park

One more glacier before Valdez, we stopped to check out the Worthington.

Mike on the Worthington Glacier

Susan on the Worthington Glacier

Bridal Veil Falls

Steep cliffs with stunning waterfalls lined the Richardson Hwy as we approached Valdez, and I couldn't help thinking about my dad traveling this road in a school bus filled with boy scouts including both my brothers in 1964. Now that was an adventure!

Valdez Harbor from our dinner spot

Our three nights in Valdez were spent at the Valdez Harbor Inn overlooking the gorgeous harbor.

The next few days we thoroughly enjoyed exploring and realizing in this beautiful area, including a trip back up to Worthington Glacier.

We especially enjoyed the little Valdez Museum where we learned more about the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, and a docent was able to tell us firsthand stories of the Good Friday Earthquake (magnitude 9.2) 45 years ago. The quake killed 131 people and the whole town of Valdez had to relocate! These tragic events were such a stark contrast to the beauty that surrounded us this July.

Valdez Glacier

Here's a map of this part of the trip.

View Larger Map

Homer & Kenai (July 1-4)

First view of Katchemak Bay near Homer

Our drive from Seward to Homer on the Kenai Peninsula was less than 170 miles, but we enjoyed taking most of the day to do it.

Fire season was starting in Alaska. Heading south Alaska Route 1, smoky haze blocked our view of Mt. Redoubt across the Cook Inlet. But we had at least learned to pronounce its name correctly! We were keenly interested in Redoubt as at the time it was a very active volcano with a major eruption just 4 months before. We enjoyed stopping at various overlooks on the coast of the Cook Inlet, often hiking down to the pebbly beaches used by many people for fishing and clamming.

Haze from wildfires obscured our view across the Cook Inlet towards Mt Redoubt

Leaving clam diggers behind, we headed to our next accommodation -- Land's Inn Resort, located at the southernmost tip of Homer Spit. How cool! Katchemak Bay views were fantastic, even in the haze. We drove out East End Road to where it ended at a small Russian Orthodox cemetery.

View across Katchemak Bay from East End Road

Beluga Slough Trail at low tide turned out to be a fantastic viewing opportunity for Sandhill Cranes and their colts and the birdwatching seed was firmly planted in both of us.

Sandhill Crane and colts

Thursday we took the short boat trip to Seldovia - no highways lead to the quaint fishing village. Though this was mostly just a water taxi it turned out to be a rich trip for observing sea life, including a large group of sea otters with their young, more pelagic birds, and more orcas. 

Family of sea otters and their young on the way to Seldovia

During lunch at Mad Fish Restaurant we bought two chances at their big July 4th Fireworks fundraiser. (We won a prize which covered the cost of our boat trip!)

The harbor at Seldovia

Around Town

That evening we hit the Salty Dawg Saloon, a must-do from my grade school friend who used to live in Alaska. Thanks, Nena! We had a blast drinking (well, one beer) with some overly friendly folks from Anchorage who were considerably more advanced in the art of inebriation.

Susan at the famous Salty Dawg Saloon

Friday it was time to head north again, but with the town of Kenai only a couple hours north we had plenty of time to explore along the road. Highlights were the Transfiguration of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik and finally getting a glimpse at Mt. Redoubt along the Kalifornsky Road.

Transfiguration of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik

Mt Redoubt (stratovolcano in the Aleutian Range) viewed across the Cook Inlet

That evening we had a delicious pizza dinner at the St. Elias Brewery in Soldotna, just a stone's throw from where we were staying in Kenai.

July 4th we drove from Kenai to Palmer, stopping to do a 4.6 mile hike to a waterfall on the Russian River. It felt good to stretch our legs and watching the salmon jumping was amazing. The river teemed with fish.

Salmon swimming up a waterfall on the Russian River

Somewhere on the Kenai we learned this little finger mnemonic to remember the names of all 5 species of Salmon in Alaska. You'll probably never need to know this but here goes:

• Thumb - rhymes with Chum (aka Dog Salmon because sled dogs eat it)
• Index Finger - Sockeye, as in you might poke someones eye (aka Red Salmon)
• Middle Finger - King Salmon - the biggest (aka Chinook Salmon)
• Ring Finger - Silver Salmon - thinking jewelry (aka Coho Salmon)
• Pinkie Finger - Pink Salmon (aka Humpies because of the hump on their back)

Spruce Grouse chick

On the way out we saw what we thought was a mama Ptarmigan and chick, but other hikers were calling it, generically, a Pine Hen. After some research, we now believe that they were Spruce Grouse.


If we have the opportunity to return to the Kenai Peninsula, we hope to visit Katmai National Park and Kodiak Island.

Here's a map showing this part of the trip.

View Larger Map