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Skagway and Haines - August 5

9/16/2013

Day 4 of the Cruise
We left Colt Island in the early hours of Monday, 8/5, sailing north through Stephen's Passage into Lynn Canal on our way to the gold rush town of Skagway. In spite of its name, Lynn Canal is actually an inlet of the inside passage of the Gulf of Alaska. It is about 90 miles long from Stephens Passage to the Chilkat, Chilkoot, and Taiya Inlets. Lynn Canal is over 2,000 feet deep, is the deepest fjord in North America, and is one of the deepest and longest in the world.

Downtown Skagway.

Tourism is the principal economy today, with as many as five large cruise ships in port at one time during the summer. As we cruised into port there were two ships already docked. Painted on the cliffs above the harbor are advertisements, and logos of the cruise lines, a practice started by local merchants during the gold rush period.

Looking forward as the train passes over a trestle.

At Carcross, YT, after clearing Canadian customs, we boarded 2 small buses for the trip back to Skagway via the Klondike Highway. We traveled on only a short portion of the highway which runs all the way from Skagway to Dawson City, YT where it joins the AlCan Highway. After a brief stop to sample some wild blueberries, we continued to the US/Canada border where we stopped for a refreshing drink from a waterfall.

Picking wild blueberries on the trip back to Skagway.

After a brief sojourn we left Haines to sail about 140 miles back down Lynn Canal and Stephens Passage on our way to Tracy Arm Fjord south of Juneau.

It was a quiet trip punctuated by a great many spectacular waterfalls and a glimpse of one last glacier of the day.

The final sight was Eldred Rock Lighthouse. The lighthouse was manned continuously from 1906 until personnel were removed in 1973 when its operation was automated.

Eldred Rock Lighthouse.

Skagway, our first port of call for the day, is on the Taiya Inlet off the Lynn Canal. Prior to 1887, Skagua (a Tlingit word meaning windy place) was a hunting and fishing center used by the Chilkoot and Chilkat indians. After 1896 when gold was discovered 600 miles away in the Klondike area of the Canadian Yukon Territory, Skagway boomed as the starting point for prospectors heading over White Pass. Click here for more information about Skagway's history, and here to go to the Wikipedia entry about the Klondike Gold Rush.

A merchant's advertisement on the cliff wall.

Our off-ship activity was a ride aboard the White Pass & Yukon railroad, a 67.5 mile trip that will take us over White Pass to Carcross, Yukon Territory, Canada. The route was completed just as the gold boom was winding down and is now operated as a purely tourist oriented excursion. The route climbs steadily out of thick forest (at points clinging to the edge of steep cliffs) along the Skagway River, terminating above the tree-line in tundra covered mountains. As you can see from these photos (click here for more) it was a very foggy day so some of the scenery was obscured, but it was, nevertheless, ruggedly beautiful.

A foggy view of the gorge from the train.

Waterfall at the US border used by hikers and other travelers as a fresh water source.

Then it was back aboard ship for a trip to Haines, AK. Haines is the southern terminus for the Haines Highway which ends at Haines Junction, YT, Canada where it joins the AlCan highway. Formerly, Haines was a commercial fishing and cannery center until the last cannery closed in 1973. Now it is the starting point for various outdoor & wilderness activities.

Waterfall on the trip back down the Lynn Canal.

The next installment: cruising up Tracy Arm Fjord.

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Auke Bay, Juneau, and Orca Point Lodge - August 4

9/6/2013

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Auke Bay, Juneau, Orca Point Photos

Day 3 of the Cruise
We sailed from Glacier Bay and anchored in Auke Bay, a quiet, sheltered location where we spent the night. Our major destination for the next day was the state capitol, Juneau, which is not too far from Auke Bay. Our wake-up call for breakfast was to be 7:45 but a little before 7:00 the Captain announced over the intercom that we had humpback whales along our starboard side. Since that's the side our cabin was on we threw open the curtains and enjoyed the show. A great way to start the day. The whales stayed with us all through breakfast after which we took our leave to sail on to Juneau.

The Fairweather, a ferry of AK Maritime Highway System.

Leaving Auke Bay we got our first glimpse of the famous Mendenhall Glacier which is located east of Auke Bay, about 12 miles north of Juneau. We sailed around Douglas Island into Juneau harbor where we passed the Alaska Marine Highway system ferry, Fairweather. The ferries run year-round and are the primary method of transportation among the cities and villages of Southeast Alaska.

We disembarked and boarded a chartered bus that transported us to the Mendenhall Glacier where we spent the next several hours. The glacial ice flows some 13 miles from the 1500 mile Juneau Ice Field which feeds 38 glaciers. The ice takes between 200 and 250 years to flow to the glacier's face. The glacier was named for Thomas Corwin Mendenhall who served as Superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1889 to 1894. It takes about 100 feet of snowfall to make 1 foot of glacial ice.

Located near the glacier is Nugget falls. From the overlook to which we hiked we could see both but it was difficult to judge either the glacier's or the waterfall's scale. Fortunately, some of our fellow passengers undertook the 3-mile round trip hike to Nugget falls and we could see them (with the help of a 300 mm telephoto lens) at its base.

Closeup of the ice cave in the glacier's face.

We took one of the less challenging hikes along Mendenhall Lake and on the way out we encountered a porcupine having a nibble up a tree. Not wanting to get in the way of any flying quills, we observed from a respectful distance. We came upon some salmon heading upstream to spawn and downstream to escape from a bear who was feasting on the less wary. Alas, we didn't get to see the bear who had been spooked by gawkers before we could get to him. The scenery was worth the trip, though.

Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls.

Nuggett Falls. Note the little specks at the base of the falls...those are some of our more intrepid fellow passengers.

Another interesting feature of the glacier is a large ice cave at water level in the glacier's face. Typically, glacier caves are formed by water flowing from the top of the ice field through a vertical opening called a moulin. These shafts can go all the way to the glacier's base or, more typically, terminate at a crevasse through which the water flows until it reaches the glacier's face.

Our outdoor appetites having been satisfied, we boarded the bus and headed back to the less bucolic atmosphere of the state capitol. This was one of the very few rainy days of our trip and Juneau was shrouded in fog. After a delicious lunch of halibut fish and chips, we took a soggy,leisurely stroll about downtown. Since the fog was so dense we opted not to take the aerial tram to the top of Mount Roberts. We did, however find a very nice little yarn shop; enjoyable but dangerous.

A pod of resident orcas on the way to Colt Island. Click on the button at the top of this post for more orca, and other, photos.

Once back aboard the Alaskan Dream we cruised to Colt Island, location of Orca Point Lodge. On the way we encountered a pod of resident orcas. Resident orcas consume fish; transient orcas eat sea mammals.

The lodge is quite remote but very nice. It's owned by Allen Marine, the parent company of Alaskan Dream Cruises. This was our dinner destination and what a feed we had! All we could eat of monster-sized shrimp, loads of salad, and seemingly unlimited quantities of Alaskan king crab legs. Oh, yes, and barbecued ribs. It was very, very good and no-one left hungry.

The only reasonable thing to do afterwards was head for our stateroom for some full-tummy snoozing.

Next installment, our trip back north to Skagway, from there, via the White Pass & Yukon Railway, to Carcross, Yukon Territory, Canada, and back, then on to the fishing port of Haines.

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