For those who have not been to Alaska, one thing that becomes quickly apparent is that there are not many roads. In fact, the state capital Juneau can’t be reached by car alone.
When planning the trip, our original intent was to take a ferry, which is part of the Alaskan Marine Highway System. Some routes have remained closed since the COVID pandemic, however, and we read online that the ferry was frequently days late. While we were planning a slower pace of travel, we felt this was not something we could schedule lodging reservations around. (We were subsequently told by Alaskans that this is not accurate and that while being a few hours late isn’t uncommon, days late would be rare without significant storms that would impact any mode of travel.)
Because of this, we decided to take a cruise up the inside passage as our means of travel. While it did bundle food, some entertainment, and transportation, it forced some strategic decisions in other parts of the Alaskan portion of the trip to stay within sight of the budget.
For those who haven’t fallen asleep yet, a quick recap of the modes of transportation so far. Train, car, bus… now a medium-size cruise ship.
None of us had been on a cruise before, so we didn’t know what to expect. As this isn’t a cruise blog, this post will cover a lot of ground and mostly stick to travel.
Ketchikan was our first port call.
From the main street to the historic red light district…
it was an interesting place. The totem poles and Tlingit cultural artifacts were worth seeing if you are only doing the cruise and won’t see other museums. I feel like I’m being remiss by not discussing the Tongass National Forest, but it would take an entire post in itself. I will mention it here, though, particularly with the recent push to log 4300 acres of old-growth trees near Ketchikan (which the Tlingit and other tribes are opposing in court). Having stood next to some trees that are 400-600 years old, I remember the realization of my smallness and short span of existence. Think back 10 generations of your family. Many of these trees were already several hundred years old at that point! Think forward 15 generations in the future. That would be how long it would take before your descendants would see a tree the same size and age at that spot. It amazes me the hubris it takes to imagine that my needs today (or even worse my desire for profit) are important enough to destroy something of that age and keep 15 generations of people from seeing what I see today. I’m not against logging, but do think the Roadless Rule should be left in place and old growth forests protected from industrial/commercial logging. That’s as political as I will get in this blog.
The highlight of the stop for us, though, was the salmon ladder. If the salmon are running and you haven’t seen that before, it should be your first stop in Ketchikan. It isn’t a difficult walk from the pier.
This portion of the creek is very steep. We don’t see how any fish could make it up, but there were more fish on the other side. Each time we saw an obstacle, there were lots of fish above it. Incredible!
Next stop was the state capitol Juneau. Our first outing in Juneau was a trip to Mendenhall Glacier. In order to get a better look, we had scheduled a kayaking tour to see it. Little Koi was not thrilled with the fashion-sense (or lack thereof) of a kayak spray skirt, but it was necessary given the chilly (about 35 F) water temperature. An experienced guide and rescue boat were on hand, as hypothermia would set in quickly at that temperature. Fortunately the tandems were quite stable, the weather was good, and our other paddlers were robust. We made it closer to the glacier than most groups the guide takes out.
While it has receded a lot, the glacier still reaches to the lake and qualifies as a tidewater glacier- for now. No one capsized on the roughly 4.5 mile paddle, but little Koi estimated she did about 10% of the paddling for our tandem.
Being the nerds that we are, after getting back to the ship Mr. and Mrs. Koi went to the state capitol building while Little Koi enjoyed the cabin on ship. It was amazing how accommodating everyone was at the capitol. We were invited in to look at legislative chambers, see the artwork, and generally wander around at will to learn about the state history.
From there, we made our way to Skagway via the Lynn Canal (which is actually a fjord rather than a man-made canal). A remnant of glacial activity, it is about 90 miles long by 3-12 miles wide and up to 2000 ft deep. It is also the site of the sinking of the Princess Sophia. So of course we took a boat tour to get a closer look.
The open top boat, cold water, and wind from the boat required wearing an exposure suit. Once again, Little Koi was thrilled with her parents’ fashion sense. While we may have all been shaped like marshmallows, we weren’t cold!
Southeast Alaska has a large percentage of the bald eagles located in the United States (I think they said 30%) but we didn’t get any great pictures with IPhone zoom in spite of 8-10 opportunities.
The sun set as I got in a workout, and we began to pull away from the pier in Skagway, heading toward Glacier Bay!
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