Terrace to Vanderdoff

Today was a pretty uneventful day.  We camped last night in a city park located in Terrace, British Columbia. We got up this morning, visited a Walmart, then drove to Vanderdoff, British Columbia. Terrace was surrounded by tall snow and glacier covered mountains, but as we drove further east on highway 16, the landscape turned to hills and farmland.  The weather was perfect with blue skies, a few white puffy clouds and a temp of about 70.  We drove a little over 5 hours. The campground in Vanderdoff is also a city campground. It does have electric at the site.  We didn't take many pictures.  Here are a few of the mountains when we stopped for breaks and gas.

The Alaskan Ferry

Early Thursday morning we drove the truck and camper onto the Malaspina, of the Alaskan Ferry System.  The ship holds 703 passengers and 120 vehicles.  We started heading south through the Inner Passage.  We saw dozens of whales in the water and lots of glaciers on the mountains.  Our first stop was Kake on Kupreanof Island.  It was a small town and a few people got off the ferry at this stop.  Since Annie has to stay in the camper the whole trip, we were allowed to let her get off the ship, play a few minutes in the grass, go to the “potty” and get a few dog treats.  We continued the trip and Thursday evening we stopped at Petersburg, Alaska.  We again took Annie off of the ship, but the captain was anxious to leave ASAP, so it was a quick stop.  RoxAnne and I splurged and got a Stateroom on the trip.  A stateroom might sound ritzy, but it very small and had a set of bunkbeds in it.  During the night we stopped in Wrangell, Alaska.  RoxAnne, Annie and I all just slept through that stop.  Friday morning we arrived at Ketchican, Alaska.  There were two bald eagles sitting on some posts at the pier when we arrived.  This stop was for about 45 minutes, so we took Annie for a big walk.  Ketchican is a big tourist area.  There were also two cruise ships in the harbor and many float planes were taking off and landing.  We finally arrived at Prince Rupert, British Columbia after 32 hours on the ship. Our time in Alaska is officially over.  It was a fantastic adventure.  However, we still have many miles to travel till we return to West Virginia.  I'm sure we will be visiting some great places over the next few weeks.

The Malaspina docked at Kake, Alaska

Our spacious stateroom

We continued to see many glaciers as we traveled through the inner passageway

A sunset on the Inner Passageway

Tracy Arm

Today we took a boat ride to the Tracy Arm Fjords.  A fjords is a is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier.  This specific fjord was named after Benjamin Franklin Tracy which was Secretary of the Navy in the late 1800's.  Besides the sides being steep, the water beneath us was deep.  The captain told us it was near 1000 ft deep.  As we proceeded into the fjord, we started to see icebergs in the water.  At the end of the fjord was the South Sawyer Glacier.  The blue color in the glacier was breathtaking.  We also saw bald eagles, seals, humpback whales, mountain goats and a black bear on the trip.  I'm posting many pictures. 😃😃

We will be getting up at about 4:00 am tomorrow morning to catch the Alaskan ferry to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.  Along the way we will be stopping in Petersburg, Wrangell, and Ketchikan.  The trip will be over 32 hours and we won't have internet. 😢

A bald eagle watching us leave port

A few birds sitting on an iceberg

An iceberg floating in the fjord

One of many waterfalls

The South Sawyer Glacier

A mountain goat

A seal resting on the ice

These three in the kayaks were on our boat, then hopped off into their kayaks.  They were staying overnight in the fjord.

Another boat sightseeing

The top of the glacier.  The blue color is amazing.

The ice is starting to "calve" off of the glacier.  See next picture.

The piece of ice fell into the water and made a big splash and wave that rocked our boat.

A nice size black bear

Another glacier in the mountains

The tales of two humpback whales as they dive.  Once they dive they stayed submerged for about 5 minutes

A humpback whale swimming along

Another whale tale.  In all we saw about a dozen whales on the trip.

Juneau

We made it to Juneau at about midnight last night.  When we were loaded on the ferry in Haines, it took a little bit of tricky maneuvering to get both the camper and truck to fit in the space, but the guys on the ship are experts at this type of thing and made it happen.  Annie was required to stay in the camper the whole time we were sailing, but she didn't seem to mind.  It was raining and very foggy, so we couldn't see any wildlife in the water or on the land.  Rox and I tried to hang out in several different places on the ship, but the most comfortable place was on the 6th floor where they had a dark room and recliner seats.  Many others were hanging out in the cafeteria playing cards.

Our campsite is wonderful.  It is run by the state of Alaska and has electric, water and sewage at the site.  Juneau is much different than the places we have stayed over the last few weeks.  Instead of being dry and dusty, it is more like a rainforest.  In fact, Juneau averages 62" of rain annually.  The campground is called the Mendenhall campground and borders the Medenhall Glacier.  The glacier is about 1/2 mile wide and rises up about 100 ft from the water.  The glacier is feed by the Juneau Icefield, which is the fifth largest icefield in the western hemisphere.  It is home to 140 glaciers.

Today we explored downtown Juneau.  It was quite busy since 5 cruise ships were in port, but we did have fun shopping and people watching.

Before we left Haines, we visited the Chilkoot River.  It was filled with salmon and fishermen.  There were also many people with professional cameras hoping to photograph a bear.  The one guy told me that they saw 11 bears that morning.

The ferry Columbia that took us from Haines to Juneau

Downtown Juneau

Mendenhall Lake with the glacier in the background

The forest beside our camper is covered by moss

Haines

We had a nice day in Haines.  The weather was overcast and in the 40's this morning, but later in the day the sun came out and it went to the high 50's.  We explored the town and surrounding area. We walked in the downtown area and visited some stores.  Our highlight downtown was the Hammer Museum.  The museum had every kind of hammer imaginable on display.  We took a drive to some of the more rural areas and saw some more bald eagles.  We also saw a grizzly bear eating down by the shore. 

The internet is really bad here. I can only post a few pictures.  Tomorrow we will be getting ready for our ferry ride to Juneau.  Not sure if I'll be able to post anything.

A grizzly bear heading my direction

Fish cannery with glacier topped mountain in the background

The Road to Haines

We left Beaver Creek this morning and drove on the Alaskan Highway till we came the Haines Junction.  Haines Junction is in the Yukon and was established in 1942 and 1943 during the construction of the Alaska Highway. In 1943, a second highway, the Haines Highway, was built to connect the Alaska Highway with the coastal town of Haines, Alaska, over the Chilkat Pass.  This Haines Highway is what we drove most of the day.  The weather was cool today and stayed between 44 and 49 degrees most of the day.  We had some rain and the clouds were laying low, covering most of the mountain tops.  During the drive we saw a wolf, drove through US customs and saw some amazing landscapes.  We arrived in Haines after about 7 hours of driving and parked at a nice campground with full hookups.  We will be staying here till Monday afternoon till we catch the ferry to Juneau.  The internet is super slow, so I can only upload a few pics.

Amazing wildlife

Fresh snow on the mountaintop

Lots of Glaciers on these mountains

Beaver Creek

We drove north from Valdez this morning, then turned northeast on the Tok Cutoff Road.  When we reached Tok, we went south on the Alaskan Highway.  We crossed over the Canadian border and are presently camping in Beaver Creek in the Canadian Yukon.  I drove about 370 miles today in 10 hours. There was a lot of construction and we had to wait on pilot trucks to take us through the construction sites.  Tomorrow we plan to drive and cross back over into Alaska and stay at a campground in Haines.  We will be there till we drive into the ferry Monday afternoon.  I was busy driving, so we didn't take many pics today.  When the landscape is so beautiful, driving doesn't seem to be a chore at all.

Worthington Glacier as we were leaving Valdez.

Nice Day in Valdez

It was a nice sunny, warm day in Valdez. We went down to the city, but there really wasn't much to do. The big tourist attraction is your boats to see more glaciers and fishing charters. We were not interested in either of those. We basically came back to the campground and enjoyed the sun and the surrounding mountains.

We also finalized our plans for leaving Alaska. With all of the forest fires we decided that we will be heading out of Alaska.  Tomorrow we start a 700 mile trip to Haines. On Monday we leave Haines on a ferry to Juneau. We will be staying a few days in Juneau, then taking the ferry to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.

We spotted a marmot down by the Valdez harbor. 

We went to a city park.  The glacier in the left corner is the Valdez Glacier

This is the lake from the Valdez Glacier.  There are lots of icebergs floating in it.

Seeing a lot of dead salmon which happens after they spawn

A view from our campsight

Our camper with the mountains in the background.