Alaska Part 4 - the Inside Passage
From Haines, I put the van on the M.V. Columbia, the ferry for the first part of the five day, 600 mile cruise thru Alaksa's Inside Passage. When I made the reservation the week before, there were no cabins available, so I was afraid I would have to sleep two nights in my sleeping bagsin one of the lounges. However, once I boarded the ferry, the purser made arrangments to free up the last available cabin, which I was more than a little pleased to have. After camping in the van for almost 3 weeks I really enjoyed having the luxuries that the ferry provided, like a full sized shower, restaurants, and a bar! I slept thru the night while the M.V. Columbia stopped at Juneaau. The next day it passed thru Peril Straits and stopped for an hour or two in the town of Sitka, where I took a bus tour and did a little exploring. I also did some whale watching along the way. Then I spent another night on the ferry, and I got a chance to jam and sing songs in the bar with a bunch of different, talented musicians. The next day, saying goodbye to the M.V. Columbia as I disembarked in Ketchikan and did some sightseeing. Then I caught caught another ferry, the M.V. Prince of Wales, which took me & the van over to the island. Prince of Wales Island is the third largest island in the U.S. (behind only the big Island of Hawaii and Kodiak island), and only has 2000 people on it ! It's about 40 by 80 miles in size and has a decent road network that could be explored with the van, so it was a good choice for this kind of road trip. In many ways, the visit to POW, as the locals call it, was perhaps the most memorable part of the whole trip to Alaska. I saw more wildlife in two days and nights on POW than I did on most of the rest of the trip. In one 4 hour period alone, I saw a bear, 4-5 different deer, a dozen bald eagles, at least one, if not two, pairs of sea otters, and most poignantly, I got to see firsthand as the sockeye salmon swam upstream to spawn. Perhaps more than any other place on the trip, I think fondly about going back to POW someday. I was sad to leave Prince of Wales Island, but had ferry reservations and so was on a fixed timetable. I caught the small ferry back to Ketchikan where I got back on the "Alaska Marine Highway" and said goodbye to Alaska as I boarded the M.V. Matanuska for the final leg of the adventure down the Inside Passage. 
Ferry to Sitka and Ketchikan
Prince of Wales Island
|