Off to Alaska!

Well we finally made it. Last Wednesday we caught a ferry in Bellingham, WA bound for Skagway, Alaska, and it turned out to be one of the most fun and memorable experiences ever.

We started out at Fairhaven Terminal, showing up for check in 3 hours before the scheduled sailing time of 6:00 PM, and well then there was a huge delay and we didn’t end up departing until about 11:00 PM – 5 hours late! Good news is they made up time somehow and we were right back on schedule upon arrival at our first stop in Ketchikan, AK 32 hours later.

A few tips for you in case you want to take a ferry trip like this: Bring a warm blanket if you can. Our stateroom had air blowing nonstop from a ceiling vent and the cabin was quite chilly most of the time. And the bedding they provide is a sheet and a very thin blanket. Luckily, we were able to get down to our van on the car deck the next morning and grab a couple of blankets for the remaining 2 nights.

You may also want to bring some food with you and a cooler if you have one. We used a plastic dish tub and refilled it with ice a couple of times a day. There is a cafeteria on board, but it’s well… cafeteria food, so it was OK, but kinda overpriced and not all that great. But they do have a microwave oven you can use, so that’s helpful.

The scenery along the way makes it all worthwhile. The inside passage is gorgeous any time of year and in most any weather too. We were lucky to have a couple sunny days and nice calm seas.

The boat made 5 stops before dropping us in Skagway:

Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau (Auke Bay) and Haines. We left late on a Wednesday and arrived in Skagway early on Saturday afternoon.

We’re not including too many photos here of the ferry ride becuase they just wouldn’t do it justice, and because we shot more video then photos – so you’ll just have to check out our Alaska Ferry Video which will be released soon. (Edit – it’s released, see it below)

After this epic ferry ride, we spent a few days in Skagway (well, mostly just outside of Skagway at Dyea Campground on the Taiya River). Time to decompress! The ferry was awesome and we were pretty much on overload – saturated from all the scenery and excitement, so a multi-day cool down at a nearly deserted campground was the perfect medicine.

Many thanks to Cris of Skagway Float Tours, who we met on the ferry – a real cool guy who turned us on to this wonderful campground – we are very grateful. If you make your way to Skagway and need something fun to do with the family, check them out!

That and a couple of hikes. The first, we both hiked to Icy Lake from a trailhead in Skagway right by the marina, and the 2nd, Shannon hiked a portion of the Chilkoot Trail right out of the campground while I got some video editing done. 

And finally we said goodbye to Skagway and headed up to the Yukon Territory to overnight at Whitehorse on our way to Anchorage. And on this drive we saw lots of wildlife – first, a Wolf (yes a real wolf) running down the highway, chasing some poor soul on a bicycle several hundred yards ahead. We spooked the wolf as we drove by and he ran off the road into the bushes.

Then we discovered that no, that wasn’t someone on a bicycle – it was a female Moose running pell mell down the highway trying to get away from that wolf. After the wolf broke off, well then the moose was apparently running from us. But we eventually caught up and passed on the right and I saw in the rear view she finally slowed down to catch her breath and then disappeared off the side of the highway as well. See all this on the video below:

Then about 10 miles further, we saw a black bear, just on the other side of the guardrail. All of this was along Tutshi Lake at the north end of British Columbia.

And finally when we first pulled up to our overnight spot in Whitehorse, we saw a herd of caribou crossing the road just about 200 yards up.

So quite a day for wildlife viewing! And certainly an exciting several days to start off our Alaska adventure.

And finally, our video is done and ready for viewing: