Wright Travels

Wandering With The Wrights

August 6, 2024 Week 9 1/2

Hadn't planned on doing the blog so quickly but am awake and really wanting to get caught up.

Thursday August 1st we traveled to Haines, Alaska - we had an option to come here and to Skagway on our way up to Alaska but had opted not to do it. We had so many places on our bucket list of higher priority we decided to wait and see if we had time on the way back. I am so glad we had the time as we have fallen in love with this beautiful little town on the Chilkoot Inlet. We had planned to stay for three nights and have been here five. We are in a nice campground with full hook-ups and we are parked on grass. Every other place we have parked for two months has been on gravel so we constantly are bringing little pieces into the motorhome but not with the nice grass. It is run by a lovely couple from Philadelphia.

Friday morning we just slept in and relaxed and I was able to get my haircut in town. It is so interesting to learn people's personal stories about how long they have been here and why they come.

on the way into Haines we saw several groups of people practicing for cross country skiing

more beautiful scenery

We spent a great deal of time at the Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site enjoying the wildlife and learning a lot about salmon

There is an eagle sitting on the large rock

This is a weir. A fence installed across the stream to prevent the salmon from migrating upstream until a technician opens a gate to release them through an opening in the weir. As the fish pass through, the technician can count each and every salmon. Weirs provide the most accurate method of counting returning salmon.

The technicians come to the weir twice a day to count. Of course all the salmon being held back by the weir make life easier for the bears. The bears also like to walk across the weir so they don't have to swim. The technicians chase them away when they come for obvious safety reasons. The bears are quite persistent and sometimes the technicians spend a lot of time shouting at them and chasing them away.

This sign is posted right by the weir.

We are told that the salmon are late coming this year and the count is way down.

These berries grow wild all along the river and the bears like to eat them too so if the bears are full of berries they aren't as likely to be looking for salmon

Our first night in Haines we went to the weir and saw only one bear but she put on a great show for us

The town people have named this bear LuLu as she comes regularly. She had been chased off the weir and jumped down from the bank into the river and came up with a salmon. After eating it and knowing she couldn't go on the weir as the men were still there she swam across the river right toward us.

She was perhaps 50' from us and could have cared less that we were there.

There were two park rangers there keeping a watchful eye.

Saturday morning 8/3 we were up early and down at the dock to take a boat trip to Juneau the state capitol. The only way to get there is to fly or by boat - there are no roads. We traveled through Lynn Canal the continent's longest and deepest glacial fjord. This waterway has been used for centuries by trappers, traders, gold rush stampeders and today for adventures. The mountain range we traveled by is called the Coast Range with hanging glaciers.

We traveled on this 65-foot catamaran called the MV Fjordland. It is specially designed for the waters of the Lynn Canal. We had a beautiful sunny day in the 70's

Eldred Rock Lighthouse

Seals sunning themselves - we also so porpoise which were jumping all around and in front of the boat - they were so close we couldn't get any pictures.

Sea Lions also enjoying the nice weather

And whales

Partial breach - we saw a full breach but no pictures

Beautiful view out the back of the boat

As we pulled into port in Juneau saw several beautiful boats with people from the First Nation in costume.

Since we weren't interested in staying in downtown Juneau (3 or 4 cruise ships in ports with tons of people, T shirt shops and jewelry stores) we went for a long walk.

This is the state capitol but since it was Saturday it was closed.

The governors mansion

Totem Poles

A raven - ravens have a lot of meaning to the First Nation Indigenous People in Alaska

We also toured the Alaska State Museum - it is fairly new and beautifully done

however the blue modern art in front just really didn't fit

The trip back to Haines was just as enjoyable - more whales and sea lions

The staff walked around and let everyone feel how soft the skin is of a sea lion

As we disembarked we walked by a boat that had just come in from fishing - this is a 40 lb Halibut

Sunday we rested - went back out to Chilkook but didn't see any bears - but lots of beauty

It was in the 80's which is unusually warm here

THIS IS NOT OUR MOTORHOME - but a couple pulled into the RV park after hitting a moose.

Lots of damage

Monday, our last day in Haines and in Alaska

We drove out to the eagle preserve - just to see it knowing we weren't likely to see an eagles but in November there are three to four thousand bald eagles that flock to a section of the Chilkook River to feast on the late run of chum salmon. We didn't see any but it was a pretty drive

We made one final trip to Chilkook State park