Haines, Alaska - June 14th to 15th, 2022

Gorgeous scenery is gorgeous no matter what the weather. However, sunshine makes it look even better. The sun came out during our full day in Haines, Alaska which we were thankful for.

Tuesday was moving day again. This time, instead of driving, we were taking the ferry from Skagway to Haines. We didn’t need to check in for the ferry until 12:15 pm, so we had a very relaxing morning. After dumping our gray tanks and checking out of the campground, we parked in the day parking lot and walked around Skagway one last time.

We arrived at the Alaska Marine Highway System ferry building almost exactly at 12:15 pm, our check in time. We’re not sure if you are supposed to show up by 12:15 or starting at 12:15. We like the BC Ferries better in this regard. They gave us a time window. Our ferry to Haines was scheduled to depart at 2:15 pm. Two hours ahead of time seemed like a rather long time for checking in. However, it didn’t take long to figure out why. When you arrive at the ferry building, you park in a lot and walk into the building to check in. Then the ticket agent walks out to your rig to measure its length, returning to the building to print your ticket. You return to your vehicle and drive around to get into your assigned lane.

When the ferry arrived, it took a while to unload the vehicles which were getting off in Skagway. The ferry is not a point-to-point route, but makes a several day loop around several ports of call. So not every vehicle is getting off. Then they started picking which vehicles to get on first. Most of the larger vehicles were required to back onto the ferry, especially travel trailers. Unlike ferries we’ve been on before, this ferry loaded from the side, not from the ends of the ship. We were one of the last vehicles to board. Our van is small and nimble, so we were able to pull onto the ship going forwards. There are quite a few deck hands that are giving good directions to the vehicle drivers. It is a tight space to maneuver in, and they pack the vehicles in tight. Some are parked so close that you cannot walk between them. Somehow there was no scraping between vehicles, most of them being RV’s.

Being one of the last people on board, most of the good seats in the front of the boat were taken. As we pulled away from the dock, precisely at 2:15 pm, right on time, we saw they were allowing people outside on the deck. We bundled up and went out. It was cold and very windy, so windy that Ann felt safer hanging on to the hand railing. Once she got to the front, she found a somewhat protected spot right in front of the enclosed seating area. She stayed there most of the one hour trip to Haines. It was not raining, but it was still a little cloudy. However, the scenery was still spectacular. Snow-capped mountains rose straight up from the sea on both sides of the inlet. We passed by long, tall waterfalls pouring down to the sea, too many to count. Ann thought she spotted a bald eagle flying by.

As we neared the port in Haines, we headed back inside. Then we discovered there was a solarium up one deck to the rear of the ship. We went up to check it out. There were heat lamps warming the protected solarium, which was open to the back. You could walk out onto the open deck in the back and, guess what, no wind, nice and calm. We learned that we need to check out the whole ship next time before settling in.

The ship also had food service and a couple of other lounge areas. Since we were only on the ship for an hour, we did not use the other services, but some people would be on the ship for longer. Some of them looked like they were settled in for a much longer stay.

The ferry port in Haines is north of town. We did not have campground reservations, but our plan was to stay at Chilkoot Lake Recreation Area. The campground was even further north of town than the ferry terminal, so we went straight to the campground. The drive there was beautiful. The Lukat Road follows the shore of the sea inlet, then turns to follow the Chilkoot River over to Chilkoot Lake. The Chilkoot River is known to attract bears during the salmon run, but we didn’t see any bears that day. Perhaps it was just a little too early in the season. Concrete curbs line the road to prevent people from stopping along the river. There are signs warning you to only stop at designated viewpoints.

The campground is on Chilkoot Lake, right where the river starts. It is first come/first serve. There were plenty of open campsites to choose from. After picking out our site, we walked back to the self-registration station, with our bear spray of course. There is a small day use area and boat ramp before entering the campground. When we drove by, there was a group of people with scopes. We walked over to ask them what they spotted. It was a pair of bald eagles. Haines is know for having lots of bald eagles. The Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve is just northwest of town.

We recognized one of the vehicles parked at the day use area. It was on the ferry with us from Skagway. We remembered it because it was such an unusual rig and they were from Germany. We chatted with the friendly couple for a little while. Tanja and Gunnar have been on the road full time since 2019 and have been all over the world. Their website is www.3weltreisen.de. We’ll have to check it out when we have cell service. Their rig is called Baloo. It is a Kerkamm Weltreisemobile EX 525.

We cooked pasta for dinner at our campsite and called it a night.

All of the cold, rainy, windy weather on our trip made us really appreciate the beautiful weather on Wednesday in Haines. The sun was shining all day, with hardly any wind, and the temperatures rose up into the 70’s F (low 20’s C). We drove from the campground into town. First we stopped at the edge of Chilkoot Lake and spotted another bald eagle. As we drove along the Chilkoot River, we kept our eyes open for bears, but did not see any. However, we stopped at quite a few of the viewpoints along the river and along the inlet for the gorgeous, sunny views of the surrounding snow-capped mountains. We spotted another bald eagle, this time down on the rocky shoreline.

Our first stop in town was the visitor center where we picked up a waking tour guide of Fort Seward and a local hiking guide. We strolled down Main Street and over to the fairgrounds. At the fairgrounds is Dalton City. It is the movie props from the Disney film “White Fang”. The fake town was moved to the fairgrounds after Disney left. There are a few shops in the fake town, but most of them were closed when we were there. We were hoping to pick up a bite to eat at the bakery, but it was open only a few days a week for limited hours, and Wednesday was not one of those days.

From there we headed down Haines Highway Cutoff to Front Street along the water front. Guess who we run into along the way? Tanja and Gunnar whom we met the day before. They were headed over to Fort Seward. We wanted to grab a bite to eat for lunch before touring the fort area or we would have joined them.

For lunch, we ate at the Bamboo Room Restaurant. Keith had the halibut fish and chips which he thought were fantastic. Ann tried the Cabin Burger, which had bacon, pineapple, and BBQ sauce on it. It sounded like a strange combination, but it really worked. The sweetness of the pineapple complimented the sweet BBQ sauce which was offset by the saltiness of the bacon. Very tasty.

After picking up a couple of items from Howsers IGA grocery store, we did the walking tour of Fort William H. Seward National Historic Landmark. Fort Seward was created to protect Haines as there was a dispute with Canada where the U.S. border was. It was not fortified, but housed troops and officers. Officers Row is a group of beautiful Victorian style houses overlooking the parade grounds with a nice view of the port.

We drove out on Beach Road to the Battery Point Trail. The trail starts out through the woods and ends up along a rocky beach. Who do we meet on the trail? Tanya and Gunnar again. They were on their way back from the beach. The start of the beach is called Kelgaya Point. Battery Point was supposed to be almost a mile past that.

When we got to the other end of the rocky beach, we thought there should be a trail leading off to Battery Point; however, we could not find it. There were several small social paths, but nothing looked like an official trail. Ann tried to bring up the map on AllTrails, but the map would not load. She thought she had downloaded the trail from AllTrails, but perhaps it had not completely downloaded. Since she had the pro version, AllTrails is supposed to work offline. This is the first time it had failed her.

There was a small group of people hanging out at the end of the beach. We asked them if they were familiar with the trails and they were. They claimed we were already at Battery Point, but we could follow the shoreline all the way over to Chilkat State Park if we wanted to. We thanked them and decided it was time to head back.

The route we took was a total of 2.9 Miles with an elevation gain of 269 feet In an hour and 45 minutes. We counted it as hike number 19 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022.

As a treat, we stopped at the Mountain Market back in Haines for some sweets. Ann had a three berry tart while Keith ate a couple of strawberry cheese bites. To wash them down, we both had a bottle of Virgil’s soda. Ann’s was black cherry flavor while Keith’s was root beer. The soda looked like a local brand, but, upon closer inspection, we read they were from Connecticut.

Haines has quite a different feel from Skagway. It is much more laid back. It looks like there is room for only one cruise ship to dock in Haines, and probably only the smaller cruise ships. The day we were there, a very small cruise ship was docked. Compared to the huge cruise ships we saw in Skagway, it looked very tiny. So Haines was not overrun with tourists. And we didn’t see a single fine jewelry store.

Before heading back to the campground, we tried to stop and get gas at the De Witts Express station on the way to Lutak Road. Since we had a long driving day ahead of us on Thursday, we were hoping to save some time. However, there were notes on the gas pumps saying they were having issues with their computer systems and all the pumps were closed. OK, we’ll try the other gas station on the way out of town the next day.

We stopped again at some pullouts along the drive back to the campground to take in some more gorgeous views, with the sun at a different angle. Again we saw no bears. The salmon run along the Chilkoot River usually starts around mid June. However, it must have been delayed by a week or two this year. The salmon counts posted along the river were only 11 the day before and 32 on Wednesday. That’s hardly a salmon run. No wonder there are no bears around.

We didn’t see any bears in Haines as we were hoping. But seeing the bald eagles and the sunlit stunning scenery made up for it. Even though our expectations of Haines were different than reality, we really enjoyed our visit.

Check out our related video: Haines, Alaska

(Ann)