Friday, June 18 (I think) - We headed down to the ferry first thing this morning, and got in our appropriate lines. Joe loaded at 6:15, and I followed shortly after. I think the name of our ferry is Malaspina. The Carnival Spirit cruise ship was heading into port, followed by Island Princess (Hamilton) and then a little one, Spirit of Discovery. Then a fourth big one, Amsterdam (Holland America) came in on the other side of us, so Skagway should be full of tourists today.
Joe and I cruised on Carnival Spirit several years ago, out of Miami, so those big ships do get around. We spotted an eagle cruising high overhead. Getting on and off the ferry was very organized, and we had breakfast as we sailed. It was very cold on that ferry though, but the scenery was great.
The sights we have seen on this trip have just been magnificent. Everything continues to exceed any expectations we had, and we haven't even gotten to real Alaska yet (although Skagway and Haines are both in Alaska, but we are back in the Yukon tonight). The drive from Haines to Haines Junction was very different than any we have had, but equally beautiful. This was more "tundra," an alpine valley for miles and miles. We continue to follow rivers, creeks, streams. Alaska has 34,000 miles of coastline, more than all of the lower 48 states combined, and provides more than half of all the seafood in the U.S.
We came upon a fish wheel next to the road, so we stopped to check it out. There was a second one a few hundred feet in front of us, and two guys were working that one, so we waited a little while and they pulled up at the one we were at, and checked it out. We never did see a fish actually in the wheel, but they open some hatch and pulled out some fish, one by one (we watched 3). They looked like silver salmon, but we don't know that.
On down the road, we went through an eagle sanctionary (I don't think that is exactly what it was called), and we stopped and checked it out. We finally saw one eagle flying overhead. During different times of the year, there are thousands of eagles nesting here.
Then we saw a moose, right beside the road.
The moose seemed a little confused -- he came right toward us at first, then stopped, then came at us again, then headed off into the brush.
Next up, we saw 3 white swans in a small pond beside the road. We believe they were trumpeter swans. When we went through Customs at the border shortly after that, the Officer there said they probably were trumpeter swans.
We continued on our excellent journey, our necks constantly swiveling so we didn't miss anything. There are countless little creeks that just come crashing down to the rivers. Very clear water. And we are still beside the zebra mountains.
Then we got into an area that looked like tundra, right next to the road. This is the alpine valley area, and it was just beautiful.
The road was in very good shape on this drive, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Here is the road ahead in this stretch.
I thought this was particularly beautiful, with the tundra, the shelf of bare dirt, and the pine trees.
Then we saw another bear!! This one was a black bear, and we didn't get a very good picture of him, but we did get something.
As we were coming up to Haines Junction, we were driving next to Kluane National Park. It is part of an area of 4 huge parks that stretch across Alaska and Canada.
We met up with our group in Haines Junction, and I did laundry this evening while I posted by blog (I couldn't get Wi-Fi at the camper). There is a bicycle race from Haines Junction to Haines tomorrow, so the southbound highway that we traveled north on today will be closed. We lucked out that we made this trip today instead of tomorrow.
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