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| Destinations: Alaska and Canada | Short Cuts | ||||
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By: Laurie Hollatz - 8/2000
Edited by: Ron Hollatz
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| Camping on the Ferry to Alaska. The forecast for foul weather prompted us to take a cabin instead.
Photo by Ron Hollatz |
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| Tlingit Indian tribal house on Ketchikan, Alaska.
Photo by Laurie Hollatz |
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| Rustic fishing village of Petersburg, Alaska.
Photo by Ron Hollatz |
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| Typical view from ferry of the Inside Passage.
Photo by Ron Hollatz |
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| Glacier near Hyder, Alaska.
Photo by Ron Hollatz |
During the summer of 1997, my husband Ron and I were lucky enough to expand a business trip into a Jeep vacation, taking us through parts of Alaska and Canada. We were living in Everett, Washington, and had a unique opportunity to visit Alaska.
The Journey Begins
Our journey started with a three-day ferry ride from Bellingham, Washington, to Ketchikan, Alaska, aboard the Alaska Ferry. While our Jeep Wrangler traveled below in the cargo hold, we snagged a small cabin with a porthole looking eastward. Our plan was to camp on deck, but the forecast for foul weather prompted us to take one of the few remaining cabins. We spent a significant portion of the journey on the rear deck spotting whales and dolphins. The scenery was phenomenal with beautiful sunsets each night. The Ferry has a sit-down restaurant on the top deck and a deli-style restaurant on a lower deck for those looking for a less formal meal. We divided our meals between the restaurant and snacks we brought along for the trip. Riding on the Ferry was very relaxing with lots of picture-taking opportunities and time for reading or simply listening to nature.
The Island Life
The Alaska Ferry makes its first Alaskan stop at the town of Ketchikan, located on an island just west of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. While I finished up my last week of business in Ketchikan, Ron took the Jeep sightseeing. Ketchikan has a large concentration of totem poles with two separate parks dedicated to these beautiful works of art. There are lots of little shops sprinkled throughout the town including some wonderful restaurants serving mouth-watering seafood dishes (while Salmon is the local specialty-I fell in love with the Halibut!). Ketchikan also has a small river that runs through the town and spills into the Pacific Ocean. There are boardwalks along the river with shops, cafes, and restaurants. We were lucky enough to catch the end of the Salmon spawning season. It's quite a sight to watch the brightly colored fish swimming and jumping up streambeds and small waterfalls to get to their final destination.
There are a wide variety of tourist activities to choose from in Ketchikan. Our favorite activity had to be the float plane ride to Petersburg. Our pilot was a young lady whose first visit to Alaska ended up in a change of careers. She now owns her own float plane, providing sightseeing trips during the tourist season and helping out local naturalists locate tagged animals via radio transmitters from the air during the off-season. The plane was a three-seater and we communicated through the speakers on our headsets. Our Saturday excursion began as a whale-watching trip, but was altered due to heavy fog cover. As a backup plan, we flew to the island town of Petersburg where we walked around town and did some impromptu shopping. Our pilot then flew us over a nearby glacier. What a spectacular sight! Definitely worth the change in itinerary. On our flight back to Ketchikan we were able to spot several schools of dolphins playing in the water below us. I felt like we were part of a National Geographic team of explorers!
The long way home
We continued our Alaskan journey by re-boarding the Alaska Ferry and taking it through the famous Inside Passage. The three-day trip travels along the Alaskan coastline from Ketchikan to Haines, the first opportunity to de-board the Jeep onto the mainland of Alaska. From Haines we drove to Haines Junction where we caught the Alaskan Highway to Whitehorse, the capitol of the Yukon Territory. Prior to leaving Haines, we found a little diner along the road and had the best tasting burgers made by "ma" and served by "pop". Shortly after leaving Haines, we took a slight detour into the Alaskan wilderness. Ron followed a "rustic" road that eventually turned into a logging road high up in the hills. A spectacular view of the countryside and well worth the detour.
After a few days of driving the Alaskan Highway, we decide to take a more scenic road leading to the town of Stewart, the southern most Alaskan City that one can drive to through Canada. It was definitely more scenic- and quite hard on the tush (we had just put new shocks on the Jeep prior to the trip and we quickly learned that we overpacked)! The road gradually turned from pavement to gravel and slowed our travel down significantly. But I wouldn't have changed our decision because we finally got the opportunity to see bears! Ron saw a black bear run across the road and quickly stopped to see where it went. It ended up being a bear cub with a very big mama bear. Unfortunately it wasn't a picture taking opportunity. But we were rewarded later that day in Stewart. Although it had started to rain, we drove to the outskirts of Stewart where boardwalks had been built along a riverbed to view bears fishing for their dinner. We arrived just in time to see an Alaskan brown bear catch a big salmon and eat it in front of us. What a sight to watch!
Our journey continued through British Columbia following Highway 97 through Prince George, Whistler, and Vancouver. We stopped briefly in Whistler to do some shopping and eat lunch. If you have the time, we highly recommend visiting Whistler regardless of the time of year. There are lots of shops and restaurants plus hiking trails and golfing available. Our brief stop prompted us to return to Whistler a few months later before we moved back to the Midwest. It was snowing this time (big mountain snowflakes!) and quite beautiful. We did some shopping and decided on Inuit-made rings as souvenirs of our two-year stint living in the Pacific Northwest. Our rings are constant reminders of our wonderful trip to Alaska and drive home through Canada!
If you ever have the opportunity to visit Alaska or Canada...take it. You won't regret it.
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