We've been traveling on the Alaska ferries through the inside passage for the last 2 weeks. It’s the poor man’s cruise to Alaska ….no gourmet meals ( no meals at all), no steward to clean the cabin ( no cabin at all – in fact some people pitch a tent on the deck of the ferry), no nightly entertainment ( no entertainment at all).
What we didn’t know when we started our first ferry ride is that we would end up being the entertainment when we boarded the ferry to leave Petersburg – our third stop. It usually takes less than 5 minutes to board the ferry but this time it took us over an hour to get big ole Rose on the ferry! We had the misfortune of boarding the ferry at the lowest tide of the year ( 23 feet!). Rose’s big behind got stuck on the steep ramp and the ferry crew had to put LOTS of blocks under her tires to get her “unstuck” so we could get her off the ramp and onto the ferry – very scary ( for me)! Gary on the other hand said it was lots easier than landing a jet on an aircraft carrier – it’s all perspective isn’t it! Well, Rose and I will be glad when the ferry rides are over – Rose felt violated and my nerves can’t take many more! That kind of attention we can do without!
We just finished visiting our first 3 ports in the inside passage - Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg. We’ve had lots of rain the last 2 weeks….guess we should expect that in a temperate rain forest but of course we would have preferred sunshine! At least it was nice and cool and no bugs – yet!
Ketchikan is a stop for 300 cruise ships during the summer months so it has a lot more services and activities for tourists than Wrangell and Petersburg . Wrangell and Petersburg are real working towns primarily focused on commercial fishing and fishing charters for sports fishing. They get very few tourists so we got to experience what life is like in two real Alaska towns.
Being able to stop at more ports and spend several nights in each one has been our reward for doing without all of the frills you get on a REAL cruise. In Ketchikan we had four days to take advantage of the many activities available – boat rides to fjords, lots of hikes in the rainforest, wildlife watching and several really good museums about the native Alaskans and the natural history of the area. In the two smaller ports we had a great chance to get to know the local people by attending some local events. Our favorite was the smoked salmon contest. There were 10 entrants in the contest and we got to sample all of them – quite different flavors and delicious! In these small ports almost everything revolves around the sea. Owning a boat is more important than a car and it seems like everybody fishes!
One of the locals in Wrangell asked us if we knew the official Alaska state wine. We asked what it was and she said - “I want to go to Hawaii” is the official state wine ( whine). Actually, SE Alaska has pretty mild winters but it shows their good sense of humor!
Highlights of our first 3 ports in the inside passage:
• Seeing a pod of Orcas on our boat trip to Misty Fjords National Monument
Click on the arrow to view the Orca video
• Salmon tasting contest and pot luck dinner at the campground in Wrangell
• Learning about the native Alaskans in Ketchikan and Wrangell
• 8,000 year old petroglyphs on large rocks on the beach. We were amazed that these treasures have endured the waves and tides for so long…
• Hikes in the beautiful temperate rainforests
• Fantastic views of the mountains and sea on the ferries plus whales and 100’s of eagles!
Our next stop is Juneau and then on to Haines and the Alaska mainland - assumming we can persuade Rose to get on another ferry! Fingers crossed for an easy on and off the ferries for the rest of the inside passage “cruise”!
