The Haines Highway

The Haines Highway was another beautiful stretch of road enhanced by impressive cloud formations. We were within an hour of the U.S. border when we pulled over so I could grab this shot.

We stopped again just a few miles farther down the road at this pullout, where I held everyone up for about half an hour taking photographs. You’re welcome, guys.

Haines, Alaska

We arrived in Haines late in the afternoon without reservations at a campground. We ended up at the Haines Hitch-Up Park. I wasn’t too excited about this. It wasn’t located near anything special and it seemed expensive. On the other hand, Dad’s rig fit in the spaces, they had nice showers and a clean laundromat, and they had nice green grass to park on.

The grass turned out to be a bigger deal than I had first imagined. We had some time to kill – more on that later – and The Boy took full advantage of this giant grass playground. Many water balloons met their end here over the course of our stay.

We had come to Haines for two reasons: First, to drive through the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve in the hope of seeing large numbers of eagles; and second, to take a short (one hour) ferry ride to Skagway, Haines’ more popular neighbor. We had already driven through the eagle preserve and seen nothing. I knew this wasn’t the optimal time to see the eagles but we were still supposed to see small groups of them. Once again, the lack of a salmon run this year seemed to be the likely culprit.

After dinner, Dad and I headed out to find the ferry terminal while Mom and Darla continued doing laundry. It was at the terminal that I discovered my only real blunder when planning out my itinerary. I learned that the 10:00 am ferry to Skagway was actually a 10:00 pm ferry. We would be stuck in Haines for twelve extra hours. This was not welcome news.

The one upside to our unexpected change in itinerary was that we would be able to sleep in as long as we wanted…or so I thought. At 6:00 am the sound of construction equipment broke the silence. This was the morning that the city decided to tear up the road in front of the campground. The Boy was delighted; me, not so much. Mimi was kind enough to document the activity while I remained in the camper with a pillow over my head.

It was August 2nd today. The countdown to The Boy’s 6th birthday had officially begun yesterday. Sixteen more days...

Portrait of The Dad by The Boy

Haines is a good place to spend half a day but not such a great place to spend one and a half days – at least not when the eagles are MIA. To this point we had spent the day looking for ways to kill time, none of them particularly interesting. We eventually stopped at the American Bald Eagle Foundation on the prior recommendation of a friend who had visited it and was impressed. I stuck my head in the door and was not impressed. It looked like a bunch of stuffed animal heads. I reported my findings to the group and we decided to eat lunch instead.

After eating lunch in the parking lot, Dad decided to take a quick look around himself. He came back with a better report. I was still skeptical. He offered to pay for our tickets. Having nothing better to do, I acquiesced and we all headed (pun intended) inside. The Boy made a bee line to the gigantic moose head and adopted his fiercest expression.

The American Bald Eagle Foundation is not just about eagles. Its centerpiece is a large diorama, a room with stuffed animals placed in their natural habitat. It is comprehensive and quite impressive, giving us an up close look at the different creatures we’d been catching glimpses of for the last few weeks.

At some point during our visit, The Boy seized control of Darla’s camera and started taking pictures himself. He has always been fascinated by wheelchairs so this man and his wheelchair were his subjects of choice.

The man, Dave Olerud, was the founder of this non-profit enterprise. He turned out to be one of the best tour guides I’ve ever met. We were fortunate to be the only visitors so he spent a considerable amount of time with us talking about the animals and the habitat in this part of Alaska. His presence alone was worth the price of admission.

Dave shared a secret with us before we left. Just a block away was an eagle’s nest with two fledgling eagles in it. He estimated they were about a week away from flying.

We headed over to the location and, after a bit of searching, found the nest just as he described it. This eagle looked like he was trying to muster up the courage to take flight but couldn’t quite do it.

Before long, the second fledgling appeared and both stood side by side waiting for one of their parents to bring them a meal. This happened twice while we were at the park.

After watching the young eagles for a while, The Boy decided to show off his mad skillz on the park’s playground.

After a second feeding, this parent flew off to a nearby tree. Although I was shooting from quite a distance, there was never any question as to whether or not she (or he) knew I was there. I was surprised by how long she remained on her perch while I photographed her.

After the eagle took flight, we did the same. We dropped Mom and Dad off at their 5th wheel to fix dinner, then headed over to this totem. I had understood that Haines was known for its totems but this was only the second one we’d seen.

The Boy was anxious to walk down onto the nearby docks in the hope of finding more jellyfish but there wasn’t much to see. No jellyfish.

Following a quick dinner, Darla, Lewis, and I decided to drive out to Chilkoot Lake, a popular bear haunt, while Mom and Dad got in line for the ferry ride to Skagway. We saw no bears but we did enjoy a beautiful view of the lake.

After getting this shot, we decided we’d better join my parents in line for our ferry. We turned around and headed toward the ferry terminal. That’s when we spotted the big grizzly fishing in the river. Without sufficient time to sit and watch it or sufficient light to photograph it, this otherwise welcome sighting seemed like a big tease.

Meanwhile, back at the terminal, Mom was photographing our ferry, the Malaspina. This was an older, conventional ferry that was much larger than the Chenega. It featured suites where travelers could sleep, a restaurant and bar, and multiple decks to explore.

Our journey would only last an hour but travelers with longer itineraries often pitch tents on deck. It is a cheaper alternative to renting a suite. Others choose to sleep in lounge chairs, like a certain Boy.

The yellow “tents/no tents” line made it clear to would-be campers that they would have to set up under the stars, not under the canopy.

The Boy and I continued to explore while Mimi, Papa T, and The Mom all settled down inside the darkened observation room at the front of the ship. We would be joining them soon. It was getting pretty cold outside and there was barely enough light to focus my camera.

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