Forest Service have made it very difficult for the agency to adjust to the growing demand of visitors in the area. As tourism easily becomes the second most important industry for the Southeast Alaskan economy, behind sport and commercial fishing, the U. Forest Service is in the unique position to greatly impact how much this industry grows and contributes to the welfare of the region.
Bestselling Series
Stars indicate where all of the following tourists traveled from. But, through programs, films, exhibits, pamphlets, guides and talks provided by the U. Forest Service, visitors learn more and more about a forest that they can call their own. After spending even just a short time there, they all agree it is beautiful and unlike any other forest they have ever seen. Continue reading to meet some travelers from all over America and see what had to say about their trip to the Southeast. Sam Tortora from New York!
Ketchikan or Bust (Tom's Adventures in Alaska)
Despite the pricey airfare, they both said they would come back. Meet Mary and Collette from Wisconsin! Mary is a former travel agent and has been to Alaska four times. Meet Lynnette and Teresa from Nebraska! They have really enjoyed their trip to Alaska and are looking forward to the rest of their travels. Lynn and George have been to Alaska three times. This time, they decided to travel more of the land and less of the sea and opted for independent travel, rather than a cruise ship.
They returned to Mendenhall Glacier to stay up to date and aware on the effects of climate change on the region they said. Peggy came in to Juneau on a cruise ship. These are just a few faces of the thousands of visitors that venture to the Mendenhall Glacier this summer and there will be thousands more that will visit this public and pristine wilderness before the season is out. Though, a few souls did venture into the tide pools without them. On a foggy and misty Sunday morning, some brave adventurers, sponsored by the Sitka Conservation Society, ventured to Kruzof to learn about intertidal species.
The shore was spotted with sea stars and there was quite a bit to learn about this wilderness that presents itself just a few hours every day. Not all live here in Southeast Alaska, but this region has the highest amount of diversity of these species. Sea stars — sometimes referred to as starfish — are not actually fish.
They do not have gills, fins, or scales. They pump nutrients through their body with salt water because they do not have blood. They have at least 5 legs, but some have as many as 40! This is a sunflower sea star. These guys can be up to 3 feet wide and weigh as much as 60 pounds. They feed on clams and crabs and can move pretty quickly through the water. Well, they are no cheetahs, but they get around.
The biggest predators of sea stars are other sea stars. When sea stars feel threatened, they have the ability to shed one of their legs which they will regrow later so that a predator might eat that leg and leave them alone. Baby cohos are kept in tanks until they are released in fresh water streams in the Tongass. Sitka Conservation Society employees feel the baby salmon nipping at their fingers inside the Medvejie hatchery. Denise and Maureen have been friends for 15 years.
In the past, their adventures have taken them to India and Thailand. But, this summer, they set their sights on Alaska and they are already planning their return. Paul named this humpback four years ago when he first saw it because of the hooked nature of its dorsal fin.
The whale, Paul estimates, is more than 40 feet long and weighs about 35 tons. Captain Hook is actually an adult female whale. Denise and Maureen had already seen grizzlies near Mt. McKinley on their driving tour up north, but they were pretty excited to come across this guy near Redoubt Bay as the salmon were coming in. Rhinoceros auklets have horns on the edges of their beaks and white feathers under their eyes. Tommy Joseph is a Tlingit master carver in Sitka. He teaches and carves what he is commissioned to do and what he feels inspired to create. His apprentice, Kristina Cranston, says of him: This tree came from this, and the other half of it went to this job.
And so it becomes personal. And the end result is this beautiful totem pole, and usually somebody really happy. Tommy Joseph, Tlingit master carver, has been teaching woodcarving for about 15 years to university students, teenagers at camps and to local citizens. The shed to the right of the shop is a heated, well-lit place for his students to come learn and practice. Right inside the back door of the shop, a bowl rests on a tree stump. Tommy explained that he intends everything he makes to serve a purpose. This bowl will be sealed with oil so that it may hold any kind of food without staining the wood.
Tommy created this armor based on armor he has seen in different Alaskan museums. He wants his next museum trip to be to the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Despite a terrible injury early in her carving practices, she now has an apprenticeship where she is learning to make masks. Tommy and other Tlingit carvers do not just make spoons they make art.
He explained that the off-season the winter is a perfect time to add color and designs to his pieces. The shop stays open seven days a week if cruise ships will be docked. Tommy travels to other islands in the southeast to find the red cedar he will use for a totem pole project. Sometimes it takes as long as a year for the wood to arrive after he has selected the tree.
This project rests outside of his shop. Sea otters in Sitka Sound. A mom and pup in Sitka Sound. Tourism in the Tongass: When you wish upon a star! Why do salmon jump? Fishing season is in full swing here in Southeast Alaska. They put on endurance trail rides horses throughout the country. We headed that way at the appropriate time and there sat a big charter boat in our spot. Plan B, we headed to the city float. Free, but no power. While there we met a nice couple in their sailboat from Holland. Once moved we had happy hour with our neighbors. These folks have traveled literally all over the world in their sailboat, including Antarctica, and the Drake Passage some of the roughest waters in the world where they spent 30 hours holed up in the boat in a storm.
They thought the south Pacific and Japan were cool, but only stayed a year or so in each. We meet the most interesting and nicest people. Typically this time of year the Pacific High is in place and blocks low pressure fronts from coming across the Gulf of Alaska, but there is a big low hanging out there now bringing a late SE gale. The locals say the westerly spring winds are late in arriving….
And maybe another trip to the library for movies to watch. First, Thorne Bay with a nice transient dock. No bears or waterfowl at Thoms Place but loads of songbirds and a peaceful beautiful setting. We liked this spot so much we stayed two nights. After Thoms Place we headed to Wrangell which we bypassed on the way to Alaska last year.
We stayed in Heritage Harbor, a very nice harbor with friendly folks. However, it is 1. In Wrangell we had a great burger, good pizza, went through their most excellent museum, and we had rain…lots of rain. Because of the rain I opted to not carry my camera. Next stop is Petersburg.
We sampled Norwegian desserts, we went to the Mitkof Mummers play, the roller derby, the museum, watched the herring toss, watched the parade, and marveled at the Norwegian costumes everywhere. We had nice weather for the festival but the rained started last night,has continued today, and will continue tomorrow. But the winds will be light so we will head south tomorrow around the west side of Prince of Wales Island.
Or not, since an active logging barge was anchored right smack dab at the head of the bay, leaving no room for another boat to anchor. There is a mooring buoy on the west side of the bay that we tied up to instead. The mooring buoy is where we spent the next two days snug-as-a-bug. Here we saw both the Barrows Goldeneye and the Common Goldeneye. A nice size black bear out looking for his dinner. Our intention was to spend one night here then move on, however Mother Nature had other intentions and Mother Nature rules.
The wind was forecasted to be strong so we opted to stay put another day. Klu has a beautiful backdrop of snow covered mountains at the head of the bay, the twin falls around the corner are worth the dinghy ride, the waterfowl was beautiful, the bear was nice to see, we caught crabs for dinner, well protected spot….
Ebook and Manual Reference
Okay, so not a destination. We noticed black, sooty smoke coming out of the heater exhaust pipe in the side of the boat while in Naha Bay. When we were in Klu Bay we turned the heater on and again with the smoke, only worse.
So much for the easy fix. He cleaned the fuel jet nozzle, took off the air compressor and tested it, checked the burner fan, and took apart the fuel pressure regulator to test it. Not sure what part was the fix this time, but no more smoke. This was a one night stopover on our way to Walker Cove. What a beautiful stopover though! This cove is highly rated on Active Captain, more so than Punchbowl Cove. There is one mooring buoy and as luck would have it no one was tied up to the buoy so it was all ours. We had Walker Cove to ourselves the entire time we were there.
The first night there we saw the most active brown bear we have ever seen.
He came out every day we were there. Once again we had this cove to ourselves and spent a couple days tied to the mooring buoy. Punchbowl is stunning, and its proximity to Ketchikan makes it a popular tourist stop with several sea planes dropping in along with a tour boat. The tour boat was kind enough to hail us on the radio to warn us of his wake….
But we did see this!! We left Punchbowl with annoying following seas. Once we came out of Short Pass the following seas had stopped and we had calm seas all the way to Ketchikan. Nearly eight hours after leaving Punchbowl we arrived in Ketchikan. We made a trip to Walmart and I walked through Safeway every single chance I had. We cast off lines from Petersburg and headed for Madan Bay, a cloudy day, but calm seas. Nine hours later we arrived greeted by a beautiful loon. Exiting, we saw another cruiser on the other side of Bradfield Canal, our first.
That is until we pulled into Santa Anna Inlet where another boat was anchored…. No worries, plenty of room. Shortly after we settled in our neighbors came by to say hello. He asked if we were at the Nordhavn Rally last year. Russell liked this anchorage better than I did. Rise and shine, and on to Meyers Chuck. We were here last year and well, nothing has changed. A little story about how small the cruising community is here in Alaska. Before we walked around we stopped and chatted with the folks on Bob. Continuing our conversation, we finally figured out we were both in Fords Terror last year at the same time.
If you really want to experience Alaska this is a great way to do it and Blain and Monique Anderson are super nice folks!! Russell had read some good reviews on the relief band to help with sea sickness. I had hoped that we would go the whole season without breaking our bands in but no such luck. At Naha Bay we tied up to a small public dock, with no power or water.
As I was getting ready for bed I was thinking about this spot and felt it was kind of creepy-like with all the fallen trees. Apparently there was a major blow back in We got up to investigate, heard it again and spot-lighted the shoreline. I went back to bed convinced it was either a cougar stalking us or Sasquatch.
Russell stayed up for awhile longer, heard the noise a couple more times and figured out it was a seal. There is a derelict or creepy boardwalk that covers half of the large lagoon. No doubt there are many spots that that are tricky to pass with fallen trees. We suspect when the cannery at Loring was in full swing this Lagoon was a pretty active place to be. After the lagoon we took Rusty Nail to Loring where there is a nice new public dock, no power or water, and somewhat exposed in the right conditions, but a friendly greeter!
Post navigation
While I still think Naha Bay is creepy-like, it is a lovely quiet spot. The lagoon alone is worth the stop. Our shake down cruise to Ideal Cove was ideal; and all things Alaska. Whales, icebergs, crabs, and dall porpoises. As we said we wanted to take a short shake down cruise to get the cobwebs out after sitting all winter. After we were settled we put the Rusty Nail in, loaded the new crab pots, and Russell was off to set the pots. The next morning, after a peaceful night, we set off for LeConte Bay. Did you know LeConte Glacier is perhaps the most studied glacier in the world?
In reading about LeConte a glacier was described as a tube of toothpaste…the more snow and ice that compress the more ice advances into the bay. Your science lesson is over now. You can see the opening choked solid with icebergs. The water eventually wears at the bergs and they flip over making it dangerous to be close. Only because we could actually see what was under the water. This berg was the size of Sweet T. This was our favorite berg. Looks like a dragon or swan…. This was a decent sized berg. This is really thick solid ice, beautiful colors.
Look how smooth the bottom was. We had left our crab pots out. Up the next morning to head back to Petersburg. We have several spares on board. Shutting down the gen and sailing off cleared it away. On our way back we had four dall porpoises play chicken with the bow of Sweet T. After watching them for awhile I got my camera out…and they immediately swam away. We saw more bergs and a couple of whales. Beautiful snow capped mountains, icebergs, and a whale the black between the bergs. Boat friends end up being special friends in so many ways. It was time for us to say good-bye to Happy.
Bentwood Boxes in progress and to the left one nearly finished. Bentwood coffin with the tribal symbol. Any day is a good day for a parade, even a rainy day. The labels we used. Watts Narrows — See how pretty?
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Beautiful backdrop in Bakers Inlet. Taken from the bow before anchor up. Ready to put the shrimp pot out! The falls at low tide. The same falls at high tide and a sunnier day. Can emergency vehicles be cute? Very small harbor in Hartley Bay.