Prince Rupert, Canada

 

Photo stop on our trolley tour

We did a trolley tour of Prince Rupert which proved quite entertaining. Our guide was a great storyteller. The town has had numerous boom and bust cycles. This is the western most, ice free port in Canada, the closest to Asia. In the early 1900s it was a logical port for the end of the Canadian Railroad, since Asian goods could reach the interior much faster from here than using the Panama Canal. Unfortunately, the major financiers for this project died on the Titanic.

Last train station and the port

Forestry became the major industry during both world wars providing spruce for airplanes and housing. The US stationed 2000 soldiers here during World War II, part of the defense against a Japanese invasion. Today, fishing and tourism are the major industries, but a $3 billion port is about to be built here, resurrecting the railroad vision.

Fishing is still king

While I struggled with the many days of fog in the Bering Sea, we’ve had excellent weather, none of our excursions (except Nome) have been spoiled by rain. We saw a lot of eagles, harbor seals, and whales. The landscape of Alaska is gorgeous with numerous glaciers, huge forests, snow covered mountains, and waterfalls. We also went to many ports that are rarely visited, each with its own story. We spent almost every night with Ray, Sue, and Carol drinking Smoky Old Fashions, wine, and Manhattans.  Often joined by our trivia partners Chris and Tracy.  If we had only won trivia at least once. Overall, a great cruise!

Wrangle, Alaska

 

Wrangle today has a population of 2000, but its population has changed both up and down since being founded in the 1830s by the Russians.

The Bear Tribal House

We visited a tribal house, which was rebuilt in 1940. Because of rot only about 7% of the previous house remains, the roof pillars. The Bear house was a family house of 60 to 80 people in the Tlingit tribe. These houses are hand built of and use tongue and groove construction, so they can be moved and rebuilt. It takes about 20,000 adze strokes to build one sideboard from a cedar tree. Each of the house posts tells a tribal story, but only tribe members know the story. In traditional culture a child is taught their trade by their aunt or uncle, weaving, hunting, carver, etc.

Interior with 2 house posts

The major industries have changed over time: fur, supplying gold seekers, lumber, and fishing. Wolf, sea otter, wolverine furs.

Killer Whale Petroglyph

The most interesting stop was Petroglyph Beach. Over 60 different petroglyphs are visible here. We don’t know how old they are, 200 years to 9000 years is possible. Many have designs that are traditional Tlinkit symbols. But there are also spirals, which aren’t traditional. Today was the warmest day of the cruise: 60 degrees with lots of sun.

Spiral and Cedar Bark Petroglyph

Endicott Arm

Endicott Arm

 Endicott Arm is a 30 miles long fjord ending in the Daws glacier surrounded by 7000-foot peaks. We entered the fjord at 7:30 and passed two cruise ships as we made our way to the glacier, arriving about 10:00AM. 

Approaching Daws Glacier

We started in rain, got some sunshine, and left with fog and clouds. This is the last of our tide water glaciers. Daw glacier is 20 miles long, and 360 feet high.

Daws Glacier

Juneau

 

Today we went whale watching. We watched one group of humpback whales including a baby playing on the surface for 30 minutes (the maximum time allowed) and then went searching again. We found another whale spouting about a mile away. They typically spout 3 to 4 times and then dive deep for food with their tail rising in the air. Later the whale approached our boat. Humpbacks come to Alaska each summer because the cold water and abundant sunlight lead to lots of plankton, which starts a rich food chain. The whales feed here and then head to Hawaii to mate and raise their young.

St. Nicholas 

In the afternoon, I took a quick walking tour of Juneau. First was St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church was built in 1894. The local Tlingit leaders invited the church to this area of Alaska, long after it was part of the U.S. Then I visited the state capital, housed in an office building with marble columns in front. It had several historic pictures including the 1958 newspaper when congress passed legislation making Alaska a state on January 2^nd, 1959. Since then, there have been numerous attempts to move the capital out of Juneau, since the city is isolated from the Alaska population. You can’t drive to Juneau, you must take either a boat or an airplane.

Ferry leaving Juneau

Haines

 

Haines

Haines is across the Lynn Canal from Skagway. We’re the only ship in town, compared to 3-5 ships per day at Skagway. Today, we’re boating along the shoreline of the canal between the two towns to see the waterfalls and any wildlife we can spot. The canal is typically 1500 feet deep. Sawmill waterfall had the most volume of water. It used to fall directly in the canal, but over the years, the land rose, rebounding from the weight of nearby glaciers. We continued to Long falls, Hidden Falls, Twin Falls, Lightning Falls, and Sisters Falls. 

Sawmill Falls

On the way we spotted many eagles and a two different groups of harbor seals.

Harbor Seals

Hubbard Glacier

 

Hubbard Glacier

We entered Yakutat Bay at 7:30 AM with fog and cloudy skies. This entire bay was ice 500 years ago. About 10 AM we reached Disenchantment Bay, named by Alessandra Malaspina in 1792 when he saw Hubbard Glacier and not an entrance to the legendary Northwest Passage. Hubbard glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in North America: 9 mi wide, 76 Miles long, 400 feet thick, 160 feet below water. The ice flows for 400 years reach the ocean. The ice is 10x denser than an ice cube causing it to look blue. We lucked out, the sun shone on the Glacier as we approached. 

Carol took the catamaran to get within half a mile. We could hear the occasional crack of calving ice, they saw four. The glacier here is advancing because climate change is causing more snow to fall in this valley. That night we had an Indonesian dinner and our servers dressed in traditional costume.

Meylia and Kliss

Day Two at Anchorage

 

Alaskan Masks

We woke up to find that we could see Mount Denali from our ship in the harbor, then we went to the Alaska museum. The second floor was the most interesting. Here we were introduced to tools, baskets, clothes, ceremonial masks and hats from the many native people’s of Alaska. I was particularly impressed by the winter clothes and boots made from squirrel skins, bird plumage, moose fur, seal intestines, or other animal products. The artwork was also very different in each culture.

Parka made of squirrel pelts

They also had an exhibit on the cold war. Recalling our history of testing atomic bombs in Nevada or the Marshall Islands; learning to duck under your school desk if the air raid siren sirens go off, and the backyard bomb shelters. Other exhibits included native and modern artwork as well as lots of Alaskan jokes.

Earthquakes in Alaska

We had learned that the largest recorded earthquake was a magnitude of 9.2 on March 28^th, 1964. We started our city tour viewing the 30 foot drop at the marina, that is a result of that earthquake. Our city tour continued at the International Airport (the third busiest cargo airport in the world), the float plane lake/airport, and the Alaska Wild Berry Chocolate Factory.

30 foot drop from 1964 earthquake