Rocky Top
After a 5 hour journey we sight the city of Haines, the end of our ferry trip and the start of our road adventure thru Alaska. We pick up our car and start our search for the "Captains Choice Motel." We wonder if we have made a good choice; whew,it is an excellent choice. Being hungry we went to a restaurant across the street called the "Bamboo Room." It is not Chinese and we ate breakfast there every morning and most of our dinners.The motel set up a tour for us into the Chilkoo State Park. There we saw 2 brown bears fishing; also many eagles. The Chikat river has the world's greatest concentration of eagles during the months of Oct.through Jan. More then 3000 gather the feed on the salmon. We also did a lot exploring on our own. Found a man standing on fence (weir) across a river; he was counting salmon. When the count gets big enough, the state opens the fishing season.One day we took a trip over to Skagway. If we would have driven, it would have been a 359 mile drive. So we elected to take a water taxi which is only 13 miles. Skagway is a very historical town. It is where the gold hunters started on their way to the gold fields in the Klondike. They had to have 1000 pounds of food and equipment before they were allowed to start up the trail. The first year about 3000 men and horses perished in the mountains. The town is small and has a rustic tone to it with shops and a couple of restaurants. The highlight of Skagway is the railroad. It takes you up the mountain about 28 miles following the White Pass and Yukon Route, which is the pass the miners used. It's a 3 hour round trip, the scenery is spectacular. All in all it was very good day. The taxi ride back was a little rough, but we did see some mountain goats. This evening we had dinner at a new restaurant, if they keep their prices low and food served at its present amount and taste they will make it ok. This is our last day here so we drove around to our favorite spots. We watched a brown bear fishing, he caught a pretty good size fish, he then took off. Finished the day by watching the sun set over Haines harbor from the porch of our room.(Goodnight) Today we start up the Haines Highway to Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory. It's a 152 mile trip to Haines Junction, where we pick up the Alaska Highway. Leaving Haines we pass thru the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, there are only a few eagles here now but in the fall they are here in the thousands, to feed on the chum salmon. We finally reach the British Columbia border, leaving 47miles to the Y.T. We pass thru some very beautiful country. Snow capped mountains, open fields covered with wildflowers and a moose or mountain goat thrown in to complete the picture. The road takes us thru small towns, which are usually just a general store and a gas station and past log cabins high up on the mountains. The only bad thing we found was the road, it was torn up by the winter frost and every couple of miles it seemed that they were working on it, which slowed us down a bit. Well here we are at the Yukon Territory border, only 64 more miles to Haines Junction. The country continues on, much the same as above. We pass lakes that are so blue and clear that they are like mirrors, the trees seem to be reaching to sky and deep into the lakes at the same time, really breath taking. In a few of the smaller lakes we saw moose feeding. Next stop Haines Junction.
The motel set up a tour for us into the Chilkoo State Park. There we saw 2 brown bears fishing; also many eagles. The Chikat river has the world's greatest concentration of eagles during the months of Oct.through Jan. More then 3000 gather the feed on the salmon. We also did a lot exploring on our own. Found a man standing on fence (weir) across a river; he was counting salmon. When the count gets big enough, the state opens the fishing season.
One day we took a trip over to Skagway. If we would have driven, it would have been a 359 mile drive. So we elected to take a water taxi which is only 13 miles. Skagway is a very historical town. It is where the gold hunters started on their way to the gold fields in the Klondike. They had to have 1000 pounds of food and equipment before they were allowed to start up the trail. The first year about 3000 men and horses perished in the mountains. The town is small and has a rustic tone to it with shops and a couple of restaurants. The highlight of Skagway is the railroad. It takes you up the mountain about 28 miles following the White Pass and Yukon Route, which is the pass the miners used. It's a 3 hour round trip, the scenery is spectacular. All in all it was very good day. The taxi ride back was a little rough, but we did see some mountain goats. This evening we had dinner at a new restaurant, if they keep their prices low and food served at its present amount and taste they will make it ok. This is our last day here so we drove around to our favorite spots. We watched a brown bear fishing, he caught a pretty good size fish, he then took off. Finished the day by watching the sun set over Haines harbor from the porch of our room.(Goodnight)
Today we start up the Haines Highway to Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory. It's a 152 mile trip to Haines Junction, where we pick up the Alaska Highway. Leaving Haines we pass thru the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, there are only a few eagles here now but in the fall they are here in the thousands, to feed on the chum salmon. We finally reach the British Columbia border, leaving 47miles to the Y.T. We pass thru some very beautiful country. Snow capped mountains, open fields covered with wildflowers and a moose or mountain goat thrown in to complete the picture. The road takes us thru small towns, which are usually just a general store and a gas station and past log cabins high up on the mountains. The only bad thing we found was the road, it was torn up by the winter frost and every couple of miles it seemed that they were working on it, which slowed us down a bit.
Well here we are at the Yukon Territory border, only 64 more miles to Haines Junction. The country continues on, much the same as above. We pass lakes that are so blue and clear that they are like mirrors, the trees seem to be reaching to sky and deep into the lakes at the same time, really breath taking. In a few of the smaller lakes we saw moose feeding. Next stop Haines Junction.
