Haines, Alaska - In the Valley of Eagles
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Part of the logic in visiting Haines now, despite the mileage, was the thought that we might have to give it a pass on our return trip and miss it altogether if we dawdled too long elsewhere and found ourselves traveling back home sometime in late September or October. Now that we were here, we were happy to be able to explore. The town is ‘nestled between North America’s deepest fjord (the Lynn Canal) and the Chilkat Mountain Range’.
First things first… we headed to the Visitor’s Center, picked up a town map to get our bearings, then headed to the town’s excellent library. We hadn’t had internet in a few days and we spent an hour or so catching up. Next, a stop at the well-stock, uber expensive, local IGA supermarket to pick up some groceries.
Of the two RV parks in town, only one had space. RV parks always feel like big parking lots… gravel or asphalt. They’re convenient and have all the amenities, but they lack ambiance. The Hitch-Up RV park was nice and relatively pricey at $53/night, ticked all the boxes for what we needed and was only a half mile walk into town. Once settled into our little, non-descriptive site which took less than five minutes, we walked into town to begin our exploration of Haines.
We’d planned to enjoy a fine seafood dinner at the Lighthouse Restaurant at the bottom of the hill on the harbor side. We bellied up to the bar for a draft Alaskan Amber and peeked at the menu. The evening’s special was a Hawaiian burger. Nothing on the menu was particularly appealing. We gave dinner at the Lighthouse a pass and walked around town.
The sheltered small boat harbor situated in Portage Cove just off the Lynn Canal is particularly picturesque.
As we watched, a bald eagle perched on a piling, eyeing the waters below for its own dinner. This was one of many bald eagles we were to see in the Valley of Eagles. After awhile, we could spot them at a distance looking for their distinctive white heads perched on treetops.
Cruise ships and the Alaska Marine Highway ferries stop at both Haines and Skagway and it wasn’t uncommon to see them passing in the distance. Skagway, another scenic coastal town, is only ~14 miles away via water, but there are no direct roads connecting the two. It’s a 5-hour drive from one town to the other via a roundabout route. A passenger ferry offers service daily between the two towns for about $45/pp each way.
We wandered the town’s streets (there aren’t many) and finally headed back to Blanche to make dinner and plan our next day’s exploration.
Other than the Haines Highway into town, there are only three other roads leading out of town and all end abruptly at the water. We first chose the Lutak Road which hugged the shores of Lutak Inlet and ended at Chilkoot Lake State Park. It’s a ways out of town, but we checked out the lovely, but buggy campground there, making notes of possible sites for later use, just in case. Mosquitoes and horse flies banged against our windows obviously wanting ‘in’.
Dwarf dogwood and dainty arctic starflowers were abundant. A field of cornflowers bloomed along the lakeside.
We passed a weir used for tracking salmon as they came upstream to spawn. Sockeyes were just beginning to run and a person was sitting in the middle of the weir counting them as they passed.
Based on local signage and warnings, there are lots of bears in the area though we never saw one.
We did, however, see a merganser and its duckling in the middle of the river.
We reversed direction back into town and headed out on Mud Bay Road. This route was just as scenic but in a different way… like the view below.
The Chilkat State Park was quite interesting. The entrance was a steep, winding 14% grade, pot-holed, rutted gravel road down, down, down to the campground and the water’s edge.
Goatsbeard, western columbine, thimble berry and beach-head iris lined the roadside.
We got a good view of the Rainbow Glacier from the shore.
Back into town, we drove the third alternative along the Beach Road to Battery Point. The mosquitoes were vicious, and wimps that we are, we opted out of a hike we had planned. We’d already donated enough blood today. We headed back to the RV park, took a quick rest, then walked back into town.
We had planned to visit the Hammer Museum, so-named because of its collection of 2000 hammers. Established in 2002, the museum is exclusively dedicated to the history of man’s first tool, the hammer, and boasts that it’s the first museum of its kind in the world. By the time we returned to town, it was closed for the day and we missed visiting, but did have the chance to check out the exterior of its little headquarters on Main Street. It was hard to miss with a 20’ tall hammer in the front yard.
We stopped at the Haines Brewing Company and enjoyed a locally brewed draft while taking in an outstanding view of the Chilkat Mountains that encompass the town. The beers were good, but the views… oh my!
I always feel like I give these small towns short shrift. Each is unique and offers to much to the visitor. I haven’t even mentioned the Fort Seward Historic District or Mt. Ripinsky or the Bald Eagle Preserve. Several sites were either not open when we were there or best visited at other times of the year.
We’d previously read that boat tours to Juneau departed from Haines and we had inquired more about them when we arrived. We were tempted to take the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry and bring Blanche, but in the end we opted for the Fjordland Express, a fast cat, for a one-day sightseeing excursion through Prince William Sound just to get a taste of Juneau.
Join us next time as we explore the inside passage e route to the only U.S. state capital that has no road access, Juneau.