The Inside Passage

As we've noted in other posts, at the time we were hoping to travel up to Alaska the Canadian border was still closed (and is currently closed until at least July 21). Our best alternative option was to travel up on the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS, a.k.a. the Alaska Ferry). Putting the Ciaowagen on the ferry would cost a pretty penny, since our vehicles were charged by the foot. The total cost was still below what we'd pay for an Alaska cruise on the Inside Passage, but since we'd still see the same scenery as we would on a cruise, so we decided to think of it as the "cruise portion" of our 2021 travels. We booked passage leaving from Bellingham, Washington on June 30 to start our “Alaskan Cruise.”

Our time in the Lower 48 was done, and we boarded the Matanuska, the ferry that would take us, the Ciaowagen, and the Fittata to Juneau, Alaska.

It’s large for a ferry (a bit over 400 feet long) and can take over 100 vehicles. The Matanuska is part of the AMHS fleet which services cities and small towns that dot the Alaska coast. The ferry connects all the Alaskans living along the coast to one another since there are no connecting roads. Some towns, like Juneau, are on islands, so the ferry is their only way to travel and for that matter, get food, building materials, and just about anything else.

The plan was us for travel for three-and-a-half days to Juneau, overnight there, and then board another ferry, the Kennicott, that would take us across the Gulf of Alaska from Juneau to Whitter, a port about 30 miles from Anchorage.

They call this area of Canada and Alaska the Inside Passage for a reason. There are a whole chain of islands sitting offshore, and ships are able to travel between the islands and the mainland, avoiding the rough seas of the Pacific. The ferry route itself goes past over 10,000 islands. The scenery up the Inside Passage was spectacular. Passengers reported seeing moose and bear along the shore as well as bald eagles and frolicking seals. It was amazing to see small outposts and cabins dotting the coast. We were treated to stories about some of the outposts from seasoned Alaskans making the trip with us.

Accommodations on the ferry are basic (see picture of our palatial stateroom below)...

...and the food options are limited to bringing your own or using the ship's cafeteria (which actually served pretty tasty food).

Since we could not sleep in our RV, we had to book a cabin to sleep in. Our ferry lacked the open bar, porter service, all-you-can-eat shrimp stations, musical acts, or folded towel animals of a cruise ship, but we thought the scenery was better than experienced on a large cruise ship since the ferry can navigate narrower passages, some less than 0.25 mile wide! During those tight passages, there is no room for error, so a crew member is stationed on the bow, taking sightings to make sure the computerized navigation system got things right.

It did put us in mind of the Titanic, but, since we had to bring our own deck chairs up from the RV, we did not have to worry about re-arranging the deck chairs in case of an emergency.

Here is a timelapse of some of our "narrow channel" travel:

We had very good weather for most of the trip (not like this photo, thank goodness, which was taken during stormy seas).

Some passengers travel “economy class,” choosing to bed down with their blankets or sleeping bags in one of the lounges or solarium, or for the backpackers, pitch a tent, affixed with lots of duct tape, on the afterdeck. There are public restrooms and showers available.

The Matanuska only had 220 passengers on our trip up, a bit less than half its capacity, so there was plenty of room for all. We spent much of our time in the forward observation lounge or out on the decks.

We liked the informal atmosphere of the ship. We brought up our chairs from the RV and sat outside on the fantail where we made friends with several other couples. We often gathered on the back deck for happy hour before dinner. One of the women had owned her own restaurant for a number of years and was always serving up a tempting happy hour spread. We found the trip very, very enjoyable, and would not hesitate to recommend this way of getting to Alaska.

Happy Hour on the fantail

We visited several towns along the way, including Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Kake, and Sitka, but typically only had 45-minute stays at each (although a couple stops were long enough for us to get off and stretch our legs). Most of these towns are accessible only by the water, so the ferry is a lifeline for them.

Petersburg has a particularly dramatic setting

At one stop, a passenger traveling by himself missed the ferry departure. Fortunately for him, he'd just gotten the business card of a fellow ferry traveler, whom he called on his cell and asked him to alert the ship he'd been left behind. Lucky for him, the Captain turned back and retrieved him. He was greeted with great fanfare by the passengers.

Every 6 hours or so, passengers were allowed down to the car deck to retrieve forgotten items, or, for some, take care of pets. The pets had to stay in their car, trailer or pet carrier during the trip, and they would be let out to do their business during those breaks.

Our stop in Sitka was long enough so that we could tour the town. Sitka was the capital of Russian Alaska before the U.S. bought the territory in the 1800s. We walked through town and visited Sitka National Historical Park, which displays totem poles in addition to showcasing the history of the area. We talked with an artist who had just finished a commission for a new pole (it took him 10 months to carve it) – he had just wrapped it up for transport. We also strolled along the harbor looking at some of the amazing commercial fishing vessels

After leaving Sitka and heading toward Juneau, we learned that the Kennicott had broken down and would not be available to take us to Whittier. This presented a major challenge, as Juneau has no roads connecting it to the rest of Alaska, and the Kennicott was the only ship in the fleet approved to do the open water crossing required for the final leg in our journey. We didn’t know how long we might be stuck in Juneau as the Kennicott was being taken to dry dock for repairs.

The ferry folks on board told us we could stay on the ferry and travel another four hours up to the town of Haines, Alaska. Haines DOES have road access to the rest of Alaska, although only through Canada (and the Canadian border was still closed). The ferry system said they would try to negotiate something Alaska and the Canadian government, although we were heading into the July 4th weekend and government offices were closed. An Alaskan on the ferry gave Haines a good recommendation, sharing that Haines was her favorite “getaway” destination. We decided that Haines would, at least, provide us with some options, so decided to accept the ferry's offer and traveled to Haines along with about 20 other ferry travelers who decided to do the same.

We arrived at Haines at 3:15 am on July 4th, and in the land of the midnight sun, the sun had already risen above the horizon.

We drove to a local campground where we promptly turned the engine off, drew the shades and went to sleep.

When we woke, we walked downtown for the Independence Day parade. Haines is a small town, so the parade went down Main Street for three blocks, then everyone turned around and marched back the other way. The parade had all the elements of a small-town celebration, including the American Legion honor guard, the fire department, and the Head Start school bus. The more unique elements included two floats from the local Chilkoot Alaskan Native tribe, a person in a grizzly costume on roller blades, and a guy offering UFO retrieval services.

After the parade, we walked down to the harbor and took in the spectacular views of the Lynn Canal fjord and snowcapped peaks rising above it.

We joined the town celebration at the Haines fairgrounds, where the Southeast Alaska State Fair is held every year. They have a frontier town recreation, which we think had been built for a movie set decades ago. The Chilkoots had organized a game for the children and played drums and chanted while the children circled the area and came to a stop each time the music stopped. It seemed like every child “won” and was rewarded with 6 festive cup cakes. Luckly, this event was held after lunch was served.

This picture of our Haines RV park pretty much tells the story of the tourism challenge the town was facing with the Canadian border closure.

We came back to the harbor at 11 pm to watch the fireworks (this far north, the sun had just set and the sky was not completely dark). The fireworks were not of the caliber of major city fireworks, but they had THE most spectacular backdrop – the glistening fjord and snow-capped mountains.

Haines is the home of the world's only Hammer Museum - unfortunately, we were not able to visit because it was closed for the holiday. Doug was crushed (but not by a hammer).

On the morning of July 5th, we got a welcome call from the ferry system saying that the Governor's Office had intervened on our behalf with their Canadian counterparts and managed to get all of us classified as “essential travelers.” This would allow us to travel over the border and through Canada – no COVID test or quarantine needed! Some ferry travelers, not expecting to cross an international border, had no passports and were given permission to drive across with just a U.S. drivers license. Before the Canadians could change their minds, and with a huge sigh of relief, we got ready to leave early the next morning on July 6th.

The ferry system also agreed to not only refund us for the ferry portion not taken (from Juneau to Whittier) but also to refund our passage from Bellingham to Juneau. Basically, we got to travel the Inside Passage for free!

With one day left in the Haines area, we visited Chilkat State Park where we had beautiful views of mountains and a couple glaciers. On the other side of those mountains was Glacier Bay National Park, which we planned to visit a couple weeks later.

Later in the afternoon we visited Chilkoot Lake State Recreational Area, where we admired the lake view with waterfalls in the background. Some of our ferry friends were camping at the park and invited us to join them for a delicious lamb dinner. There are fresh foods you cannot take across the border, so we all emptied out our fridges and contributed to the feast.

As we drove back to our campground, we admired Haines' mountain setting at twilight.

The next morning we packed up and drove 40 miles to the Canadian border. Fortunately they’d gotten the word about our situation. It took us about 45 minutes to clear us, but we got through.

We decided we would make the passage through Canada in a single day, so we drove through beautiful and wild scenery first in British Columbia and then in the Yukon Territory. The road kept switching between paved and gravel, and further north we experienced a lot of frost heaves, where the road buckles in the winter when the ground above the permafrost freezes. The condition of the road made for an "interesting" ride. In the Ciaowagen, everything was rattling. Jeannette was sure that some major repairs might be needed by the end, but our RV held-up. It did appear that our Fittata got a good covering of dust, but fortunately no broken windshield.

At one point this was a blue car...

We arrived back in Alaska in the evening. Whew!! About three miles beyond the border, there was an out of business RV park/ gas station/store, and we spent the night there.

Then it was on to more Alaska adventures, including a week in the Denali National Park area. More about that in our next blog post.