Haines Alaska

Day 15

7/5/26 Sunday

Mosquito Count: low (cool & breezy)

Ferry to Haines AK. Taking our first ferry of 2026. It’s an express ferry to Haines AK. Takes about 50 minutes. We are taking our bicycles with us to take a ride and for transportation to explore Haines. Traveling a 90 mile fiord and as deep as 1400 ft. called Lynn Canal.

Our bikes ride on the front of the passenger only ferry. Bikes and kayaks are allowed.

Glacial fed waterfalls. Water originates in the Juneau Icefield.

Sawmill Falls. Can’t see most of it but it had the biggest glow of water to the sea. Photo taken inside ferry window.

Long Falls. Source is the Juneau Icefield

On the ferry we have a naturalist guide who has told us facts about the flora, fauna and sea life along the boat ride.

Haines has 2000 population. Economy is salmon fishing and tourism. It is quite a bit more populated than Skagway but you wouldn’t know it by the quantity of businesses in Skagway.

Looking back to Haines. The white buildings up on the hill are former Fort Seward. Seward was responsible for Alaska becoming a US territory.

Bike ride today. We’re off on our bike ride up the waterway toward the Chilkoot River to the Chilkoot Lake. It is a a fairly flat ride, hills are very simple and infrequent. The morning was very calm and the water was very flat. For the first hour there was hardly a soul on the road… Sunday mornings! By 10am people were moving. There were two small cycling tour groups out headed to the same place. For awhile we followed the inlet until the river flowed to it. Then we went up the river until it became Chilkoot Lake. It was 10 miles to the lake. A beautiful morning for a ride.

Map of the channels we ferried and the route of our bike ride to the area called Lutak… you can see the blue green lake.

Looking across the inleg toward Haines. You can see the one cruise boat at port

They call this highway “the bear highway”. I believe it. I saw so much bear scat on that 10 mile stretch… but not a live bear. We learned that on the coast they are called Coastal Brown bears. Then there are Kodiak bears and Grizzly bears. All the same species but adapted to their environment. Coastal and Kodiak are not as aggressive as Grizzlies because they are well fed on salmon. They do t have to work as hard to be well fed. Maybe that explains their size of over 1000 lbs

Notice the bear signs are brown bears… not black bears.

This is where the river meets the sea. What a wonderful place to sit and admire the view. In my next life I’m going to sit in a chair on the other side of that rope fence! Wow!

The tidal basin at the top of the bay…
lovely view

Fishermen in the river
We are bicycling upstream

Next on the ride was the salmon counting weir. The weir crosses the river and they both visually count the salmon that come up the river. They also use underwater sonar as a backup count as well.

Salmon counting. By the numbers it’s early in the salmon run season. There will be thousands

Here’s the human government employee counting salmon.

When we arrived at the lake there were just a couple of vehicles there. We spent a little time there having a snack and enjoying the view. By the time we left all the tour groups of bicycles and hikers arrived.

Jim thought maybe we should just jump in a boat and paddle around a bit! While we were there no tour groups showed up.

There was quite a collection to choose from.

A bit of a breeze came up while we were there so the lake and bay weren’t as glassy on the return trip. But it was still a great way to spend the morning. There were so many water cascades coming down along the road. I can only imagine spring when the snow melts.

On the ride down we took a side road across the river to go by a few homes at the top of the bay.

The backside of an eagle in the tree. He was huge but hard to see on the top right branch.

The Alaska Marine Highway Ferry loading camper trailers. Bound for Skagway and Juneau.

Fort Stward. We spent the rest of our afternoon checking out Haines. We road up hill above town to see the former Fort Seward area. They are those big beautiful officers quarters houses with massive very balconies. I was reminded of The Presidio (San Francisco but much smaller) or my hometown Fort Keogh. Now the quarters are private homes, a hotel and a hostel.

The tie of old officers quarters at
Fort Seward

From across the field the officers quarters.

We had lunch at the local restaurant featuring Thai food. It was busy busy. We had time to wait out the crowd and have a nice lunch.

Haines is a pretty laid back community with plenty of cruise excursions as well. It is a drastic difference from the cruise ship oriented town of Skagway. The difference between one ship three times/week and 4 cruise ships a day. Haines and Skagway are the only two southeast Alaska communities that have roads that make them accessible to the interior of Alaska or Yukon/BC.

Afternoon ferry to Skagway. We caught the mid-afternoon ferry back to Skagway and decided to head back up White Pass and cross the Canadian border before it closes tonight. We will camp somewhere between the border and Carcross tonight.

First Moose! Finally we saw a moose. We were driving slowly looking for a certain pullout for our camp tonight when there she was by the side of the road. The first of many I’m sure!

Camping tonight. Found a camp spot on a little pond just off the highway not far from the moose spotting. With some luck maybe mo we will see moose in the pond this evening or tomorrow morning.

Mosquito indoor attack. At our camp tonight we are fighting an indoor kamikaze mosquito battle. In the two times we opened the door it seems like a few dozen have made their way in. Nasty little bastards. Our hands hurt from slapping them while flying. It’s kind of hilarious too!

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