From Petersburg to Sitka, via Juneau

June 19-20, 2004

We left Petersburg on an overnight ferry to Juneau and awoke in the morning to some fabulous mountain views.

View of the mountains from the forward observation lounge as we near Juneau.
 

Not everyone, however, was interested in the view.
 

As we made the turn into the harbor to dock at Juneau, Mendenhall glacier came into view.
 

After docking and finding a campsite we went to get a closer view of the Mendenhall glacier.
 

After visiting Mendenhall glacier, the rest of our time in Juneau (one day) was spent on housekeeping, i.e. laundry and grocery shopping. We will be back in Juneau later in the week and will have more time for sightseeing then. As we drove back to our campsite in Auke Village (about 13 miles northwest of downtown Juneau), a young black bear crossed the highway in front of us. Fortunately, traffic was not heavy and he was able to cross without incident. But it was our first bear sighting in Alaska for this trip.

The next morning we were up early (4: 30 a.m.) to catch the ferry to Sitka. The weather was beautiful; we have had five gorgeous days in a row, so we are starting to think of this weather as normal. But this is Southeast Alaska, which gets a lot of rain, so we may get a more forceful reminder of that in the near future. In the meantime, we will enjoy the weather.
 

The ferry ride to Sitka was on the Alaska Marine Highway's newest ferry, the Fairweather. It is a catamaran ferry (double hull) and is very fast; it cruises at 32 knots, whereas the other ferries tend to cruise at 15-20 knots.
 

With the help of a Forest Service naturalist and the crew, some wildlife was spotted along the way. This is a mother humpback whale and her "baby". Since they have a schedule to keep, the ferries don't normally slow down or change course when the wildlife is spotted, but this time the captain made an exception and stopped the ferry, allowing us to watch the two whales for a short while.
 

.

We even got to see a brown bear swimming in the channel. When the bear spotted the ferry bearing down on him, he turned and swam back the other way. In Southeast Alaska, this is called a brown bear, while in the interior and in the lower 48, the same species is known as the grizzly. We have been told, however, that the brown bears in Southeast Alaska tend to be larger than the grizzlies elsewhere, since they have an easier time getting food due to the abundance of fish.