Haines to Juneau, Alaska

We had a great trip on the Alaska Marine Highway system this morning. We chose a new ‘fast’ ferry and it moved at 37 knots/hour which is about twice as fast as a regular ferry. The only drawback was when we saw porpoises and a whale, we lost sight of them fast, too.

There were very few people leaving Haines today. In fact there were only three other vehicles besides our motorhome on the car deck!

The ferry was packed coming to Haines due to all the people coming to take in the Southeast Alaska State Fair. There were a whole lot of young people with backpacks, tents and bicycles all heading in to see the fair. It’s likely the highlight of the summer for these young folks.

This lighthouse island along our route looked nice. It looks like it has a keeper living on it.

This is a picture of the lounge area. Isn’t it nice.

We had front row seats in the forward area and the two hour ride went really quickly. The captain did an excellent job backing us into the dock to disembark.

Then it was a short drive up to the Spruce Meadow RV Park where we have a site booked for the next four nights. It’s a really nice site with lots of trees, a picnic table and a fire pit.

How’s this for a different RV! There are four similar ones in our park, with jeeps for tow vehicles. They are heading north and plan to drive both the Dalton & Dempster highways.

Since it is about 14 miles into Juneau and there are lots of hills around here, we decided to rent a car for the next three days. The manager of the park was very helpful in finding a rental and even drove us to the airport to pick it up!

With wheels, we drove into and through Juneau and right on down the coast to a restaurant the park owner had recommended. Downtown Juneau is really unique. It is squished into a strip of land and part way up the mountain. There are lots of cruise ships docking here daily so there are many, many attractive looking stores and restaurants. The ships tie up literally right down town.

This is the Mount Robson tramway which leaves right from the downtown cruise dock area. We'll probably take a ride on it while we're here.

We weren’t too sure about the restaurant when we saw it (pretty rustic), but the staff were welcoming and the food was delicious. The salmon and halibut had been picked up at the dock earlier in the afternoon and the salad bar was excellent. So, it was a very good recommendation.

The road out was scenic, along the coast of course, and there were several waterfalls coming down.

After supper we drove around town a bit, including past the Alaska State Capitol building.

It seemed odd that there was no 'grounds' around the capitol building, but I guess that's because of the shortage of space. The front door is attractive.

Next we crossed the bridge over to Douglas Island. Most of the Juneau residents live either on Douglas Island or in the Mendenhall Island (where our RV park is). Douglas Island, is also very hilly. Look at these stairs, going up to the street above.

We were able to get some nice pictures of downtown Juneau from Douglas Island.

It’s going to be really nice to have the car to run around with for the next few days.