Beginning a week in Haines, Alaska
Cathy and I had left Whitehorse on Saturday, August 17th, with reservations at the Oceanside RV Park in Haines for 5 nights starting on Monday. After spending two nights camped in a spectacular pullout along the Haines Highway at the Summit, we headed for Haines at about 1:30 Monday afternoon. The first photo was shot as we were stopped to wait for a pilot car at a major construction location at the Mile 16 slide area.
We had booked the best row at the best RV park in Haines, as we believe that a great view is paramount, and being able to walk around town is next in importance – Oceanside offers both. It’s very expensive, at $60 per night, with another $5 if you have dogs. That totals $87.60 Canadian per night. This was the view from the grass strip in front of our RV, in the middle of the row, site #7.
The paved sites are very wide, enough for slides on both sides of the RV (which we have) and lots of room to move around. This was the view out the large driver’s side windows, though.
The weather forecast for the week was mixed but as it turned out even when it was cloudy we could usually see peaks such as these ones on the east side of Chilkoot Inlet (shot with a 200mm zoom).
I was extremely surprised to see the cruise ship Radiance of the Seas approaching just before 7 pm. I could make no sense of it but thought it might have something to do with the screaming wind coming up the inlet.
The Radiance didn’t dock, though. A few minutes later, she backed away, then turned around and headed south. The next photo was shot at 7:35, with a Silverseas ship in the background.
It turned out that the Radiance had been scheduled to dock from 7-11 pm. I didn’t know what was a thing now. The wind, however, prevented her from docking. The next photo is a broad view from our site as the Radiance sailed away.
The next photo looks back at the RV park from the marina breakwater at 8:30 while we were out of a dog-walk.
The marina from the same spot.
The steep ramp down to the marina floats at 8:35, near low tide. The tide range is about 15 feet.
Cathy and the pups back at the RV at 9:07 pm.
We had no real plans for the week – we would just do whatever we wanted at the moment. On Tuesday morning, we spent an hour at the Hammer Museum that was the subject of the last post, then went for a wander around town. The next photo shows the Fogcutter Bar on Main Street.
The flowers around the First National Bank at Main and 2nd were lovely.
Walking past Howsers IGA grocery store, I noticed a window display of my Haines friend Greg Podiski’s cartoons, which he is currently working on making into an Alaska colouring book.
A closeup of one of the colouring pages.
Our turnaround point for this walk was Haines Brewing. That afternoon, we took a drive along the coast out to Chilkoot Lake, 10 miless north. I lucked into seeing the Alaska State ferry MV Hubbard departing for Juneau, so pulled over and shot a few photos. The MV Hubbard just went into service last year after being built at Vigor Shipyard in Ketchikan. She is 280 feet long, seats up to 300 passengers and carries 53 standard vehicles.
On the way back, we stopped at Tlegu Beach at Tanai Bay to take Bella and Tucker for a walk. There’s a small rest area along the highway here, and we’ve been stopping fairly regularly on all of our visits to Haines.
I was out wandering very early on Wednesday (August 21st) after seeing a small cruise ship anchored in the harbour. I shot the first photo of the day at 04:45, 50 minutes before official sunrise.
After shooting the photo above, the first stop was the clubhouse, which is where the washrooms and the only wifi are. This photo looks back from the patio, at 4:51.
Next, a short walk over to the marina, still in my pyjamas 🙂
Another photo at 05:02, with the cruise ship parade to Skagway going by. My guess is that the passengers on those ships drop an average of $1,000,000 each day in Skagway. Skagway really is what cruise ship tourism gone wrong looks like, but that’s a pile of $ to pass up, and I’m sure it’s a tough decision for some people.
This photo, shot from our RV at 07:05, makes me want to drive back to Haines right now. Sunny mornings there are so incredible 🙂
Just after 0:800, Cathy and I took the dogs for a long walk, with what locals call City Beach, and the main cruise ship dock located there, being the main destination.
At 08:40, the ultra-luxury cruise ship Regatta, pulled up. She has a maximum capacity of 824 passengers, with a crew of 386. There were now 3 ships – the American Constellation (175 passengers, 43 crew) had been first, then the small National Geographic Sea Lion (62 passengers, 24 crew).
We spent about half an hour on the beach, then headed back to the RV park.
The berries of mountain ash add nice splashes of colour all around Haines.
We had arranged to go for a hike with our friend Greg, and by 10:30 were starting down the Battery Point Trail. It’s walkable from town if you’re energetic, but we drove.
The forest is gorgeous – truly Southeast Alaska rainforest at its finest. There were a surprising number of people on the trail, many of them with a Whitehorse-based tour company I worked with for a while just before retiring.
About 20 minutes along, we took a side trail out the beach and walked along it. While very scenic, the footing wasn’t good due to long grass, rocks and sticks. Cathy decided she had had enough, and headed back to the car (we had known from the start that might be the case and had agreed to it).
The beach walking as we neared Kelgaya Point was much better, but I could see that Bella, who is now 11 years old, was getting tired.
In the forest just above Kelgaya Point there was an informal camping spot that provided a comfortable place to rest. Greg gave the pups a drink from his water bottle – I had neglected to bring any.
A huge flock of surf scoters (Melanitta perspicillata) sailed past us when we walked down to the point.
A look back at the beach we had walked along – it doesn’t appear to have a name, though the one to the north of the point is Kelgaya Bay.
Back at Haines at 1:00, with all 3 cruise ships visible.
That evening, Greg and I decided to ride our e-bikes out to Chilkoot Lake. About 7 miles from the RV park, though, the derailleur snapped off my bike, ending the ride. There is no cell service out there, so Greg started riding back to call for a ride, and I started walking back, pushing the bike. I had walked about 4 miles when Greg’s son Forrest and his wife and daughter arrived. I later commented on Facebook: “In the 4 miles or so I walked, about 15 vehicles passed me [most with Alaska plates], and not one stopped to ask if I needed help. One old fart stopped to laugh, though. I’m fairly certain that in a similar situation here (the Fish Lake Road would be similar), at least 5 of those people would have stopped to offer assistance. I was both surprised and disappointed.”
This is a good place to end this post (the bike ride was on Wednesday evening, August 21) – there will be more about the Haines area tomorrow…
About The Author
Good day Murrster, Haines is a beautiful spot to revisit from a smart phone in Nova Scotia with you as our tour guide, got there once driving a tour bus trip, but enjoyed going as a Whitehorse resident seeking American experience, first time was a road trip with my recently purchased 1982 gmc pickup, collapsed lifter in the engine in Haines but a local mechanic tightened it down and we nursed it back to Whitehorse on 7 cylinders , people were more helpful back in the day and the Good Samaritan law probably doesn’t get the use it use too unfortunately these days, thanks for the Haines tripping post 🇺🇸✌️🇨🇦