Sitka, August 3-8, 2009

From Haines, we traveled by ferry south to Sitka. Actually they had a new program called, "See Alaska" where you could get off at three different stops in Alaska for one set price. On the advice of some friends, we decided to go to Sitka, Wrangell and Ketchikan before disembarking at Prince Ruppert, British Columbia. This is the first leg of our ferry trip.


This is the ferry terminal as we leave Haines on Monday, August 3rd. Lynda drove the Jeep and Jim drove the Winnebago down this ramp and onto the ferry.

The green/yellow "W" you see here is actually a "M" for McDonalds. This is the view of a harbor from inside McDonalds in Sitka. This is the first and only franchise food restaurant we've seen since Fairbanks, so we went there for breakfast one day.

This view of the cruise ship in the harbor is by the library in Sitka. It is right downtown.

This is St Michael's Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Curch in the middle of town. It was originally built in 1844 but destroyed by fire in 1966 and rebuilt. They did salvage many of the church icons and religious objects were salvaged from the fire.

This is a side view of the cathedral. You can see the Russian influence in the architecture with the structures on the roof.

This is a street scene in Sitka. We were really impressed with this town. After so many town with gravel, they actually had lots of pavement, even at businesses! It was a very clean town and very pretty.

This is a bald eagle resting in the tree on Sawmill Road, a road which went out of town to a more wilderness area.

We went to a performance of the New Archangles, a dance group who performed Russian dances for us in authentic costumes. The Russians took over Sitka from the Tlingits for some time. When the Russians sold Alaska to the United States, legally all they "owned" at the time was Sitka. The native peoples controlled the rest.

This is a Russian dance done by noble women of Russia. It is very sedate in style.

This dance group has only women in it so here is a woman doing the male part of the dance. (The men chose not to join in the beginning and now the women won't let them join.) These are all volunteers who perform and use the funds for charity and scholarships. They wish to preserve the Russian culture.

One of the museums had this artic fox and I thought it would be good to have a photo since I will probably never see one in the wild.

This is a white goat from that same museum.

There is a hill near downtown Sitka where the Russians and Tlingits fought. It is called Castle Hill. The Tinglets won possesion of the town for several years before the Russians took over again. It was here that Alaska was turned over to the United States on October 18, 1867.

I am so happy that I found another lighthouse! This one can be seen from the bridge that goes over to Japonski Island, a "suburb" of Sitka.

This is a view of Sitka from Castle Hill.

This is "Pioneer's Home", built in 1934 for elderly Alaskans on the old Russian Army Parade Grounds.

This is an replica of an old block house, built on the fort wall surrounding part of Sitka. This was to keep the Tlingits in their own area, away from the town. The original was built here in 1824, after the Tlingits moved back into the area.

This view of Sitka homes is from the blockhouse site. This is all up on a hill. You can see parts of the cathedral in the background.

I just loved this bear bench! I think one of my posterity should get good enough with a chain saw to make me one! :-)

This is the Russian Bishops House, built in 1842 by the Russian-American Company as a residence for the Bishop of the Orthodox Church. It has been restored to the 1850's period when it was a residence, school and chapel. It is owned by the National Park Service.

This is the school next door to the Bishops House, where many native American boys were educated & housed.

This is a colonial house owned also by the Parks Service and now serves as offices for the Park Service.

This totem pole was near the school where the Native American children stayed.

In 1899, this church, St Peter's By-the-Sea Episcopal Church, was erected.

This building, behind St Peter's By-the-Sea church, is called the Sea House. It is huge!

One night we drove up Blue Lake Road, off Saw Mill Creek Road. It is a rough logging trail and several miles up, in the middle of nowhere, and saw this glacier that had slid down the mountain all at once carrying a lot of debris down the mountain. It was still melting underneath but as you can see by Jim running s stick up and down, the glacier ice is still there. It was right next to the road and a little scary!

This is a more distant view of that glacier. The front part here is the road we are traveling on...see what I mean by a little scary? The cave is where the ice melted, leaving the debris on top. Want to go walking around up there where the ground could cave in under you?

This shows the glacier in a distant view of clear up the mountain and all the vegetation it has brought down.
This is another eagle found on that Sawmill Creek Road. He is looking right at us!

This is a little creek off Blue Lake Road.

Here is another white wildflower of unknown name!

This red one might be part of the columbine family. Anyone know?

At the other end of the island there had been a sow bear and her 2 cubs seen in the stream there, so we went to see if we could spot her. We drove out here 3-4 times at dusk and NEVER saw her! This sign was across one of the paths there keeping people away from one of her "escape" routes! (What about our escape?) ;-)

While we were there at Starrigavan Creek, where Mom & Jr Bears were seen, we saw lots of Salmon jumping in the entrance to the creek from the bay. This meant they were moving into and up the creek.

Jim is here by Totem Trail at Sitka National Historical Park. These totem poles were huge! They are hollow in the back and attached to another pole to prevent them from splitting.

This is the entrance to the trail. We went on part of it but did not feel comfortable going on all of it due to bear activity of late.

We stayed at a city RV park on Japonski Island for a very reasonable price. This is the view from our bedroom window of the small boat harbor. There were only 2-3 other RV's there when we were there for four days.

This wild flower is so unique! It looks like green mineature roses to me!

Here is another white wildflower!

While in Sitka, we toured the Alaska Raptor Center where they take in injured raptors (birds of prey) and try to rehabilitate them to return to the wild. Some are too injured and must remain there or be sent to other appropriate places for them such as zoos and wildlife parks. This is an American Kestrel, a very small raptor, but quite pretty.

This is our majestic American Bald Eagle. A Bald Eagle takes 5 years to gain the white head and white tail feathers.

This Golden Eagle eats rodents and not fish, unlike the Bald Eagle.

This is the Great Gray Owl.

This is the Great Horned Owl.

This young girl is handling a Bald Eagle! Phew, he is almost as big as she is!

This is a beautiful Peregrine Falcon. It is a smaller raptor but very strong!

This is a Swainsons Hawk.

This brown bear was in the creek behind the Raptor Center, catching fish. The fence is not to keep him inside a cage but to keep him out of the Raptor Center! He is free.

Before we left on the ferry for Wrangell, we drove up Harbor Mountain Road. It was paved a short distance at the beginning, then was large gravel and one lane wide, with turn-offs. It was a little scary but had some great views.

Here is another view of the Harbor Mountain Road. See the crack in the Jeep windshield? A rock hit us on a paved road as we drove the Jeep around Soldotna, weeks before. It did not occur on a gravel road! Go figure...

This is a switchback on Harbor Mountain Road.

This sunset was on the way to the ferry about 9 pm on Friday, August 7th. We checked in at 11:30 PM and then got on the ferry at 2 am, Saturday morning, August 8th.