Our 1st day off !!

Saturday, June 4^th 

Waterfalls from Rainbow Glacier (in the clouds) plunge behind Lori

WoooHooo!! Our first day off…free to roam and explore! Haines is actually on a peninsula about 10 miles north from the tip. We headed towards the end first, to Chilkat State Park. We passed the fish cannery and a bay that had a dozen or so boats trolling for King Salmon which are just now starting to come in. From the state park campground you have an amazing view across the inlet of the Davidson glacier and the Rainbow glacier, which is a “hanging glacier” meaning it hangs in the mountains and does not end at water. Instead, it ends with a couple of huge waterfalls which make their way into the bay. 

Cannery near Chilkat

After lunch we headed 10 miles the other side of town to Chilkoot Lake and river (yes it’s confusing…Chilkat – Chilkoot). Soon, the salmon will be running up the river to spawn in the lake and today, there were a dozen bald eagles, both juvenile and adult, fishing. When the salmon run it is known as a great place to watch the bears fish.

Chilkoot river waiting for the salmon

We ended the day by driving about 25 miles up the Haines highway along the Chilkat river, past the bald eagle reserve, where in November, around 3,000 bald eagles (the largest gathering in North America) come to mate. Now that would be something to see! Also up a little further is Porcupine Junction where they are filming the Alaska gold mining show that is now on TV. They claim to be taking $30,000 a day gold from the river bed. Monday, our next day off, the bosses are sending us back to Skagway for the day to ride the White Pass & Yukon Railway again because we sell those tour tickets at the Hitch Up and we need to be experts so we can sell them.

Haines from the bay