Heading South :: Haines to Juneau to Petersburg

Before leaving Haines we headed back down to the river to take a few more photos of bald eagles and to hopefully get another glimpse of the brown bear (aka grizzly) that had been hanging around. Watch the video at the end of the last post! Since there are no roads to connect most of Southeast Alaska, we boarded the M/V Malaspina to take a trip down the Alaska Marine Highway.  When we came up here, back in March, we made one long ferry-trip from Bellingham to Haines that took three days. This time we are dividing the journey into several shorter trips with 2-3 days at each destination. Eldred Rock LighthouseA few hours later we drove off the ferry in Auke Bay near the capital city of Alaska: Juneau. Mendenhall Glacier near JuneauWhen we first arrived in Juneau, there were four cruise ships right in the middle of downtown – along with all their passengers. If you want to plan your own voyage along Alaska’s Inside Passage and avoid the crowds of the cruise ships – not to mention save a few bucks – check out this book for tips on traveling the Alaska Marine Highway.Juneau must have more jewelry stores than bars – and that is saying a lot considering how many bars most Alaskan towns have. After a couple of days in Juneau we drove aboard the M/V Taku and made an overnight passage to Petersburg – a small town with strong Norwegian roots. To see the inside of an Alaska ferry watch the video I made on our passage north.Early morning arrival in Petersburg