Haines, AK

We started our Alaskan adventure off in the small Portage Cove town of Haines. We had an amazing place to stay that was right on the water where we spent most days watching the Bald Eagles playing in the breeze.

The only problem with Haines?

The cruise ships.

When they came in to port the internet would come to a screeching halt which made it pretty much impossible for the Jerl to work. He would get up really early and try to get some done before the ship would come in and then wait until it left late that night. All that free time during the day gave us ample opportunity to do some exploring!

Haines is known as The Valley of Eagles! And Guys, there were a ton of them there! This is the best shot I got. Eagles like to fly high and are dang fast. It was hard to get a decent shot!! We drove through the Bald Eagle Preserve which is on the way into town, but we didn’t see any there. I guess we might have gone at the wrong time? That’s ok though, because we saw plenty of them around town!

We spent a few hours one morning hiking through the rain forest. Did you know that Alaska has a rain forest? We had it on good authority that bears rarely visited this area because there wasn’t a food source for them, but I was still a little nervous. I kept looking behind me just to make sure there wasn’t a bear sneaking up on us. We made lots of noise and had a really enjoyable morning hiking through a forest that looked like it was made for a movie! Fun side note…We bought two bear bells before we started our trip because people kept telling us it was a good way to avoid bears. When we got to Banff we told one of the Rangers we had them and she kind of smiled and got this look on her face before she told us that the Rangers like to call bear bells…dinner bells. The bears hear them so much they ignore them so when you’re out on the trail thinking you’re alerting the bears to your presence so they won’t get startled…you’re not. The bears will sometimes even follow the noise of the bells in hopes of food. Needless to say…we haven’t been using them. The trail we were following was very spongy between all of the roots. It was kind of fun to bounce on and see some of the closer trees kind of move. Everything was sooo green.

We hiked down to the beach and took in the view for a bit before heading back to the car. The beach wasn’t sand…it was rocks. We’d been told about Love Rocks at the RV park and so we all started looking for them while we were on the beach. Love Rocks are a grey rock with a white stipe down the middle. We found a few! 

We also went to the local fish cannery. It wasn’t in operation the day we went, but we got to walk around the outside of it a little. You can see a it in the photo above. After we visited the Cannery, we went back into town and ate at a little fish shack owned by the Cannery.

It was your basic food truck set up. Between the five of us, I think we got everything they offered. I had the halibut and the rockfish. Jerl and I both liked the rockfish the most. It was so flakey and buttery…yum! 

This raven…he was so sure we were going to feed him. He watched and danced and even tried to sneak up under the table and grab a fry from Nicholas. There were just as many (if not more) ravens in Haines as Bald Eagles, and boy, let me tell you…those birds are so noisy! And big!! They have so many different sounds. One morning our cat, Magnus, was laying on the chair watching a great big raven out the door and I swear to you, it sounded like that raven was laughing at him. I got up and looked out the door expecting to see a person there, but it was one of the ravens sitting up on the electric pole look right at Magnus. I don’t think Magnus was amused.

One of our favorite things to do was visit Alaska Rod’s. We ended up going in there all but one of the days we were in Haines. Rod and Rhonda were a wealth of information on the area and became fast friends. It didn’t hurt that we always got free samples of the fudge Rod makes. It’s hands down the best fudge we’ve ever had. I think we ended up buying a couple of pounds of it! It didn’t last long…I’m seriously thinking about having him ship us some! If you’re ever in Haines, Alaska Rod’s is a must stop!

On our quest to find some bears (from the safety of our car) we drove up to this river where they have this contraption that goes all the way across the river so that the fish are funneled into this one small opening and this guy stands there all day counting fish. Sound like fun? No? The river was really pretty…but we didn’t see a single bear.

And…of course there were the flowers…so many pretty ones, but here are my favorites. The flowers in the bottom right photo above are called Fireweed. Yep, they’re weeds…and yep, they were everywhere! But, they’re so stinkn’ pretty no one minds. This beauty in the bottom left photo above is another weed. Go ahead…laugh at my infatuation with weeds. It’s ok. I often chuckle to myself about how many flower/weed pictures I take. So, this one… you don’t want to touch. We’ve heard it called a few different names now. Wild Celery and Cow Parsnip are a couple. The oils on this plant cause severe burns when you get it on your skin and then the sun hits it. This stuff is everywhere too. I don’t know what the name of the one in the top photo above is. It’s a type of rose and we saw them in quite a few places in town. They smelled heavenly!

Nicholas got an impromptu guitar lesson in front of our RV one afternoon by one of our fellow campers! Not a bad view for a lesson! I think Nicholas was thrilled to talk and play with someone and I think the Guy was just as thrilled that someone so young wanted to spend time with him playing guitars.

We got a chip in our windshield on our way to Haines. We had a guy come out and fix it and now you can’t really even tell it was there. Several of the other campers in Haines told us horror stories of their woes on the Alaskan/Canadian roads. Bolts being sheered right off…drawers bouncing out of the cabinets…doors coming off hinges… There was a long list or really bad things they listed off. All things considered…we’ll take the little chip and count our blessings. In fact, there were quite a few of the other campers (the guy who gave Nicholas his guitar lesson was one of them) here who were waiting on a spot on the ferry back down to the lower 48. They refused to drive it. They were just done with it.

We ended up leaving Haines early so Jerl could work. We’re glad we visited Haines, but can’t really see ourselves going back.

Unless it’s to get some more fudge…and hit that food truck again!!

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound