Alaska 2013, Day 56, Ferry to Sitka

Saturday July 27, 2013

Ferry to Sitka

Queued up for the ferry at 6:30 AM, most of the passengers were already in line, they must have spent the night in the lot. Got the high speed ferry; Fairweather.  Just before entering Peril Strait we had a humpback breaching next to the shore maybe a dozen times. I think I got some video.  Peril Strait is really narrow and full of turns. There was also a swift tidal current coming through here. Halfway we stopped in Angoon and quite a few natives got off from Juneau and on for Sitka. 

This time in Sitka we stayed in the city campground, Sealing Cove, just across the Japonski Island bridge.  Really close to downtown. Sawmill Creek state park was an iffy ride in last time so I figured we would try somewhere else. No other campers in the campground.


Halibut Point

We finished setting up a little after 4:00 PM so not enough time to hit the national park or a musuem so we went down to Halibut Point to see the totem pole we saw set in 2008.  It is amazing how aged it now looks after 5 years on the beach.  Lots of salmon berries here along the shore.

Salmon Berries

After supper I told the kids we would drive out to Sawmill Creek campground, where we stayed in 2008, to pick salmon berries. In 2008 the place was full of berries.  We drove back but they are doing blasting from Whale Park all the way to the end of  the road, including the campground entrance road.  The campground road was closed so we couldn't drive back.  We stopped a couple places on the way back to pick berries, Thimbleberry Creek and the National Park.  We got quite a few at the National Park pull off.  Looks like lots of people are picking them, they were pretty well culled.  They were pretty good with whipped cream and Tillamook vanilla yogurt.

Looks like a lot of pink salmon in the harbor.  We could see them off Sheldon Jackson College and south of the National Park pull off (Eagle Way Rd).