A Journal, with Pictures

On Sun­day we arrive in Skag­way, which was the jump­ing off point for the Klodike stam­pede. Skag­way is on a north­ern fin­ger of the inside pas­sage. This sea­port sits on a deep-water fjord, the Taiya inlet, at the head of Lynn Canal, which stretch­es 90 miles from Juneau. We choose a wild life view­ing excur­sion in the Chilkat Bald Eagle Pre­serve. Once we docked in Skag­way, we went by van to our fer­ry for the 30 min­uet ride to Haines, Alas­ka. We then board­ed a bus that took us to our jump­ing off point for our raft trip down the Chilkat riv­er, were the salmon run­ning upstream in shal­low water attract bald eagles. At the peak sea­son, Novem­ber, they esti­mate that four thou­sand eagles vis­it the area. We were briefed by our guides, and then spent two hours enjoy­ing the incred­i­ble land­scape, eagles, and a native flute ser­e­nade by Sun­ny our guide. CP the tour direc­tor enter­tained us, sold us the T‑shirt that funds a big par­ty at the end of the tourist sea­son and regaled us with sto­ries at lunch after the riv­er trip. Then it was back to Skag­way the way we came, some sight see­ing in town, cock­tails in the cab­in, a great din­ner then we took in the ships evening show “Le Cirque Navigaton”.