North to Alaska: Ferry Time

This was a day we were anticipating with mixed emotions. First, we knew when we boarded the ferry, even with a couple brief visits along the way; we were departing a place that had been our home for three months and that we had truly enjoyed. On the other hand, this would be the first time we had taken a ferry trip that lasted for several days and we were anticipating viewing Alaska’s inside passage with all of the beautiful scenery and wildlife while traveling by ferry. August 26 soon came and it was time to board the Malaspina for a four hour cruise to Juneau, Alaska’s capital city; where we enjoyed two days. Then we boarded the Matanuska and ferried down to Ketchikan, a beautiful waterfront town where we spent another two days. Wednesday afternoon we boarded the Columbia for an 8AM arrival on Friday morning in Bellingham, WA. We really enjoyed our ferry adventure on the Alaska Inside Passage. All three ferries we were on were very nice and had many amenities such as: cafeteria, movies, laundry, both inside and outside viewing areas, lounges, ranger talks, staterooms and more. If you are planning on traveling to Alaska, we would highly recommend that you travel either going to or leaving Alaska on the Alaska Marine Highway through Alaska's inside passage. We think you will be glad you took the ferry. As we mentioned earlier we chose to get off the ferry at Juneau and Ketchikan and will share some pictures of both cities in another post.

Waiting to load the Malaspina

The ramp leading up to the Malaspina

A couple of light houses along the inner passage

Another beautiful glacier as seen from the Malaspina

Leaving Juneau for Ketchikan. The Matanuska will be our home for the next two nights

Gypsy wanted to take a break off the boat in Petersburg. She thinks the grass is greener on shore

A couple pictures of the Petersburg shoreline

Our next stop was in Wrangle. These stops were approximately 45 minutes. Just enough time to unload those getting off in wrangle,load new passengers and let Gypsy go to shore to take care of some business.

A couple pictures of our stateroom. It was so nice to have a quite place to go and rest.

Our stateroom was nice with three beds; one for Linda, one for me and one for Gypsy??? She only wished she could have stayed with us... DOGS had to stay on the car deck. Gypsy stayed in the camper on the car deck.

The sunsets were awesome from the ferries

The Wrangell Narrows is a winding, 35-km-long (22 mi) channel between Mitkof Island and Kupreanof Island in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska. The Wrangell Narrows is one of the six Listed narrows in Southeast Alaska. There are about 60 lights and buoys to mark it because of its winding nature and navigation hazards. A lot of precautions are taken prior to navigating these narrows such as: They have two crews in the pilot house, They ensure the tides are high enough (with changes up to 20 feet in tides, on a low tide there is not enough water to get through the narrows) and they place an individual on the bow to drop anchor if needed.