Alaska: The Last Frontier
The weekend trip to Alaska was jaw-dropping amazing! Skagway, Alaska is only a two-hour drive from Whitehorse and is a neat tourist trap of a town. It's a little bizarre because you're in the middle of mountains (ie. middle of nowhere) and you get to this tiny town of about 800 people with about 10 diamond jewelry stores. Weird. But then, when about 5 cruise ships dock and THOUSANDS of tourists flood the streets of this tiny town...it starts to make sense. Well, the 10 diamond stores still doesnt make sense to me. There are no diamonds in Alaska...it was gold. They got it all wrong. Thankfully there were only 2 cruise ships docked while we were there so it wasnt as busy. Our conclusion of Skagway is that it's a town for rich anorexic people. We coudlnt find any places to eat, but again... a gazillion of jewelry stores! Overall, it was a cute town.
That night, we hiked slightly out of the town to rock point on the ocean! We were told that it was illegal to camp there and there were no bear boxes there.... BUT we hung our food and figured the worst that could happen is the park police ("bear patrol" heheh, Alia!) would kick us out. I decided we should sleep under the stars and not set up the tent because really, is a tent really going to protect you from a bear? No! So why use it? We each found a random flat crevice in the rocks and slept outside. It was gorgeous! The stars were incredible...there were so many. There were seals swimming around, the tide was going out, cool autumn breeze, and then a group of drunk kids having a fire a few hundred feet away! I tried to not let them ruin the mood so I tuned them out. They eventually left. Once I was able to stop staring at the stars, I fell into a good sleep. I eventually woke up to rain! I was dry, but the outside of the bag was wet so it had been raining for a while. We eventually fumbled down the rocks (wet and slippery in the dark!) and on the trail and slept under a picnic shelter. Probably not the wisest of moves since that's where we hung our food, but we woke up in one piece! No grizzlies!
We woke up really early the next morning and hopped on the ferry to Haines, Alaska. It was a beautiful ride. Great mountains, glaciers, and birds. Haines is much different than Skagway since they only get one cruise ship a week (read: less touristy, more normal). We had to catch the ferry back later in the afternoon so we didnt have time for a good hike. So it turned out to be a restful Sunday. I sat out on a rock with my binoculars by the ocean and was quite content. Then we hit up the beach and wharf and hung out there, explored the town. It was a great day! Blue skies, sunny, warm, ocean, birds, mountains....ALASKA!
That night, we hiked slightly out of the town to rock point on the ocean! We were told that it was illegal to camp there and there were no bear boxes there.... BUT we hung our food and figured the worst that could happen is the park police ("bear patrol" heheh, Alia!) would kick us out. I decided we should sleep under the stars and not set up the tent because really, is a tent really going to protect you from a bear? No! So why use it? We each found a random flat crevice in the rocks and slept outside. It was gorgeous! The stars were incredible...there were so many. There were seals swimming around, the tide was going out, cool autumn breeze, and then a group of drunk kids having a fire a few hundred feet away! I tried to not let them ruin the mood so I tuned them out. They eventually left. Once I was able to stop staring at the stars, I fell into a good sleep. I eventually woke up to rain! I was dry, but the outside of the bag was wet so it had been raining for a while. We eventually fumbled down the rocks (wet and slippery in the dark!) and on the trail and slept under a picnic shelter. Probably not the wisest of moves since that's where we hung our food, but we woke up in one piece! No grizzlies!
We woke up really early the next morning and hopped on the ferry to Haines, Alaska. It was a beautiful ride. Great mountains, glaciers, and birds. Haines is much different than Skagway since they only get one cruise ship a week (read: less touristy, more normal). We had to catch the ferry back later in the afternoon so we didnt have time for a good hike. So it turned out to be a restful Sunday. I sat out on a rock with my binoculars by the ocean and was quite content. Then we hit up the beach and wharf and hung out there, explored the town. It was a great day! Blue skies, sunny, warm, ocean, birds, mountains....ALASKA!
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