The Alaska Marine to Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan

The rain started in Juneau as we were sitting in line for the ferry.The ride from Juneau to Petersburg was over 8 hours so we got a cabin so we could sleep before getting off the ferry at 3:30 am.

A pretty basic room with bunk beds and a bathroom












Upon arrival in Petersburg we drove down the road to a wide spot where we could park and continue our sleep until morning. In the morning we drove back into town to find some coffee and breakfast. We found a nice coffee shop with really good homemade muffins. Then we checked out the Visitor Center to get some directions to places of interest. By now it was starting to mist again and, of course, there were plenty of clouds hanging low.

The beach view

 Petersburg is predominately a commercial fishing community. The big cruise ships do not stop here so tourism is secondary. After driving around the North side of the Island we headed to the library to find some internet and catch up on the blog. The library was a beautiful new building, huge for the size of the community.  The library in Grand Isle would fit in one of the meeting rooms here.  We then found our campground and settled  in for a rainy night. The second day in Petersburg we drove to the South end of the Island and then visited a fish hatchery and a salmon ladder.

It is difficult to capture fish jumping up the stream without a rapid fire camera but they were there and it was very cool to see.

Wednesday morning we again boarded the ferry for a 3 hour ride through a narrow passage to Wrangell. We left the dock at 5:30 am so it was just getting light out. The rain stopped until just before we landed.

Left Bank

Right Bank

My panorama view

 Wrangell was a nice enough town and the people were friendly . . .the down side was that it rained nearly all of the time we were here.  We spent several hours in the library as there were few other places to go. We did see a replica of a native tribal house and we had a chance encounter with a retired Vice Admiral from the Coast Guard.

The totem poles had been taken down and put under cover to await restoration.

Al getting soaked as he filled our external water tank .  . .did I mention that it rained the whole time we were in Wrangell.

I tried to take a picture of a hummingbird hanging  around the hosta outside the library window.




















Once again we boarded the ferry at night for a 6 hour ride to Ketchikan. We had a cabin and slept until the ferry docked at 5:45 then we drove to a Walmart  parking lot for another couple hours of shuteye. Coffee and food was the next priority and I found the best deal we have had in Alaska; $0.50 for a 12 oz coffee at a shop frequented by locals. It was too early to drive to our campground so we went exploring. The Vice Admiral we had conversed with in Wrangell had told us to go to Herring Cove on the South end of the Island to see bears . . . . he should know he was stationed here. We went but saw no bears, no good place to park either so we made our way back North.

We found a nice waterfalls along side of the road.

Some nice views since the rain had subsided for a few minutes








And a really nice public beach

A tug towing a container barge to deeper water. Notice the cars on top of the containers? That is how many cars are shipped around here to various places.

 Only in Alaska do you see grocery stores on the water front with cruise ships passing by. An interesting sight to behold.

We even found an old Roadtrek in the parking lot with us.












Our campground for the weekend was really more of a seasonal fishing haven. Most of the campers here were seasonals and they had many people coming in everyday to rent boats and go out fishing.
It was really not a bad place and the view was nice from the dock.

Once again our little guy is dwarfed by a Class A

I went down on the dock this morning to see what fish people were getting and we met a couple from Montana cleaning up their Halibut catch. We talked for awhile and then the gentleman gave us a very nice fillet for our dinner tonight. It was really nice of him and we thoroughly enjoyed having fresh fish.

Ready to be cooked

Ready to be eaten

Our final night in Ketchikan and once again it is raining with an anticipated rainfall of 2-3 inches. Tomorrow we head to Prince Rupert, Canada on our final ferry ride of the trip.