Today we took the ferry from Skagway to Haines.
Alaska Marine Highway
There are very few places that you can drive to in the southeastern peninsula of Alaska. Skagway and Haines may be the only two, but I wont' swear to it. Between the ocean and massive ice fields and moving glaciers, there is just no place to put a highway. Alaska has solved this dilemma by providing the Alaska Marine Highway to go up and down the coast.Though Haines and Skagway are both accessible by vehicle, It's about a 250 mile trip and two international border crossings to get from one to the other. Going by ferry, it's about 20 miles. If you drive the entire round trip between the four cities, they call it the Golden Circle. (I think that's just a tourism/marketing term.)
Boarding
For larger vehicles, they charge by the foot, so the first thing they did was measure it.
They assigned a different lane for the car and the motorhome. Since we were there early, we were first in line on both lanes.
We watched the ferry arrive...
...and then the vehicles bound for Skagway offloaded.
Now it's our turn. We were first on, after a couple cars that were going on to Juneau.
Backing in was a challenge, because it was near high tide, and the ramp was steep. They had ramps and chocks they had to keep moving to keep the angle from getting too steep and bottoming out.
The Trip
After casting off, we had smooth sailing to Haines. The passenger deck was enclosed and comfortable, and the view of the fjord was beautiful.
Scenic views from deck
Offloading At Haines
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