Side Roads
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Leave the Driving to Us:
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The car ferry along Alaska's Inside Passage. |
It's 1,962 miles by highway from Seattle to Anchorage. That's a hard four days if you hurry. But no one should hurry through such interesting country. Figure six or even eight days if you hope to really see and savor the scenery, the history, and the people awaiting the Alaska-bound traveler.
Then you have to come back. Reluctantly, perhaps, but most of us do come back to the "lower 48."
There
is an option. Each year, more and more adventurers board a
ferry to go to, or return from, Alaska. The ships are an
adventure in themselves. Exploring the decks and facilities,
meeting people, watching movies, and attending information
and entertainment programs. Or you can just kick back and
enjoy the escape from TV, daily bad-news papers, and
switch-your-long-distance phone hustles.
Going to sea can be an escape. The captain might invite you up to the bridge -- interesting. And the Inside Passage offers more than most deep-water voyages. Crossing the English Channel, the Adriatic Sea, the Atlantic from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland, or even Lake Michigan, includes on-board diversions, but beyond the deck rails there is water, sky, an occasional ship, maybe some dolphins and not much else. Relaxing, but hardly exciting.
The Inside Passage ferry route is mostly sailed within sight of land. Some sections are so narrow that you could play catch with someone on shore if you had a good arm. Some land! Rocky shores, timbered hills, snowy mountains, islands, villages, fishing boats and pleasure boats, isolated cabins, lighthouses, bald eagles -- sometimes sea mammals and even whales. Anyone who naps all afternoon misses the show.
Alaska State Ferries depart from Bellingham, Washington, and dock at Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, Haines, and Skagway on the through trips. Sitka is also a port of call on some sailings. Port time is enough to get off and walk around in these towns.
In Ketchikan there is usually enough arrival/departure window to permit unloading and reloading your vehicle, so you can drive the short roads to visit interesting sites such as the Totem Heritage Center and the Tongass Historical Museum.
If time is not a limiting factor, you might break up the voyage with a stopover at one of the Inside Passage ports. "Through" ferries run twice a week during the summer months, so your port visit would include three or four days. This might involve some careful scheduling and reservation planning, especially since reservations are often sold out during the high season -- June through September. Breaking up your voyage adds only a few dollars to the ferry fare, but hotels ashore increase the total trip expense.
Ferry travel is not cheap. One adult passage from Bellingham to Skagway is $246. A vehicle no longer than 19 feet costs $692. Cabins range from $100 to $400 (1998 rates). Many passengers sleep in the lounges or camp on the aft deck. That means passage for two people and one vehicle would cost from $1,200 to $1,600, plus food.
Driving the 2,000 miles should add up to $550 for fuel and lodging. RV owners might get home on $350 -- no motels but more fuel, and campground fees. These estimates do not include depreciation, insurance, and all the other vehicle costs, but it all boils down to ferry travel to or from Alaska costing two or three times the out-of-pocket for land travel.
Worth it? Definitely. If the costs were addressed rationally, we would all stay home. But Alaska should be on everyone's adventure travel wish-list, and a ferry trip adds to the experience.
Variations of the Bellingham-Skagway/Haines trip are available. Some travelers drive to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, then take the ferry to Haines or Skagway, or vice versa. Or you could take the British Columbia ferry from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, land in Prince Rupert, and there board an Alaska ferry, or drive inland and then up into Yukon and Alaska.
Beginning this summer, there will be ferry connections from Seward and Valdez to Juneau, then after a layover, another ferry to Bellingham. Again, that works both ways.
If the direct routes cannot satiate an appetite for cruising through fantastic scenery and visiting remote villages, there are shuttle ferries that connect to Alaskan and Canadian towns. If time and budget permitted, one could spend most of the summer sailing up, down, and around the Inside Passage area.
Those of us who love to drive, but also love ocean travel, usually experience conflicting emotions when the ship nears the destination port. We hate to see the voyage end but eagerly anticipate the scenic roads, mountains, glaciers, great rivers, history and wildlife awaiting ashore.
The ship has become a familiar home. New friendships have been established. Rolls of film and video consumed, and the memory cup runneth over. But now you can drive great highways, park and walk up to glaciers, watch bears and eagles, pan for gold, fish for salmon, or just travel and rest on your own schedule.
Alaska travel veterans offer a solution to this problem. Drive up, enjoy the rich experience of traveling western Canada and Alaska by vehicle, and use the ferry to return to reality. Disembarking into the world of freeways, the latest news, a stacked-full mailbox and an overloaded answering machine might not be exciting, but it is familiar -- the excitement of an awaiting unknown is lacking. You will still hate to go ashore, but it is a kind of closure.
Either way, to or from Alaska, the voyage is a wonderful three days and three nights at sea, a cruise with a view. Board the ferry and "leave the driving to us."
Copyright © 1999 Jim Elder. All
rights reserved.
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