ALASKA CRUISE - PORTS

The cruise ships visit three Alaskan towns, and one in Canada.  Ketchikan and Skagway are basically small fishing villages with very well developed tourist industries.  Juneau is bigger as befits a state capital, but what in thunder possessed Alaskans to make a little port town on the panhandle with no access by road their capital city?  Victoria, British Columbia's capital, has a similar problem, since it's located on Vancouver Island, but it's a much more impressive city.  In Ketchikan and Skagway I did a walkabout, and took the tram ride in Juneau.

In Ketchikan I shot a number of totems.  Most are basically one-sided, but there was a cute three-dimensional aspect to the last one.

 

The three Alaskan towns are much the same, small and relatively inaccessible. 

Juneau from the Mt. Roberts Tram

Ketchikan

Skagway from the docks

All share in the incredible scenery of the southern Alaskan coast.

Across the harbor from Ketchikan

View down Alaska St. in Skagway

 

View above Juneau

 

Even with the hoards of tourists from four or five tour ships nearly every day all summer, there would still be worse places to live.

The tram in Juneau and the lodge and visitor center on Mt. Roberts are all owned by one of the Tlingit tribes.  Unlike in the lower 48, the native Alaskans do not live on reservations and are not 'nations'.  They are rather formed into corporations owned by the tribe members, who live in the community.  And these are not dummy corporations.  The one that owns the Mt. Roberts operation had over $7 million in revenue last year, and has over $45 million in equity.  There was a presentation summarizing their history; they got a lot less interference from the Russians when they owned Alaska then when America took over.

Many towns had a red-light district during the Alaskan gold rush; Ketchikan has made theirs a central part of their tourist story.  Built on pilings along the creek and reached by a path called 'married man way', the houses are now mostly souvenir shops.

In Skagway, the tourist section is only a few square blocks, but it also contains a former brothel, which in this case has been turned into the Red Onion Saloon.  But the real attraction here is the wall décor.

For such a tiny place, Skagway seemed to give the best photo opportunities.  For example, there were at least two really dedicated car buffs.

And yes, that's a real Hudson Metro.

My sister took the excursion train, which went out into the gold exploration area, but she said the main attraction was the tour guide.

Oh and speaking of trains, how do you keep the tracks clear in the winter?  You use this monster, an industrial sized snow blower.

 

Going from big to small, my last Skagway shot is this tiny cabin sitting in an otherwise normal residential section.

 

 

And a final note.  This shot was taken in Juneau, but it could have been in any of the three Alaskan ports.

 

 

The rich do live better.

 

In Victoria I took the tour to the Butchart Gardens, which is named for the woman who designed them, when she built them in the former quarry dug by her husband's limestone business.  Here's a montage.