Inside Passage

August 8 & 9: This was hurry up and wait day. Got Escape To ready for the ferry and found a Safeway that sold blocks of ice and emptied the refrigerator into a cooler and taped shut for the ferry ride, as they turn off your propane before loading on the ferry. Put a third block in small cooler with wheels with our drinks, chicken wraps for lunches, crackers, cheese and pepperoni to take with us on the ferry. Next step was waiting line for the ferry. Everyone was measured (you pay by the foot for vehicles) and assigned a lane #. Ours was 9 and we decided it was based on your destiation. Sure enough we were the last to load. You load on the ferry on a very narrow ramp with the help of a guide who directs you. We were almost down the ramp to ferry, when he stopped us and said we needed to back up. They needed to adjust the ramp as they decided the ramp was too steep for us. They raised the ramp and changed the angle and on to the ferry we go where the crew directed us where to park. We gather what we want to take onboard as we will be on the ferry for the next 44 hours and we are off to the next part of our journey.


It was an experience and we saw the entire inside passage. Our ferry stopped at Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Kake, Sitka and Juneau. All the stops but Sitka was during daylight and we saw all the small towns, and would love to spend time in Petersburg. At Sitka the ferry docked around 1 AM and left at 4AM, we got up to see it leave Sitka and while still dark, we could see how narrow the Peril Straight is. You feel that you could reach out and touch the mountains one either side as they come down to the water with no beach. The ferry system and flying is the only way to travel between these locations as there are no roads. The ferry is very inexpensive for people and they bring their sleeping bags, inflatable mattress, and sometimes tents and sleep on the ferry deck for the trip.

Between Petersburg and Kake we saw hundreds of whales blowing, breaching, and feeding . We also saw eagles, gulls, black quillemats, common murres, and some scotters.

Whale breach

one of several light houses we saw from the ferry

Our Ferry

The ferry is great fun and the people that work on the ferry are great and the ferry is very clean. Stopping at each town and spending some time could be a trip in itself.