It’s the Hayley’s 20th anniversary year and we’ve been celebrating all year long with special trips. And regarding that – there was no better trip to take than to return to the state where we honeymooned – Alaska.
In 1999, we took a small cruise ship from Vancouver through the Inside Passage to Juneau. This time, we flew directly to Wrangell, a town (and island) in the Inside Passage.
Wrangell is a very small town – some 2,000 residents. And it has a very small airport.
But it was also one of the friendliest towns we’ve ever been to. As we walked the 1 mile into town from the airport no fewer than 3 people stopped to ask us if we wanted a ride!
We stayed in a great guesthouse. We had a private bedroom, shared bathroom and shared kitchen. It was perfect.
Travel to Wrangell was tough – we had an overnight flight from Seattle (which included a long layover) and with the time change going west, we battled serious jet lag on our first day there.
The next day we recovered enough to go for a run and a hike to the top of Mt. Dewey. It was a steep, but relatively easy 2.5 mile route that John Muir once took!
And being nerds, we stopped to take photos of old churches – and tracked down the local Baptist church.
We also enjoyed the local restaurants. One of our favorites was the Pit Stop, serving inexpensive gourmet hot dogs made from reindeer meat.
Granite is mined locally. It’s not jewelry grade – in fact, it’s used for sandpaper (I DID NOT KNOW THIS!) but we did buy some rough-hewn stones worked into necklaces.
The totems throughout town were very cool.
But the coolest thing in town was Petroglyph Beach.
No one knows why they are there or what they mean, but they are awesome and are scattered everyone on the beach. You just have to look carefully as you walk.
The following day we headed out with one of our housemates to explore the Tongass National Forest. The Tongess is a rainforest (yes, in Alaska!) and covers most of Wrangell Island.
It’s incredibly beautiful – nothing but trees, water and fresh air.
We headed to the local museum and cultural affairs center for a tour, salmon tasting and dinner.
The next morning was the star of the show for us: the Bearfest Marathon and Half Marathon. All week the town had hosted Bearfest, and the race was the final event. There weren’t many runners, but there was a lot of heart and encouragement from the organizers. And A LOT of hills.
It was Kelly’s 3rd marathon this year.
I took a quick #CityHallSelfie while I waited on him to finish. 🙂
We gave our legs a rest break the next day – just walked around town exploring little sites and napping.
Our last day in Wrangell was unforgettable. We traveled to the Anan Bear Observatory for a day of bear, eagle and other wildlife watching.
It was an hour boat ride from Wrangell and a 30 minute hike from the bay to the observation platform … through bear territory.
We arrived and suddenly bears were everywhere! Primarily black bears were out while we were there, though brown bears arrived later on. The trees were filled with bald eagles, who were lazy and happy to let the bears do the work of catching fish for dinner.
The animals come because the river is a fantastic salmon run.
How many fish? Well, the river bottom is normally brown. The black in the photo are all fish!
We made a mad dash back to Wrangell and directly to the airport to head home. We rarely want to go to the same place for return visits, but Wrangell is definitely on our repeat list. It’s wonderful!
