Sitka
Practical Travel Advice for Seniors: Sitka, Alaska
Our last stop within the Inside Passage before setting sail for the Hubbard Glacier, was Sitka. Long inhabited by the native Tlingit people, Sitka was settled by Russian Fur Traders in 1799 and was considered the capital of Russian Alaska until it was transferred to the US in 1867.
You can see the beautifully restored Russian Orthodox Cathedral and Russian Bishop’s house as well as many art galleries and pricey shops selling artworks and crafts including Russian stacking dolls and lacquered boxes. It’s a nice town to take a walk, though it may be a bit crowded when more than one cruise ship is in port.
After a quick tour of town, we went for a wildlife tour and short trek through the Tongass Forest. The first part of the tour was a boat trip out to the Sitka Sound. After catching a couple of seals on the marker buoys and a friendly sea otter cruising on his back, we headed deeper out to the ocean in hopes of seeing some whales. We traveled quite a distance out, but to our chagrin the whales were on vacation that day. Wildlife doesn’t do command performance. Which brings up an Important point to remember: Even though this is a trip of a lifetime, the wildlife may not cooperate!
The second land part of the wildlife tour was a short lunch stop followed by a trip to the Fortress of the Bears, a sanctuary dedicated to preserving black and brown bears. You walk on covered, elevated walkways and look down at the bears, who have a fairly sizeable enclosure and are also fairly entertaining. The Fortress is a nonprofit bear refuge and education center for bears orphaned as cubs.
We completed a quick photo stop at Silver Bay and finished with a short hike on the Thimbleberry Trail in the Tongass Forest.
It was an enjoyable day, but we were hoping to catch sight of a whale or two and the ride was in a car instead of a van, which was fairly uncomfortable for five adults who don’t know each other. Upside: We had already seen several whales from the deck of our small ship, so it wasn’t a total waste of time….do take some sea sickness pills if you are going out on the ocean…it can be a bit choppy.
Sitka is a great place for wildlife viewing, (even though the whales weren’t cooperating that day!). There are several wildlife-based tours including one to the Alaska Raptor Center. Other activities included kayaking in several locations. You may also be able to catch a performance by the Alaskan Story Teller dancers and don’t miss an informative film short on Alaska at the five-story Alaskan Odyssey Theater.
The moral of the story here is to give yourself as many opportunities as possible to see the native wildlife in Alaska. There are multiple types of whales that come to Alaska including humpback, gray, orca and beluga. There are top places to see them all. Same for bears, the best time to see them is during salmon spawning season. So do a little homework and plan your trip around when the animals are most likely to be out and about. And remember…..the polar bears are only in the far north and west of Alaska!
