Sitka – my second Alaska stop

▲ Discovery Princess at the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal

.

Sitka is our second Alaska stop on my long trek from Melbourne to London. The Sitka cruise terminal is nine km out of town and another cruise ship, the Discovery Princess, arrives minutes after us. I’d woken up at 0300 and looking out from my cabin I could see the other vessel converging on our route into Sitka

.

◄ Totem poles at Sitka National Historical Park

.

There’s a riverside walk from the visitor information centre and museum past the Russian Bishop’s House to the very interesting totem pole collection at the Sitka National Historical Park. A relatively small park walking circuit includes the site, marked by another totem pole, where the decisive battle took place between the Russian invaders and the local Tlingit people in 1804.

.

.

▲ Behind the park building with its totem pole collection there’s an open shelter where totem poles are repaired or new poles carved out.

.

▲ A couple of old cannons mark the hilltop Baranof Castle State Historical Site, but otherwise there’s no longer a castle at the place where ownership of Alaska was transferred from Russia to the USA in 1867. You can stuff any thought of indigenous ownership. There are good views over the town from the hilltop.

.

◄ The prospector statue and another totem pole stand in Totem Square below the hill, along with St Michael’s Cathedral. Russian reminders include a reproduction blockhouse which was once part of the wall separating the Russians in Sitka from the Tlingit people. After their defeat in 1804 the Russians allowed them back in to the town, but kept them decisively away from the Russian settlement.

.

.

I also find Princess Maksoutoff’s Grave, she was the Russian-born wife of the last Russian governor, I’ve learn more about her in the Sitka Historical Society & Musum where I also discover that the Holland America line ship Prinsendam caught fire and sank off Sitka in 1980, fortunately with no deaths. Well they don’t make a song and dance about that on the Westerdam!

.

◄ Seals on buoy in Sitka Sound.

.

I join a boat excursion where we’re guaranteed to see sea otters, or seals, or whales or even bears. Well no hope of the bears, but we get the rest although it’s the views of the spectacular backing mountains and the impressively rocky islets in the Sound which are the real attraction.

.

Unfortunately the trip brings us back to the cruise ship harbour, not the town, I could have done with another hour looking around, but it’s too late to take a shuttle bus back to town again

.

▲ Westerdam & Discovery Princess at the cruise ship harbour.

.

▲ Mt Vestovia (Arrowhead Peak) from Sitka Sound

.

Sitka has two wonderful looking mountain peaks and if I had longer – a couple of days perhaps – it would have been good to climb them since both seem quite accessible. Mt Verstovia (Arrowhead Peak) 1033metres is supposedly just four km from the centre of Sitka? It’s a very prominent sharp arrowhead shape. Supposedly it’s a straightforward six hour climb, it looks – particularly right now, covered in winter snow – far more challenging.

.

Mt Edgecumbe 976metres – now there’s a reminder of Edgecumbe Park in Crowthorne where I lived 1963-1965 before I went to university – is an extinct (or perhaps merely dormant) volcano about 15km from Sitka, across the bay on Kruzof Island, It’s said by the locals to look like Mt Fuji in Japan, I think it looks more like Tongariro or Taranaki (Egmont) in New Zealand.

▲ Mt Edgecumbe & whales as we depart Sitka

.

Our departure from Sitka is wonderful, we pull away from the dock just ahead of Discovery Princess, we can see her behind us, and head out directly towards Mt Edgecumbe. It looks spectacular and even more so when whales – lots of them – appear on both sides of the ship. For a spell helicopters and a ship – Navy? Coast Guard? – conduct some sort of maneuvers as well.