Partly sunny with showers and in the high 40’s. There is a beautiful Bald Eagle that must have a nest nearby - he sits in the top of a pine just above our bedroom and “screeches/calls” at 7AM. Today is get acclimated day.
We found breakfast at the Diamond C Café on Front St. Next stop was the Visitor Center. They were great and we learned a lot. The Visitor Center is brand new and is a great community gathering place. It has a museum and we decided to come back to that later in the week.This weekend (Sat) starts the annual King Salmon Derby. People from all over come here to fish. Last years winner was 53.4 lbs! We could enter for one day, but we don’t have strong enough equipment. We’ll go watch though.
Next we drove the Airport Loop Road that goes to the north end of Wrangell. First stop was Petroglyph Beach which runs along Wrangell Narrows. We stopped on the viewing platform where replicas of the petroglyphs can be seen and used for rubbings. Interpretive signs explain what archaeologists and local Natives think the history was as the earliest petroglyphs were probably carved by early Tlingits from the Stikine River area possibly 1,000 years ago. Other archeologists have found other petroglyphs in Southeast Alaska carved more than 8,000 years ago, so the carvings here could be older. After reading the signs we wandered the beach trying to find any of the 40 original petroglyphs. We hunted and finally another lady strolling the beach with her dog suggested we look on the opposite side…. sure enough we found some.
Leaving the beach we passed the airport, elementary school, nice hospital and took a left onto Ishiyama Drive. This led us to a gorgeous golf course. We may play tomorrow, but it’s very narrow. Back onto the loop road we headed back to town to grocery shop. We can’t keep much traveling on the ferry because we have to shut down the propane which runs the fridge. Into Bob’s IGA we went ready to get some fresh fish…. We were shocked to find no fresh fish and hardly any frozen fish. We picked up a few things and stopped at City Market. Still no fish. Ken asked a lady who was shopping and she said it was between seasons and they catch their own so the market doesn’t carry it. Great, we’re in Alaska and no fish! The folks here are really great. We wanted to rent a video, but they don’t rent to people who come on the ferry. They’ve lost too many movies. The gal at the counter said she would put it on her account if we promised to return it. We promised and told her how much we appreciated her help. With groceries done our next task was to find the town pool, located at the High School. This is a fantastic facility and it’s open to the public and they make showers available for RVers.
We were sitting in the coach when a guy pulled up in a red pick up. Ken went out to see what he wanted - we thought it might be our guide - but it was a local (Jim) who saw our rig and wanted to talk. He and Ken talked for an hour. He was fun, and we know all about him and his family now.
This is a great little town! Lots of history, for instance all the buildings on the left of town are original (over 1800 or later) and on the right they are circa 1952 after a fire destroyed that side of town. Some of the local history is documented in murals on the sides of the original buildings along Front Street.
Later we had chicken fajitas for dinner - because its Cinco de Mayo! We watched the video and then went to bed.
Pictures: Ancient petroglyph, Petroglyph Beach
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