ships in Sitka (Quantum of the Seas and Westerdam)

About a week before our Alaskan cruise on Quantum of the Seas we received notice that the port stop in Skagway had been switched to Sitka on account of the third cruise ship dock in Skagway not being done getting dug out from under a landslide yet. The port hours were the same as what Skagway had been scheduled for. Sitka was a tender port the first time I went there. The second time it had a dock near some sort of boat repair place that I heard people refer to as the old cruise dock. This time it docked in the same location, but with a new cruise pier that held two ships and a good-sized building on shore with shops inside. The random assortment of old busses parked out front has been replaced with a fleet of new busses to shuttle passengers to town, which is just over 5 1/2 miles from the port. A couple old boats off to the side were all I saw that remained of the old boat place.

view from the seawalk

Prior to the port stop there whoever makes shipwide announcements onboard warned of long shuttle lines after the second ship arrived at the dock shortly after us, but Quantum docked early and people could go out before 7am. The other ship docked with us turned out to be Holland America Westerdam, the one cruise ship I have spent more total time on than any other. By the time 9:00 rolled around and we were ready to go any lines that might have once been there had cleared up enough that people could just walk up to a bus and get on, but not so much that you had to wait for enough people to arrive to fill it. So just the right amount of people. There was another bus waiting just behind the one filling so as soon as it left the next one began to board. They seemed to have a constant stream of busses at both ends, at least they did while we were in the area at either end.

Jennifer’s sea lion photo

There’s a lot of space in between leaving the ship and getting to the shuttle. First you walk up the dock. Then there’s a little bit of a hill between the dock and the cruise terminal building. There were people grouping up pre-booked excursions there for both ships. Just beyond that area there were a few people with signs for last-minute excursions. Actually mostly just signs, the people who had been with them having mostly already departed. The one with a wildlife watching boat tour followed by a land tour sounded good. The price scared most of us away, though Jen and Mel decided to go for it. By the texts they sent us it looked like they were thoroughly enjoying it. They saw some sea lions and an otter, but no whales.

Barbara at the totem park

We found a sign for one that was somewhat like a hop on hop off bus with a variety of stops for just $25, but nobody was at that sign, just brochures with a phone number to call or text. It turned out to be just one bus that had already left and would be going around town for awhile before returning. So not as convenient as an actual hop on hop off with a fleet of busses frequently coming by at each stop. They said if we wanted to join it we could take the free shuttle to town and call again there, but we didn’t really want to be stuck anywhere for long periods of time waiting for one lone bus to come back. Perhaps if things work out for them in the future they will be able to add more busses.

mom and me at the start of the seawalk

When we got off the shuttle at the visitor’s center in town we saw other signs where people had been offering things to do. Again not many still had anyone manning the sign, and the one or two that did were quite expensive. We did not go inside the visitor’s center, but there’s probably a lot of information there about other options of things to do. The seawalk starts right near the visitor’s center.

bottom of a totem pole

We decided to walk to the totem park. None of us had been there on any previous visits to Sitka. It’s a bit less than a mile from the shuttle stop in town. It would be a quick walk without dawdling to take photos and wander into interesting places like an old church along the way, but we had plenty of time and nowhere we had to be.

volcano view from the seawalk

The sea walk between the shuttle stop and the park has lots of beautiful scenery and views of Mount Edgecomb, Sitka’s maybe not so inactive volcano. The volcano hasn’t erupted any time in recent history and was previously classified as dormant. Due to a recent swarm of small earthquakes and some surface deformities caused by magma rising far under the surface its status has been changed to historically active, though any sort of actual eruption is not expected anytime soon.

florist shop

Along the seawalk there’s a lot to see. We saw a sign for a historic Russian bishop’s house across the street and thought it meant the fancy looking house directly across from the sign, but signs on the other side of the street indicated that house was actually a florist.

historic Bishop’s house

The actual historic bishop’s house next door to the florist was more of a big square box. Significantly larger and a whole lot plainer than the florist shop.

Saint Peter by the Sea

Not far from there we saw a small historic church called Saint Peter by the Sea. There used to be a little Lutheran church near where I grew up with the same name, but it’s called something different now. The one in Sitka is an old stone church that is quite attractive both inside and out. Churches are often some of the finest examples of historic architecture in many places.

Linda and a boat named Lady Linda

Walking past a marina we saw a boat close enough to shore to read the name painted on the side – Lady Linda. So of course Linda had to pose next to it. It’s not every day you find a boat with your name on it.

enjoying the view from the dock by the seawalk

We walked past a little playground and then found the entrance to a dock people could walk out on for a different water view.

dock next to the seawalk

A little river ran past it that I thought looked a lot like one that I’d seen going into a fish hatchery on an excursion called Birds, Bears, and Barnacles on a previous trip to Sitka. After we rounded the corner and saw the front of the building next to it, I realized it was the exact same place, they had just added a bit more structure to the creek so it looked like the fish could get closer into the hatchery on their own now than they could the last time I’d seen it. Or maybe it just looked that way viewing it from the other side.

a couple of the fish hatchery tanks at the Sitka Sound Science Center

It’s called the Sitka Sound Science Center. There’s a small fee to enter there, but it is something else people could visit on their own from the ship. It has an aquarium as well as the fish hatchery. The Alaska Raptor Center is not on the seawalk, but it is near to the Sitka Historical Park, which is the actual name of the park with the totem poles. The park is free, but the raptor center requires a fee to get in. It is one of the main tourist attractions in Sitka.

3 of the totem poles at Sitka Historical Park

At the totem park there’s a visitor’s center with a few displays and a short movie about Sitka history. A woodsy pathway leads to many different totem poles along the trail. One was just a plain log with a sign saying the pole belonging in that spot was out for repairs.

totem pole repair crew

We saw a couple maintenance guys working on one pole in the park. There was a sign somewhere that said they maintain them for as long as they can and replace them when they deteriorate too much to save them any longer. So from that it sounded like all of the totem poles in the park are reproductions of historic poles, but none are the actual originals.

beach in Sitka

There’s a beach within the totem park that people can walk down to. There’s also some beach access along the way by the seawalk.

Saint Michael’s church

Before going back to the shuttle we walked up to the old Russian church, but it had closed at 1pm and was locked down tight so nobody could go inside. It’s still picturesque from the outside though.

map on the seawalk

There are quite a few things people can walk to from the shuttle stop. One of the first things you come across on the seawalk is a map of things to see. Not everything in Sitka is within walking distance of the shuttle stop though. Fortress of the Bear is one of the area’s biggest attractions and it’s quite a ways out of town in the opposite direction from the port.

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