Wrangell AK

6/5 – 6/6/2016 - Wrangell is a quiet little fishing town which is known as the Dungeness Crab capital of Alaska.  We arrived on the ferry a little after midnight and spent the night boondocking in the local IGA with our friends from WI, Laddie and Lois whom we met on the ferry.  Headed to the Alaska Waters RV Park early in the morning since we were taking up half the IGA parking lot, speaking of tiny, the campground is only 7 sites, but has the only hookups on the island.

 

  Since this small town rolls up the sidewalks on Sunday, we decided to walk the various waterfronts in town for some bird watching.  Afterward, we headed to Petroglyph Beach State Historic Park which has the highest concentration of Petroglyph in Southeast. There is a boardwalk to a deck overlooking and providing access to Petroglyph Beach which sits on the banks of the Stikine River and Zimovia Straits.  At low tide we were able to find several of the Petroglyph carvings along the waterfront as well as some unusual stones and rock formations, not to mention driftwood galore.  The tidal levels here in Alaska are really wild with as much at 20 ft variations, and at low tide you are lucky is your boat is not stuck in the mud. 

 

 

 

 

Tried to book a tour to LeConte Glacier on Monday, but they have a six person minimum so we decided just to walk the town today and tour the Visitor Center, Museum and shops downtown.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 For a small town the museum was awesome, teaming with artifacts,  showing the entire history of Wrangell dating back some 5,000 years to the native Tlingit culture, the gold rush, statehood and present day. 

 

 

 

Later in the day we decided to take a hike through a hemlock forest covered in moss,  up to Rainbow Falls, a steep hike including some 600 steps rising over 500 feet to a 100 ft waterfall.  Too much work for the end results.  Catch the ferry today for the long trip (16 hours) to Juneau.