Things to do in Haines, Alaska

It’s been almost two months since we returned from our Alaska/Yukon road trip, and I have to say that it’s really hard to get over. In this article I’m going to tell you about an important part of our trip, if not one of the best in my opinion: the discovery of Haines. We hadn’t planned to spend that much time in Alaska, but plans changed while we were there and we ended up spending almost half the trip there. In my first article on Alaska, I gave you a complete guide to the town of Seward on the Kenai Peninsula, where we spent over a week.

Today I’m going to give you an overview of things to see and do in and around Haines. For the record, we hadn’t planned on coming to Haines at all. If you look at a map you will see that the town is in a dead end and you have to take a ferry to get to Skagway (which we did) or turn around. Talking to someone who lives in Homer, at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula, we learned that Haines is a very nice, quiet little town (compared to Skagway, which is nothing like it) and that you can see bears in the wild quite easily. After some consideration, we decided to take a trip there. The kids were overjoyed at the prospect!

In short, here’s a quick guide to the must-sees in Haines!

If someone asked me why I came to Haines, I’d be hard-pressed to give just one reason. Looking back, it wasn’t a town I was expecting to find, as I still say today. I hadn’t really looked at what it looked like and it was a great surprise. Personally, I loved it. It’s one of the most beautiful places we’ve seen, although Seward and Homer are also magical in their own way!

Take your time to explore the town at your own pace before I tell you about the highlight of the show (the bears). We walked around this little town for several hours and I have to say it’s really fun. There weren’t many people around when we visited, especially compared to the crowds of tourists we encountered a few days later in Skagway (which, as you can probably guess, was not one of my favourite places).

At first glance, you might think there’s nothing special about the town, but if you take the time to look around, you’ll realise just how beautiful it is. The views of the surrounding mountains are magnificent, and you get the feeling that you’re in the middle of nothing, which you sort of are. We took the time to discover the town’s brewery (Haines Brewing Company Inc.). We spent a good hour there tasting the locally brewed beers. In fact, you can order small glasses to try the different beers on offer. It’s really top-notch and a very pleasant place to be.

On your way to the bottom of the fjord, stop at the edge of the town to take in the different views of the surrounding area. With the beautiful colours of the fjord and the snow-capped mountains in the background, it’s a real treat!

The main reason we came to this beautiful part of Alaska was to see bears and other wildlife in the wild. As I said, we trusted someone from Homer, so we were very keen to discover this famous place.

To get there you have to pass through the town of Haines and head north along the Lutak Inlet. If you look at a map, you’ll soon realise that Haines is at the end of the world, at the bottom of a fjord over 200 km long. It’s also a dead end, and the only way to continue is by ferry to Skagway.

In short, we continue along this arm of the fjord, which, on a clear day, is splendidly coloured. We’re over the moon because the place looks sublime and it’s not so crowded.

At the end of the road we come to the Lutak Bridge, roughly at the entrance to the Chilkoot River. As I said, we didn’t know this place, but as we arrived we realised that it is quite well known, especially for salmon anglers. The salmon swim up the arm of the fjord and then along the river to Chilkoot Lake.

We took the first few moments to walk up the river, which is simply magnificent. You can see a lot of fishermen in the middle of the river, who don’t seem too bothered by the bears in the area. It has to be said that they all seem to be aware of the situation, so don’t worry too much about it. On the way up we see the famous Chilkoot Lake, which is truly breathtaking.

On our first evening we were lucky enough to see a brown bear crossing from the opposite shore in our direction. We had the chance to watch him quietly walk across the river in search of food. It’s a truly magical moment, and the children are thrilled to have such a spectacle right in front of them. You have to be careful though, and on several occasions the local rangers have moved tourists who are keen to take pictures of the bears a little too close. We’ve learnt that if a bear comes at us, we’re clearly in trouble, because it can run as fast as we can…

We ended up spending three days in the area and came back several times during the day to watch the bears. I particularly remember one evening, at dusk, when we were lucky enough to see a bear at close range, just below us. It was an awe-inspiring and captivating experience.

From what we heard locally, bears are very common in the area thanks to this famous river where the salmon swim upstream. So, if you’re in the area and have been hesitant to come out, I hope this story will inspire you to take a trip.

To stretch our legs after a few weeks in a camper van across Alaska and the Yukon, we decided to go to the tourist office in town, which pointed us in the direction of a number of hikes in the Haines area. There’s a lot to choose from, but with our two children, including Téo, who walks well but not over long distances, we opted for a simple option: the Battery Point Trailhead. The link above will take you to a description of this wonderful walk.

The trail passes through a magnificent coniferous forest before offering breathtaking views of the fjord, its colours and the surrounding mountains. A half day walk, where you can take your time with the children, is really ideal!

As well as this walk, here are some other classic Haines walks:

• Mont Railey Trail (8.2km return): Situated in Chilkat State Park, it’s a 463m gain in elevation, alternating with muddy forest trails, but the 360-degree views of the surrounding mountains from the summit are spectacular. Accessible mainly between June and October, the trail is sparsely used and well signposted. Allow 3 hours and a long day to enjoy the views from the summit.
• Mount Ripinsky (6.6km return): Mount Ripinsky is a fairly strenuous hike with a positive vertical drop of almost 1,000m. You’ll alternate between rainforest and very steep sections before reaching the summit, which offers stunning views! Beware of the steep sections and the descent. Allow around 6 hours walking time depending on your fitness level.
• Ayiklutu Trail (20.6km return): This hike is a long trail of almost 21 km round trip, with a positive difference in altitude of 580 m, classified as difficult (due to its length). You’ll enjoy passing through pine forests, damaged areas with quite a lot of mud depending on the season, and beautiful beaches along the way (where nobody is around, haha!). All along the way you’ll get great views of the surrounding glaciers and mountains.

We didn’t have enough time to explore this lake, but there are certainly paddling and kayaking opportunities from the end of the track. The place, next to a camping site, is truly sublime and I would have liked to paddle for a few hours in this dreamlike environment. In the end, all I could do was watch the people!

It’s also a great place to try your hand at fishing. Every evening while we were there we came out here to get some fresh air, enjoy the scenery and watch the locals. You meet lots of people who come to have a drink, have a barbecue (you have to get there early to get a place) and fish. The atmosphere is guaranteed!

We stumbled upon this place by chance and asked Pascale to look after our two little monsters for a couple’s break! We spent an hour enjoying the place, which is also very pleasant inside. The owners are very nice. We were able to chat with them.

The advantage of this brewery is that they offer very small glasses (10 ml, if I remember correctly), which means that you can taste several local beers, all brewed on site. Our favourite was the ‘sapin’ beer, of which we tried six or seven. Frankly, it was great!

That’s it for what to see and do in Haines. It’s not all there (that’s for sure), but if you’re passing through and have the time, you can easily spend a week here, especially if you’re into nature, whether it’s bear watching or hiking!

As usual, here are a few words about the practicalities of getting to Haines.

It depends on where you’re starting from, of course. As we live in Guadeloupe, it’s quite a journey to get here. We took the first flight to Montreal, the second flight to Vancouver and the last flight to Whitehorse, which is the capital of the Yukon. We then rented a camper van and spent a month travelling around the Yukon and Alaska. You can compare flights on sites such as Skyscanner.

We’ve also met a lot of people travelling with a rental car who, like us, use the Discovercars site to find good prices.

Once you get there, there’s only one road to Haines. It depends on where you’re coming from, of course. But generally speaking, you have to go through the town of Haines Junction, about 150 km west of Whitehorse (Yukon). From Alaska, we came through the town of Tok, over 700 km to the northwest. You can also come by boat from the town of Skagway. This is what we did when we left Haines to get to Whitehorse airport and the end of our stay.

I’m not going to go into too much detail about this here, as we simply stayed in our motorhome in various places around the town for the few nights that we were there. However, I’ve decided to write a full article on where to stay in Haines if you’re looking for nice places to spend a few nights!

That’s it for this article on Haines. Anyway, I hope this little story and the photos have inspired you to explore this place. As I said at the beginning, we hadn’t planned to come here at all and we really enjoyed it. That’s what travelling is all about!

To keep dreaming and travelling, I invite you to discover the extraordinary day we spent on the boat exploring the fjords in Seward! Simply magical!

Written by Sylvain PONS

Twice, over a period of about 2 months, I had the opportunity to explore several corners of the United States, taking advantage of the best it has to offer. I decided to share some of my experiences with you!

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