#2 - Getting There

Part of the Alaska Highway System runs on water as there are many Alaska coastal cities that can only be reached by water or air. Ferries run once a week between Bellingham, Washington and various points along the Alaska coast and one point in Canada--Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Once a month there is ferry service between Juneau, Valdez and Seward and further north and west to Homer and Kodiak and points along the Aleutian Islands. 

AlaskaPass offers a pass that allows travel on the Alaska Marine Highway, as well as BC Ferries, Alaska Railroad, Greyhound Canada, Laidlaw Coach Lines (Vancouver Island) and Alaskon Express (Gray Line of Alaska). You can get passes that vary from a low of eight consecutive days of travel at $499 all the way up to 21 days of travel within a 45 day period at $999 and there are many options in between. I opted for the 21/45 pass as it provided the flexibility I desired. 

In addition to the $999 for the pass, I paid $239 for a round trip airline ticket from Salt Lake City (SLC) to SeaTac (Seattle/Tacoma, WA) where I boarded a city bus ($1) that stops right in front of the Seattle Greyhound Bus Station where I boarded a bus for Vancouver, B.C. ($20). From that point, all travel costs were included in the pass. 

I could have taken a shuttle from the airport to Bellingham ($30) and caught a ferry, but I had procrastinated making my reservations out of SLC and missed the ferry by one day. Thus, a Greyhound trip. In retrospect, it was probably good that I started my ferry trip at Prince Rupert rather than Bellingham, because it was a five day trip from P.R. to Seward, Alaska. Five days on a ferry is a long time! But I'm getting ahead of my story. 

I spent much of my first night in the Seattle bus station as the bus didn't depart for Vancouver, B.C. until 2:30 a.m. We arrived at the Canadian border at dawn and it was a real pain getting across. Everybody had to get off the bus and take all their luggage into the border station where an agent interrogated each of us, asking if we had fire arms, drugs, food, plants, etc. A couple of people had their luggage searched (not me) and two were not allowed through until further discussion with other authorities had taken place. Apparently, one of them had a DUI conviction in the States and for some silly reason, the Canadians didn't want him in their country. He wasn't even driving; he was riding on a bus! 

The Vancouver Greyhound station is a bustling place as it shares its space with the BC Railroad. The route to Prince Rupert, the first place the Alaska ferry stops on its route north, passes through Prince George. The bus left at 7:30 a.m. so the wait in the Vancouver station was short. There's lots of lovely scenery between Vancouver and Prince George similar to the forested areas of Washington or Montana so the ride was quite enjoyable. We arrived in Prince George at 9:30 that evening and only had to wait two hours for the bus to Prince Rupert. 

The scenery between Prince George and Prince Rupert is spectacular, or so I'm told. Unfortunately, it was dark for most of the trip but what I did see was beautiful. We arrived in Prince Rupert at 9 a.m. on July 18th, and as my ferry didn't leave until 9 that night, I spent the day doing the city's walking tour, visiting the museum, and sitting in the lovely park that overlooks the bay.  (Click on the image for a larger picture.) 

I had forgotten that U.S. money was no good in Prince Rupert so I found an ATM and received $20 in crisp, colorful Canadian bills. I had thought the prices in Canada were very high until I remembered that the value of the Canadian dollar was less than the U.S. dollar (about two-thirds). My checking account was charged only $14.15 for the $20 in Canadian bills I received at the ATM.