I like riding ferries… and that’s a good thing, since there are so many involved in getting to and from Port Townsend (where I live). I struggled with the decision about going Black and White with these … they were, of course, heavily into shades of blue. Decided to go B&W partly from having just browsed through a few Lee Friedlander books.
The Eldred Rock Lighthouse is located in Southeast Alaska between Juneau and Haines on Lynn Canal. It is an automated light, so I guess it isn’t really a ‘house’. I took this from the Alaska Marine Highway ferry on a trip to Haines to visit my Aunt. It was May and this was the amount of snow left on the mountains. I did not come back this way, but drove back down the Alaska Highway … a wonderful trip, if you have the time and are interested in being impressed with just how big the country is up there and how far apart towns are.
Below is a photo of Haines as we were sailing past to get to the ferry terminal north of town. When I lived there one winter in the mid-’70’s, I lived just at the foot of the hill on the right edge of the photo. It had a spectacular view of the water and mountains.
The ferry ride to Coupeville from Port Townsend is a pleasant 35 minute trip. When the weather is clear, it is also very scenic. I like to pay the $1.80 walk-on ferry fare and ride across, walk off the ferry, pay the fare and take the return boat. There isn’t much around the Coupeville ferry dock except a boat launch and a nice park. While the park is a nice visit, it isn’t a necessity. I always hope to catch sight of some Orca on the trip across, but this day I only saw a couple of harbor seals … and that was a brief glimpse at a distance (no photo).
The ferry ride from Coupeville to Port Townsend provides some fairly dramatic scenery, from the more mudane (the ferry dock and environs) to the more spectacular view of the Northeast corner of the Olympic Mountains. The left over remnants of the morning fog reduced the clarity of the view, but added the ability to distinguish the various ridgelines.
My previous post showed the fog bank and shoreline, shot on the ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville. Once at the Coupeville dock, I left the ferry and bought a return ticket, then walked back on the ferry. The trip time is about 35 minutes each way, so a pleasant excursion at reasonable cost … $1.80 round trip.
