Haines was our last stop in Southeastern Alaska for this trip. We sort of wanted to check out Sitka and Ketchikan, but decided not to attempt it this year. Ketchikan is significantly south of where we were-in the wrong direction. Once we left Haines, we were going north through Canada again to get to the other parts of Alaska.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. We did spend two full days in Haines. After checking in at the RV park we took a drive along Chilkoot River. With the rain and the fog, it was really eerie looking. I didn’t get great pictures of it for some reason though. Haines also has a lot of Totem Poles around town, and this was one of them. 
The next day we hit the ground running so we’d have time to visit all three museums in town. The Sheldon Museum details the history of the town- the movie White Fang was filmed here- this is the sled from that movie.
More of interest to Paul is the Hammer Museum.
There are a couple of thousand hammers on display at this place.
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This was my favorite one, although I think it would have been cool if he signed it “Tim, the tool man, Taylor”.
After all that learning we had to take a lunch break. We chose a restaurant with a view.
By the way, my initial intent was that we would stay outside of town at the state park that only charges $10 a night instead of the going rate of $40, but it turns out that the town of Haines is very walkable, so we were able to park the truck and leave it there by staying in town. Plus, we met fellow Escapees Pam and Red and got to spend some time with them.
After lunch we headed to the the Bald Eagle Foundation museum. Obviously they have other birds there besides Bald Eagles. They have 11 birds that have lost their ability to fly for a variety of reasons.
This Horned Owl looked like he wanted to bite my nose off.
This owl looked like she was playing coy with me.
The hawk was very nervous and easily startled.
At 2:30 every day they do a presentation about Bald Eagles, which includes feeding one. This is a female, about 4 years old. The feathers on her head are not completely white, but are getting close- that’s how they estimate the age. The volunteer shared some interesting information. Raptors are named for their feet-(rapt is Latin for “to grab”). Their talons use a ratchet system, so once a raptor grabs it’s prey, basically there is no way to force the talon open to release it. The talons exert 500 lbs of pressure per square inch.
The volunteer also made it clear that if he wasn't offering her food, she would not want anything to do with him. In fact, she tried to stay as far away as possible and still get the food. I could joke and say I guess they don’t make good pets, but it’s illegal to even own the feather of an eagle (unless you are Native American). Actually, the presentation was very good, but then, I am an eagle enthusiast.
After a quick two day visit, we headed out of town…..
