Klawock, Alaska – Prince of Wales Island is a truly gorgeous corner of the planet–a rugged place of tiny villages, indigenous culture, fishing lodges, hiking trails, and cave networks. It’s only 36 miles southwest from Ketchikan, but it feels like a world away from the tourist bustle on the cruise ship docks.
On the east side of the island, the village of Hasaan is one of two Haida villages in the entire state of Alaska. (The Haida are one of three native groups that inhabit Southeast Alaska, although their numbers are greater on the Canadian side of the border.) The village is also home to a waterside Totem Historic District, which is one of the most important Haida cultural centers in the state.
At the remote northern end of the island, the lush old-growth forest and muskeg bogs conceal intricate and expansive karst formations beneath the surface of the earth. Over the millennia, the layer of limestone eroded, creating underground streams and caverns and more than 850 grottoes and caves. A walk along Beaver Falls Karst Trail shows off sinkholes, pits, underground rivers and other typical karst features. The longest mapped cave in Alaska is El Capitan Cave, part of which you can explore. (Although I couldn’t explore it, as funding cuts and staffing shortages shut down the tours this summer, but hopefully that is temporary.)
The highlight of Prince of Wales Island was stumbling on a convocation of eagles, perched in the Sitka spruce trees overlooking the Klawock harbor. There must have been about 20 in total–most of them juveniles. (They don’t get their white heads until adulthood.) Stunning.
