Chapter 19
The Forest for the Trees

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Sitka National Historical Park is also known as Totem Park among locals because of the extensive collection of totem poles that it contains.

Before actually heading into the park ourselves, we decided to check out the visitor’s center.

They were going to be showing a video about the park (and about Sitka’s history) in a few minutes when we arrived, so we headed into the theatre and grabbed seats.

It made me laugh, because this “theatre” was actually just a medium-sized room with a projector like you might find in any college classroom and several chairs that I’m sure could have been moved at any time. It was very quaint—much like Sitka.

The video was actually very informative (though we’d already heard/read a lot of the information). Narrated from three different perspectives—a Tlingit, a Russian, and a modern American—it traced the history of Sitka through the years. One anecdote it covered told of the Battle of Sitka, which actually took place on the site of this very park back in 1804. Tracy fell asleep (unsurprisingly) but I enjoyed the video.

Once it was over, we headed back out into the lobby of the visitor’s center to check out all the artifacts they had on display.

There were such pretty views out the windows.

Heading outside, we decided to take the Totem Walk that would bring us through the forest and past the vast collection of totem poles. The loop was about a mile or less all-told, and it was so flat that the brochures couldn’t really call it a “hike.” It would take us past a huge collection of Tlingit and Haida totems, though, which weren’t carved locally, but were moved here after the Louisiana Exposition in 1904. We didn’t really care if this was where the totems originated or not; they were still very impressive.

This forest was unlike anything that I’ve ever walked through before. Sitka is technically a rainforest, and that fact was extremely apparent underneath the enormous boughs of all these trees.

Every once in a while, we’d turn a corner and there would be another totem. It almost felt as if they were natural features themselves.

You probably won’t be able to read this plaque, but it tells the story of the Mosquito Legend Pole—one of the most common totem carvings. Here is the story in its entirety:

“An unusual child was born to a chief’s daughter, not exactly in human form, for he had sharp arrow points in his head. One day the mother angered him, and he killed her by driving the arrow points into her breast. Afterward he fled into the woods, where he continued to kill other villagers out hunting or collecting wood.

“One of the village men, the boy’s uncle, set a trap for the boy and succeeded in wounding him with a poison arrow. His uncle trapped him by following his blood stains and eventually found him. The boy protested and pleaded for his life, but his uncle killed him for having destroyed so many villagers. The boy’s body was burned, leaving only ashes. These ashes were driven about by the wind and became the mosquitos that still torment people today.”

When we suddenly came to a break in the trees, it was clear that we were walking right along the water.

I love the look of Sitka in the distance.

This beach in general was just really cool.

Turning the corner, I happened to be looking up at just the right moment and saw something through the trees.

That is, in fact, a bald eagle—our first close-up sighting of the trip. It was just sitting on that branch, so its nest must have been right nearby.

After watching the majestic bird for a while, we continued walking along and investigating totems.

Though they start to all blend together after a while, it’s amazing to step back and think about the craftsmanship that went into each of these massive poles.

We loved the seal depicted at the bottom of this one.

And this bear.

As we reached another clearing, we saw a cruise ship anchored in the middle of the water. It was odd, though, because we never ran into anyone in Sitka that day who wasn’t on our cruise. I’m honestly not totally sure whether the passengers of that ship even came ashore.

This giant moss-covered hunk of wood is just one of those things that I don’t think I’ve ever seen in real life before. The rainforest sure is interesting.

As we reached the “end” of the trail (before it started to loop back), we found ourselves in this big clearing.

We started to make our way back in the other direction.

Soon, we were back under the eagle’s tree again, and she was still just sitting up there, paying no mind to all of us gawking up.

At some point, I think we took a side trail and got off the regular totem path. It took us through some extremely pretty sections of the woods, but it also probably would have gotten us lost if we’d continued for too long.

I love how this picture turned out.

We got to a bridge at one point, and I’m sure we could have kept walking ad infinitum, but we decided this was the spot where we should probably turn around lest we get hopelessly lost without any sort of cell signal to call for help.

Just so pretty. I’m sure a few months later, this area would have been (literally) swimming with salmon.

We wondered what sort of animal lived in under this tree.

So much of this journey reminded me of something straight out of Lord of the Rings.

We knew we were back on track when we started seeing totems again.

And before we knew it, we were back out of the park and had returned to civilization.

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