Yakutat

[bigpoppop]

Good morning- anyone out there ever been to Yakutat, AK? Worth making a stop at? Many thanks

 

[Nomad Willy]

Don't know what boat or experience you've got but I've got one word for you ..... Fly.


Lots of Moose hunting there if you're a big hunter. But the "hunt" is more like farming. They have a very efficient system. All the hunter does is pay big money, fly out and ride out on a boat, shoot the biggest one in sight and ride back to the "lodge" for more drinks while the lodge employees boat the animal and bring it back for prosessing, packaging and shipping out. Not much required of the hunter except money.

I've not been there other than to land at the airport while on a "milk run" from Anchorage to Seattle. One flies over a berm cleared of trees, lands quickly and stops even more quickly. Turning, the wingtip swings over the end of the runway and you're taxing at Yakutat.

Just my 2cents as I don't know much about Yakutat for one born in Juneau but I've spent may years in several places in Alaska and not heard of anything other than commercial/sport hunting and commercial/soprt fishing being there so doubt there is.

 

[Giggitoni]

Used to fly in and out of Yakutat in the late '70s. I was a geologist on the Alaskan Star semi-submersible drilling rig for Exxon. Two weeks on and two weeks off. We were about 60 miles offshore and would take helicopters back and forth to the rig.

I have fond memories of Yakutat. The bar tender at the airport would let us take his truck into town rather than drink while waiting for our flight to Seattle (we would thank him with a full gas tank). Good people.

As Eric said, it's a hunting and sport fishing Mecca now.

 

[drb1025]

When our plane couldn't land in Juneau due to fog, passengers were let off in Yakutat to spend the day until a returning plane arrived later in the evening on its way back to Juneau. A few of us toured the town with a local 'taxi' driver (nice grandmotherly lady), ate lunch, played pool, and had beers with the locals in town, searched for bears, and bought t-shirts at the surf shop, before heading back to the airport and back to Juneau. Nice, friendly people.

 

[Larmex99]

I have been there numerous time either as the start or finish of a gulf crossing. In and of itself it is not an attraction unless you are a surfer. Great surf that attracts surfers from around the world. For almost any other purpose there are far more enjoyable places along the inside passage to spend an enjoyable few days.

 

[Lepke]

If it's still there, there was an old Japanese schooner at Schooner Beach. Satsuma Maru. Chart indicates the masts are still standing.
Yakutat Bay is considered the best ship anchorage between Cape Spencer and Prince Wm. Sound.
It wouldn't hurt to read Coast Pilot 9 before going. Download free here: United States Coast Pilot®
It can be nasty in the winter.

 

[bigpoppop]

Many thanks for the feedback- sounds like we might spend the time elsewhere

 

[Old deckhand]

Been there, agree, spend the time elsewhere.

 

[ksanders]

Yakutat is typical of small Alaskan towns, just not allot there.

Yakutat is extremely significant in that it is a important fuel and weather stop in the Gulf Of Alaska.

if you look at the gulf, there are not many places to pull into to get out of the weather. Yakutat is the only place that offers food, fuel, air service, etc...

As gulf crossing stopover it makes the next hop only 210NM to Hinshinbrook entrance. if you bypass Yakutat you have a little over 400 miles of open ocean to cross, requiring a longer weather window.

hint... if you stop in yakutat dont tie up in the harbor thinking the town is just onshore. tie up at one of the docks in the next bay to the west, that is where the town is. also, there is no cell service there, or at least there was not last time i was there a couple years ago

 

[Tripp]

I actually lived there for a couple of years back in the 80's. Flew and wrenched for, what was then Gulf Air Taxi. I left on 8/6/86, never been back. Oh, it rained 9 inches that day.