Whitehorse

If you are going into or out of Alaska by car, truck or RV you are going through Whitehorse.  From Whitehorse we were planning several longer days of driving through the Yukon, BC and Alberta.  So we decided to spent about 5 days resting and catching up on things.  Very glad we did.  Most folks that came through the campground were there for one night then on their way.  Too bad for them. Whitehorse has some very interesting things to see and do.
The Klondike was a paddle wheel steamer that transported people and goods on the Yukon River.  We got to walk through the Klondike II.

The Yukon Quest is a 1000 mile sled dog race.  It runs from Whitehorse to Fairbanks one year then Fairbanks to Whitehorse the next and is held in February each year.  Whitehorse is either the start or the finish depending on the year.  I have been following the Quest for many years.  The better known 1000 mile race is the Iditarod that runs in March from Anchorage to Nome.  The races are very different with the Quest being more difficult, in my opinion.  We have been to the Quest headquarters in Fairbanks so it only seemed right to stop in at Whitehorse as well.

The best attraction in Whitehorse is the Beringia information center.  It is the first detailed illustration of the Bering sea land bridge we have seen.  This land bridge, as it is called, ran the entire west coast of Alaska and connected to Russia.  A very big"bridge".  More the size of a continent.  It is believed that over many thousands of years with various warmer then colder periods that this is where people and animals came to the Americas.  It was very educational.

Finally, in Whitehorse we saw the worlds largest weather vain.

Yup, they put an actual airplane on a post and it rotates with the wind.  Very cool.

Tok to Skagway

We left  Tok and headed toward Destruction Bay on our way to Haines.  The Alcan highway is a very rough paved/gravel/dirt/mud pothole filled path.  Going was very slow and a little nerve racking but we had no problems. No pictures of the road as we were bouncing the entire way. We got to Destruction Bay and stopped in a campground.  They had no spots with any hook ups but they had one with no hook ups by the bay.  We have been traveling prepared to go several days with no hook ups so this worked great.  After the long day we just needed a place to sit and relax.  We found it!

After the view and a great night sleep we were off to Haines.  The road was paved, very smooth and a much easier dive.
Haines is a quiet little town but does offer some interesting attractions.  It is also small enough to walk all over with no problem. We visited a brewery and a distillery several times.  The campground we were in had a crabfest one evening.  Diana was a very happy lady.

There is a bald eagle sanctuary in Haines that is a great place to learn about bald eagles.  We have seen hundreds while in Alaska but it was cool to see them up close.  All the birds here were injured and are unable to live in the wild any more.  But they are great educators.

Don't feel too bad for them.  Even in the wild a bald eagle spends 90% of its day perched and just looking around.

Another interesting attraction was the hammer museum.  Yup, they have one.

It was fascinating!  We spent about 1.5 hours in there just taken back by all the types of hammers.

We had not planned on going to Skagway.  But when we got to Haines and realized we could take a ferry to Skagway we checked into it.  Now Skagway is only about 15 miles from Haines...by ferry.  It is about 300 miles by road.  So for a small fee (seriously it was not bad) we decided to add Skagway to our trip.  This of course meant we had to get Harvey on the ferry.

Me driving Harvey onto the ferry.

This is a very narrow and steep ramp.

No problem!  40 minutes later we were off the ferry and in Skagway.

Skagway is a touristy town that is a stop for all the cruise lines.  In fact, we had been there on a cruise several years earlier.  In the summer, anywhere between 5 to 10 thousand people a day arrive and depart, depending on how many ships arrive.  We were there for 3 days so got to see much more this time.  Not many pictures but we did have one small mishap...

Tok to Skagway

We left  Tok and headed toward Destruction Bay on our way to Haines.  The Alcan highway is a very rough paved/gravel/dirt/mud pothole filled path.  Going was very slow and a little nerve racking but we had no problems. No pictures of the road as we were bouncing the entire way. We got to Destruction Bay and stopped in a campground.  They had no spots with any hook ups but they had one with no hook ups by the bay.  We have been traveling prepared to go several days with no hook ups so this worked great.  After the long day we just needed a place to sit and relax.  We found it!

After the view and a great night sleep we were off to Haines.  The road was paved, very smooth and a much easier dive.
Haines is a quiet little town but does offer some interesting attractions.  It is also small enough to walk all over with no problem.We visited a brewery and a distillery several times.  The campground we were in had a crabfest one evening.  Diana was a very happy lady.

There is a bald eagle sanctuary in Haines that is a great place to learn about bald eagles.  We have seen hundreds while in Alaska but it was cool to see them up close.  All the birds here were injured and are unable to live in the wild any more.  But they are great educators.

Don't feel too bad for them.  Even in the wild a bald eagle spends 90% of its day perched and just looking around.

Another interesting attraction was the hammer museum.  Yup, they have one.

It was fascinating!  We spent about 1.5 hours in there just taken back by all the types of hammers.

We had not planned on going to Skagway.  But when we got to Haines and realized we could take a ferry to Skagway we checked into it.  Now Skagway is only about 15 miles from Haines...by ferry.  It is about 300 miles by road.  So for a small fee (seriously it was not bad) we decided to add Skagway to our trip.  This of course meant we had to get Harvey on the ferry.

Me driving Harvey onto the ferry.

This is a very narrow and steep ramp.

No problem!  40 minutes later we were off the ferry and in Skagway.

Skagway is a touristy town that is a stop for all the cruise lines.  In fact, we had been there on a cruise several years earlier.  In the summer, anywhere between 5 to 10 thousand people a day arrive and depart, depending on how many ships arrive.  We were there for 3 days so got to see much more this time.  Not many pictures but we did have one small mishap...

Chicken, AK and Dawson City, Yukon

The town of Chicken, AK was a gold mining town.  The miners wanted to name it after a bird that was plentiful and that they ate a lot.  That bird is the ptarmigan. The problem was that no one could spell it, so since it tastes like chicken they called the town Chicken.  We stopped in on our drive on the Top of the World highway on our way to Dawson City, Yukon Canada.  We took this trip by car out of Tok, AK.  Now looking at a map this only appears to be about a 2 hour drive.  But the road is so bad it takes about 4.5.

This is pretty much all of town

No water services in town but the outhouse is very nice

We had chicken pot pie in Chicken.

There is a joke about the ptarmigan.  Why can't you hear a ptarmigan urinate?  The P is silent!

From Chicken is was off to Dawson City which is across the Yukon River.  No bridge but a free ferry.  There is also no real dock, they just pull up to the shore that has been excavated...sort of.

Dawson City was A gold town on the Yukon River.  We have seen and read a lot about the Yukon River since being in Fairbanks. The river was a major transportation route.  Dawson is the original name and changed to Dawson City when it was the capitol of the Yukon.  Whitehorse is now the capitol and most folks just call Dawson City, Dawson.  We spent 2 nights there.  We took several self guided tours and some guided tours.

Dredge No. 4 was the largest dredge in the world.  It is still standing and being refurbished.  It is about 6 miles outside of town.

No tour of Dawson is complete without a stop at Diamond tooth Gerties.

It was a fun show.

On the way back to Tok we went through US customs.

A note here about the Top of the World Highway.  It is supposed to be a beautiful drive.  However both the trips over and back was rainy, foggy and bad visibility.  What we could see looked great.  And after driving it I doubt either of us will ever complain about potholes again.

Wrangell-St. Elias Part 2

As I said, this is a large park.  On the way out of Valdez we went into the park at the northern entrance.  We took Harvey and headed north and spent 2 nights parked along side the road.  From there we took the car into the park on the other road.  It was in much better shape but we did have to drive thru 3 streams.  It was very cool.

This our view from where we parked.  Harvey liked the view so we spent 2 nights.

The road in and out at this point in the park was scenic, but pictures were not going to come out. But we drove all the way in so now we can say we have been to the end of both roads in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Valdez

We debated about going to Valdez.  Some folks said it was worth it others said it was a long drive for not much.  Everyone agreed it was beautiful if the sun was out.  We decided to go. The drive in was beautiful even though the sun was not out.

We visited a salmon hatchery and spawning facility in Valdez.  It was amazing as the salmon were returning to their birth place to spawn.  There were thousands of them.  It looked as though you could walk across the creek just by stepping on salmon.

 One evening we went back to watch the seals feed. Easy pickin'!

Wrangell-St. Elias NP Part 1

Wrangell St. Elias National Park is the largest national park.  It covers 13.2 million acres.  Yellowstone NP is about 2.2 million acres.  Now this 13.2 million acres for a park has only 2 roads.  Both dead end in the park so it is an in and out trip.  The road from the southern entrance (near Copper Center) goes about 100 miles into the park thru Chitna then on to McCarthy and Kennicott.  The road is extremely primitive, meaning it is dirt, mud and potholes, very narrow,  with no guard rail and in very bad condition.  RVs are not allowed, but you can drive your car.  Even the park service has a warning that you will need 4 wheel drive and will probably get a flat, so have a good spare tire.  There are no services after Chitna and it is a long way to McCarthy from Chitna.  We decided to wimp out and pay for a tour in a van.  The tour takes 14 hours.  About 4 hours each way with the remainder of time in Kennicott.  After seeing the road we were both very glad with that decision.

Alaska and the Park service have done an amazing thing throughout the state.  Many of the National Parks have privately held land within the park boundaries.  All along the road you pass thru park land and private land, but mostly park land.  Kennicott was a copper mining town.  Now it is mostly a tourist spot, that has done a great job of preserving its history.

The ride in was beautiful.

Once in McCarthy you walk across a foot bridge and you can walk the 4 miles to Kennicott or take a shuttle.  Like many smaller towns in Alaska the streets are dirt.  The views are amazing as you are up on a mountain side.

This is not tailings from the mine.  It is moraines from the glacier.  This is all glacier underneath the gravel.

When the mine stopped producing copper they just left everything there.  It is just too expensive to move things out.  So the town and the park service really have a historically accurate operation.  We toured the building where the copper was separated from the unwanted material.  It is very run down but the views were great.

A note about he footbridge over the river.  Two glacier ice dams up stream had broken that morning.  The water was very high and moving very fast.  It was very cool being able to see that.  Our driver said the rush will last 2 to 3 days then the river goes back to normal.

A bridge over troubled waters

Troubled waters

One of the bridges we crossed going in and out was 1 lane wooden.  On the way out we got to walk across it.