Alaskan Adventures 2014 with Rich & Mary

July 30:    The famous Alaska Highway sign says "End of the Alaskan Highway".  Most people who travel this highway makes sure that they get their picture taken at this spot, and we were no exception!  Just has to be done -- so we did.  It just so happened that another fellow traveler was there at the same time, so we helped each other out with the picture taking.  






We are on our way to Tok, which brings us through Delta Junction. The Granite Mountains seen along the Alaskan Highway are so beautiful and I had many places along the way to photograph them. Here is a picture of one of those photos.

On our way from Delta Junction to Tok, we were treated to seeing three moose along the highway. It is really exciting when all of a sudden as your traveling down the road two moose run across the road in front of you.  It gives your heart an extra beat or two!

For the most part the drive to Tok was a ride through some nice country side and straighter roads than what we had been used to.  We stayed in the same campground as we had on our way through about a month earlier.  



July 31:     Today is the day we are saying goodbye to Alaska.  We sure have enjoyed all the places we visited and the many memories of the people who we made friends with and the towns that we made our home even for just a day or so. There are so many home sites that were someones home but now sit abandoned along the roadside. I wondered often about the stories these places hold. 





We crossed the border back into the Yukon with thoughts of dread! We remembered how the road was when we had come through about four weeks earlier and had heard that it had not improved, but had gotten a lot worse. That was certainly the case. Often, we could not go over 15-20 miles an hour due to asphalt that was now just gravel with lots of potholes and large frost heaves. It was slow progress. We got to see these trucks in front of us a few times along the way.  We really shouldn't complain because the roads are a lot better than back in the early 60s when most of the roads were just gravel.  Can you imagine what it was like to have been part of the crew that first had to break though the wilderness to even put the first roads in.


August 1 & 2:  We traveled back down to Kluane Lake and are staying at Cottonwood RV Park.  We decided to stay at this beautiful place for a couple of days. The color of the water is Caribbean blue and the mountains around it are so pleasant to just sit and look at.  In the afternoon I sat with a good book in a white Adirondack chair under some wonderful warm sunshine watching and listening to a pair of loons on the lake.  A little chipmunk was "talking" to me about her thoughts on the coming winter days.  Now that I think of it, she must have been scolding me for just sitting there while she was trying to store away a supply of goodies for the winter. 




 We always enjoy getting to know the people who we are camping next to at the campgrounds. There have been many from the U.S. and others from Germany, Scotland, Switzerland and other countries that we have had the joy of sharing a conversation with. We were camping here at Kluane Lake next to a couple from Florida. Gary and Barb soon became good friends and we sat around talking about family and past experiences. On the other side of our camper was a couple from Maryland, Mark and Jean. Rich helped Mark with some trailer problems and they soon were part of our camping family too.  After talking with both of these couples and a few others as well, we have decided to take a few days to go to Haines. We just have to go there, so we will be heading to Haines next.

Aug 3, 4 & 5: The Haines Highway taking us to Haines has been one of our favorite drives on our trip. It has so many breathtaking views that we got to see. We are so glad that we took the time to drive the extra miles. An added bonus was to see two grizzly bears walking along the side of the road up near the tundra area. We had also seen another huge grizzly walking along the road before we got to Haines Junction. They are very impressive when you see them outside of a zoo in their own habitat. 

 We camped at Haines Hitch-Up RV Park. It was an exceptionally nice RV park with beautiful landscaping and flowers that just made you happy to be there. At night we took a drive to Chilkat Lake Recreation area. We had hopes of seeing some bears and eagles, but the local people we talked with said that the bears were not coming down to the river like they usually do because of the mild winter that occurred this year. Winter was different not only in Michigan, but Alaska as well. We did get to watch some eagles and the Chilkat Lake is such a relaxing place to be. We went back a couple of times just to be there – oh, and possibly have a chance to see a bear or two. Didn't happen.

Tuesday was such a great day. We decided to take a day cruise on the Fjord Express to Juneau. While waiting to board the boat the two couples that we had camped with back in Cottonwood RV Park were there waiting for the boat too. It was great to see them and we got to spend the day with them on the trip. When we got to Juneau, we boarded a bus to town so that we could get lunch there and spend a short time touring it.

We really had a great time having lunch at Tracy's King Crab Shack. I ate the best piece of crab I have ever had. After lunch, we had to get back on the bus, which took us to see the Mendenhall Glacier. We saw many glaciers on our trip and learned the difference between hanging, retreating, and advancing glaciers. Mendenhall Glacier is a retreating glacier, meaning that it is melting. It has formed a large lake where the glacier used to be. On our trip back to Hanies, we were watching for whales. We did get to see about eight different humpback whales. 

Rich & I said to each other a couple different times that we never expected that we would be on a cruise down to Juneau and back on this trip. Such special times like this we will never forget.

Aug. 6 & 7:     If I were to move to Alaska, the one place I would consider calling home would be Haines.  But, I am not moving to Alaska!  We are leaving Alaska (again) and have decided that our trip will not be complete if we don't include a trip to Dawson City.  It is totally out of the way, but we "need" to make this trip!  We drove from Haines to Whitehorse and from there traveled up the Klondike Hwy. to Twin Lakes C.G.  We found a great site right on the lake.  Later at night, I could hear some loons calling.  It is a wonderful sound.

The drive to Dawson City has been v-e-r-y l-o-n-g! We were so happy to have finally made it to Dawson. The road had many places that were gravel and frost heaves came in families!! When we opened our closet at night many of the clothes hangers had actually fallen down. Rich said that he is going to drive 25-30 miles an hour back down the Klondike.  Dawson City is such a neat town.  It is a town that is, in a way, new but it looks old.  Many of the buildings have been redone, but still have retained the look of early days when the gold rush gang was in town.  The main street is paved but the rest of the town is all dirt. What I found fun was that the sidewalks are all made of wood.  We are going to be here for two nights and then leave on Saturday.