Into Alaska

Today we drove into Alaska, and officially completed the Alaska Highway! We are in a campsite in Tok Alaska, with very limited internet, and so will post pictures of our trip tomorrow, when we reach Anchorage.

In the morning we went by the Yukon, to see the S.S. Klondike. This ship was a primary vehicle transporting goods north on the Yukon river, and when it sunk, it was salvaged and reassembled on shore.



We drove past the Kluane range, which was huge and imposing and filled with snow caps and the biggest non-Arctic ice sheet. They were beautiful, and again, pictures don't compare to what the eye saw.



Kluane Lake:


After leaving Whitehorse, we really felt like we were in the wilderness again. The Kluane is part of a very large, international wildlife preserve, and so very few people lived in much of the area we drove through. We only passed through 3 towns on the way to Alaska, and the largest only had a population of around 100, but they did have the largest gold pan in the world.



It was also a more somber drive. A big forest fire had been in the area in the 90s, and there wasn't much regrowth yet. There were miles and miles of tall dead pine trees, with the branches shriveled up and curved. That along with the frost heaves made it a less scenic stretch. We also saw much less wildlife, probably due to the poor forest area, but we did see one really big moose, and a red fox on the road.



The roads were quite awful on the drive, sometimes we were going 30 mph or slower. There were frost heaves along the road, and we were bouncing along for almost the whole drive today. It made us really appreciate good roads when we came to them. The road construction was pretty extreme as well. We were up in the mountains, with steep gravel one-way side roads bypassing the work literally right above us. And there were stretches of gravel that caused huge clouds of dust, it was scary driving through them, because we couldn't see in front of us, or any oncoming traffic.



Actual view from car when driving through gravel patch- look closely- see the oncoming traffic? Yeah, neither did we. Hair-raising.


We got to Tok early, because we gained an hour crossing the boarcher. The US side was much kinder here than in ND on 29. That was a relief, because it would have been frustrating having to try and repack the car so close to Alaska.

We are camping in Sourdough Campground- they have all you can eat sourdough pancakes and reindeer sausage in the morning, so we are pretty excited about that. The campsites are more secluded, with trees framing each one and giving some privacy. No water like the last camp site
though. Tomorrow we are headed into Anchorage!