August 21-26, 2007: Destruction Bay, YT to Dease Lake, BC

August 21st saw us on the road again as we departed Destruction Bay for Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. We continued our drive along Kluane Lake and Kluane National Park. Wild, wonderful, beautiful, country! The day was clear so we had good views of the ice fields in Kluane N. P. Towards the southwest corner of Kluane Lake we drove on a portion of the original Alaska Highway which will likely be closed at the end of this construction season since the road is being re-routed at that location. We had been told that this stretch is the last of the original Alcan that is still in use, so we were among the last to drive on the original roadbed as part of the Alaska Highway route. The foliage was definitely turning to the fall colors as we drove southward on the 20th and 21st.

August 22nd was spent in Whitehorse doing odd jobs around the rig, but we took time off to visit Miles Canyon. This was an area of the Yukon River that presented some serious challenges to the Klondike Gold Rush men and women traveling through here.

August 23rd we drove a toad to Skagway. The day was clear so we enjoyed the scenery (and the bear) along the road. This is a beautiful drive and we met a friend of Roberta’s, Nancy Elkins, who is working as a guide there this summer. Nancy is a full-timer and we were fortunate to be assigned to her tour in the afternoon. We went up the White Pass & Yukon Route (WP&YR) railroad to the top of White Pass. This route was scouted as a longer, but less steep, trail for the Klondike Gold Rush to serve as an alternative to the steeper, but shorter, Chilkoot Trail. The first engine went into service over the first four miles of track in July 1898, two months after construction of the railway began. Builders of the railroad faced immense challenges which were recognized in 1994 when the WP&YR was designated an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark—one of only 36 civil engineering landmarks in the world to receive this designation. The trip on the railroad was very interesting, not only from the perspective of the engineering involved in climbing 3,000 feet in 20 miles, but the scenery we saw as we snaked along the canyon walls was beautiful. Nancy met the tour group at the top and drove us back to Skagway providing a running narrative of the sites and history along the way. Thanks, Nancy, for a great ride!

Skagway is a cruise ship town—5 were there when we arrived. The town is full of tourists and the WP&YR even takes its trains across the city streets and down to the various docks to pick up and drop off the cruise passengers. The town has 33 jewelry stores, and is getting two more next year! “Moes”, reportedly the oldest saloon in AK, is closing this year and will be one of the new jewelry stores next year. We thought we would get a drink in this historic watering hole but it was so noisy that we went down the street. Other than a bunch of T-shirt shops and other tourist traps, plus a few eating places and unique buildings, the town didn’t show me much. Too many people!!! The National Park Service does have an interesting Visitor Center and interpretive tour of the historical district.

We stayed overnight in Skagway returning to Whitehorse on the 24th. On the way we stopped in Carcross which played a large role in the late 1890s and early 1900s. We also stopped at the Carcross Desert which is billed as the world’s smallest desert and, in fact, is an International Biophysical Programme site for ecological studies. The sand dunes do not cover much area and lie between 2 kilometer markers on the highway.

Saturday, August 25, we headed towards Watson Lake. We stopped at Johnson’s Crossing for a final cinnamon roll test at the places that are well known along the way. The rolls didn’t rank high on our list. We both agreed that Testa River Lodge has THE BEST cinnamon rolls along the Alaska Highway! (The business is for sale—I hope the recipes go with the property for the sake of future travelers in that part of the world.) The foliage was really turning as we drove east. We camped at the intersection of the Alaska Highway and the Cassiar Highway this evening, thus bidding a good-bye to the Alcan and to some of the folks on caravans that we had been meeting along the way.

We began our drive down the Cassiar Highway on the 26th. The highway generally goes south along the Coast Mountains in western British Columbia and is known for its scenic beauty. Most of the road was pretty decent until we neared Dease Lake where potholes prevailed and some spots were pretty muddy from recent rains and washouts earlier this summer. We drove through light rain as we drove through the Cassiar Mountains and many mountains were obscured by clouds. We stopped at Dease Lake for the day and took my car out to Telegraph Creek—a 70 mile dirt, make that mud, road each way. The scenery was beautiful as we drove over and around mountains, through a First Nation village along a river, along the Grand Canyon of the Stikine River, and up and down grades as steep as 20%. We were treated to great views of a lynx that stood on a bank alongside the road long enough for me to get some quick pictures. A rainbow greeted us as we neared camp in the evening. The car—well that is another story! It was absolutely covered with mud—you couldn’t get in or out without getting mud on your clothes. I pressure washed it when I returned to camp; however, as I was to find out later, I didn’t get all the mud off and out of it. Telegraph Creek was formerly the head of navigation on the Stikine River and an estimated 5,000 stampeders set off from there to attempt the Stikine-Teslin Trail to the goldfields in Atlin and the Klondike. Although rigorous, the drive to Telegraph Creek was as beautiful as the native of British Columbia who recommended it to me at a campground in AK had said it would be.

AUGUST 18-20, 2007: VALDEZ, AK TO DESTRUCTION BAY, YT

Saturday, August 18th, found us headed north from Valdez on the Richardson Highway, over Thompson Pass, down into the Copper River valley, and along the western and northwestern sides of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. We stopped at the park’s Visitor Center (VC) and decided we would take the more northerly of the two drives into the park. This VC is something else! It probably has fewer visitors than any other park and the new buildings—not one, but three—are pretty incredible for such a remote area. I’d guess the Alaska congressional delegation had a hand in getting the appropriations for this complex—they have taken VERY good care of their constituents in the past. (Their power seems to be coming to an end due to scandals involving all three of them over the past months. It will be interesting to see if the two up for re-election next year run and are elected.) Anyway, enough of politics—even though politics seems to be the rule in AK.

We took the Tok Cutoff north of Glennallen and headed towards Slana where we drove the 42 mile (each way) gravel Nabesna Road into the park. It was a beautiful drive with tall rugged mountains along the way. Although it was evening, the only wildlife we saw was a porcupine. At the end of the road was a B&B as well as a short dirt landing strip with a couple of planes parked there. This park is unique in that air taxi operators and private aircraft can operate in and out of it.

Wrangell-St. Elias N.P. and Preserve is the largest U.S. park--six Yellowstone N.P. would fit in it. The park is larger than southern New England at over 12 million acres. It adjoins Kluane N.P. in Canada and the whole area was the first designated UN World Heritage site. Nine of the 16 tallest mountain peaks in North America are found in the Park—and the Park’s southern boundary is shore line on the Gulf of Alaska! The ice fields are immense and are said to act as a natural cooling system affecting areas as far south as Chicago and the Central Plains. Copper was mined for many years at the Kennecott Mine prior to the area being designated a park.

We returned late in the evening from our drive so pulled into a nearby turnoff with a beautiful view of the mountains for the night. The next day we continued on to Tok where, once again, we joined up with the Alaska Highway. We stayed overnight in Tok and talked with a gentleman who was driving an antique car, being followed by a 5th wheel. He was from AZ and had previously driven the car to the Canadian Maritime provinces and was headed to Chicken, AK, from Tok, then back to the Lower 48.

We commenced our southeastward drive down the Alcan Highway on the 20th. Our destination was one of our favorite northbound stops—Destruction Bay, Yukon Territory (YT). However, to get there, we again had to negotiate a rough section of the road for 228 miles with a top speed of 40-45 mph most of the way. A couple of caravans were parked at Destruction Bay and the owner invited us to eat dinner and stay for the entertainment being provided one of the caravans. It was a very enjoyable evening—plus we reconnected with folks on the caravan we had seen at various places in AK. The owner here is very congenial and the food was good both times we stopped. It was definitely one of the top places we stopped at on the trip. And the scenery is spectacular with the mountains rising up directly behind the park and Kluane Lake across the road! This is remote, rugged country with rugged people living there, but they are really the salt of the earth.