Skagway to Hyder

When we left Skagway we headed for our last Alaska stop in tiny Hyder to see the bears (next post).  Hyder, Skagway and Haines are the only Southeastern Alaska towns you can drive to and they are all long drives, part of which are through Canada.  This trip was a 700 mile, three day drive through Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon, back into BC and finally into Hyder.  The trip started with a climb over White Pass, the same pass we went to on the train excursion (last post).  Part of the road had an 11% grade, some of the steepest we have ever had to climb. Opus did well and we were to the top in no time.  The first 100 miles of day one was over roads we had not traveled before.  The last 190 miles was retracing a section of the Alaska Highway we had used going northbound. Days two and three where down the Cassiar through BC and the spur road into Hyder.

Once we were over the pass above Skagway we drove along the White Pass & Yukon Route through the mountains and along many lakes.  You can see the railroad tracks.

More beautiful mountains.

Even though there are many old mines in the area the water in the lakes and streams is still very clear.

The color of the water is beautiful.  On the first night we stayed in Bear Creek, a very nice Yukon Territory Campground.

Really, south to Alaska.  On day two we headed down the Cassiar through British Columbia to get to Hyder, over 400 miles away.

This is a recent burn area because it was not listed in our two year old Mileposts.  The fireweed is always the first flower to bloom after a fire.

While there was not a lot of traffic on this road there were a few trucks because this is the shortest way north.  This route was considered for the Alaska Highway, but officials feared it was too close to the coast and vulnerable to Japanese attack so the route from Dawson Creek was used.

We did see a few black bears along the way, but they were just a warm up for the main event, the bears of  Hyder (next post).

Several sections of the road were gravel and very narrow.  The fact that it was raining made for some slow driving.  I think the rain caused another problem as well.  Not long after fueling up, the H2O in fuel light came on.  This had happened on the way north, but it happened as we were pulling into a campground through a couple of puddles and the next morning the light was out.  I had the fuel filter changed as a precaution.  This time we were at least 200 miles from any possible service and had no cell phone coverage.  Since Opus seemed to be running fine we pressed on, but stayed in an RV park to have Internet, rather than along the road as we had planned, so I could do some checking.  Turns out, others have had the same problem when it rains and the sensor gets wet.  The next morning even though the light was still on Opus started right up and ran just fine. After 150 miles and drier roads the light went out and has not come back on.  We sure are happy it was not a major issue in the middle of no where.

We did the mandatory stop at Jade City.  There are several jade mines in the area and this place has everything jade, from huge blocks of jade to finished jewelry.  

Even though the Cassiar is the most recent highway built to the North Country, being completed in 1976, there are still many wooden bridges.  This is the only one lane bridge we had to cross, but there were several that  I would only consider two lane for motorcycles.  Fortunately, we did not meet any big rigs on these. 

After a night in the campground, when we were getting ready to pull out we saw Pat and Larry, who we met in Nilnilchik. They had pulled in late the evening before.  Since they were also headed to Hyder, we now had someone who could go for help if the H2O in fuel light issue had not worked out.  Thankfully, that was not necessary.  We spent several hours in Hyder watching the bears together (once again the next post). 

After a few miles of day two on the Cassiar the scenery got better, the road got wider and smoother and those yellow and white lines made the driving much easier.  The skies were clear and the mountains were beautiful.

The last 40 miles to Hyder is on a spur road through a long glacial canyon with many beautiful hanging glaciers and waterfalls.

Bear Glacier is one that still comes all the way down to the lake. 

Welcome to Hyder, population 100 happy people.  There is not much in Hyder, a couple of bars, an inn, a couple gift shops, a small market and a couple of campgrounds.  We chose Camp Run-A-Muck because it is only three miles from the bear viewing area (next entry).

As soon as we were set up we headed out to see the bears, (next post).  Look who was there, Bjorn and Britta, the couple from Germany who we met in Haines.  We had a fun time watching the bears together (next post) for two days.

Between bear watchings (next blog) we watched the birds.  The mother, top right was gathering berries and taking them to her chicks, very neat. 

A must see if you go to Hyder to see the bears (next entry) is the drive up to Salmon Glacier.  This is the largest glacier in Canada and the view from above is something that you rarely get to see without a long hike.

Hyder claims to be the Friendliest Ghost Town in Alaska and we even found this happy, friendly ghost on the side of the mountain near Salmon Glacier.  Hyder is well worth the drive and I have not even posted any bear pictures yet! Stay tuned, you must see the next post.

Days Five & Six Alaska Hwy -- Whitehorse to Tok, AK -- Chicken

We knew when we left Whitehorse that most of the road on the 397 miles to Tok was in bad shape. We never do 400 miles in one day but we needed to plan and prepare for the worst road we would encounter to this point. Other than Haines Junction, about 100 miles up the road, there are very few services on this stretch so our tanks and our larder needed to be full.  We always make sure the CRV and Opus have enough fuel to get to the next stop which could be many miles away. 

We expected prices this far north to be more than in the lower 48 for food, fuel and campgrounds and they have all met that expectation.  The least we have paid for a site with hook ups has been $30 while the most has been $43.50.  We try to only pay for the services we need so we now ask for a site with only 30 amp.  We can do without a sewer connection, but if we don't have one we cannot use our washer and going to the laundry is also expensive.  Most parks have had wifi, but now that we are in Alaska we can use our air card if we are near a town.  I was surprised that many parks have cable TV. Great, we could have watched the Pens in the Stanley Cup play-offs if they had not been eliminated!!!! One must for RVers making this trip is a Good Sams membership.  Most parks offer a 10% discount for members.  We did stay in a Yukon government park on the way to Tok and it was only $12 for dry camping. We hope to find a few more less expensive or free boondocking spots down the road.    

Since we knew we would be traveling on roads with some bad gravel patches we tried to protect the CRV as best we could.  Two yoga mats on the windshield, a kitchen floor mat (wine decor approved) over the radiator and road wrap on the hood, roof and mirrors.  It worked very well.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of how covered with stones and dirt it was by the time we got to Tok.

Day five included more beautiful scenery of the Yukon mountains and  just okay road conditions.

Check out the profile of Old Man Mountain.  With The Milepost's mile by mile narrative you don't miss any of the sights along the way.

This section of the 1942 road followed an old stagecoach route so they used this bridge that predates the Alaska Highway.  It was soon bypassed with a new bridge that could carry the heavier military equipment.

Just outside of Haines Junction the beautiful mountains of Kluane National Park came into view.  

And then Kluane Lake, the largest in the Yukon. 

We ended the day five drive with a great camp site right on the shore of Kluane Lake.  Not only was it a lot less expensive than the RV parks we have been staying in, it was much more beautiful.  The first time we walked down to the lake all this ice was piled up on the shore.  After dinner a couple of hours later we went down to the lake again and because the wind had changed all the ice was gone.

By morning the clouds had cleared and there was a lot more snow on the mountains.

Our campground view from Opus.  The beautiful scenery all along the highway continues to be spectacular.

Just a few miles down the road on day six the road began to get worse.  This section is built over permafrost, ground that normally stays frozen year round.  But when you lay blacktop and have 16+ hours of sunlight to heat it up the permafrost melts and the road just falls apart.

The scenery was great and bad road conditions required slow driving so we did get to enjoy the views.  After 60 miles of bad road we saw a flashing sign ahead and it warned of uneven pavement for the next 115 kilometers.  That meant over 70 miles of worse road conditions than we had up until this point.

A few of the bumps we encountered while driving as slow as 10 mph in many places.  The frost heaves are sometimes long meandering holes that may or may not be marked, like a crime scene.  One stretch was so bad that even the oncoming trailer truck was hardly moving as it swayed side to side.  And then we came to the first of two traffic lights where we had to wait for the pilot car to lead us across several miles of gravel.   The bad news is we have to cross this same stretch of road when we head south, the good news is those gravel stretches should be newly paved road by that time.

The engineers have tried many different strategies to conquer the frost heaves caused by the permafrost but to this point no solution has been found.  On this section they are trying something new with vents to try and get cold air below the road.  Driving on this section of bad road was made worse by a passing rain shower, turning the dust to mud.  All that sure made for a long day as it took eight hours to travel 240 miles. 

We crossed several glacial river valleys.  There was not a lot of water in most of the rivers.

Check out the mirror, we were surrounded by beautiful snow capped mountains.

We did not get very many pictures of wildlife along this section except for a couple of moose.  We did see several swans and a couple of bald eagles, but they were to far away to get good pictures. 

And the 49th state is our fiftieth.  Since going on the road in 2007 we have slept at least one night in every state and 11 of 13 Canadian provinces.  We have had Opus in seven time zones, all that can be reached on wheels.  That said, we still have many, many places to visit down the road. 

We had not been in Tok more than a few hours when the phone rang.  It was our Class of 07 mates John and Lora who were in another RV park in Tok.  They lived in Alaska for many years before becoming full timers.  We have not seen them for three or four years, so it was great getting caught up on all our travels.  Because they lived here they also had a few suggestions for don't miss stops this summer.  We plan to see them again in Wasilla.

In Whitehorse we decided that we wanted to drive the entire length of the Alaska Highway.  This means we will not be going on the Top of the World Highway because we did not want to take our home over 40 miles of narrow, steep gravel road.  Also, we will not get to Dawson City on this trip, so we already have an excuse to return.  We did want to go to Chicken on the Taylor Highway so what do you do after driving nearly 2000 miles?  You get in the car and drive another 190 miles to a little town with a population of about 15.  It was a great drive with wonderful views of the large forest and more distant mountains.  We would have traveled this road if we had gone to Dawson City and driving this short section reinforced the fact that it was a good decision to not take Opus on this route.  We later learned that there is construction on this route, so we feel we definitely made the correct decision.

Chicken is an old gold mining town that still has a few active mines.  As you can see everything here is all about chickens.  The infamous story about the naming of the town is the old miners wanted to name the town after the official Alaska bird, the Ptarmigan.  But no one knew how to spell it (no spell check back then) so they settled on the name Chicken.   Other than the mines there are three businesses in town all selling the same things; RV spots, food, booze, souvenirs and very expensive fuel.

Here we are with Chicken's biggest chicken.  The sign post tells how far it is to other chicken related towns from, Chicken Gizzard, KY to Two Egg, FL.

There is also a lot of old mining equipment, including this huge dredge, lying around all over town.  Chicken has now been added to our been there done that list.

Isn't social media wonderful.  I saw a post on Facebook that other Escapees were in Tok.  I made a comment and the next day Bea, Bennett, Wanda and Wallace show up at the door.  Wallace and Wanda were the first SKPs we met in 2007 when they were on the parking crew at the Escapade.  We have crossed paths with them several times since.  We had a fun time sharing tales about our trips north.  We hope to see them again later in the summer.

Even with the terrible roads we endured on this leg of the journey, the trek continues to meet and exceed all expectations.  We only have 100 more miles of the Alaska Highway and then it is on to Fairbanks and Denali to begin exploring the last frontier.

Day Four Alaska Highway -- Watson Lake to Whitehorse

We left Watson Lake and drove 268 miles to Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon.  The drive started with more beautiful scenery, but less wildlife than we had seen the previous days.  The road was a bit rougher and there were even a few potholes, something that, surprisingly, we have not found a lot of on the highway to this point.  I thought that with the extreme weather here there would be many more. Maybe Pennsylvania could take a road building lesson from the people who built and maintain this highway.  In the afternoon we began to notice that the sky was not quite as blue as it had been and the longer we drove the worse it became.  When we checked into the RV park we learned that wildfires in Alaska, over 200 miles away, were the cause.  Sure hope the smoke clears, though the fire threat level is very high at this point. 

Whitehorse, with a population of 27,750 (of the 36,440 total for the Yukon), is the largest city on the highway.  It has all the services and stores and there were several attractions we wanted to see so we ended up staying three nights.  It is really different being in a city after driving so many miles through the wilderness. 

The road, mountains and beautiful blue sky.  The vegetation along the road was higher here in many places than it was in BC.  You can also see some loose gravel.  Later in the day we picked up a windshield chip from an oncoming truck.  When we got to Whitehorse I was talking to a guy who has done this trip seven times and he told me to go to Walmart, buy a chip repair kit, and he would show me how to do the repair myself.  I took his advice and it is not prefect, but hopefully it will not spread.  I'm sure it will not be the last ding to the windshield.

Our first wildlife viewing of the day was a couple of caribou.

And then we saw a coyote.  That was pretty much it for the animals on this leg of the trip.

Typical of the highway in the Yukon so far.  There were very few straight stretches and a lot of short hills.  In many places you can see were the original road had been replaced.  It looks like they did very few cuts or fills on the original highway, they just followed the contour of the land.  The trip is 35 miles shorter today because of these improvements.

A new tradition along this part of the road is to spell out messages with rocks.

By afternoon the scenery was still beautiful, but the sky was now smoky.  There have been several fires in Alaska and the forest is very dry.  We will have to keep an eye on the conditions and may have to change plans.  If the fire gets to close to the roads they close them.  In some cases there are no possible detours, this is the only road to Alaska or a detour can be hundreds of miles.

The longest bridge on the highway with seven spans is at Teslin.  Almost no traffic and, lucky us, look what we meet on that bridge.  I slowed way down and let him pass.

A few of the sights in Whitehorse.  You rarely see a three story log home.  This building passes for a skyscraper in the Yukon.

Nanc checking out the desk and chair that honor famous poet Robert Service, who worked as a bank teller here before heading to the Klondike during the gold rush.

Whitehorse has its own brewery.  We never pass up the chance to do a tour and tasting and I did make a  purchase.  One big difference at Yukon Brewing, they have a huge bottle washer to clean recycled bottles so they can reuse them.  I remember as a kid that all pop and beer bottles were reused.  Maybe they will restart this old practice for other small breweries.  They also can their beer because there are so many outdoor types living in Whitehorse who like to take cans rather than bottles into the wilderness.  Their Yukon Gold is the largest selling beer in the territory and all their beers are made with natural ingredients and no preservatives.

This is not just an old DC-3 mounted on a pole.  It is the largest weather vane in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records.  It rotates and points into the wind.  Very Cool!!! 

It has been in the 60's and the days are long so Whitehorse has a lot of summer activities.  There is music everyday at noon and on Wednesday evenings.  We sure enjoyed this group who sang some great rock and roll.  This seems to be a city with a lot of active people trying to do it all in a few months while the sun shines.

We toured the S.S. Klondike, a 1930's paddle wheel riverboat that has been restored and is a National Historical Site.  The boat made the run from Whitehorse to Dawson City on the Yukon River until 1955. These types of boats ran the length of the Yukon River with supplies and passengers.  Their season was very short because the river is frozen over for 7 1/2 months a year. 

Top is a winch that was used to help pull the boat through shallow water and the wood fired boiler.  The other pictures are some of the cargo she carried.  The trip downstream to Dawson City took 36 hours while the return against the current took five to seven days. 

Top is the first class observation lounge and dining room.  These passengers who paid $35 to travel to Dawson City had very nice accommodations, while those in second class who paid $25 slept with the freight.  Bottom is the pantry and the kitchen.  This lady was scrubbing the oven.  As you can see from the photos, the riverboat is very well maintained.

We visited the Beringia Interpretive Center, a museum dedicated to the history of the Yukon during the last ice age.  Beringia, which included parts of Siberia, Alaska and Yukon, was a grassy area that was not covered with ice because of the surrounding mountains.  It was the land bridge that connected Asia and North America allowing migration of people and animals.  Giant woolly mammoths, huge beavers and cats roamed the land.  They have several skeletons, including this mammoth on display.

The museum also explores the history of the people who lived in Beringia under very harsh conditions.  This is a good stop to learn about Yukon's ancient past. 

Miles Canyon is a neat local area with a lot of hiking trails.  The Yukon River flows through the canyon and a rapid that looked like several white horses with manes flying, is where the city got its name.  The canyon was one of the most treacherous for river boats to pass through.  The rapid was covered when a downstream hydro dam was built, but the flow of water is still impressive. 

Looking into Miles Canyon.  It would have been a tight and dangerous passage for river boats.  The suspension bridge gives access to both sides of the river.

We were told by several people not to miss the Frantic Follies and were disappointed to learn the show did not open for the season until June 1.  Fortunately for us the were doing a special for a convention group that was in town so we extended our stay another day to take it in.  The show is a vaudeville revue of lively music and corny jokes set in the time of the gold rush.  It is a fun evening that should not be missed.

Thanks to our readers who are more informed about wildlife than I am.  The animal I identified as our first elk was actually a caribou and the bear I thought might be a grizzly was not.  I learned that black bears can be brown and cinnamon in color.  Keep those comments coming and thanks for reading the blog:-)