Whitehorse, YT, Kluane Lake, and Back to Alaska!!!

Sunday and Monday, July 6 and 7, 2014

Sunday morning we left Squanga Lake Campground just east of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Driving into Whitehorse we passed the S.S. Klondike on our way to the visitor center. Our newly purchased Parks Canada annual pass gets us free into Canada's national and historic parks, so we stopped at the restored sternwheeler for a visit. Today it sits on the banks of the Yukon River, but in the past, it plied the waters north up the Yukon to Dawson, to supply the towns and bring back ore and passengers. The rainy weather cleared out and we had a sunny, but very windy morning to explore the decks. After watching a film with actual footage of the boat from the 1950's, we boarded the ship and imagined a trip on the boat.

Heading for Whitehorse on the Alaska Highway

The Yukon River Bridge

4 rudders ahead of the paddlewheel and 2 aft

Historic cargo

Historic entertainment system in the crew's quarters

The first class passengers had an amazing view of the river

First Class and officers dining

First Class lounge

Stateroom deck

Galley

Aft sun deck for second class passengers

Afterward we found the visitor center and made a mostly vain attempt to use their Wifi. Too many tourists with their laptops, tablets, and smart phones trying to use a little bandwidth. We decided to move on from Whitehorse. There are more museums we are interested in seeing, but decided to save them for the trip back down the highway, since we have to retrace our steps when we leave Alaska. Needing a few groceries, we found a WalMart that looked like an RV park. They allow RV's to overnight in their parking lot. The shelves inside were looking a bit bare, so I guess they are getting good business from the travelers. Nearby was a free dump station as well. We may stay there on the way back, since the campgrounds in town are pretty pricey.

The road out of Whitehorse is notoriously rough. We found our first really bad highway; rough, gravely where they are working on it, and bumpy from the permafrost heaves. It stretches from there to the Alaska border, so the best advice is to go slow, and take more time to traverse this section. The bears were out, and we even saw a grizzly on the side of the road! Unfortunately, the only moose we saw was being dragged behind a RCMP pick up truck doing clean-up after a moose-car collision. We made it to Kluane Lake before we decided to stop at the Cottonwood RV Park on the shores of the lake. They had no more partial hook-ups left along the lake, so we dry camped in a nicely forested site just back from the beach. (And had free showers! Unusual in the north country. Usually they are coin operated.)

Heading north from Whitehorse

The first of the frost heave repairs

 300-400 years ago, Kluane Lake was dammed up by a glacier that forced the water to drain the opposite direction from its historical route. So instead of flowing more directly (about 175 miles) to the Pacific, it now flows way north to the Yukon River and over 1,500 miles across Alaska to the Bering Sea. Once the river reversed, it never went back when the glacier dam receded, and the southern end has large, dusty flats where the river used to flow. The mountains that surround the lake are mostly bare, and the beach is gravel, while the water that contains glacial melt is very cold, and a powdery blue.

Looking at the Kluane Range and icefields

The upper end of Kluane Lake was the discharge end 300 years ago

The beach in front of our camp

Looking at our camp from the beach at sunset at 11:15 pm!

Bathroom Notice

Fireweed

At 11:15 pm, I got inspired to take sunset photos as the sun set behind the ridge. It stayed light all night. I was reading inside without a light at midnight. The long days are causing me to be unable to sleep at night while Greg is asleep, and Greg is awake extra early while I am trying to sleep.

Sunset at 11:15

Our goal on Monday was to cross the border into Alaska. The road surface was still poor, so we took our time traveling up the shoreline of Kluane Lake with the beautiful Kluane Range and icefields to our left. We stopped for a last look at the Kluane River and drove the final stretch to the border. After passing the Canadian Customs house and the border, there are still 20 miles to go before reaching the U.S. Border station. A few quick questions and showing of our passports and we were back in the United States, and Alaska!

Kluane River

Snag, Yukon holds the Canadian cold temperature record of -81 F

Looking over the last of the Gold Rush era bridges with the tour guide dog

Canyon Creek Bridge was built in 1904

 

Major reconstruction of 6 miles over permafrost

Experimental cooling system for preservation of permafrost subgrade

The roads improved greatly! Smooth surfaces, and great shoulders with rumble strips on the sides. 90 miles later we were just outside of Tok, and pulled into the Tok River State Recreation Area. At $18 a night for dry camping, it was by far the best deal compared to the eight other RV parks in Tok. We found a spot facing the Tok River, the same one we camped in on our second night leaving Alaska 18 years ago. The campground filled up, since Tok is at the intersection for the roads northwest to Fairbanks, or southwest to Anchorage. The Alaska Highway is the way in and out, so everyone passes through Tok.

Border City had "Cheap" American diesel at $4.78 per gallon

Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge

Tok River Camp

Tok River bridge

We had good internet, so we were able to get reservations for three nights at Teklonika Campground in Denali National Park starting July 25^th. That was the earliest date available, so we changed our plans from starting in Fairbanks, to ending there. Our next stop would be Valdez instead, where we could see the Alyeska Pipeline Terminal, a project Greg worked on during our five years of living in Alaska.


Tuesday, July 8, 2014


After a sunny, hot, dry evening, we awoke to rain and cold. We drove the last few miles to Tok and went to the visitors center and the public lands office. Leaving laden down with brochures and maps, and the assurance that we could overnight at pulloffs along the road, as long as they are not marked “No Camping”, we crossed the street to the Three Bears Food Market. We let our fresh food stash get low in anticipation of stricter food requirements at the US border, and lower prices in Alaska. Now, since we were not going immediately to Fairbanks or Anchorage, but to Valdez, we picked up a few essentials, but will save the big re-supply for Anchorage. We also bought diesel and beer, as both are highly taxed in Canada, and there are limitations on how much alcohol we could take across the border.

We drove the Tok Cutoff out of town towards Glennallen, where we would pick up the Richardson highway coming down from Fairbanks. We had gotten a late start after a long, tiring day of driving the last stretch of highway in the Yukon the day before, so we decided not to try to make it all the way to Valdez and miss the sights along the way.

Typical lake along the Tok Cutoff

We finally saw three live moose on that stretch of road, but no more bears. Shortly after we turned south onto the Richardson Highway, and crossed the bridge over the Gulkana River, we found the access road to the Gulkana River Bridge State Right of Way. It's just a big gravel field with a trash bin and vault toilets, but supposedly gets very full during fishing season. I guess the fish aren't running right now. There were only two other campers there, and a few day fishermen. It was free, but swarming with mosquitoes. I never got out the whole time we were there. Greg went out a few times and got bit up while loading a water jug into the tank. Then we had to swat all the mosquitoes that came in with him. It was a pretty quiet spot with a little traffic noise and a few seagulls that landed on the roof just above our heads while we were in the cab over bed!

The Copper River near Gakona

Yukon Mud on the RV

We had more rain showers while camped by the Gulkana River, but by the time we started driving south to Valdez, the weather was clearing. We fueled up in Glenallen, where the Richardson heads southwest to Anchorage, and went south on Route 4, that dead ends 120 miles later in Valdez.