We left Valdez, AK in the rain and had cloudy cool weather as we drove to Tok, AK. We stayed again at Sourdough RV Park, gassed up, and continued on knowing we would have very poor road – lots of frost heaves and slow construction areas. We went to Destruction Bay and that was quite a treat, out there in the middle of nowhere. We arrived late in the afternoon and the park owner invited us to join them for a barbeque beef dinner – he always prepares dinner on nights a caravan stays at the park. We happened to be lucky to be there at the same time and had a wonderful dinner for $12.99 – delicious baron of beef, elegant tossed salad, ‘smoked’ potato salad, and 8-hour cole slaw; plus a berry crunch for desert. And that wasn’t all – Loren (the owner) and another musician from the Yukon entertained us with guitar music and singing after dinner. Very special.
The road between Tok and the cutoff for the Cassiar Highway (next blog) was the worst of the trip so far. There were lots of frost heaves (not all were marked) and construction that stopped traffic for 20-30 minutes each. On one construction stretch our companions’ tow car got a flat tire from a sharp rock. Fortuntely he had a full-size spare and the fellows changed it quickly and we were on our way. He was able to get it repaired that night in Destruction Bay.
We drove through Haines Junction and then took the highway to Haines. It’s a beautiful drive, but unfortunately there were lots of clouds and most of the mountain views were obscured. Haines is on the water and is a cute little town. We explored and visited some of the gift shops and enjoyed watching some eagles at the harbor – they are so striking. We had great pizza in the Fireweed Restaurant before we boarded the 10PM ferry to Skagway. The trip took us just over an hour. By the time we got off the ferry with our RVs and got set up in Garden City RV Park in Skagway (along with several other rigs from the ferry), it was 12:15AM. We were glad we had made reservations.
Skagway is a very nice little town with lots of very nice shops. There are lovely flowers everywhere and easy walking anywhere you want to go. This is the origination of the White Pass Railroad (White Pass was the major pass people going to the Yukon gold rush had to cross after taking the boat to Skagway). Skagway is also a cruise ship port and there were two ships docked the day we were there. We were there on a Saturday – we were told that during the week there can be as many as 5 cruise ships in the harbor. We were glad we didn’t have to fight those crowds.
The next day we drove up the Skagway Highway and were disappointed that the entire length to White Pass was shrouded in clouds and/or very heavy fog and we weren’t able to see a thing. At the top of the pass is an area called Tormented Valley with beautiful little bodies of water and stunted trees as if in a fairyland, but there was so much fog, we could barely see it. Of course, once we were inland, the fog lifted and we were left with high clouds for the rest of the day’s drive. I guess that leaves us something to look forward to if we head to Alaska again!!
We spent the night at a small RV park out in the middle of nowhere on the Alaska Highway and left the next morning to begin our trip down the Stewart Cassiar Highway..That’s next time.
Happy Travels, Ellen & Gordon
