Valdez-Tok-Whitehorse-Skagway

We left Valdez on Monday, June 22 and headed back to Tok. The road had not changed from when we went to Valdez and after Glenallen, we were on a stretch of road we had not been on before, and wish we had not seen it. It was a rough ride almost all the way to Tok. Scenery wise, there was not much of it, but I saw a moose cross a river about a quarter mile away but didn't get any pictures.

We arrived in Tok in late afternoon and camped at Tundra RV Park. Spent the night there and took off for Whitehorse in the morning. If you remember from one of my earlier posts, they were working on the Alaska highway in Tok and had done a super job.....for about 40 miles anyway. Gradually the road deteriorated with many frost heaves, but was not the worst we had been on.

As we approached the Canadian border, we could see past Customs that the road was gravel. For several miles we travelled at varying speeds from 15 to 40 creating a lot of dust in some areas and lots of mud slinging in others. The Tracker was coated in a thick layer of mud, and the bottom half of the motorhome looked pretty bad too.
This was the worst we had seen the Alaska Highway, since we had traveled the entire lenght of it. Finally it returned to pavement, but the bumps and frost heaves persisted.

We stopped in Beaver Creek at Buckshot Betty's, a little restaurant set back off the road, and had a great lunch there. We chatted with some folks from Alberta whom we had run into several times in our travels. Nice folks.

I took few pictures during this time until we got to Kluane Lake and Destruction Bay. The lake is absolutely gorgeous with its different shades of green-blue waters. At the far end of the lake, fog was being created by the cold air coming off the snow capped mountains and traveling across the warm (relatively) water. This was in bright sunlight. As we rounded a bend to go around the end of the lake, our reverie came to an abrupt halt. CONSTRUCTION AHEAD! This was the WORST gravel road we had been on to date. It was probably only a kilometer or two, but it took half an hour to get across this stretch. Could only go ten mph or less because of the washboard road. After that, it was bcak to the same old paved road with froat heaves, which were a wlecome sight after that.

We finally arrived in Whitehorse after about 350 miles at 9:30 in the evening (of course, it was still bright daylight) and set up camp at Pioneer RV Park, a place we had stopped at our first time through Whitehorse. We highly recommend this campground, even though it is little more than a gravel parking lot with full hookups and wifi, because it has everything a traveler needs. Car/RV wash, oil change area, great laundry and gift shop and super friendly people. After setting up the motorhome, I took the Tracker to the on-site car wash and cleaned her up, since you could not see out the windows at all. We spent two nights there just chilling out. Barb got caught up on the laundry and I reattached the TV to the base. From all the bouncing and vibration, ALL the screws that held the TV down had come out and the TV was just bouncing around inside the cabinet making a lot of noise right over my head.

Thursday morning, June 25, we left Whitehorse after Barb and I washed the motorhome. We then pointed the motorhome toward Skagway, only about a 100 mile drive. I had said before about the constantly changing scenery, well this was no exception. Just to give you an idea of what we saw, we went through a desert, passed an emerald green lake, and drove through some of the most unusual geography we have seen to date. We then crossed the border back into the US and down into Skagway. I didn't miss many turnouts to take pictures, and hopefully will get them posted before we leave here tomorrow.

Our campground is a paved parking lot with water and electric and paid wifi overlooking the harbor here in Skagway. When we arrived there were four cruise ships in port, and the town was overflowing with people. All four departed during the evening and one pulled in this morning, so town shouldn't be too crowded today. Which, by the way, we are headed to shortly for lunch and some shopping. That brings us up to date, so see you later with some pics.

Till then, take care, have fun and be safe.

Ron & Barb