Leg #: 16 (Day 79-87)

Location: Alcan Highway including Destruction Bay, Haines Junction, Kathleen Lake in Kluane National Park, Haines and Skagway.

Mileage Driven leg/total: 886 / 8408

Road Conditions: The Alcan Highway was in much better condition this time. The road crews have obviously been working quite hard. The Haines Highway and Klondike Highway were pristine.

Weather: It is either beautiful, sunny Fall weather or cold, overcast and rainy. There is no in-between. The colder temperatures have brought the beginnings of the Fall leaf color changes. One night in Haines Junction the mountains were green at the beginning of dinner and solid white after dinner. Winter is coming…and fast.

Tofu Status:

• All systems working well.

Highlights:

• Wildlife Sightings: Stellar’s Jay’s, lots of Bald Eagles, red squirrels, lots of Dal Sheep, lots of grizzly bears.

• Haines Junction was a pleasant surprise. On the surface it doesn’t have much to offer, but after spending a few days there we found the cutest grocery market called The Little Green Apple. We hiked along the Dezadeash River with lovely boardwalks and views of the braided riverbed. Tony found numerous paved rolling hills with few cars for bike rides. Weather was lovely and we had a relaxing few days.

• The Canadian side of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is called Kluane National Park and it is equally as spectaular as the US side, maybe even more so. We drove throught the park which is more accessible and spent 2 nights at Kathleen Lake. This might be one of my favorite parts of earth. A specatular scenic drive as well. Snow-capped mountains, blue skies, braided rivers, canyons, leaves beginning to change on the aspens and birch trees and so many waterfalls. It was like driving through a painting.

• We took a quick ferry from Haines to Skagway just for a day trip. We rented a clunker of a car (2007 Subaru with 150,000 miles and questionable brakes) to drive the Klondike Highway. The weather was poor in Skagway, but improved as we drove north into Canada. We walked across the Yukon Suspension Bridge (super cool, but crowded), took a hike in the Carcross Desert (an actual desert with fine sand and real sand dunes) which is the smallest desert in the world and we had lunch on the shores of the pictureseque turquoise waters of Emerald Lake. We “dead headed” (crew term) on both legs of the water taxi ride to/from Haines meaning we had the entire boat to ourselves. All in all, a good day inspite the less the ideal weather.

• We really liked Haines. It was supposed to just be a placeholder stop in the location where we were picking up our car ferry in case we needed some extra days to get there due to delays earlier in our itinerary. The people in Haines are so so so nice and friendly here. A great natural food grocery store. The city is surrounded by water and mountains on all sides. A cute Hammer museum (thanks Julie Spies for the tip!}, the historical Fort Seward and many other cute shops line the small downtown area. We had a campsite right on the water, too. For us, Haines felt like what we thought a small Alaskan city would be like. It is a community that is not dependant on tourists (although there are some, it is not a touristy place unless an infrequent cruise ship is in town). Beautiful parks just a few miles in either direction, too. We would come back here again in a second.

• Bear viewing was an unexpected activity in Haines. The Customs Agent at the US Border alerted us that Chillikot State Recreation Area was a known grizzly bear viewing area and she was so right. 2 of the 3 times we drove the quick 8 miles to the park from downtown, there was a mama and 2 older cubs fishing for salmon in the river. One time we watched the mama bear teaching her cubs how to swim across the river. The one cub was a quick study but the other was very reluctant to swim the swift current. Eventually they got enough courage and literally belly flopped into the river from the rock they were perched on before madly paddling across. It was awesome to watch.

• Tony broke his spell with no bike rides and got in a bunch of cycles in on this leg with the best one being along the waterfront neat Haines not far from the bears. He is much happier when he can bike every day.

• We only got in a few shorter hikes as my knee has been acting up again. I am resting it so I can hit the ground running once we get to Vancouver Island as there is a lot of planned hiking.

• With Tony being vegan and me being vegan, gluten-free and with food allergies, eating out can be a challenge anywhere, but especially in Alaska. We eat out when there are restaurants that cater more plant-based, but mostly we cook in the van. It has been so fun grocery shopping for all of our food items in the small local grocery markets in Alaska and we have been pleasantly surprised how much we can find. Alaska might not have the variety and numerous brands of food we find at home but we can always find some type of grain, tofu and vegetables. Food is expensive but understandably so based on the sheer effort and distance the food has to travel. It has been a fun challenge.

Lowlights:

• The Border and Customs Agent in Canada on our drive from Skagway along the highly tourist traveled Klondike Highway was over-the-top thorough. Each car going through this small border crossing was taking 5-10 minutes due to her extensive questions. With us, she couldn’t understand why we did not bring our RV over from Haines and instead took the quick ferry and rented a car. She made us give her all of the prices we paid for our tickets and car and then compared that to bringing our RV with us in order to satisfy her and eventually allow us through and into Canada. It was crazy! We met numerous other tourists that day with similar experiences, so it was nothing personal. Come on lady, we are all on a time restricted schedule.

• We liked our time in the outskirts of Skagway, but downtown Skagway was super crowded and touristy. It is made up mostly of seafood restaurants, jewelry stores and souvenier shops. There were 4 cruise ships in port and the downtown was bursting with people. We spent as little time there as possible as that is not our jam.

• We did a lot of driving on this leg as the ferry we could have taken in past years from Whittier was not available due to understaffing and the cancellation of this route for the 2023 summer. Due to this, we had to drive almost an additional 800 miles including backtracking on the Alcan Highway. We pretty much drove the entire circumference of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in order to get to Haines, AK which is the farthest north port where there are routes heading back to the mainland USA.

Tiger (Provan) Sightings: Tony = 2, Tracey = 0

Next: Juneau, AK via Alaska Marine Highway ferry for a few days. This is our last stop in Alaska but we still have adventures planned in Bellingham WA, Campbell River area of Vancouver Island (more bear viewing!), Vancouver, Seattle, Boise, Great Basin National Park, Red Cliffs Recreation Area and St. George, UT to come.