The road got rougher the further north we traveled…....but at least we don't have ferries to get on and off of any more!
We traveled the Haines Highway from Haines, Alaska to Haines Junction in the Yukon Territory. The road to Haines was beautiful – snow capped mountains, wildflowers, glaciers, waterfalls and grizzlies!
We traveled the Haines Highway from Haines, Alaska to Haines Junction in the Yukon Territory. The road to Haines was beautiful – snow capped mountains, wildflowers, glaciers, waterfalls and grizzlies!
Click on the arrow to see the video of the mama grizzly with her 2 cubs!
We were lulled into thinking that the roads in the Yukon and mainland Alaska have improved and wouldn’t be as rough as we had heard they were. We soon found out when we crossed the border into the Yukon that the roads lived down to their reputation. They were full of frost heaves, ruts and pot holes. We crawled along for 130 miles through the northern part of the Yukon and into mainland Alaska where the roads weren’t any better. Fortunately we were rewarded along the way when we saw a mama grizzly and her 2 cubs. We hiked to Soldier's Summit - the location where the pipeline was completed and opened to transport vehicles to support the war effort in Nov of 1942 after 8 months of construction and 1525 miles - building 8 miles per day. Plus – it was such a thrill to cross into the Alaska mainland from the Yukon on the Alaska Highway after driving 3,400 miles! We made it!!!
Our destination was Valdez – the end of the pipeline and the gateway to Prince William Sound. We were looking forward to a boat trip on Prince William Sound to see the fjords, whales, glaciers and my favorite – the sea otters! What came as a wonderful surprise was the campground we stayed at on Allison Point across from Valdez town. Allison Point is a campground for the fisherman. They come to catch the pink salmon as they travel to their spawning creek every summer. We had a fantastic time watching the commercial and sport fisherman and the seals, sea lions and eagles ALL fishing for pink salmon – it was incredibly entertaining and we learned a lot about salmon fishing! We were there four nights and every day there were more fish that attracted more fisherman, seals, eagles (literally hundreds of them) , sea lions and the furriest fisherman – a mama grizzly with 3 cubs! ! It was so much fun to watch all of the fisher people and animals as they fished and caught LOTS of salmon!
The fisher people were from all over North America – they all came to Valdez for one purpose – to catch salmon! We met one man from south Georgia named Jim Moore ( no relation that we know of but a really nice guy) who brought a freezer in his van and 12 dozen mason jars. He drove all the way to Alaska to fish and planned to stay until he filled the freezer and the jars with salmon before he headed back to Georgia! He was kind enough to share his salmon with us – we enjoyed two of his filets cooked on our grill – delicious!
Valdez highlights:
- Watching the salmon fishing at our campsite on Allison Point
- Seeing a mama grizzly and her 3 cubs along a creek
- Boat trip on Prince William Sound - sea otters, whales, sea lions, glaciers and beautiful fjords!
Click on the arrow to see the video of the cute sea otters!
After four fun days in Valdez, we headed 90 miles up the Richardson highway to Wrangell/St Elias National Park – the largest park in the US – 13.2 million acres with over 100 glaciers and 16 of North Americas tallest mountains – a few of which are dormant volcanoes still spewing smoke! The mine hasn’t been active since 1938 but there are still people living there without electricity, water or any other conveniences. In fact they get their mail by bush plane twice a week and also do a lot of summer gardening since they shop only once a month in Anchorage. They also use a homemade fish wheel to catch sockeye salmon in the Copper River. Amazing to see such alternative lifestyles!
Next stops:
A drive up the scenic Glenn Highway to Wasilla ( Sarah Palin’s home town) for the fourth of July parade - wonder if she'll be there????, Anchorage and then on to the Kenai Peninsula - it's a hopping place right now because the salmon are beginning to migrate into the rivers to spawn. We still haven’t encountered the state bird ( the mosquito) yet. We know it’s coming but we are thankful to have been in Alaska almost a month and be “bug free” – a really pleasant surprise!
