Day 82 Hyder, Alaska

It has been almost a week since I have had an internet connection that is capable of loading pictures so will try to get this out this evening.  I know most of you will not see it until day 83.
After leaving Valdez, we traveled north to Tok, pronounced with a long o.  We had an over night there and managed to get the truck and camper washed and some groceries acquired before leaving in the morning.  We decided to travel the Taylor highway to Chicken and then on over the Top of The World highway to Dawson City.  From just short of Chicken and all the way past the border, the road was gravel and it was raining and misting.  Made my wash job look really good.  Fortunately, it was mostly a light rain to heavy mist so views were not impacted other than lack of sunshine.  The fall colors were spectacular.

Top of The World view

We had more than 100 miles of this type of view.  Most of it was above tree line, 3000 feet, and unobstructed.  We met very few cars and only got passed by a couple of vehicles.

When we got to Dawson, we boarded a free ferry across the Yukon River to the city.  We stayed near town that night and visited the city in the morning.  They had a very good museum in the old territory government building and, except for the road through town, the streets were still dirt streets and boardwalks in place of sidewalks.

After leaving town, we drove down to Twin Lakes Campground, a Yukon Government Territory Campground, about an hour north of Whitehorse.  That night we were able to see the Northern Lights.  The next morning we stopped at Takhini Hot Springs, just north of Whitehorse for a relaxing couple of hours before heading on down to Haines.  On the Haines' Highway, a black bear escaped with his life only because when Jeannette hit the brakes, the trailer tires squealed and he turned back.  Then, just as we were approaching Haines, a grizzly tried the same thing but at least he looked before crossing and turned back.

Haines is a pretty quiet town in the fall.  We enjoyed spending a day there seeing several different things.  We visited a Salmon cannery, the Hammer museum, Chilkoot State Park, and the library, special architecture and we bought passage on the Alaska Marine Highway to Skagway for Sunday afternoon.  We grilled salmon at the end of the bay

Dinner for two on the water

and then went back to Chilkoot State Park to watch brown bears (grizzlies) feeding on salmon in the river.

Dinner for one in the water

Sunday morning we got the camper ready to go then went to see Fort Seward and Chilkat State Park on the other side of the bay.  We hitched up and left for the ferry terminal.  The ferry was much nicer than we anticipated.  Loading was fun though.  I had to back down the ramp and then turn into the vehicle bay and back the length of the ship.  It went without incident.  The guy that came next in a 42 foot motor home chickened out and let the lady directing him back it on for him.   When we got up on the passenger deck, we were surprised.

Passenger deck on the Fairweather

The trip was only 45 minutes to Skagway but saved almost 200 miles of driving.

We spent a couple of hours in town, and that was plenty.  It caters primarily to the passengers of the cruise lines so there were lots of shops of one sort or another, it seemed like almost half were jewelry stores.  There are a couple of decent museums in town, but on Sunday's, one closes early so we did not spend much time there.

We drove up to the Alaska Highway before stopping for the night.  And when I say up, in the first 15 miles, we climbed over 3500 feet.  When we got to the top of the pass, the landscape was different than any we have seen, almost like a moonscape.

High above Skagway

After spending the night along the Alaska Highway, we turned south on the Cassiar, route 37, into British Columbia and ran to Boya Lake Provincial Park.  With temperatures in the 70's, we decided to spend two nights and had a very restful, pleasant day.  

Today, we came on to Hyder, Alaska, our last stop in the 49th state.  The drive here was filled with special views of high mountains, fall colors, glaciers, and in the last 40 miles, waterfalls and rushing streams as we came down from 3700 feet to sea level and rain forest type landscape.  

We should have internet again when we get to Prince Rupert, day after tomorrow.  Tomorrow we are heading to New Aiyansh, the site of a First Nation village that was wiped out by a volcanic lava flow.