We decided to take a slight detour down to Skagway because there was so much history around the town. There is a National Historic Park that has lots of information about the gold rush, which is the entire reason that Skagway is a town. One of the cheapest ways to make it to Dawson City to try to get a claim was to take a boat into Skagway and then try to forge your way over the white pass.
One of the most interesting facts about the gold rush is that it only lasted one season in Skagway. By the time anyone made it up to Dawson City all of the claims were gone, so not only did no one strike it rich off gold, very few even got the chance to look. Everyone who managed to get rich in the gold rush did so off of money spent by other people there to look. There were lots of hotels, restaurants, brothels and scams.
While the history was very interesting we were struck by how much tourist traffic they get! The summer population is double the winter population, and while they have one of the highest unemployment rates in Alaska in the winter, they have one of the lowest in the summer. Skagway's population is estimated to be 1,148 yet they see as many as 8,000 cruise passengers in a single day. While were there, which was not even the peak of tourist season, there were three huge cruises.
The area is also naturally quite stunning. The quick decent from large peaks down to sea levels is spectacular. Overall, it was worth the single day jaunt down to see the town.
We were staying in Yukon for our first night, the day after blowing out our first tire. Whitehorse didn’t have any open tire shops on a Sunday and camping around there was expensive. So we left and found a spot a good distance out of town near a small stream called Marshall Creek. While we were eating breakfast, we were greeted by an older gentleman and his grandson who was visiting on school vacation. His name was John - big John. He lived right down the road to the right. Turns out he has a son in Eugene and saw our Oregon plates and Ducks tire cover. He said we should swing by when we were on our way out of Alaska in a few weeks time. He’d make us some coffee, he said.
Three weeks later, that’s all we had to go on. All I could remember, anyways. We contemplated going through Dawson City, a route that would have made visiting Big John impossible, but I really wanted to take this man up on his offer. By the time we got back to the creek on that Monday, it was already 4:30. A bit late for coffee. As we got closer, we got really nervous, especially Kathleen, who wasn’t actually there for the invite.
Not remembering the directions exactly was tough. We took the first right after we crossed the stream onto a gravel road . After a few hundred meters, we decided this wasn’t leading us where we wanted to go. We took the next right onto a parallel street that seemed to be the old highway. We took that until it was clear that it had been left for nature to reclaim. There was a lady walking down it, so we asked her if she knew John. “No John, just a Fey”. Turns out she was just staying in a B and B on that road, about where we turned around.
0 for 2 and I was beginning to lose hope. I kept telling myself that there was something about an aquatic animal named street. A few kilometers further and we drove by it! Otter Falls Cutoff. It had a gas station, a store and a restaurant. At this point, Kathleen was so unconvinced by my memory that we talked ourselves out of stopping and drove a bit further. When no road was obvious to the right, I eventually decided I want to turn around and take the gravel road that clearly hadn’t looked right.
0 for 3. This was getting insane. It was pretty clear after traveling down this road a little bit that this was not the residence we were looking for. In fact, the road had markers on the side and a wind sock which made us think were were probably driving on a small aircraft landing strip. Glad we didn’t see or hear any aircraft.
It took all my courage then to decide, I’m going to ask at the gas station. I’ll be talking to a stranger, asking about someone I’d met for 5 minutes, hoping that they might tell me where this person lived. So, I asked the clerk at the store if she knew an older, bigger man named John. Sure enough, she knew him. It was clear that he was well known around there. He lived on a small road out the back of the parking lot to the gas station.
We followed the young lady’s directions and sure enough, as we pull into the only open spot he comes walking out to greet us. He invited us in, where he offered us coffee. We drank coffee with him and his wife. They even offered us grilled tomatoes and carrots for dinner. We talked for a few hours about Oregon, Yukon, our travels, their family and even ended up on politics by the end. We could not have been happier to have found them and spent an evening with them.
Before leaving, I asked him why he moved to the Yukon as a man in his early twenties. He said he’s not sure. A touch of insanity maybe. That seems like a fitting description for this trip and this idea to go to complete stranger’s house on an invite 3 weeks prior.
We took off to Wrangell - St.Elias National Park from Anchorage on the Glenn Highway. This highway was absolutely stunning. The drive is a little bit tough at first because it can be a little narrow and winding, but the views and lakes are absolutely worth it.
When you get towards the end near Glennallen, the Wrangell mountains come into view for a spectacular finish to the road as well.
After spending some time in Wrangell - St. Elias National Park (see our park post), it was time to start thinking about heading back down to the lower 48 but we were just 80 miles from Valdez and heard that the trip was well worth it. So we took the detour. The trip was truly spectacular. The mountains were so young and jagged that you could still see the sheering of rock from when the plates pushed that piece of rock up out of the ground. There are also a whole variety of different waterfalls.
Just as we were about to get into Valdez, our second tire blew. This time it was the inner tire on the back, passenger side (the previous one was the outer tire of that pair). We took the outer tire off to see the damage and we at first thought that a metal bracket had come loose and punctured the tire. On further inspection, we decided the tire went first and the metal rods took the bracket out.
Lucky for us, this happened right across the street from a repair shop. We managed to cross the highway on the bad tire and spent the night in front of the shop. They got us a new spare and were convinced that the beam that is now cut off did not actually support any of the structure of the vehicle or house. There is a structural cross beam right above where it came off. This was a secondary support that may help reduce the sway of the back panel but doesn’t hold any weight. I guess we’ll see…
With the fear of the possibility of losing our remaining 2 “older” tires (the front ones were newer than the back ones), we decided to head back to Fairbanks, to the place that actually had our tires, and buy more tires. Apparently our size of tire (14R 185C) is super rare, at least this far north. This drive took us up the Richardson Highway, which again had stunning views and several stops and informational signs about the Trans-Alaska pipeline which is used to pump crude oil from Prudhoe Bay all the way to Valdez.
We spent another couple nights at our favorite Walmart and were able to catch the Duck game against Montana at Lavelle’s Taphouse, before starting on our way back. We were once again successful at finding at least one duck. This time the man working at the food cart outside the tap house was wearing a duck hat and watching the game on his tablet. It turns out his son is a senior walk-on cornerback who plays mostly on special teams. It was fun to chat with him a little.
Duck football at Lavelle's Taphouse
September 15th is officially the day that winter tires are allowed in Alaska so we decided that it was about time to start heading south. That and we have a wedding to attend in two weeks down in Oregon and we want to see some things on the way south. So next up, we’ll be heading back into Canada.
Wrangell - St. Elias is the biggest National Park and it butts up against Canada's Kluane National Park. At 20,587 square miles, it is larger than Switzerland and has taller mountains. At the center of the park is the Bagley Icefield, which is nearly the size of the state of Delaware at 1,900 square miles.
Despite its size, the park only has 2 roads into it: the McCarthy Road and the Nabesna Road. Both roads are almost entirely gravel. The McCarthy road is the more traveled of the two and the one we took on this trip. It is about 60 miles into the park to the town of McCarthy. Vehicles have to stop at a river about a mile short of the town and people can walk in over a foot bridge. There is a car bridge that residents of McCarthy, and the National Park Service (NPS), can use but it isn’t open to the public.
We took two days to drive in, partially because we had to take it very slow on the road (averaging about 10 mph). Most of the road was severely washboarded. While our truck had no problem with it, the house on the back wasn’t a big fan. At some point we lost the hose clamps on our black water tank and had to tie it up with bungee cords. Good thing we didn’t use our black water system anyway…
We also wanted to take it slow because there was so much to see along the road. The visitor center in Copper Center gave us a guided audio tour CD for the road in. It has about 10 tracks to play at various mile posts that tell you a bit about the history of the railroad that originally ran along this route, as well the natural environment. It was very interesting.
We also stopped to walk around in a couple of places. The longest excursion we took was the old Kuskulana Bridge around mile 17. The old railroad bridge runs across a steep gorge, 238 feet above the bottom. It also has a terrifying catwalk underneath it, which offers some amazing views.
On Tuesday afternoon we made it to the end of the road and decided to walk in and check out McCarthy. McCarthy has several restaurants, hotels and wilderness guide companies. However we were at the very end of the season so a lot of the businesses were closed. It didn’t take us very long to walk around the town but it was quite cute. There were several very friendly dogs that followed us on our walk, and Aiden was a little unsure how to react to them.
After walking around McCarthy we still had a little time for a short hike back on the other side of the river. It was gorgeous.
Wednesday we wanted to use the full day to get a little deeper into the park. Five miles up a road from McCarthy is the abandoned Kennecott mine. NPS runs a shuttle up to Kennecott for $15 a person, each way. We elected to walk it. There is an old wagon road next to the road which is a great walk up.
Kennecott is primarily a National Historic Site run by the NPS, but there are a few tour companies and a hotel that operate there as well. NPS has renovated and maintains several of the old buildings from the mine with lots of information about what it was like to live at the mine. The whole town was run by the mining company including a school and a hospital. However the mine had very strict rules, so the “lawless” town of McCarthy popped up down the road to give the miners an outlet. All of the information was really interesting.
From Kennecott we also did a short hike up to Root Glacier. It was beautiful and the first glacier we got to walk on.
We walked on the glacier where the Root Glacier met the Kennicott glacier. The Kennicott glacier was covered with layers of rock and silt, but Root Glacier was exposed ice. It was interesting to see the difference. It is also interesting to note that the Kennicott glacier, named after the explorer Robert Kennicott, flows next to the town of Kennecott which had a clerical error in the original naming of the town.
Aiden got super excited as we got close, and it took us a while to figure out why. But she got on the glacier and tried to dig and eat and play in it the way she plays in snow, which she loves. She was a little confused by how hard it was but she enjoyed herself none the less.
By the time we made it back to the RV we had gone about 15 miles and were all three pretty worn out, but it was one of our best days yet. There are definitely lots of options in this park for different guided, or unguided, ways to explore.
While in Anchorage, we booked ourselves a Kenai Fjords cruise on Wednesdays. We took off down the Kenai (Key-nye) Peninsula on Tuesday to give ourselves some time to explore. We started off by taking the branch to Whittier and stopped at Byron Glacier. There we were able to hike up to what used to be the end of the glacier. Since the trail was built it had retreated a significant ways and we had two cross a rock field to get all the way too it.
After our adventure to our first glacier, we continued to Whittier. Whittier lies behind a 2.5 mile, one lane tunnel that is shared by cars and trains. So, after paying a $13 round-trip toll, we had to wait for the next half-hour mark to drive in. Traffic into Whittier is released every half-hour mark, while traffic coming out is release every hour mark, barring any unscheduled trains.
Whittier is a cold-war era military town that is now a fishing town, a port and a tourist destination, mostly for fishing. There are a lot of remnants of its cold war days around. Most notably and old, run down apartment-like building. Most of the 214 residents live in a similar apartment building that was built 1957 and has an underground tunnel to the school so that students can avoid going outside in the winter.
The surrounding area is beautiful and there are quite a few hikes and boat excursions leaving from town.
During our brief visit, we stopped by a local park on a stream where salmon were coming in to spawn. Never have we seen salmon in such numbers, just hanging around, waiting out their final moments. It was pretty clear that a few choice ones were picked over by locals, eagles and we even heard earlier in the day a bear was spotted here.
We left Whittier in the evening with the intent on making it most of the way to Seward. The night came faster than we though and heavy rains made the drive too stressful. We decided to stop at a pullout and start early the next day.
In Seward, we took our fjord tour (see our Kenai Fjords post). After our tour we decided to stay in Seward for the night. Off-season rates for a dry spot were only $10, which was cheaper than heading to the free spot we found online and back. Since we wanted to see the visitor center the next day anyways, it was a good deal.
We hung around Seward for most of the next day, taking it pretty easy. We eventually made our way out and after a short stop by exit glacier, we settled at a campsite just off the road next to a really calm lake.
The next day we decided we’d visit Homer as well. It was a good 2 1/2 hours each way, but we heard it was a nice place to visit. The drive was beautiful, but took us through some very recent forest fires. At some pointes smoke got incredibly thick and charred trees on the roadside showed the devastation that came through. There were many places still visibly smoldering, but nothing was on fire anymore.
Homer itself was a nice small town. Most notable was the spit: a stretch of narrow land that ran out into the sound. We did some wine tasting at Bear Creek Winery because we had a coupon from a coupon book. We met a lady that lived in Homer at the Oregon watch party in Anchorage and she gave us the coupon book as well as some recommendations. Bear Creek makes their wines with a mix of fruits and berries and grapes or straight from the fruits. They buy many of their fruits from locals who either grow or find them. This lead to them having very delicious and sweet wines that would certainly leave you with a headache if you drank too much.
We spent the night about 10 miles back towards Anchorage at Whiskey Gulch beach in Anchor Point. The road down to the beach claimed to only be maintained for 4-wheel drive vehicles. That may be true in wetter months, but we made it down and back up with no issues.
On Saturday, we drove pretty much straight back to Anchorage with a quick stop in Girdwood. We had heard they were having a fungus fair there at the community center. We only stopped for a little bit, but it was great to see a bunch of people excited to share their knowledge of fungi. We had been wanting a good guide to the mushrooms of the area and picked one up there.
We ended up back in Anchorage in time to catch the Duck game against Nevada with the Alumni Association. It was a much needed feel-good win after the previous week’s meltdown.
We’ll be spending the night one more time at Kathleen’s old roommate’s place before we’re off down the Glenn Highway and Wrangell-St. Elias!
We took a Fjords boat tour and got to see glaciers and a lot of sea life! We got to Seward around 10 and our boat was scheduled to leave at 11:30. They had a lot for us to park the RV and offered a shuttle, but we opted for the 20 minute walk to the office.
Before we set sail, Andreas got coffee but made the mistake of not getting the $9 travel mug. The mug was refillable with coffee, hot cocoa or tea throughout the 6 hour cruise. When you’re cruising at 25 knots, standing on the outer deck for a while will definitely make you want something warm to drink when you step back inside.
Right as we left, we were almost greeted by a bald eagle perching on a pillar until he was scared off by the sound of a train horn.
As we went, we saw other sea birds: mostly puffins and murres. Puffins are only around the coastline during the summer months to nest. The rest of their time is spent way off shore. Murres dive up to 600 feet deep to catch food but are more likely to spending time near the coastline.
We saw plenty of sea lions hanging out on the shore, sunning themselves.
And a few sea otters lounging around on the water.
The most impressive of the fauna were certainly the orcas. We came across a large group, including multiple pods who were all moving away from shore in close proximity to each other, The captain even managed to get a little bit ahead if a group in such a way that one of the whales swam right under the bow of the ship.
The highlight, and main attraction was Aialik Glacier, a tidewater glacier. Seeing a wall of ice slowly dumping ice into the water because It is moving about 7 feet per day and hearing the loud echos of even the smallest chuck is truly something to behold. It’s easy to see when you’re up close and personal how, given time, these glaciers shape the landscape they’re on.
After the cruise, we wanted to get our stamp but the visitor center was already closed! Luckily a lady with the same goal spotted a ranger heading into the center and asked if he would be willing to bring the stamp out. He was happy to oblige!
On our way out of Seward the next day, we made a stop by Exit Glacier, the part of the park you can actually drive to. The center there closed for the season two days before we arrived, but luckily there were still some hikes to do. The easiest of these was closed off due to bear activity! We went up to the glacier overlook. It was pretty apparent that this trail had been named some time ago because the glacier was still quite a ways uphill from the overlook.
The park had signs marking where the glacier extended to all the way back to 1815., which was quite a way up the road. While the glacier has been in retreat since then, the pace it has been moving recently was quite staggering. To read more about the retreating exit glacier, check out this article.
