Hello dear readers. I find myself a little sad as I write this, as our Alaska adventures are coming to a close. We have been slowing down here in Haines, as we wait to depart on the ferry tomorrow night. The weather has been more than a little sketchy and rainy, and the options here in Haines are limited to hiking, so its been a few days of hanging around town and prepping for the next phase.
We decided to take the plunge and visit McCarthy, AK. At the end of 60 miles of rough gravel road, it is one of the two roads that truly travel into the Wrangell-St Elias National Park. It also is five miles from an old mining town called Kennecott. The road was truly no joke. Muddy, gravelly, potholes and washboard. The poor RV got as dirty as we’ve seen it. And we were going to have to do it again the next day! I am so grateful for Dale for taking on the challenge. My job ends up being the one pushing everything back into place…..unfortunately, usually after something has fallen on Dale’s head!
We arrived and parked ourselves in the coolest spot we’ve been in so far, right on the Kennecott river. It’s as far as you can drive. Traveling into McCarthy and Kennecott involves walking over a footbridge and catching a local shuttle. The mine is about 7 miles away, so there is no walking it, and after taking the shuttle, we are VERY glad we didn’t opt to take our bikes. The road surface is no better on the other side of the river! Touring the mine proved to be more interesting than we expected. From the outside it looks like it is one good windstorm from collapsing, and yet, you actually don a hardhat and walk through it, envisioning the loud, dirty work involved in mining the copper in them thar hills. Not to mention the views over the Kennecott and Root Glaciers. since we had opted to stay out there just one night, we had to pass on the available hikes. I had pushed so hard to make this trip because I knew I could get another National Park stamp, but when our tour was over, the NPService center was closed! And of course we weren’t going to hang out long enough to take another ride up in the morning. I knew there was another visitor center on our way to Tok, but I was bummed that the date would not match the date we had been inside the park. A silly thing, I know, but I have been bit by the NP Parkie Bug!
Knowing what we were facing, we set out on our return trip pretty early the next day. Really, 60 miles of 20-30 miles per hour can take awhile! We were so relieved when we hit asphalt……for a hot minute. We made it to the Visitor Center and found the best road surface of the entire day! I went in to get my stamp, told them my sad story of missing my stamp from the day before, and low and behold, they have a Kennicott Mine stamp too! So they changed the date for me, and I got both days memorialized.
The route to Tok didn’t look too long on the map, and had the best camping options that might include a car wash in town, so we took the plunge and headed off. Basically the road is circling the national park, which turns out to be VERY LARGE. And despite this stretch of road being a prime route to Anchorage, we weren’t sure it was better than the gravel road to McCarthy. At least on that road we knew we were going to be driving on washboard and potholes. The whole rest of the way to Tok, they just sort of sneak up on you. Turned out to be the longest drive we’ve had yet! But the RV park we had chosen was absolutely fantastic….and had a Car Wash too! Dale’s day was complete.
Tok is the first “big” Alaska stop along the Alcan after you cross the Canadian border. And frankly, there isn’t much more to do there but eat, sleep, and fill up your gas tank. So we headed out the next morning. To get to Haines you have to enter Canada again. And boy, after having been searched when we crossed back in July, we were ready! And this time they basically waved us through. We stopped for lunch at the cutest and quirkiest restaurant/inn, and likely only open place, in Beaver Creek as soon as we made it through the border. Enjoyed the best burger, on homemade buns, and took two of the biggest cinnamon rolls with us for breakfast the next day. Maps says its an eight hour drive to Haines, so we wanted to drive about halfway and spend two nights. What we hadn’t accounted for was finding THE WORST section of the Alcan. We truly thought we’d been on some rough roads – then came the legendary Alcan. We thought we’d seen bad asphalt on the way to Tok – then came the legendary Alcan. We thought we’d seen potholes…well, you get the picture. It was one of the first drives where we were happy to follow someone, they would show us where the woop-de-doos were. What should have taken four hours, took us eight. It was stressful! And when we found our lakeside campground and could finally relax a little, the wind was so gale force we thought we were on the ocean. We walked the lakeshore, but conversation entailed yelling at each other, so we gave that up quickly so we didn’t end up with the whole campground thinking they would need to break up a marital altercation! We like to sleep with a noise machine, well actually Dale does….I guess I breathe loudly….but we sure didn’t need one that night!
We tried to walk the lakeshore in the morning and assess if we wanted to stay there one more night. But after a great deal of concern that the winds would not stop, and the roads would be the same, we opted to push on and stop at a campground south of Haines Junction. The road condition so dramatically improved once we left, we both were afraid to say anything out loud, in case we jinxed it! We stopped for coffee in Haines Junction (another quirky Canada Yukon establishment) then drove the last 30 minutes to Lake Kathleen Campground in the Kluane National Park of Canada. Canada doesn’t do passport stamps, I looked…. We tucked ourselves into a lovely spot, set up Starlink, ran our generator, and took the plunge and started a campfire. The last two nights we discovered that the campgrounds supply firewood free of charge. I have heard Canada acknowledge that they have a lot of trees. They must assume that people who camp without hookups MUST carry BIG axes, because the firewood was BIG chunks of wood. Dale wasn’t the only hardy soul out there with his tiny hatchet working over time to make kindling you could start the fire with. In today’s world, it was likely going to be the last time we would be able to have a campfire for a LONG time, so we thoroughly enjoyed it. Even if we, and the RV smelled like campfire for the next three days!
The next day we were headed for Haines for our last stay in Alaska. We stopped in every campground along Haines Highway and found some spectacular sights (heading down the Canadian east side of the Wrangell – St. Elias park), and managed to see our last Canadian Moose and Canadian Grizzly! The drive included going over the pass at 4000ft, socked in with clouds/fog and when we headed down the hill, well so came the rain. We hit our final border back into Alaska at the “heavily” trafficked border…..we had to wait five minutes for someone to come out of the building….we assumed she wanted to finish her lunch. It was so quiet on the road, we really expected to find Haines deserted.
Well it is not deserted, its a quaint and quiet town. It no longer appears to be a regular cruise ship stop, rather a day trip for cruisers stopped in Skagway. It has been grey and rainy, so few people are out and about, but its not deserted! Our campground is directly on the ocean, and it has been full every night. Probably 90% of the folks here are down from Whitehorse for a weekend of fishing, but we have seen so few fishing boats we don’t know where they go. We found a pretty good hike, have walked the town in every direction, found a really great place for dinner, watched some fun movies, and generally enjoyed winding our Alaska time down. Tomorrow we board the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry bound for Bellingham, WA. Its a three and half day trip, call it, a mini-cruise, without the long stops in each port. One of our neighbors here in the campground said it’s the best way to get back to the Lower 48. If you drive, it’s long and stressful. If you fly, you are slammed into weather and population change. But the ferry? Four days to chill and prepare. I’m kinda looking forward to it! And I can’t wait to share it with all of you!
Regards, and until next time, Lady (and Mr.) Wanderingwise appreciate you!
Weise's Wanderings 
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