Somewhere Around Midnight

We left Haines and retraced our route backup to Haines Junction and continued north on the Alaskan Highway again. The drive from Haines to Haines Junction is certainly the most dramatic scenery we have seen so far. We didn't see that much wildlife but did see a couple of bears, one of which I got a pretty good picture of.

     From Haines Junction, the highway gradually climbs over 3,200 feet to Bear Creek Summit and then desscents with the Kluane Lake on  the left side. The lake is 43 miles long and is beautiful. We are really starting to drive over the infamous roads you hear about up here. Lots of gravel, road construction and permafrost.
We stopped at Cottonwood RV Park and Campground at Destruction Bay for the night. It is a very nice commercial campground that is right on the bay. The landscaping is very nice and gives nice separation between sites. We are right on the water with a great view of the water out our front window.

Cottonwood RV Park

View out our front window

      
Did I mention the bad roads? What happen to our black jeep?

  The below pictures were taken after midnight on June 21st, the summer solstice.
We haven't seen dark skies for awhile. I kinda like it though do miss the stars would are probably amazing in the winter. Would love to see the aurora borealis sometime There maybe a small chance if we are still far enough north at the end of August, though that is probably still too early.

We would have loved to stay here longer There was one small problem or shoud I say a lot of small problems. The swarms of tiny gnats made it impossible to sit outside. When we left in the morning our front window and side of motorhome were full of dead bugs. Our next stop in Tok has a high pressure washer and we will definitely need it. Below are pictures of some of the road damage due to the recent rains. Also, it is only around 200 miles from Destruction Bay to Tok but it took around 5 hours due to road conditions.

We again crossed the border into Alaska where we will be for the next few months. We didn't get asked many questions this time, but we didn't get through one, two, three. We were in the line for cars and rvs but when we got close to the crossing, we saw that the height limit was 12'10" and we are 12'9". The border guard didn't think we would make it through and we didn't want to take a chance and so unhooked so Joe could backup and go through the truck lane instead. That was fun.

We made it to Tok. If you come into Alaska on the Alaska Highway, Tok is the first Alaska town you will enter and most likely the last one you'll see on the way home. We made a detour to Haines, otherwise that would have been the case with us whether we went up through Dawson City or through Haines Junction and on up north.

Tok is a small town but has many rv campgrounds due to the number of people who travel through here We stayed at a campground called Sourdough Campground. The sites sit among spruce trees. It is a unique campground in that besides having a buffet breakfast that servers sourdough pancakes, they have a nightly pancake toss with the winner getting a prize of free breakfast. We also had dinner in their small cafe. Their only entree that night was chili that included caribou as well as beef. It was pretty tasty.

The cute little Sourdough Cafe

Sorry, you missed, please try again

                              We did take advantage of the coin operated wash to get a few layers of the dirt off the motorhome and jeep when we first arrived. Tomorrow on to Fairbanks where we will stay for 3 or 4 days if not more. Now that we are in Alaska for the next 2 months , we will hopefully not stay in many places for one night only. It is nice to be able to stay in one place for longer periods of time, especially if we really love it.