Dyea Townsite -a Ghost Town near Skagway

I had thought about staying at Dyea Campground until I read about the road there. While at Skagway, we decided to check it out , the road, the campground and the ghost town. The road is a scenic 9 mile drive. However, what I read about the road is true. It has numerous hairpin turns and down to one lane only in some spots. If two motorhomes were to meet, not sure what would happen if in a spot where you couldn't pull over. We checked out the campground and it had spots that we might fit but the campground road is narrow as well. Before we started up the road, we first stopped at a view point to see Skagway from above.

An airport strip is right near the town.

Below are a couple of the marathon racers coming down from Dyea Road. The full marathon is 26 miles and there is a half one as well. It has the reputation of being one of the hardest in North American. We saw some tired looking racers as we made our way on Dyea Road.

It might be tough but it is a beautiful course.

We got to the Dyea Townsite,

In 1898 Skagway’s rival city, Dyea (die-yee), at the foot of the Chilkoot Trail, was the trailhead for the shortest route to Lake Bennett, where stampeders began their float to Dawson City. After the White Pass & Yukon Route was completed in 1900, Dyea quickly died. Today it's a few old crumbling cabins, the pilings of Dyea Wharf and Slide Cemetery, where 47 men and women were buried after perishing in an avalanche on the Chilkoot Trail in April 1898.
From article in Lonely Plant
We took a walk through some of the former town. Not a lot to see but a nice and scenic trail.

I took a few more pictures on the way back.

We was nice that are campground was within walking distance of the town. There were also three restaurants right at the Boat Harbor. We went to Skagway Fish Company. It was a little too cold to sit outside which would have been nice as it is right on the water. However, the food was really good. We originally were going to have their fish taco special but they were out. It is weird but we have been going out a little more lately and this is the fifth restaurant in a row where they didn't have at least one of our first choices. We even went to a Tim Horton's and they were out of the Philly Steak sandwich Joe ordered. When is a fast food restaurant out of anything? Our second choice was Halibut stuffed with cream cheese and shrimp with vegetables. It was really good and maybe the better choice anyway.

Skagway Fish House

We really enjoyed our 4 days at Skagway. We next headed back north, again, on the Klondike Hwy crossing the border into Canada on our way to Tok, and the beginning of 5 or 6 straight weeks of being in Alaska.
More beautiful scenery on the way.

We stopped at the Yukon Suspension Bridge in BC. It is a pedestrian cable bridge that is 200 feet long and is high over the Tutshi River. There is a charge to walk across and 14 dollars a person seemed to be a little high. We probably would have done it another day but you know sometimes you just have one of those days where you don't feel like paying for something that seems a lttle overboard in prcing.

We stopped at another overlook for more awesome views.

Wow, it never gets old. Such wonderful scenery. Then we had to stop at the the Yukon's Carcross Desert. The Guinness World's Record proclaimed it the World's smallest desert. It is only 642 acres and 10,000 years ago was at the bottom of a glacier lake. Its sand dunes butt up to Lake Bennett.

We did an overnight in Whitehorse at Hi Country RV, where we stayed before. Then another long day driving which included another bear sighting.

There is construction everywhere as they have a short window to get roads fixed. Most of the roads aren't too bad. We did have a stretch that caused all the hangers with clothes on them to jump off the clothes rod and end up on the floor. This happen last time too. Below is one of the few places we had to wait around 15 minutes and follow a pilot car until we were out of the construction zone.

We hadAt another overnight stay in Tok(Back in ALASKA) at the Sourdough RV Park, another park we stayed at before. They have a pancake toss where the winner gets a free breakfast the next morning. We tried last time we were here but not this time. We did have pancakes for breakfast. I had pancakes that were filled with blueberries. YUMMY!! We also got on their WiFi for a short while. Another reason to go here is they have a high pressure rv/car washer. We needed to wash off some of the Alaska cement.
Again we headed out with a short stop at Delta Junction, which is the end of the Alcan Highway.

Next stop is the Fairbanks area with a stay in a little town called the North Pole.

A Couple of Stops in Arizona and Onto New Mexico

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is a International Biosphere Reserve in the Sonoran desert. Twin Peaks Campground is within the Monument and has around 200 sites. There are pull thru sites with lovely desert landscaping. We stayed here for the Puerto Penasco pre rally in 2012 and will do so as part of next years rally. We decided to spend a few days here before heading north. There weren't many other people here.We seem to be in the time between winter snowbirders and spring breakers and the busy summer season, though summer may not be too busy because of the heat.

We went into Ajo one day to replenish our food supply. Another day decided to check out Darby Wells Road, a BLM free boondocking area that is popular in the winter. We didn't see anyone at all there. Getting too hot I guess. Part of the area is now restricted as it was discovered that some of the land actually belongs to the mines in the area.  So there aren't as many sites for larger rv's it seems.

We were originally going to go to Parker for Michael and Casey's hydroplane races. Then Michael emailed us that he had a trailer problem and he wasn't sure they would be able to go. As we needed to decide which direction to head, we decided to head to Tucson instead. Parker is a little out of the way and suppose to be in the 100's and so we decided to head directly north instead. It turned out to be a good decision as the weekend we would have been in Parker Joe had a stomach flu and wouldn't have been able to watch the races anyway and that heat would be no fun when you are sick.

So, Our next stop was a new one for us. Catalina State Park is a high desert campground just north of Tucson. It is very, very popular site in winter and you need to get reservations way ahead of time. We usually stay at Gilbert Ray as it is a first come first serve campground. We were easily able to get a site. It is at the base of the Catalina Mountains and  is a different look from Organ Pipe. This place doesn't have the typical desert plants but lots of nice shade trees. 

Love the coloring on the mountains in the late afternoon.

We had more shopping to do, with our Trade Joe fix included. We also took care of some other  business in Tucson.

Well, it is getting pretty hot in Arizona and so we will start heading north to hopefully cooler weather. Santa Fe is on the horizon with a stop at City of Rocks, near Deming, New Mexico.
Stay tuned.