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.                                                                                                                                                        

Another Day in Haines

Started off the day by taking Savannah down to the water to run off leash. She was a happy girl. She also met two other cavaliers, one tri -colored and one black and tan, both bigger than her.



She likes seashells

   
We drove into town and went into the visitor center and checked out a shop next door to it. The town is very picturesque

                                                                              
                                                                                 

                                                           
            We went into the Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center,  which was quite interesting. The lower floor has information on the gold rush days, mining and fisheries and Fort William h. Seward, an army post in Haines from 1902-1946 . The fort was named after the man who negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia.  They changed the name several times, once due to confusion between town of Seward and the army post. The name was changed back when it became a historical site.   Officers Row in Haines is still there and can be toured.

                                                 

                     My parents worked at Pan Am in San Francisco when they were first married and I had to take a picture of this

The upstairs is devoted to the Tlingit culture, one of the Native American tribes in Alaska which are an important  part of Alaskan culture. There was an exhibit of the Chilkat Blankets.
The art of  weaving the blankets  originated with the Tsimshian people (near Wrangell) but later spread to the Tlingits through trade and marriage. The Chilkat Tlingits who developed their own design style became the best  weavers. These blankets, requiring a year of hard work to make, were highly sought by northwest coast Indian nobility long before the first explorers came to this region.
They are very beautiful.

Chilkat Blanket

Items of local craft people for sale

                                                                                   There is a lot of interesting history in Alaska and I am sure we will be going to more museums to take it all in.

Headed back to our campsite and took a picture of one of the ships that come into the harbor.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Haines, Alaska

We are still having totally cloudy, cool days and so decided to take a drive and check out some of the state campgrounds and then maybe a museum in town. We first drove out to Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site, which is a beautiful campground sitting amongst huge evergreen trees and overlooking the lake. Their are some sites big enough for our 40' beast but it seem pretty narrow with low trees on the drive through the park and so may not be for us.

                                                               



The drive there and back to town was very pretty along the Lutak Inlet

                                                                 

We stopped at the Alaska State Ferries Terminal. We didn't see any large rvs coming off or heading onto the ferries.  These ferries go to and from Haines, Skagway and Juneau.

                                                    
.  We drove back to town and took some pictures as we neared the town

                                                                        

I guess this boat is dry docked

                                                                                  

View of our campground from across the water

                                                                                 
                                                                             
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We also checked out the Chilkat State Park. It is more out of the way. In fact, the drive into the park is washboard a good part of the time and steel in places. The sites are also hard to get into for larger vehicles. Another nice park though and the beach area would be a great place to paddle from

       There are also ferrys, such as the Fast Ferry to Skagway and back, and cruise ships that come into the harbor near our campground.

   

We went home and mad crab cakes out of the crab we had purchased. We got eight nice sized cakes out the whole crab. I made a remoulade sauce for over them and they were very yummy.