Day 37: Blueberry Lake

 

Blueberry Lake state park is just 28 miles shy of Valdez. We have reservations for tomorrow in Valdez, so we held up here a day. This state park is a small 15 site park just over Thompson Pass of 2675' in elevation. A small lake surrounded with blueberry bushes. In route today, we passed several glaciers and saw our first moose. It crossed the road just as we came up to a one way construction zone. Unfortunately is was across the road and in the brush before we could snap a photo. It was pretty much a sunny day until we got to Thompson pass where the clouds were making it over the mountain from Valdez. No rain is forecasted this week for Valdez but it will be mostly cloudy. Its Tuesday night and we have planned a 8 hour wildlife/glacier boat tour in Valdez for Friday on the Lulu Belle, so lets hope the weather holds or improves.

Miles: 95 / 4178

Day 34-36: Copper River

 

Chitna is a very small town on the Copper River where Dip-netting for Salmon is a popular annual event for the locals. It consists of taking a rather large net on a long pole they stick in the river and wait for a salmon to swim into it and then they drag it to shore. It is amazingly successful as many will catch a two dozen or more in a day weighing 20-30 lbs each. We setup camp in Chitna across the bridge at a free government campground where local dip-netters abound. This campground is at the end of the paved road, where a 60 mile dirt road starts and extends into the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park. At the end of the dirt road lies the small town of McCarthy and Kennicott. These are small remnants of the copper mine towns that existed around 1920-1938. We unhooked the Jeep and drove the 60 mile road to see the old mining town and do a 6 mile hike to the Root Glacier. The road ends at a foot bridge a mile from McCarthy and another 4 miles to Kennicott. So instead of walking, or waiting on the shuttle, we unload the E-Bikes and have a wonderful ride to town. We tour the town on bike and a foot, then head to the Root Glacier Trailhead. Its a 2.5 mile hike to the glacier. Once we arrive a the glacier, we strap on our Crampons (shoe spikes) and walked the glacier, which was like walking on a huge snow cone. The ice went CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH with everty step under clear blue skies and 65 degree weather. The ice cold water falls, creeks, and cracks were plentiful. We truly enjoyed the glacier walk/hike and drinking from the clean pure water running on the glacier. Afterwards, we rode the E-Bikes back from Kennicot to McCarthy and have dinner at the Potato head restaurant (Wood fired Pizza and a Salad). Its a 2 hour 60 mile drive back so we pack up the bikes, and head back to camp in Chitna. We finally get back to camp at 9:30pm, we hit the bed tired and feeling a bit wore out.


Miles: 83 / 4083

Eagles on the Copper River eating fish

More eagles

Ice cavern and water fall on Root Glacier

Standing on Root Glacer - Kennecott, AK

Copper River Campground

Dip Netting in the Copper River

Historic Kennecott Mines

McCarthy Old General Store

Copper River Foot Bridge

Kennecott Mine

View from Kennecott Visitor Center

View of Fish wheels in distance from Copper river Bridge

Wrangell Mountain Range

Day 33: Gulkana River

 

Gulkana River

We only stayed one night in Chicken, really not more to do then a quick walk of the area and eat some cinnamon rolls. We headed to Tok AK today to refuel, wash the RV/Jeep, dump the tanks and refill with water. Tok is the segue to Alaska where you can go south to Valdez, Kenai, Anchorage, or you can continue northwest to Fairbanks, then down the Denali Highway to visit Denali National Park, then on to Anchorage and Kenai peninsula. Since we want to have the best chance at seeing the Northern Lights, we go south to Valdez, Kenai, then will loop back up clockwise to Fairbanks late August when it will be darker at midnight to see the lights. So today, after refueling and picking up some stickers and a T-shirt at the gift shop, we head south towards Chitna where the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park resides which is the largest park in the USA. We did not make it to Chitna today, we stopped at a nice spot on the Gulkana river where people were fishing. We had a quite night on the river, watched some Netflix and called it a day. Chitna and Wrangell tomorrow.

Miles Driven: 208 / 4000

Wrangell Mountain Range

Mt. Sanford

Vista View

Roadside Rest Stop

Yoli on the phone with Nan

Day 32: Top of the World

 

Today was a big drive day as we took on the "Top of the World" highway that stretches from Dawson City YT to Chicken AK. this road is about 95 miles of dirt and 15 miles of pavement. It is a ridge road that runs mostly on the mountain ridge line yielding great views and vista points. Again, I pulled out the drone for some great footage and pics on top of the world. Between Dawson and Chicken also lies the US/CAN border where we crossed back into the good ol' USA. We stopped just before at a vista and got some pictures as our trip to Alaska has become reality as we will spend the next two months July and August in Alaska before we make our way back home 5000 miles. We just missed the Chickenstock music festival by a couple weeks where 1500 people show up to listen to local artists. Probably a good thing as today, very few people were in town, we get a free camp spot at the Chicken Saloon. We walked the town (very small), got some pics with the 30' Chicken made by Highschool students out of old gym lockers. We watch several pan for gold, we skip the effort and are satisfied just watching others looking for their pot of gold, or I should say thimble of gold flakes. The best part was the awesome cinnamon rolls, Pie, and scones we scored at the bakery. Absolutely best cinnamon bun ever!

Miles Driven: 110 / 3792

Top of the World

Downtown Chicken AK

Hello Alaska

Cinnamon Rolls to die for

New Drinking buddies

Gold panners in chicken AK

Day 28-31: Dawson City

 

George Black Ferry

We make the drive to Dawson where we plan to spend a few nights before finally crossing the border in to Alaska. Not a long day, but the weather was clearing and the last half the trip into Dawson was pleasant with some sunshine. The most exciting part of the day was putting the RV/Jeep on the George Black Ferry to cross the Yukon River in Dawson City to get to the Yukon River Campground. I got out the drone and got some great shots of the RV on the Ferry. We got some down time for 4 days so we did some laundry, topped off our water tanks and did some downtown shopping, strolling, and dining at Sourdough Joe's.

Ice Cream Time

Yukon River Campground Entrance

Might Yukon River

Paddle Wheeler Keno

Yukon river looking towards Dawson city from Yukon river Campground

Camp site #32 on the River

Day 27: Rain on the Klondike

 

Today we venture off the ALCAN highway for a side trip up the Klondike Loop. Before we leave, we have full day of oil change, shopping, fueling, and provisioning. We even try to get a guy to repair our cracked windshield, but no luck, too deep, he can't fix it, bummer. We finally hit the road north on the Klondike loop in the rain at 1pm and stop for our first night at Pelly River Crossing Campground. This campground was an abandon Yukon Territory place that locals are maintaining and it is free. It was a little overgrown, but no crowds, and pretty quite right on the river. It rained on and off all the way, and at times it poured down. It was a no wildlife day probably due to weather. We did manage to add a Pelly River sticker to the RV and get a free night camping. We got such a late start after shopping, provisioning, and getting the Jeep oil changed we did not get to the campground until 7pm. Its light until midnight or later, so not an issue. Just a long day in the saddle.

Miles Driven: 176 / 3527