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| Tolkat Valley, Denali National Park, Alaska |
Ten years ago, Bob and I spent several days in Kootenai and Banff National Parks in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. It was spectacular scenery, but we did not have time to drive further north into Jasper Park to see the icefields and mountains there. Reluctantly, we headed home to our jobs and responsibilities, but decided that someday, when we could manage to get away from Minnesota for a month or more, we would like to drive further north and camp along the Alaska Highway.
After we had both semi-retired and sold our commercial property and could finally take the time to get away for more than a month, we started to plan our Alaska vacation. We knew that, even five or six weeks would not allow us to see all of that beautiful state, and we also wanted to spend time camping in western Canada. Adjusting our calendar even more, we factored in a week and a half to visit relatives and friends in the Pacific Northwest before coming home. Several of Bob's cousins are getting older, as are we, and we wanted to spend time with them before our health prevented travel.
It took six months to plan our trip and the last month was especially challenging. Even so, the last few days before a journey are always frantic.
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| Packing up the car and camper before leaving Dassel, the morning of June 7, 2914 |
Since this is our first trip towing a camping trailer, the preparations were magnified. The fact that this was an "as is" used, very small trailer meant renovations were in order and, of course, a few of the renovations were not completed until the last day.
Since this was to be a six-week-long camping trip, our dog Oscar accompanied us. This meant additional preparations, such as outfitting a travel crate and a veterinary certificate, since we would be entering & leaving Canada several times on our way to and from Alaska.
We left Dassel the morning of June 7, our Subaru Forester towing a small 30-year old fiberglass trailer that measured approx. 6 feet wide by 11 feet long; with the hitch, spare tire & tow bar, it was 13 feet long. Not exactly what most people consider a modern RV. Barely enough room for us and our dog Oscar, who spent most of his time in a kennel in the back of the Subaru.
Overnight campsite on a reservoir south of Saskatoon After spending the first night at Devils Lake North Dakota, we crossed into the wheat fields of Saskatchewan and spent the second night along a lake near Saskatoon. We faced a head wind much of the time heading west and could only manage 350-400 miles a day, towing the trailer and taking time to make & break camp. We also faced issues with service stations not taking our credit & debit cards, because we had neglected to notify our banks that we would be leaving the country. That got resolved the next day after a few panicky phone calls.
The next day we crossed the Alberta oil fields and observed a lot of new "boom town" construction. Late on our third day, we drove into the foothils of the Canadian Rockies. We camped west of Edmonton.
The next day was cloudy, with thundershowers approaching across the peaks. We crossed into northern British Columbia.
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- The Alaska Highway, formerly known as the Alcan Highway, begins at Dawson Creek, B.C. Originally constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers as a land route supply chain for U.S. and Canadian forces during World War II, it was hastily built in a single season as a rough, one-lane, dirt-and-gravel track through hundreds of miles of rugged wilderness. The Allies feared that Japanese submarines might take and block the few fragile seaports which led into the Yukon and Alaskan interiors and thus cut off critical bases at Fairbanks and other Alaskan locations. Parts of the road follow old Native American trails.
The route, code named “ALCAN” was opened to the public in 1949 as the Alaska Highway. It remains the only continuous land route between Alaska and the lower 48 states. Even today, roads cannot be built across and along most of the British Columbia and Alaskan coasts because of the presence of glaciated icefields in the coastal mountain ranges. Only a few high road passes exist between the coast and the interior. It is impossible to connect the coastal communities by roads because icy glaciers extend down to the sea in the steep, mountainous terrain. Also, it is difficult to transport goods by sea year round, except through the inside passage, which has only two access points to the interior, at Haines and Skagway, AK. Even the capital city of Juneau is accessible only by air and sea.
- Taiga forests of black and white spruce and impressive mountain vistas follow the route. Our first night at Buckinghorse Creek, June 10, we awoke to thick frost on the ground.
- The highway was not completely paved until the 1970s, and remains a two-lane highway in fairly good condition. Sections are rough and full of sinkholes and depressed trenches due to the effects of permafrost. Traffic is not heavy and several times we crossed paths with other tourists we met along the way.
Alaska Highway in British Columbia 
- After we began our drive up the highway, we started seeing wildlife besides deer, including this mother black bear and her cubs.
Other wildlife we saw on our trip included bison, moose, elk, foxes, grizzly bears and a lynx. We did not see caribou or wolves, but they are also in the area.
- We also saw mountain sheep, including these curly-horned “stone sheep” with a death wish who were on the highway.
The highway threads through 1,400 miles of wilderness, with only a few connecting roads.
The first couple hundred kilometers of the highway passes through several timber, mining and oil well and processing areas. We saw labor camps, construction sites and lots of heavy trucks.
Then the highway passes through Muncho Provincial Peak in British Columbia, where we saw wildlife and beautiful vistas. -
Muncho Provincial Park, British Columbia 
- Along the highway are numerous historic “milepost” markers. In addition, there are modern kilometer markers. Over the years, the highway has also been re-routed and shortened in some places.
Alaska Highway Roadhouse at Contact Creek, B.C. The government contracted with private parties to operate roadhouses along the highway, to service and supply vehicles and personnel. Some of them remain open, but many are now in disrepair. This roadhouse at Contact Creek is typical, with gas and diesel pumps, a small cafe or convenience store and a few basic motel rooms. Many campgrounds are primitive, so large, self-contained RVs are the preferred method of travel, although we saw a surprising number of tents. Drinking water is not available in all campgrounds, so we discovered that we needed to bring our own or boil stream water. -
Liard Hot Springs, B.C. - We tried to stay at a place with showers every two-to-three days, but those campgrounds tended to be more expensive and were not as scenic. Liard Hot Springs was a welcome stop for the residents of our little camper.
The hot springs create warmer temperatures in the area, creating a haven for orchids and other rare mountain flora and fauna. Moose also like the lusher vegetation, we spotted a young bull while walking back from the springs. -
- After two days in British Columbia, we crossed into Yukon Territory at Watson Lake. Early Alcan Highway travelers put up signs to show that they'd managed to make it that far, and the tradition continues. There are more than 78,000 signs from all over the world in the signpost forest at the gateway to the Yukon. We did not bring a sign, so we did not leave one, but, we spotted several from Minnesota, including this one at right from Gordon & Lois Diers of Howard Lake. We ate our picnic lunch on the grounds of the "signpost forest."
- Occasionally we took a short side trip to view a scenic waterfalls or rapids. Not all side roads are suitable for travel when wet or by trailers.
The Yukon River near Whitehorse, Y.T. - We crossed the legendary Yukon River at Whitehorse, former boomtown of the Alaska gold rush & now a regional center. Rivers in this area are turquoise in color.
- After Whitehorse, we drove over a pass into Yukon's Kluane Range. This range of 6,000-8,000-foot mountains fronts another range, the St. Elias Mountains, which are twice as high and cannot be seen from the highway most days. No roads access the St. Elias Mountains, which include Canada's three highest peaks, only a couple hundred feet lower than Mt. McKinley in Denali Park in Alaska. The only way to get back there is to hike for days or fly.
- Here's a view of the Kluane Range from Haines Junction, Yukon, a tourist center for Kluane National Park, which includes the glaciated wilderness of the tall St. Elias peaks. It was overcast, so we could only see the front ranges. We headed due north along the eastern edge of these ranges from here, then headed west toward the eastern border of Alaska, another 175 miles or so up the highway.
St. Elias Mountains, east of Beaver Creek, Y. T. - As we headed north, the landscape became bleaker, with shorter, spindlier trees and permafrost. Sinkholes and trenches ran across and along the highway pavement, making it very treacherous for any vehicle, even a four-wheel drive, and especially one towing a trailer. About 130 miles north of Haines Junction, Bob stopped to check the underside of our vehicles and discovered that the frame of our little trailer was starting to crack.
Lake Creek, Yukon Territory - We slowly drove about four miles to this primitive campsite along Lake Creek. We were joined there overnight by a man who was riding his bicycle from Bend, Oregon, to Anchorage. He had been on the road for a month & ate supper with us. The next morning, Bob unhitched the trailer and drove to Beaver Creek, about 50 miles up the highway on the Alaskan border, to try to find a welder to repair our trailer. Oscar and I stayed at the campsite and got the trailer cleaned and reorganized. The persistent song of a Swainson's Thrush kept us company. I was nervous about grizzly bears and moose, but saw none.
Alaska Highway east of Beaver Creek, Y.T. - Bob returned early that afternoon, having driven down this highway with a 12-foot length of steel tubing sticking out of the rear of the Subaru. Despite his anxiety, the scenery was so spectacular, he took this photo through the windshield as he traveled.
Reinforcing the trailer at Lake Creek - Using jacks and a small ax, we pounded the tubing under the trailer to reinforce it, then secured it with chains that Bob had gotten from the Beaver Creek welder. After it was secure, we drove slowly to Beaver Creek. Since Carl had broken his hand and could not do any actual welding, we checked the jerry-rigged reinforcement, found it secure, and proceeded across the border to Tok, Alaska, about 125 miles up the road. We called ahead to a welder there, then found an ATM and paid Carl for the supplies. Carl had given Bob the materials earlier on the basis of a handshake and exchange of first names.
Chris Marshall's welding shop in Tok, AK - We arrived in Tok, a tourist supply and native village area, late Saturday evening, and camped at an RV park that was owned by the welder's family, next door to this welding shop. We camped beside a group of Athabaskan Indians who had been picking morel
mushrooms in the forest. They slept in small tents, covered by a series of tarps hung through the trees. Almost all the tent encampments we saw in Alaska featured an over-canopy of tree-suspended tarps for extra rain protection. We enjoyed our visit with the old hippie Chris who operated this establishment; he spent much of his Sunday welding the tube to the frame of our trailer and installing another, smaller, reinforcing tube along the other side of the frame. Meanwhile, I stocked up on groceries and did laundry and FINALLY found a place that still sells block ice for our cooler instead of those quick-melting cubes. We left Tok about 2 p.m.
- It was only an hour's drive to the end of the Alaska Highway at Delta Junction, where we saw the eastern edge of the Alaska Range. At the intersection, we spotted a huge trailer RV in the road, with a wheel broken off. Some people have worse repairs than ours after traveling the Alaska Highway.
Aleyskia Pipeline crossing the Tahoma River - There is no direct paved route from eastern to central Alaska, so we looped north through Fairbanks. Part of it is a four-lane highway. En route we saw the Aleyskia oil pipeline as it crossed the Tahoma River.
overlook of Alaska Range near Fairbanks, AK, looking south - By the time we got to Fairbanks, there was no time to sightsee if we hoped to make it to Denali National Park. We stopped long enough to fuel up and buy a six-pack of Alaskan Ale, then headed southwest toward the park. En route, we stopped at this overlook of the Alaska Range. There we met a man who was returning to Fairbanks after a week at a base camp on Denali, hoping to ascend it. His party gave up since it was stormy with temps as low as minus 17—in June. Fairbanks lies in a plateau north of the Alaska Range. Its rivers empty, about 50 miles north of the city, into the Yukon.
Savage River Valley, Denali National Park, AK The highway to Denali was under construction, with delays. We saw several moose, and did not arrive at Denali Park until after 10 p.m. But this was a week before the summer solstice, so the sun was still above the horizon. A sign informed us that all campgrounds were full, but we were so late that a few tourists had cancelled, so we got a spot 12 miles further into the park. At twilight, we drove up a winding road to the Savage River campground in this valley. Walking back from the washhouse at 1 a.m., we had no need for a flashlight. It remained soft twilight until the sun peaked above the horizon again at 2:30 a.m.
- It was hard to sleep under continuous light—Bob said that I should have sewed black instead of white curtains for the trailer—but we were tired enough to doze. The next morning we hiked around our surroundings, wearing jackets & flannel shirts in mid-June. Clouds covered some of the peaks. Oscar enjoyed drinking from a stream running through this glacial melt wash.
- Later that day, Bob was walking toward the washhouse when our neighboring tenter told him, “Watch out for the moose.” He looked up and was surprised to see this young female grazing right in front of him. The neighbor said, "You can run from a moose," but my 70-year-old husband thought he would not attempt that feat. Instead he froze in place, hoping that the moose would think he was only a stick.
- Whenever the moose would look away to graze, like this, Bob would edge closer to the neighbor's car until he was standing behind it.
- Later that day, Amy got a photo of this guy from the window of the campground shuttle bus. He may have been Bob's mooses's boyfriend.
- The next day, we moved our trailer to a site at a lower elevation (our Savage River spot had been pre-reserved by someone else.) Bob & Oscar napped while Amy took a five-hour twilight back country bus tour up a narrow gravel road into the high country.
Glacial melt impressions, Denali - I would recommend an evening tour during the summer solstice, if you want to take pictures. The lighting is great and the bus was less than half full. Most tourists opt for the day trips.
- We saw quite a bit of wildlife, including this young moose,
- Alaska's state bird, the willow ptarmigan. Here's the female
- And the male ptarmigan. Both sexes of this partridge-type bird turn completely white in the winter. The male retains a white breast year round.
- We also saw this mother grizzly. She appeared to be nursing the cub; we could see only the tops of their heads in the tundra.
- The bus crossed Polychrome Pass, where the late sun brought out beautiful colors on the mountain peaks.
- If you look carefully at the center of this side of the pass, there are two white Dall sheep grazing on the rocks.
Tolkat River Valley, Denali National Park, AK - Arctic river valleys are wide and covered with extensive fields of gravel washed down from the glaciers. This is the Tolkat River in the tundra of the high country.
- Denali is an Athabaskan Indian word meaning “the Tall One.” It is a group of peaks so high that it creates its own weather systems. The peaks in this photo are along the Tolkat River in the back country. That day the weather varied from occasional light showers to spots of sun. We occasionally saw tall peaks that are often hidden in the clouds.
- The clouds cleared and there stood both of the highest peaks of Denali, the taller one is called Mt. McKinley, in all of its glory. Two-thirds of the visitors to the park don't see this.
- My final closeup of Denali before returning to civilization.
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