Leaving Wrangell St Elias National Park, it was time to face the worst road of the trip, so they said. Granted there were a few construction zones where we had to wait for a pilot car, but overall the Tok Cutoff was fine and we came through with no issues. Apparently many of the people on our RV facebook page have never driven dirt roads before. Sure there’s some washboarding and a few potholes, definitely frost heaves to endure, but not scary by any means. We crossed the Canada border and stayed in Beaver Creek, Yukon at an RV Park for a few nights so we could get WiFi and work. The only interesting tidbit there was the sad note that the town that used to be a hotspot with hotel, dinner show, community center and pool, is now practically a ghost town with an RV Park all because the cruise ship changed their bus route and no longer go through this way. I liked that the visitor center flower beds had cabbage as a decoration.
Most places we stop are because there is something fun or interesting to see or do. Our next destination was strictly to stay at this campground. Yukon Territory has provincial parks, similar to our state parks. All cost $12, are in beautiful locations, and give free firewood. It was mid afternoon when we reached Congdon Creek Provincial Park, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The beautiful drive was a section we had previously missed on the Alaska Highway due to our detour to Dawson City and Chicken. You couldn’t blink your eyes before seeing another lake. No wildlife to speak of, but a very pleasant view every mile we passed. I knew nothing about Congdon Creek Campground except that we “just had to stay there.” When we pulled in, we found the first 12 sites were right on the lake with an awesome view. And those spots were all full. We drove the loop through the forest and it was completely empty. Just stunning! I love to be tucked into a forest, nestled in with trees and lush moss. We are 45′ long with our big dually truck camper plus enclosed trailer so there are some campgrounds we can’t even stay in because of our length. The spot we chose was a pull through and it was so long that we could have fit 3 of our setups in it! The tent area was bordered by electric fence due to bear activity. We slept with every window shade open so we could look out in hopes of spotting a bear. Armed with bear spray, we took Molly out for her evening constitutional. We walked through the first campsites that had lake views to see the lake. Turns out there was a long rocky beach which was lovely for our evening exploration. A guy was fishing (but not catching anything so Mark was only a little regretful that we didn’t get Yukon licenses.) Even though it was a bit chilly out, Molly insisted on playing in the lake. We took advantage of the free firewood and contemplated life while enjoying our surroundings… and s’mores. In Colorado, it is so dry that typically a bag of marshmallows doesn’t save after being opened once, so it was fun to eat the last marshmallows from the bag that started our trip!
The next must-see campground was only 20 miles away, and while we have throughly enjoyed a life of leisure all summer, we knew we couldn’t quite justify staying that close to where we just were. However, we decided to pull in and check out the 1 mile hike to Million Dollar Falls. Just before we reached the campground, we saw a cow moose. This was our first wildlife in weeks! Unfortunately we saw her as we were driving and by the time we walked back with cameras, she was long gone. Molly eagerly donned her leash and we started off through another beautiful provincial park campground as we took in the falls on the boardwalk. Not one person was camped at this remote spot, which was such a shame because it was truly breathtaking.
Life moves on and so does our trip. Back on the Alaska Highway, we stopped again when we reached Haines Junction. Ahead is Kluane (pronounced Clue-on-EE) National Park. We spent a while perusing the visitor center and watching the park film. There is only one campground in this national park and it was our next destination. The Alaska Highway forms the border to the park. On our right was Kluane NP, to the left was private or preserve land. Again, a stunning drive dotted with lakes and mountains, glaciers and spruce. Nothing to stop at, yet scenery not to be beat. Kathleen Lake Campground was another natural wonder. The lake was massive, big enough that we did not feel comfortable dropping our kayaks in. Large lakes can often get winds that make kayaking stressful, if not downright dangerous. I was most eager to hike. Molly agreed. Though we passed several trailheads along the highway, we decided it was just easiest to do the hike right from the campground. King’s Throne Trail was lovely and meandering to the back side of the lake, until it went uphill, VERY steeply. We trudged on briefly, stopping to pick high bush cranberries for the first time. Another couple passed us on their way down and mentioned that the way up the steep hike was bad enough, but the way down was scary and demanding, sliding down loose rocks in places. That was enough for us to turn around, enjoying the views of the lake we were already above, and the red berries in my baggie.
Although staying at a campground for only one night is hardly worth setting up camp for, it has been a pleasant enough experience as each campground has been well worth the stop. Also since we haven’t needed the truck, we were able to leave it hooked up to the camper so that makes for a much quicker and less stressful arrival and departure. We have not been using the heater or AC for weeks. But the weather is starting to cool so we had the heater turned to 58 overnight, just in case. Imagine our surprise when we awoke to see the outdoor temperature was 28 and had hit 25 overnight! Fall has undoubtedly arrived, with winter on the way.
Our divergence from the Alaska Highway turned us toward Haines. Another stunning drive brought us across another border back into the US, where we FINALLY got a Welcome to Alaska roadsign after being in the state for 2 months. We also drove by the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. We pulled over at a viewpoint and spotted one eagle. Their prime time is during the last salmon run later this month or into September so we didn’t get to see as many as we had expected. We have definitely seen bald eagles throughout Alaska and Canada, just not as many as we thought in one place. One or two here or there is all. We reached the coastal town of Haines. There are 2 state parks campgrounds, one on each side of town. Both have the roughest roads we have actually seen – potholes are truly incredible and so numerous, it’s impossible not to hit them on either side of the street. We chose Chilkoot State Recreation Area because it was at a lake with a fishable river we can walk to, and pass by every time we drive out. Did I mention that bears are often seen on this river? I know what you’re thinking… every time we hear bears are here, we never see them, right? That’s what we were thinking too! Well, FINALLY, for the first time, we have seen grizzly bears in Alaska (other than in Katmai where we paid to go and were pretty much guaranteed to see them.) In fact, we fished the same river they are in, albeit not at the same time/location.
There is a fish weir in the river. Wooden slats keep the fish from crossing except through one slot where they can be counted. There is one park service guy who sits on a chair in the middle of the wooden platform and removes a slat. He sits here all day counting only the sockeye (red) salmon who cross. There are loads of pink salmon but those don’t get counted as they aren’t considered sports fish. I don’t know what his actual title is, but we call this guy the Weir-do. The bears can come from either side of the river and cross it by swimming or even walking across the weir. The weir actually serves as a vertical plate for them. They wade it and find a fish, then trap it against the wooden slates and use them to hold the fish while they eat it. The road (the badly potholed one) is narrow with tons of cars and people coming to see the bears. They are very serious about no one stopping next to the weir or for some distance on either side so the bears and their routes aren’t impacted, as well as for the safety of the weir-do. Basically everyone walking crowds on each side of the white line to get their photos and watch while cars drive as slowly as they can without being accused of stopping. Vehicles can only stop in a pullout, getting all tires off the street, which basically doesn’t exist. Controlled chaos is what it is, but most people get to see what they came for, the bears get their fish, and the weir-do is alive so I guess it works.
We are staying here for 3 days and have driven the road at least once a day in and out plus a walk by each day and have seen one grizzly bear and bald eagles on almost every pass. Mark is getting very good at shooting and editing wildlife pictures. I’m thrilled to print some of these and hang them in our home. The lighting was challenging as there never really was sun, it was mostly cloudy or raining during our visit.
We spent an afternoon driving to Dalton City. This is a faux town used in the Disney movie set of White Fang with Ethan Hawke. After filming, they moved the set here and the town uses it for small businesses as well as their local annual fairgrounds. We also checked out the salmon cannery. There was a self-guided tour of sorts. You could walk the building with windows and read the signs explaining what each station was doing. Of course we were there on Thursday and the fresh salmon arrive Sun-Wed so we didn’t get to see much of the processing, but we could read the signs about how they use wheels to remove the pin bones and we got to see the blast freezer. We also drove the questionable road to the Chilkat Recreation Site and campground on the other side of Haines. I had a hike picked out to do from there, but the rain insisted we avoid the muddy trails.
We fished several times here. We tried several spots in the river, where Mark got one pink salmon keeper. We also tried a few spots along the bank of the ocean. We had just thrown our lines into the river, close to the mouth of the ocean, when we spotted harbor seals peeking their heads out of the water right near us. We counted at least four just swimming around and watching us. We were surprised they were in the fresh water of the river, but thoroughly enjoyed tossing our lines in the same water with them. We didn’t catch any fish, yet thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I tried to take a selfie to show how close we were, but there just wasn’t enough of their faces sticking out of the water to get into a picture that you could identify. Another amazing Alaska moment that we will hold in our memories and not in the scrapbook.
Imagine our excitement when we learned that Haines offers half day halibut charters! After our charter had cancelled in Homer, I called pretty much every fishing company in Homer, Seward, and Whittier so to finally get to go halibut fishing was thrilling. We’ve been saving room in the deep freeze for this! After raining all day yesterday and through the night, we awoke to calm but overcast and chilly conditions. Mid August is still the height of the halibut season. The guide said we also have a great chance of catching cod, which is what the halibut feed on, as well as rockfish as they all swim and eat in the same area – at the bottom. The bag limit for halibut in this area of Alaska is one halibut and it has to be under 38″. (In Homer, it was 2 halibut. One had to be under 28″ and the other could be any length.) We used fresh squid for bait, anchored with a 16 oz weight dropped 200′ down. Once we could feel the weight hit the ocean floor, we were told to jig the line every 5-10 seconds. Right away, everyone started feeling nibbles. Within 5 minutes, Mark brought in the first fish. It was a small yellow-eyed rockfish. It was too small to get an edible filet so it got tossed back (actually they have an air bladder so it had to go through a process of being lowered so it could release that to get back to the bottom successfully.)
Every 30 minutes, the captain would have us pull our lines up to freshen up the bait. This means putting new squid on to release more appetizing fragrance to our prey below. I cannot put into words how disappointed I am to report that Mark’s little rockfish was the only fish to come into the boat in 4 hours of fishing, between 4 people (us and another couple). I know… that’s why it’s called fishing, not catching, blah blah blah. The captain dropped off the other couple for their ferry, and then asked us if we had any plans for the afternoon. It was obvious he felt bad about our fruitless day. He offered to take us back out a little longer. We had just reached low tide and he was curious if that would change the fishing conditions. Hope! After another hour fishing and jigging and singing and freshening squid, our result was the same. A fun but expensive day with no fish to bring home. Ugh! Eating a halibut that I caught in Alaska was on my bucket list, so I guess now we will definitely have to come back.
