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This is an archive of blog entries from my 2006 trip from Seattle to Alaska. This blog has since been replaced; you can find newer entries here.
Departed Quesnel, BC about 10:40 AM PDTArrived Seattle about 10:35 PM PDT
Sun: 5:52 AM - 8:36 PM
Distance to Seattle: 0 milesDistance driven: 537 miles
Total distance driven: 8,103 miles
Final pace: 386 miles per day
6 August 11:00 PM PDT
Departed Prophet River Park about 7:40 AM PDTArrived Quesnel, BC at 9:25 PM PDT
Sun: 5:32 AM - 8:59 PM
Distance to Seattle: 369 miles
view route to QuesnelDistance driven: 706 miles
Total driven: 7,566 miles
5 August 11:00 PM PDT
This morning, my credit card was still blocked. I called my bank again and spent fifteen minutes trying to get them to remove the block once and for all. Apparently they decided they don’t want to accept my old expiration date anymore. Their advice was to have the clerk(s) enter in the correct expiration date by hand.
Okay.
I decided to switch to my backup credit card.
A few hours later, that card was blocked by the issuing bank.
I decided to pay in cash.
Spotted:
• Bison (Wood Buffalo), alongside the Alaska Highway
• Stone sheep
• Caribou
• Deer
Departed Watson Lake about 10:50 AM PDTArrived Prophet River Provincial Park, BC (57°58'N, 122°47'W) at 7:45 PM PDT
Sun: 5:09 AM - 9:25 PM
Distance to Seattle: 719 miles
view routeDistance driven: 385 miles
Total driven: 6,860 miles
4 August 8:25 PM PDT
I left Whitehorse in a leisurely fashion. After gas, I headed south, toward Skagway, Alaska. I actually turned around just prior to the border, as I didn’t feel any desire to go through customs another two times (so far it’s already been five times). I’m sure Skagway is as lovely as Haines. C’est la vie. There is some nice mountain scenery near the border, but not nearly as dramatic as that of the Haines Highway (which borders Kluane National Park in Canada, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska). Lakes are the main feature of the Skagway route. The light was somewhat sunny, but not terrific for photography. I took a few photos anyway.
Returning to the Alaska highway, I headed east, over a familiar stretch of road, until I reached Watson Lake, which is just past (15 miles) the point where I joined the Alaska highway going on the way to Alaska.
I stopped early to recharge and update my log. Oh, my credit card bank decided today would be a good time to put a security block on my card. Thanks, Chase. If they weren’t giving me cash back… Anyway, I had to find an Internet connection first so that I could check my account and match up the charges described on the phone to something I could actually identify ("July… 14th… $431.36… sporting goods…. July… 31st…. $131… service station goods and services…" Ugh.) The most annoying thing is that they indicate (via recorded message) that the security block has "now" been cleared, but charges continue to be blocked for an hour or several afterwards. I don’t think I’m familiar with their particular definition of the word "now." I guess my dictionary is out of date.
Tomorrow: most of the remaining distance along the Alaska highway.
Just to give you an idea of the distances involved in this trip: the remaining distance (by highway) to Seattle is roughly the same as from Seattle to Los Angeles via I-5. Of course, it will take longer to travel since almost none of this distance involves a superhighway (but a heck of a lot more scenic than the central California valley).
Departed Whitehorse around 10:30 AM PDTArrived Watson Lake, Yukon (60°4'N, 128°42'W) at 9 PM PDT
Sun: 5:18 AM - 10:04 PM
Distance to Seattle: 905 milesDistance driven: 385 miles
Total driven: 6,475 miles
3 August 7:50 PM PDT
Woke around 7 AM to the sound of rain on the tent. Rolled over, went back to sleep. Woke again later to continued rain. Went back to sleep. Woke to really heavy rain. Groaned, went back to sleep. Woke again at 9:15 AM; still raining hard; finally admitted I couldn’t out-sleep the rain and got up. Packed away my very soggy tent and left without breakfast. Headed down the soggy muddy roads from Eagle (so much for the washed car) and headed over the pass into Canada and eventually down to Dawson City. It was raining about 80% of the time.
To reach Dawson City from the west, you have to get across the Yukon River. There is no bridge spanning the Yukon River at Dawson City; instead, a free ferry carries cars and pedestrians across the river. This is a very small ferry, with room for maybe six cars, or two RV (and yes, they get plenty of RVs). Dawson City itself is well-preserved from a hundred years ago (apparently, they had tourist traps a hundred years ago). I didn’t feel like killing the rest of the day in Dawson City (in the rain, yet), so I continued on toward Whitehorse. I was feeling tired, and intended to stop early at Carmacks, but the hotel there had no vacancies, so I had to drive another 100 miles to Whitehorse (there’s only one hotel in between, and it was closed).
I reached Whitehorse fairly late, and checked in to the hotel across the street from the one I stayed at on the way up (a couple weeks ago now).
First order of business: start recharging all of my batteries.
Second order of business: get food (I had almost nothing to eat all day).
Third order of business: sleep.
There were fourth and fifth orders of business, which I never got to, thanks to number 3.
Departed Eagle at 9:40 AM AKDTArrived Whitehorse, Yukon (60°43'N, 135°3'W) at 9 PM PDT
Sun: 5:36 AM - 10:36 PM
Distance to Seattle: 1,042 milesDistance driven: 469 miles
Total driven: 6,090 miles
2 August 11:10 PM PDT
Before leaving Fairbanks, I went to a car wash. After about 15 minutes with the high pressure hose, and probably $10-15 in quarters and dollars, I got most of the thick layer of mud off the car. Then I went to the Jiffy Lube to get the oil changed. There was a long wait (lunch time crowd); when I finally got my car again at 12:30, there was a big crack in the middle (bottom) of the windshield. Oh, nice. So next I headed to the Toyota dealer — to check if they could do the 5,000 mile service and get a recommendation for glass repair. Between the Jiffy Lube and the glass repair place, I noticed a weird wobby vibration at higher speeds. It reminded me of a washing machine with an unbalanced load. So, after the glass repair, I went back to the car wash, and spent another $7-8 with the high pressure hose to clean the gunk out of the wheels. Then I spent another 15-20 minutes with my pocketknife screwdriver chipping away at the mud that the hose couldn’t/didn’t get.
Finally, about 3 PM, I left Fairbanks. No more weird wobbling.
Spotted:
• another moose! Not too far from Delta Junction.
I was in Tok too early to stop for the day, so I continued on to Eagle, Alaska (see maps.google.com for the location). It was late — after 10 — so while there were vacancies, no one was around, and I ended up camping for the third night in a row.
Departed Fairbanks around 3 PM AKDTArrived Eagle, Alaska (64°47'N, 141°14'W) at 10:20 PM AKDT
Sun:
Distance to Seattle: 1,382 milesDistance driven: 398 miles
Total driven: 5,621 miles
1 August 11:30 PM AKDT
Woke to rain. Took down the soggy tent (sigh) and hit the road north. Road is now all dirt, with plenty of bad potholes. The road is extremely sloppy; it’s a good thing I have a rear window wiper, because it gets covered by mud repeatedly.
Atigun Pass (4,600+ feet) — which crosses the Continental Divide, and is my highest driving altitude this trip — crosses the mountains of the Brooks Range, shrouded in clouds and rain. The Gates of the Arctic National Park lies immediately to one side; the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) lies to the other.
Through it all, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline snakes onward.
There is sun to the north of the Brooks Range! The northern slopes of the Brooks Range are hilly, gradually losing altitude toward the Arctic Ocean just to the north. There are many, many animals here.
Spotted:
• Caribou. Northern slope, 50 yards off the road.
• Caribou. Northern slope, 100 yards in front of me, on the road, trotting towards me, before stopping, and leaving the road.
• Caribou. Northern slope, almost the same as the last one.
• Caribou. Northern slope, 100 yards in front of me, on the road, trotting away from me. Continued to run as I got closer and closer (around 20 mph, maybe?) Eventually it decided to change strategy, and ran away from the road instead. That worked.
• Another northern goshawk, swooping across the hills of the north slope.
• "Moose and squirrel! Moose and squirrel!" One cow moose, with two calves, standing in the middle of the Dalton Highway, about ten miles south of Coldfoot. I got much closer to them (inside my car) than I have to any moose before, and far closer than I’d want to outside my car. They are HUGE animals!
No musk oxen spotted.
Turned around a bit before Prudhoe Bay ("It looks like New Jersey," said the ranger) and began the looong trip back to Fairbanks, where I camped for the night.
Departed Coldfoot at 9:20 AM AKDTArrived at northernmost point (69°13'N, 148°47'W) at 12:59 PM AKDT
Sun: 3:53 AM - 12:09 AM **
Distance to Seattle: 1,747 miles
Distance to north pole: 1,437 miles
view routeArrived at Fairbanks at 10 PM AKDT
Distance driven: 585 miles
Total driven: 5,223 miles
view route
** Times listed are actually for August 3rd (several minutes difference)
1 August 10:00 AM AKDT
Today I drove around, in search of a laundromat, eventually finding one and doing my laundry (it wasn’t just an empty exercise). Later, I thought about starting the drive toward Dawson City, but decided to wander northward to take a little peek at the Dalton Highway.
Then I drove up past Coldfoot.
Spotted:
• Mosquitoes
• Mosquitoes
• Mosquitoes
• Mosquitoes
It was showering the first hour or two, but started improving a bit (drying out, letting a little tiny bit of sun through) as the evening wore on.
Most of the drive here is through boreal forest. In places, it gives way to tundra. Much of these forests were ravaged by wildfires in the past couple of years (many hundreds of thousands of acres).
Departed Fairbanks around 4 PM AKDTArrived at Arctic Circle (66°33'N) at 8:10 PM AKDT
Arrived at Coldfoot, Alaska (Marion Creek Campground) (67°19'N, 150°9'W) about 10 PM AKDT
Sun: 4:15 AM - 11:59 PM
Distance to Seattle: 1,684 miles
Distance to the north pole: 1,569 miles
view routeDistance driven: 284 miles
Total driven: 4,638 miles
30 July 11:05 PM AKDT
Today was the second trip into the park. The 9:15 AM shuttle traveled all the way to Wonder Lake and back (Wonder Lake is the lake in the foreground of every distant shot of Denali). Weather was forecast to be sunny today (as of two days ago). Actually, it was overcast and raining all day (mostly drizzle). Visibility ranged from poor to abysmal. Denali was never visible today.
Nevertheless, spotted:
• Dall sheep (including two that were sparring)
• hoary marmot
• caribou (too far away to really see/photograph)
• grizzly bears: two different moms with cubs, plus one solo bear
Hopefully I have at least one good bear shot now. I will have to check those photos later.
Upon return (8:15 PM), packed up the car and drove to Fairbanks, arriving very late.
Tomorrow, I need to do laundry and get the car’s oil changed. I cannot get the 5,000 mile service done as it will be Sunday.
Still trying to decide whether I will travel the Dalton highway (north). The weather forecast is for overcast skies and rain here, with partly cloudy skies in Prudhoe Bay. As the scenery is the whole point of the trip, I’m not sure I want to bother with this (very rough) road if the weather is bad.
After Fairbanks (with possible sidetrip toward Prudhoe Bay), I head SE to Tok, then NE to Dalton City. An alternative to the Dalton highway would be to head futher NNE from Dalton City.
Departed Denali National Park at 8:10 PM AKDTArrived Fairbanks, Alaska (64°50'N, 147°46'W) about 10:30 PM AKDT
Sun: 4:37 AM - 11:17 PM
Distance to Seattle: 1,520 miles
Distance to the arctic circle: 131 miles
Distance to the north pole: 1,743 miles
view routeDistance driven: 133 miles
Total driven: 4,354 miles
29 July 11:30 PM AKDT
Today had an easy morning drive from Talkeetna to Denali, with several stops at Denali State Park. It was another partly cloudy day, with Denali visible most of the day.
Upon arrival at Denali National Park, I took 5 seconds to figure out a game plan, then went to the Wilderness Access Center to reserve a campsite and two shuttle bus tickets (private vechicles are not permitted in most of the park). I set up camp, ate a really early dinner, then returned to the WAC to take the evening shuttle to Polychrome Overlook.
A bus is really not the best place for photography. At least the windows came down, but the engine, when running, sent bone-rattling vibrations through the frame of the bus, and every time someone moved in their seat to take a closer look at something, the bus lurched. I used my 400mm f/5.6 lens, and tried to compensate with higher shutter speeds; the results varied.
Spotted:
• Dall sheep (many)
• caribou (a few)
• snowshow hares (many)
• Arctic ground squirrels
• a lynx (! it passed within 20 feet; no photos, nonetheless)
• Denali near sunset (magic hour)
Departed Talkeetna about 9:30 AM AKDTArrived Denali National Park (63°44'N, 148°54'W) about 1:30 PM AKDT
Sun: 4:54 AM - 11:09 PM
Distance to Seattle: 1,503 miles
Distance to the arctic circle: 205 miles
Distance to the north pole: 1,816 milesDistance driven: 162 miles
Total driven: 4,221 miles
28 July 9:00 PM AKDT
Drove back up the Kenai Peninsula through often heavy traffic to Anchorage, then continued north toward Denali. I got the car washed before leaving Anchorage, which helped a little.
Upon arrival in Talkeetna (traditional staging point for McKinley climbs) I arranged to get on a flight with Talkeena Air Taxi for a two hour flight with glacier landing — starting at 7:15 PM!
Used the 24-70 mm f/2.8 lens this time. If anything, I needed to go even wider, as the plane flew too close to the mountains to capture them (especially Denali AKA McKinley) at 24 mm. Conditions were partly cloudy to mostly sunny. The light was a bit harsh at 7:30 but had improved (warmed) quite a bit by 8:30 or so — unfortunately, by that time we were leaving Denali for the return to Talkeetna.
Spent the night at the hostel in Talkeetna (as a break from camping and to avoid paying $200+ for a single room).
Departed Homer area about 9:30 AM AKDTArrived Talkeetna, Alaska (62°19'N, 150°6'W) at 4:30 PM AKDT
Sun: 5:07 AM - 11:05 PM
Distance to Seattle: 1,481 miles
Distance to the arctic circle: 302 miles
Distance to the north pole: 1,916 miles
view routeDistance driven: 318 miles
Total driven: 4,059 miles
27 July 6:30 PM AKDT
Today I drove the Kenai Peninsula, to Seward, then to Homer. Had heard about the Driftwood Inn from another traveler (motorcyclist), but it had no vacancy by the time I found it (almost 7 PM). I gassed up the car and set up camp at Anchor River State Recreation Area instead.
Tomorrow, I head north: back through Anchorage, then on towards Denali National Park.
Spotted:
• bald eagles
• a brown (grizzly) bear, just south of Anchorage, maybe twenty feet from the highway on a side road.
• salmon (king?)
Departed Anchorage about 10 AM AKDTArrived Homer, Alaska (59°46'N, 151°51'W) about 6 PM AKDT
Sun: 5:34 AM - 10:53 PM
Distance to Seattle: 1,455 miles
Distance to the arctic circle: 479 miles
Distance to the north pole: 2,092 milesDistance driven: 364 miles
Total driven: 3,741 miles
26 July 10:25 PM AKDT
There are some visible artifacts you may be able to see here that are a result of compressing the images for this post, and then subsequently scaling them.
Weather this morning was improved: still mostly cloudy, but dry and with the sun breaking through the clouds most of the time to light the dramatic mountain scenery. Arrived in the Anchorage area and immediately set about looking for a hotel, a car wash, and a Toyota dealership. Then it started pouring rain, so I stopped looking for the car wash for now. I found the Toyota dealership, but I’m not sure that they’ll be able to squeeze me in (for 5,000 mile service & a rock-chip repair). If not, I’ll try again in Fairbanks — I found the service number at the dealership there, so I can call two or three days in advance of my arrival, at least. I will probably also get an oil change in Fairbanks (over 3,200 miles, and more than 200 miles of that dusty gravel roads). Besides, it’s been eleven days since my last oil change.
I saw a cell phone tower a half hour before Anchorage! I turned on my cell phone and… a signal! Weak, very weak… but definitely a signal! This is the first time I’ve had cell coverage for over a week. Now I just need to recharge the battery… Bonus: my hotel has Internet access! And, there’s a strong signal in my room! There’s never a strong signal in hotel rooms!
As the rain started pouring down as soon as I reached Anchorage, I decided to stop for the day and focus on getting my postings out to my web site and other long-overdue tasks. I will hold off taking care of laundry until Fairbanks.
I expect to spend at least one more day in the Anchorage area, and will visit Homer (south), before heading north to Denali National Park and Fairbanks. As of two days ago, I had made up for leaving one day late, and was a little more than two days ahead of schedule. The visit to Valdez puts me one day ahead of schedule. Barring car trouble… I should be back in Seattle about three days early, I think.
Of course, if the weather continues to stink, I could shave a couple more days off that estimate.
That bird I reported two days ago — the one I thought might be an owl — I believe it was not an owl, but a Northern goshawk.
Front view of a goshawk in flight (in the right column halfway down).
Tip of the day
You can see where I am on a map by copying the latitude and longitude from the post (everything between the parentheses), going to maps.google.com, and pasting it into the search text box. Then click "Search Maps"!
Departed Eureka Summit about 9:30 AM ADTArrived Anchorage, Alaska (61°19'N, 149°34'W) about 2 PM ADT
Sun: 5:12 AM - 10:59 PM
Weather: Overcast and rainy
Distance to Seattle: 1,429 miles
Distance to the arctic circle: 374 miles
Distance to the north pole: 1,985 milesDistance driven: 189 miles
Total driven: 3,377 miles
Pace: 375 miles per day
25 July 6:15 PM ADT
Woke unhappily to overcast skies. Nevertheless, got on an 8:30 AM 70-minute flight. No hope of seeing Mts. St. Elias or Logan. Did get good views of the glaciers and mountains in the more immediate vicinity of McCarthy (e.g. Mt. Blackburn).
It took some trail-and-error to get the right settings on my camera — I really didn’t have enough time to think about what would be best before we took off, as we were in a bit of rush with lower clouds moving in. I used my 50mm f/1.4 prime, more-or-less according to the suggestions of a professional aerial photographer (I’m not so much protecting his anonymity as being forgetful who it was!) Overall, a good move, though I think I might have been able to do slightly better with my 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom (which is fast enough and sharp wide-open). I forgetfully had my lens at f/8 to begin, before opening it up to f/5.6, eventually f/3.5. I could probably have used f/2.8, but I felt like I was getting good shutter speeds at f/3.5 (1/750 - 1/2000 sec). I tried to set the focus at (near) infinity and shut off autofocus. Bad move: I bumped the focus ring in the tight plane quarters at least three times without realizing it. Finally, I put it back on autofocus. Anyway, some photos, especially early in the flight, were out of focus or show signs of camera motion. Ah well. The weather not only flattened the lighting/contrast outside, but it pretty much required that the windows stayed shut the whole flight, so I didn’t bother asking (water would stream across the windshield above about 4,000 feet).
However, scratches etc on the window were (nearly) a non-issue — with the lens inches from the window, the marks were so far out of focus that you cannot even see them after zooming in the images. The photos are nevertheless very flat, but I can work around that.
I had to stash my camera bag in the back, and I realized too late that I wanted an extra CF card in case I filled my first card. Oh well. I made do with one card, shooting almost 100 frames in less than an hour. Of course this also means that I didn’t have access to my Mamiya, either, so no medium format Velvia for comparison, I’m afraid.
I’m using Adobe Lightroom (beta 3) for in-trip processing of photos, and so far it’s been working great… it’s a much better suited tool for this kind of work than PS.
Valdez, or: The Shame of Exxon
The rainy and low-overcast conditions made my plans to hike to the Bonanza mine largerly pointless (the views were my main motivation). So I packed up and drove the 60 miles/two hours over the rough gravel McCarthy road, and eventually back to Route 4 (making time for a brief hike at Liberty Falls). By the time I reached Route 4, I decided to make a quick side trip to Valdez (turning left/south) before heading to Anchorage (right/north).
The natural environs of Valdez are absolutely stunning: mountains, glaciers, sheer rocky cliffs, and cascading waterfalls. I spotted a seal swimming in the port not far off shore.
Valdez is a much more enjoyable place for those who have lost their sense of smell.
The air reeks of oil. The Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster was way back in 1989 — seventeen years ago — and it’s worth noting here that, to date, Exxon has not paid one penny of the fines and damages it was ordered to pay, instead choosing to continue to fight the damages in court.
More on the Exxon Valdez accident and settlement
Cell phone coverage, or: The Shame of T-Mobile
After Valdez, I drove back north to Glenallen, then headed west in the direction of Anchorage for about an hour before stopping for the night. Frustratingly, still no cell phone coverage (so much for the roaming coverage map), and no internet access either. I don’t even have a phone in my room. Tomorrow?
Departed McCarthy, Alaska about 11 AM ADTArrived Valdez, Alaska about 5:30 PM ADT
Arrived Eureka Summit, Alaska (61°56'N, 147°10'W) about 9 PM ADT
Elevation: 3,322'
Sun: 4:52 AM - 10:58 PM
Daytime temperatures: Mostly 50s-60s
Distance to Seattle: 1,387 milesDistance driven: 354 miles
Total driven: 3,188 miles
24 July 10:30 PM ADT
Today was an easier driving day, with only about 4 hours of actual driving, though the last two hours (60 miles) were on the dirt/gravel McCarthy road. The road dust seems to be starting to get into everything in my car!
McCarthy is a town located within the boundary of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park — the largest national park in the United States, by far. The region is immediately adjacent to Kluane National Park in Canada, and these two parks combined contain seven (? from memory) of the ten largest peaks in North America (one is in Mexico, the other two — of course including #1, Mt. McKinley — are in the Alaska Range to the northwest). The tallest peaks within Wrangell-St. Elias include Mt. Wrangell and Mt. St. Elias (in the extreme southeast corner of the park). Mt. Logan, Canada’s highest peak, and the second-highest peak in North America, lies a short distance away, within the borders of Kluane.
The vast majority of Wrangel-St. Elias is completely inaccessible by car; there are only two roads into the park, one in the north, and one in the south, the McCarthy road. Near McCarthy lies the ruins of the town of Kennicott, a former copper-mining town whose heyday was in the early twentieth century.
Today, I rode the shuttle bus up to Kennicott, photographed many of the buildings, then hiked up to Kennicott Glacier (not quite a 3 mile hike each way). I had scheduled a flight-seeing flight with Wrangell Air, joining a couple who were going on a custom-designed two hour flight (normal flights are 35-90 minutes and follow set paths; they require a minimum of two passengers, and a maximum of three or more, depending on the plane). Unfortunately, the couple, who were on a trip in the back-country today, decided they didn’t want to go up today, so they postponed… Hopefully, I will still be able to go up tomorrow. Who knows whether I’ll be able to shoot through an open window/door — probably not, but I’ll ask.
The clouds that were mostly concealing the mountains yesterday were mostly gone this morning. They started to come back as the afternoon wore on, but I’m optimistic that conditions will be better in the morning — and maybe a bit less hazy.
Spotted today:
• rabbits
• bald eagles
• annoying, chattering squirrels that didn’t let up until 11:30 PM last night, and resumed promptly this morning at 4:30 AM.
• an owl… I think. I need to consult my bird field guide to identify it. Did not get a clear look at its face (it was flying away), so I need to go by the feathers (a bit like a snowy owl, but with streaks of gray). I’m not 100% convinced it was an owl (after all, it was flying out in the open at midday), but it was definitely a bird of prey. The Alaskan birds of prey include the bald eagle, the great horned owl, the snowy owl, and … two others, which I do not remember. One of those may be my bird.
• a brown bear (grizzly) cub, near McCarthy, around 8 or 9 PM! No sign of the mother. Didn’t get a picture, though I had my camera with me… it wandered off while I was getting my camera out. I think it was taunting me.
Also, I forgot to mention it in previous entries, but several times in the Yukon a spotted a small mammal on the road, vaguely like a squirrel or chipmunk, but clearly neither. I now have a suspicion they were lemmings.
My cell phone still isn’t getting reception. I may not get it until I reach Anchorage (late tomorrow or Tuesday).
The morning started quite cool, but by midday it was getting quite hot.
Tomorrow, I will try again for flight-seeing. I’m considering another, longer hike to one of the old mines above Kennicott, but if it is as sunny and hot as today, I think I may pass. Either way, I will probably leave McCarthy before evening to start the next stage of my journey, to Anchorage.
Departed Glenallen, Alaska (Dry Creek campground) about 9 AM ADTArrived McCarthy, Alaska (61°26'N, 142°57'W) about 1:45 PM ADT
Elevation: 1,430'
Sun: 4:32 AM - 10:38 PM
Daytime temperatures: 55°F to toasty-hot
Distance to Seattle: 1,332 miles
view routeDistance driven: 127 miles
Total driven: 2,834 miles
23 July 9:30 PM ADT
Road conditions deteriorated greatly today. Bad bumps, enormous potholes, and interminable construction made driving much less fun.
However… Kluane National Park (Yukon) and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park (Alaska) made driving much more scenic. Immediately south of Tok, the roads were completely torn up for construction… mile after mile after endless mile of roadbed consisting of packed dirt and small rocks (not gravel) gave me a headache.
So far, no flat tires (knock on wood…)
Spotted today:
• caribou
• mountain sheep (in Kluane)
• a porcupine (road kill)
• a fox (Arctic? not sure; at the Yukon/Canadian border)
• more ravens
• tracks of a large, hooved animal; I’m guessing moose?
Camping tonight at Dry Creek State Recreation Area campground, just outside Glenallen.
Heavy clouds have plagued views of the Wrangell and St. Elias ranges; very annoying. I’m hoping they will clear somewhat tomorrow.
Tomorrow: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. If lousy weather persists, I may stall by driving down to Valdez to see if Exxon shows any signs of paying its fines for its oil spill many many years ago.
Departed Haines Junction, Yukon about 9:30 AM PDTArrived Tok, Alaska at 3:00 PM ADT (Alaska Time)
Arrived Glenallen, Alaska (62°9'N, 145°28'W) at 7:00 PM ADT
Sun: 4:38 AM - 10:58 PM
Distance to the north pole: 1,926 miles
Distance to Seattle: 1,351 miles
view routeDriving time: 10 hours 30 minutes
Distance driven: 435 miles
Total driven: 2,707 miles
22 July 2006 10:12 PM ADT
Began the day by getting the car washed (removing much road dust and a 2-3" layer of insect carcasses). Drove to Haines Junction, Yukon, then headed south for a one day visit to Haines, Alaska. The Haines highway skirts the eastern edge of Kluane (clue-ah-nee) National Park. Lots of good mountain views that would have been much better without the clouds. Kluane’s best known geological denizen is Mt. Logan, the tallest peak in Canada, and the second-tallest peak in North America. Logan cannot be seen from either the Haines or Alaska highways, there are too many mountains in between. Closer to Haines, the south-eastern most peaks of the St. Elias range loom overhead.
Photographed another bald eagle near Haines. This was the first productive day of photography on this trip (despite the clouds).
AAA estimates of driving times have proven completely unreliable. Many routes take much less time than suggested by AAA (several hours less).
Departed Whitehorse, Yukon at 9:30 AM PDTArrived Haines, Alaska at 1:50 PM ADT (2:50 PM PDT)
Departed Haines at 4:30 PM ADT (5:30 PM PDT)Arrived Haines Junction, Yukon (60°45'N, 137°32'W) at 8:50 PM PDT
Sun: 5:17 AM - 11:15 PM
Distance to the north pole: 2,023 miles
Distance to Seattle: 1,094 milesDistance driven: 428 miles
Total driven: 2,272 miles
Daytime temperatures: 49-65° F
21 July 2006 10:25 PM PDT
It rained sporadically today, heavily at times in the morning. The rain cut down on the dust and on the insects (until the rain stopped, anyway). Soon after the pitter-patter of the rain on the windshield ceased, the splitter-splatter of the insects resumed.
No sensible wildlife spotted today. No photography, either: terrible conditions.
Next: Haines Junction, then a detour south to Haines, Alaska. After that will be Kluane National Park (Yukon).
Departed Dease Lake, BC at 9:30 AM PDTArrived Alaska Highway Junction about 12 PM PDT
Arrived Whitehorse, Yukon Territory (60°43'N, 135°3'W) about 5 PM PDT
Sun: 5:05 AM - 11:07 PM
Distance to the north pole: 2,027 miles
Distance to Seattle: 1,040 miles
view routeElapsed time: 7 hours 30 minutes
Distance driven: 413 miles
Total driven: 1,844 miles
Daytime temperatures: 50-65° F
20 July 2006 6:45 PM PDT
This was a very long driving day. In the morning, I headed west from Terrace to Prince Rupert. I hiked and photographed near Prince Rupert for about ninety minutes before resuming driving: east, past Terrace, to Route 37. Route 37 was in very good condition overall in the southern half, with lots of gravel/dirt in the central portions. I stopped for the night at Dease Lake.
Spotted today: one deer, three ravens (all near Prince Rupert), and a number of bald eagles. Weather was overcast and dreary in the morning, changing to partly cloudy in the afternoon. Unfortunately, by this time the sun was in a bad position for photography, so I wasn’t able to get any good photographs of the mountain scenery here.
It does not get dark here until midnight.
Next: Watson Lake, then northwest to Whitehorse, YT.
Departed Terrace, BC at 8:40 AM PDTArrived Prince Rupert, BC at 11:00 AM PDT (est)
Arrived Dease Lake, BC (58°26'N, 129°59'W) at 8:40 PM PDT
Elevation: 2,700'
Sunrise-sunset: 5:02 AM - 10:29 PM
Distance to the north pole: 2,186 miles
Distance to Seattle: 813 miles
view route from Terrace to Dease LakeElapsed time: 12 hours
Distance driven: 526 miles
Total driven: 1,431 miles
Daytime temperatures: 58-72° F
19 July 2006 9:25 PM PDT
Expanded: 20 July 9:00 AM PDT