Alyeska Pipeline

City Hall in Copper City ;-) Fishing on the Klutina.

Owen at the Alaskan pipeline, feeling right at home. The bottom picture right where his hand is someone had written Owen, didn't notice until after the picture was taken. The silver things on the red posts are heat dissipaters, it keeps the permafrost from melting. The pipeline withstood a 7.3 earthquake with very little damage. Didn't have a lawn mower or weed whacker to take care of the weeds, sorry Bart :0)

Copper City, AK

This guy was actually on the awning of our trailer.

Klutina River and soaring eagle.

Went to Wrangall-St Elias National Park. It is enormous. It contains 9 of the 16 largest mountains in the US, 4 over 16,000 feet and the tallest coastal mountains in the world. It is 13.2 million acres-almost six times the size of Yellowstone. The fish wheel was on display after being paintedat the visitor center. Took a short hike and fed the mosquitoes. Checked out the river and saw the eagle soaring overhead.

Tolsona Wilderness Campground

Views along the drive today. Lots of black spruce, not very pretty but only thing able to grow in the permafrost.

Some wild flowers and swans with their babies.
We are now having a huge thunder storm, rain and hail, thunder and lightning. Right now there are over 70 wild fires burning in Alaska, hope this doesn't start any more. Glad we are in the laundry room. Hail is pea sized it would be painful to walk outside right now.

Tolsona Wilderness Campground

Spruce burl trying too save itself from the spruce beetle.

Tolsona Creek, view from our doorway. Multi tasking, laundry and blogging.

Tolsona, AK

Once a pipeliner, always a pipeliner.

Sod roof on gift shop, all of the rental cabins were sodded also.

We are now at the Tolsona Wilderness Campground. It is wooded and each site is on the Tolsona

creek. No tv reception and I am on the internet at the laundry room, see how dedicated I am :-) We didn't post last night because the internet went out. It was a service we paid for and it was terrible! We spent the yesterday in Tok just poking around. Went to the grocery store and shopped in some of the many gift stores. Got the truck washed, it was like cement. Didn't get the wash until late, there was a huge line all day long. We did the trailer this morning. Not perfect but they look much better. Drive today was fairly short but again the washboard roads. We will stay here for two nights, lots of stuff we'd like to see and do, should be in Anchorage on Sunday.

Tok RV Village

The largest gold pan. One of the highlights of today's drive.

This is one of the nicest places we have stayed in for a while. It actually has trees and space between sites. We are going to stay here for two nights. My driver was traumatized with today's drive and gets and extra day to rest :-0 Still haven't seen any wild life. Today we saw ravens, swans and eagles. The wild flowers are all in bloom which adds splashes of color. Mosquitoes are attacking the screen door as I type and there have been quite a few bees and deer flies. It is after 11pm and still light. It really messes with your body clock. We are 4 hours behind ME and will be for a while. Still have the record setting temps. Only we could get rain in the desert and high temps in Alaska. Rain is predicted for tomorrow afternoon.

Tok, AK

These first two pictures are of Lake Kluane which is the largest lake in Yukon Territory. This was also the site of our first road construction of the day. Six miles behind a pilot vehicle and road sweepers for an added dose of dust;-)

Next two pictures are at the border. A couple of young girls asked us to take their picture at the sign. They donned black wigs and sun glasses held a sign "Alaska or Bust". They took our picture in exchange. The other sign is the international marker between Canada and USA. The cut out in the back ground is the actual border line between the countries. It goes for miles and is maintained by both countries. It is cut out in sections each year.

This picture shows sand dunes. The sand blew from miles away. There are dunes all along this section of the Alaska Highway. It looks like wet beach sand and is markedly different from the normal terrain.

Tok, AK

Back in Alaska after a long grueling drive. It was only 300 miles but the roads were terrible. Lots of road construction, dust, bumps, broken pavement and did I mention dust? For most of the day we could only do around 40 mph. Even going so slow the trailer was trashed. There was stuff all over the place, things that had never moved before did today. The truck and trailer are disgustingly filthy, did I mention the dust? Rather boring drive. Miles of bottle brush trees, they look just like they sound, tall thin with a poof on the top. Many telegraph poles still up and wired along the way. The Alaska Highway is being reconstructed. The section that is in Canada is being subsidised by the US to the tune of $260 million because so many Americans use the highway. Most of the construction sites had a "pilot" vehicle with a follow me sign. We had to keep our lights on and use the flashers because of the dust.

Haines Junction, Yukon

Just came back from touring downtown, it took 10 minutes;-) There are a couple of really neat churches located in town. The first one was created in 1954 from old parts of Quonset huts. The second is a log cabin. Neither is very large but both are open. We are in the land of giant mosquitoes, the first we have seen since leaving Maine. We also got gas, $1.13 a liter which is around $4.25 a gallon. We will probably have to fill up once more before we get back into Alaska. Also took a picture of the welcome sign at the junction--one road goes to Anchorage the other to Fairbanks.

Kluane RV Kampgrouond, Yukon

Welcoming sign as you drive into Haines Junction.

RV Park, again a parking lot but with a great view. That's really a drive in movie screen :-) Doesn't it look like a drive-in?

We'll be here overnight and then we hope to make it to Tok, Alaska. It is just over the border and we will be back in Alaskan time so 4 hours behind you until we leave to head home. It is almost 9pm and still as bright as the middle of the afternoon. I think sunset is around 11:30ish. The area is experiencing record high temperatures, I know you don't want to hear this but it just isn't normal to have the high temps. The weather is crazy all over. We bought some stuff to cover the windows so we can sleep. It is definitely different and so true when they say the land of the midnight sun.

Haines Junction, Yukon

Lunch break at a scenic rest area. Leaving British Columbia and entering the Yukon.

Views along the Haines Highway. Glaciated mountains and the Chilkat River.

OMG I don't know where to start. The ride today was spectacular. We left Haines and followed the Chilkat River on one side a mountains on the other. Many creeks later in the day but still many glaciated mountains. There is no way to describe how beautiful it is up here. A funny event...when we came to the border into Canada we actually were turned away! We had fire wood in the truck so had to go back to USA and drop the wood at the border and then go back to customs to go into Canada. How could we try to bring fire wood into Canada ;-) We are staying at the Kluane RV Kampground. Still surrounded by mountains with glaciers and still in a campground that looks like a parking lot with hook ups. Sort of reminds me of a drive in theater. Yesterday was not a good day for sleep. Many crows that were so very noisy. Stopped for a while but were at it at 4am. This place looks like it will be quiet.