Alaska Adventure Part Six - Base Camping

We used our campsite at Kenny Lake RV Park as our base camp for local adventures. On Saturday, we went to Valdez, Alaska. It was about a 90 minute drive. Well, add about 15 minutes. I forgot it is road construction season here.

To get to Valdez by the Richardson Highway, one must cross Thompson Pass. At 2,678 feet high in the Chugach (CHOO-gach) Mountains, it is the snowiest place in Alaska. It averages 551 inches of snow annually! I wouldn't want to be a snowplow driver for it! Although, in the winter you do have job security.

Panoramic View from Thompson Pass

Just before reaching the summit of Thompson Pass is the Worthington Glacier. It almost comes down to the road and is easily accessible for visitors. The Chugach Mountains sure are majestic!

Worthington Glacier From a Distance

Blue Ice at the Glacier

Another View of the Glacier Up Closer

Coming down off of Thompson Pass, you pass through Keystone Canyon. There are several waterfalls cascading down the canyon walls.

Bridal Veil Falls

Then it was on to Valdez. The "new" one. On March 27, 1964, a 9.2 magnitude earthquake struck 40 miles west of Valdez and the resulting underwater landslide killed 30 people and did major damage to the town. It was deemed the ground under the townsite was too unstable to rebuild so Valdez was moved to a new site about four miles away. We visited two local museums about Valdez and enjoyed them both.

Sewing Room Exhibit at the Museum

We also visited the Valdez Eagle Aerie while there. It was one of the buildings moved from the original location. It's not what I would call an attractive building, but the fact they moved one of this size is impressive.

Valdez Eagles Aerie 1971

Valdez is also the terminus of the Trans Alaska Pipeline. One of the museums had a large display about the Exxon Valdez. What a mess that made. Did you know that ship (since sold and renamed) is not allowed by law to return to Valdez? The marine terminal used to give tours, but since 9/11, it is off limits. You can only view it from a distance.

Marine Terminal with Ship

On Sunday, we made the journey out to the end of the road at McCarthy. Whew! What an experience! McCarthy is about 90 miles from the campground, but it took 2.5 hours to reach. Once you reach the McCarthy Road in Chitina, it is 59 miles of mostly gravel road. Max speed of 35 mph. You start by going through a narrow cut through the rock and then over the famous Copper River. It is dipnetting season and people were camped everywhere along the road. Plus there were several fish wheels in the river near the shoreline.

Start of the McCarthy Road

Dipnetters

Fish Wheels

Bridge Along the McCarthy Road

Driving Across Said Bridge

When you get to the end of the road, you park your car and either walk or ride your bicycle across the footbridge over the Kennecott River. From there it is about a 15 minute walk to McCarthy itself, but we caught a shuttle ride to Kennecott.

Footbridge at the End of the Road

"Rigor Mortis"

McCarthy

The abandoned Kennecott Mill Town now is mostly part of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Some buildings and land still remain in private ownership. The town is located beside the Kennicott Glacier. When the copper mines were finally depleted, the mines closed in 1939. The town was abandoned, leaving everything, including dishes and hospital records, where they were. Some buildings are undergoing restoration by the National Park Service. The 14-story mill building looms over the town and must be seen to fully appreciate the gigantic size. The Power Plant is also quite impressive. It was able to produce enough steam-generated electricity to power the mines up in the mountains as well as the entire town.

The Concentration Mill Building in the Background

Looking Up At The Mill

Another View of the Mill

Abandoned Buildings (whitewashed one was the hospital)

View from the Train Station

Power Plant Builiding

Inside the Power Plant

Abandoned

More Rusty Abandoned Equipment

On the drive back to Kenny Lake, we spotted another cow moose. It is becoming a joke that if I have the wrong lens (the shorter telephoto) on my camera, we see animals. If I have my longer lens on, then the animals never appear.

Cow Moose

Who knows when we will have good internet service again so stay tuned!

Alaska Adventure Part Five - Beat Up in Tok

The roads of the Yukon took their toll on us again. Somewhere between Haines Junction and Tok, Alaska, are three camp chairs in a nice navy Sunbrella cover on rack. Yep, something, I suspect the rack, malfunctioned over one of the atrocious bumps and we arrived in Tok (toke) sans chairs. Damn. We also suffered another busted shelf in the bunk area. The force of the bumps were sufficient enough to pull one of the wood screws through the 5/8" plywood. While we did countersink the screw, there was at least 3/8" thick wood where the screw pulled through. Our bathroom was a disaster zone. A rack on top of the medicine came off the wall and the contents landed on the floor. Also emptying out was a shoe bag style wall netting. We are starting to get better at packing the contents of the trailer to keep things more secure. Not only were the roads bumpy, they were very dusty in several places, too.

Dusty Alcan Highway

Lunch Break for Road Worker

On a positive note, we stopped at a neat little museum in Burwash Landing along Kluane Lake (Kloo-wah-nee). It was worth the $5 admission. There were many exhibits with the animals and birds found in the area. Moose, bears, bison, goats, eagles, owls and more. Plus displays about the native people who lived in the area. If you are passing by, stop and go visit the museum.

Kluane Lake from Destruction Bay

Museum in Burwash Landing

Soon after setting up camp at the Tok RV Village, the big rigs of a caravan started to roll in. You know, those 40 foot motorhomes that cost more than the average house. The sites were tight in the campground so it was a show watching them navigate the narrow roads and trees to get into their site. To top it all off, another caravan arrived. Between the two, there were at least 45 rigs. Whew! The people next to us, who were not part of a caravan, had a 45' Custom Coach motorhome. It was really nice and so were the people. They were from Louisiana and we enjoyed talking to them.

One other nice thing about Tok was having 3G cell service again. And we had about 8 cable TV channels. Woo hoo! We spent two days here restocking the frig and getting some fresh veggies and fruits again. Funny thing...we were told in advance to not bring fresh fruits and vegetables across the borders. So we haven't. Yet only at the Canadian border back in Osoyoos, BC, did the border agent ask if we had any. Which we didn't. We have been very careful to respect the rules, but geez, it hasn't been a problem at all. Knock on wood.

George wanted to have breakfast at a cafe somewhere near Tok where he could get reindeer sausage. He had dined at the Sourdough Cafe on a previous trip. Luckily, the cafe was still in business and still serving reindeer sausage. I ordered bacon but was shamed into trying the sausage. So I did. And I am glad! It was delicious. It was served link style along with two pancakes and two scrambled eggs. We will be sure to stop there on our way back through Tok. Who knows, we might even stay at their campground instead of the crowded Tok RV Village. We spotted a mama moose and two calves not too long after leaving the cafe.

Mama and Her Babies

After breakfast, we continued on our journey towards McCarthy. We had decided on looking for a campground near Chitina (CHIT-na) and not tow the trailer out the 60 miles of unpaved road to McCarthy. After further discussion during our drive, we decided to check out Kenny Lake RV Park and make that our base camp for three nights. This would allow us to do day trips to McCarthy and Valdez, both about 90 miles away in different directions.

Our campsite is nothing spectacular, just a back-in site in a gravel parking lot. But we do have electric hookup. The owners are very nice and are loaning us a couple of camp chairs to use while we are here. The gal who checked us in knew where Twisp was because she was born in Omak and lived in Okanogan, about 45 miles from our house. Small world!

Our Campsite at Kenny Lake

Alaska Adventure Part Four - Alaska Marine Highway

This part of our journey in Alaska took us on the Alaska Marine Highway, aka a ferry ride! We caught the M/V Columbia, AMH's largest ferry, out of Skagway to Haines for a one-hour ferry ride. Short ride but the wait to load was much longer. It took three-plus hours for them to unload the vessel upon arriving in Skagway and then load all of the waiting vehicles, mostly RVs. For those familiar with the Washington State ferry system, or other ferries where you drive on and off from the bow and stern, this ferry required us to load from the side. We drove down a ramp onto a concrete dock and then on to another ramp up into the vehicle area where we were squeezed into line on the car deck. That wasn't too bad. Uh-huh. Eek!

Waiting for the Ferry

Loading Dock for the M/V Columbia

Leaving Skagway

Heading to Haines

Cruise Ship Leaving Skagway

We ate dinner in the snack bar area of the boat since we figured it would be after 8 p.m. before we would arrive at our next destination. We had cold sandwiches, chips and a piece of pie. Yup, main course and dessert along with a beverage. If the ride would have been longer, we would have opted to eat in the main dining room, complete with real plates and silverware. And tablecloths to boot!

Upon reaching Haines, the real experience of the ferry ride began. We would have to back up out of the lane we were parked in to get off of the boat! Yikes! Luckily the ferry workers know their stuff. There were about 5 lanes in our area and we were in lane 4 facing the stern. One by one, they emptied the five lanes behind us until it was our turn. Then the worker guided us backwards, telling George which way to turn the steering wheel and when to turn it hard to get the trailer to pivot. We were almost up against the outside wall of the boat with the back of the trailer. Then we were able to pull forward and out the side door of the ferry onto the ramp. Freedom!! It felt good to be out of there because I found the process very nerve wracking and I wasn't even the one driving. Good job, George!

We spent the night at Haines Hitch-up RV park. Very nicely kept, fairly wide grassy sites, and FREE hot showers. Oooh, that felt so good. I liked the town of Haines. It wasn't so tourist-y as Skagway and they had a much nicer grocery store.

The next morning we departed for Haines Junction back in the Yukon. The Haines highway is extremely scenic, especially once you cross back into Canada and are high up in the mountains. We saw one bear and I glimpsed my first cow moose in the trees up near Haines Junction. Mom and George say it doesn't count because they didn't see it. Well, I did so I'm counting it.

Haines Highway View from the Back Seat

Glacier

See-More on the Haines Highway

Panoramic View

Blurry Bear Pic Proof

We stayed at Pine Lake campground, a Yukon government park. Wow! That was camping. No hookups, but a huge wooded site with the biggest picnic table I have seen. It must have a been a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood with a fresh coat of green enamel paint. We were entertained by the squirrels chasing each other around the trees in our site. Trip sure enjoyed it. Yukon parks provide free firewood so we had a nice little campfire that night. It was a perfect ending to the day.

Our Giant Picnic Table

Nice Campfire

Squirrel Entertainment

More Entertainment

Another good thing of note is the revamped cat carrying area. We bought a piece of cut-to-size lumber in Skagway, and I covered it with non-skid shelf liner. It is working out great! The carriers are more stable and I think the kitties are happier.

Revised Cat Carrier Platform