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Days 43-47: Talkeetna-Hatcher Pass-Eklutna Lake-Anchorage-Alyeska-Chugach National Forest

July 26-30

Our road trip interactive map

The following five days we were driving south towards Kenai Fjords National Park without any specific plan where to stop. Of course we wanted to see Denali one more time from one of the view points along the highway, but weather was clouds and rain all day. Made it to Talkeetna late afternoon and stayed in very good all new Talkeetna Cabin (recommended). We had no electricity for a few hours, so we just walked around the small, but quite famous town. Visited small museum and old cemetery. Dinner and laundry was late. Next morning the weather improved somewhat and we heard Denali sightseeing planes taking off. We looked across Susitna River where the mountain is, but decided to move on as clouds were still dense. We were then supposed to get back to wilderness and wild-camp somewhere near Hatcher Pass (along Willow Fishhook Road). Scenery was nice and weather much better, but the road was packed, in places bumper-to-bumper (Saturday). We managed to find parking spot at the pass, looked around a bit but decided against open trail to the summit in a bitterly cold wind. Instead we spent the rest of the day visiting Independence Mine (State Park). It was good choice, the mostly outdoor museum is interesting and we learned about different method of gold mining. As always, Piotr photographed all old, rusting machines.

Small “campgrounds” down the road turn out to be regular parking spots on small road-side lots, rented at night for a fee. Not appealing for us and most already taken anyway, nice Finger Lake campground was full as well (Saturday). We tried a couple other options, but ended up driving to Eklutna Lake, which was on our destinations list. Found last double-spot site for the first night, but stayed at the campground for two nights. The campground has good location and layout, but the infrastructure is dilapidated, some toilets were upgraded, fee collection station was new and top-notch technology.

Eklutna Lake starts between smaller mountains, quite green meadow. The far end goes deeper into Chugach Mountains where bigger, snow-patched mountains are (2000 masl) . With no rain or strong wind good day for kayaking – we used the day to paddle about half-way to the other end of the lake, ~6 km (12 total). Moved to a different/better camping spot and cooked dinner. Next morning we visited native village of Eklutna with interesting native/Russian Orthodox cemetery and headed to Anchorage. Visit to Anchorage Museum (Alaska-centric, recommended) then stop at Ship Creek to watch salmon fishing. Grocery shopping and getting rain pants for Piotr from REI. Joanna found nice Airbnb, one of those places where you can still meet and talk with the (very nice) owners.

Seward Highway from Anchorage to Portage runs right on the water’s edge (Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet), with several viewpoint stops. Muddy tidal plains and Chugach Mountains in the background. We could not agree on short hikes until it was time for mid-day coffee – found a good coffee shop in Girdwood and drove up the valley road to Alyeska Resort. The valley was devastated by 1964 earthquake. Once we saw cable-car to the top of the mountain, the decision was quick: spend a few hours wandering above the top cable-car station on the slopes of Mt Alyeska.

We ended the day at Granite Creek Campground, along Seward Highway, but deeper inland and into Church National Forest. Nice spot, few people, small creek behind the site, campfire, salmon and Alaskan beer for dinner, good view on surrounding meadows and mountains. No bears.

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Days 39-42: Denali National Park

July 23-26

Our road trip interactive map

First 20 km section of Denali Park Road, from camground at park’s entrance to Savage River is open to private cars. The road runs at the bottom of wide valley covered with green taiga (dense shrubs, but fewer trees than in other places) surrounded by small mountains (1000-2000 masl) with bare tops. We stopped at viewpoints. One is designed to watch Denali mountain, which at first we could not see despite sunny weather. Until we realized that what looked like fuzzy white clouds high above everything else is the snow covered mountain (picture below is slightly enhanced). Very impressive even from 115 km away. After all it is the highest mountain on Earth from base to top (5500m).

Denali is for wilderness hiking with very few managed trails, Savage River Loop and Alpine Trails among them. We were lucky to find parking spot, warmed-up walking a few hundred meters along Savage River and then hiked 7 km (500 m total ascent) Alpine Trail finishing down the main road from where park shuttle took as back to our car. Parking lot was full but the crowd dispersed quickly, with few people higher up on the trail which tops above alpine meadows (quite steep in places). Great views all around.

We decided to stay at the park for four nights. Driving on top of other activities and daily chores started to wear Piotr down. Campground was full, but did not feel overcrowded. We had good spot, flush toilets and washrooms nearby, central showers and laundromat, ranger stations, restaurant. We avoided driving long distances.

Park shuttle goes 50 km further on the park road beyond Savage River (closed for private cars) to East Fork Toklat River. Beyond this point the road is closed for repairs after landslide a few years ago. No chance to get any closer to Denali (and other higher mountains) for a closer look. We took hikers shuttle as far as it goes, saw many animals but no grizzly bears. Now it was all day for wilderness hiking. To be honest, rather hiking at the wilderness’ edge as we did not stray too far from the road, even if off trail,.

First, we spent 2.5 hours walking 4-5 km on gravel flats of Toklat River and its tributary. We just meandered aimlessly between small streams. At some point we tried to go across the flats to climb out on a small hill, but once we got there we discovered small side stream too deep and fast for dry crossing. Colorful (yellowish) sandy hills called polychromes, as it turns out, are held together when frozen. Once the permafrost melts landslides occur: one closed the road and another recent one is next to Toklat River bridge.

The way wilderness at Denali works is, you take the shuttle and ask the driver to stop whenever you want, and you hike. We did just that. We decided to explore an area around a chasm cutting into Cathedral Mountain, but rather than walking at the bottom we hiked up the hill to see it from higher up. We missed the best spot as it was difficult to decide where to get off the bus. The side of the road is quite steep around here. As we were standing on the road, shuttle gone, debating how to get down to Igloo Creek, a large caribou (reindeer) bull appeared and started fast walking in our direction, freezing when it finaly saw us. We quickly moved to the other side of the road pushed into steep, rocky slope hoping the reindeer would prefer to disappear into the greenery. Which it did and a minute later we heard sloshing as it was running up and down the stream. We followed the lead dry-crossing the stream after mild bushwacking. On small clearing on the other side we saw fresh bear scat (sloshing sound playing in the background) and decided to quickly go straight up to the open meadows, which we wanted to do anyway. Altogether we spent 2.5 hours walking just 2-3 km, a lot off zig-zagging around local obstacles and muddy spots. We walked-up to a steep edge from where we looked into the chasm. Piotr shot video, Joanna walked further up to the meadow’s edge. From this point it was easy to plan return route. We just walked downhill, bushwhacked our way through vegetation near the creek and returned to the road on small trail used to walk to the bottom of the chasm. Park shuttle picked us up shortly. It was a great day, although we wished to have more off-trail experience.

Next day was a slow day. We drove to Savage River again, a relaxing experience, walked on easy but crowded loop trail and returned for late afternoon presentation at sled dog kennels. Joanna managed evening walk to Horseshoe Lake. Started packing for departure in the morning, as weather forecast predicted rain (our car was parked a few hundred meters from our walk-in campsite).

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Day 34-38: Yukon Top of the World Highway-Fairbanks-Chena River and Hot Springs

July 17-22

Our road trip interactive map

After ferry-crossing Yukon River in Dawson City (yes, good old times ferry) we stopped briefly at steamboat graveyard. Many boats were pulled on shore after gold rush never to sail again. Tylor Highway climbs to the top of the hills and winds around staying high most of the time. Nice views of surrounding valleys and forest. Weather was changing from mostly sunny to hail and back to mostly clouded. We crossed YT-AK border in slight rain and drove down into Wade Creek valley to Chicken (AK). We stopped there for coffee, photographing Pedro Dredge and other rusting gold rush machinery as we were walking back to our car.

Now we were driving on Top of The World Highway towards Tok (AK). And it was pleasant experience on its own. Taiga along the highway, small mountains on the horizon (no time to hike anything), some snow and quite dramatic weather scenery at times. With “bad tire” on our mind (weather never got really bad enough to worry us too much, but remoteness did), it was just pretty much driving through.

As we were passing Mount Fairplay, we started looking for a camping site. Road-side parking lots were not too bad (not much traffic), but for us not too inviting either. Later, many side roads were on private land. By strike of luck, we found sandy side road running along the main road. As we learned next morning it was used as construction by-pass. We found a perfect spot at small road leading to Four Mile Lake. We called it “Moose Lane” because of many fresh moose “remains”. It was still daylight when we were ready to sleep. Surprised (North American) porcupine started to walk towards us in the morning (was it coffee and breakfast smell?). We were happy to see it disappear in the bushes once it realized we were people.

We passed Tok and stopped for lunch in Delta Junction (Buffalo Center hamburgers). We continued on Richardson Highway along Tanana River to Fairbanks. We arrived in late afternoon. No available spots on campgrounds, accommodations harder to find and more expensive than always expensive because of Golden Days (parade, rubber duck race, vintage car gathering). We stayed at Chatanika Lodge 45 km from town. Interesting place with character (nice owners, good dinner) visited mostly by locals and bikers, but past its prime. The following two days were about getting new tires and battery, and our car checked, laundry and grocery shopping. We had some mild respiratory infection on top of it all, not the best of times. Joanna managed to visit the town more (city walk along Chena River from Pioneer Park to Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center).

On new tires and aligned wheels we were ready to roll. Fairbanks was not on our top list of destinations, but Joanna did research about Chena River Road and Hot Springs. The side trip was pleasant, and hot spring experience much better than (Piotr) expected (quite a few people around the resort, but all well organized and pools were not crowded). We first hiked to Angel Rocks (many hikers on sunny Sunday) above the valley to sweat and then soaked in hot springs for couple of hours (both recommended). There were no good camping spots at the resort, but campgrounds along Chena Hot Springs Road were empty. We looked for a place with less standing water and fewer (?) mosquitoes, but it did not matter what we chose (stayed at Granite Tors).

Now we felt the Denali rush. We drove non-stop (300 km) to the park, secured a spot at tent walk-in Riley Creek Campground (everything else was booked). We arrived early enough to choose best spot, set-up camp, go for a walk along Riley Creek and cook dinner. This is really top-notch NPS campground (recommended) and we stayed there for four nights.

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Day 29-33: Whitehorse-Dawson City

July 12-16

Our road trip interactive map

Day 29 was about driving (400 km) on Alaska Highway. We made it to Whitehorse in late afternoon, checked out a couple of campgrounds (we did not like overcrowded RV Park and a recommended place did not allow car camping). We ended up driving back to Caribou RV Park (recommended). The place is not big and is packed quite densely, but it has a lot of character (European owners), real bathrooms and good food served out of food truck. We made a few stops on the way of course: in Teslin (at the bridge and Tlingit Heritage Centre), Johnsons Crossing (to see what is left of collection of cars abandoned after Canol Road construction during WWII) and Marsh Lake (Joanna discovered new iPhone soft light filter=dirty lens).

Day 30 was about Whitehorse and we were getting deeper into gold rush history. We started the day walking along Yukon River Miles Canyon to historic site of Canyon City and towards Schwatke Lake. Whitehorse Falls, now submerged after the river was dammed, were treacherous waters to be conquered by river boats carrying people and cargo. Jack London navigated boats through rapids on the way to gold fields. The water is still running fast through the canyon. It has intense blue-green color. We stopped at S.S. Klondike museum (closed for renovation) and then visited fish ladder built to allow fish swim up- and down- the river passing the dam (interesting, no salmon yet, but plenty of other fish to watch). The town is nice, but not really that interesting. We walked around to Old Log Church and drove to The Horse of Whitehorse (of course). With rain coming and no good camping options, we decided to spend the night at Kaleido Lodge (recommended). The lodge is run very well by and staffed by Japanese company, and caters in season to tourists who come to watch aurora borealis.

Day 31, Dawson City was next, to get there we drove on Klondike Highway, 600 km in two days. Now we were visiting places where the gold rush was invented. Carmacks first, not much left from the old days (Montague Roadhouse, hotel and post office). But the Mighty Yukon River is still flowing north. Five Finger Rapids was another difficult navigation spot on the river (at high water). It was short, but steep walk down from highway parking lot to river’s cliff to view the rapids. Klondike Highway seemed endless and empty (it really was). We saw larger areas destroyed by wildfires as we approached Stewart Crossing (some fires still smoldering, the highway was just re-opened). With road construction slowing us down, we decided to camp at Moose Creek Campground (nice not crowded), just 25 (slow) km past Stewart Crossing. With long daylight, we had enough time for a walk down the creek to Stewart River. Wet forest and marshes. As we were reading nature trail poster about not all mosquitoes being “bad and biting”, mosquitoes diving at our backs did not feel constrained by science.

Day 32. We enjoyed reading about and viewing Tintina Trench: 1000 km long linear depression on top of fault line cutting across Yukon in part of which Klondike River flows until it merges with Yukon River in Dawson City. Then Joanna heard hissing noise – flat tire, nail or something. We drove 60 km on spare to Dawson City. Flat tire was fixable by local shop. With the problem temporarily solved, we rented private room with kitchen for two nights. We enjoyed the stay. Walking around town and visiting historic buildings from gold rush era, walking along Yukon River (rivers and steam boats provided key means of transportation back then), spending couple of hours at Diamond Tooth Gerties (evening show, beer and friendly talking with other tourists) and walking at midnight in what looked like almost full daylight. The whole town is like a living museum, very interesting.

Day 33. Gold rush in Bonanza Creek. We joined organized tour of Dredge 4 Historic Site (Parks Canada), bought tickets and rented pans the night before at Dawson City Visitor Center. Park ranger gave us good overview of gold rush era activities (1896-1999), how dredges worked, how gold was dug up etc. The entire valley floor is covered with mounds of dirt and rocks dug 100 times over by prospectors. Some shafts and rusting machinery can be found along interpretative trail. Gold mining claims and some operations continue. We did not dig, but tried panning in Klondike gold rush spirit (no luck).

Panoramic view from Midnight Dome was great (some wildfire smoke was in the air): Dawson City, Yukon River and confluence with Klondike River. Later we walked on river trail to the confluence, stopped at governor’s mansion and Jack London cabin (museum), looked around to identify more historic buildings described in guidebooks. Grocery shopping was just an attempt, but good enough to cook dinner at home (always good to have pantry under the deck, in our car that is).

We discovered that the punctured tire was also wearing off much faster than the rest and was already mostly bald. It was OK to drive for a few hundred km, but we still had thousands to Chicago. Shipment of new tires would take several days. We decided to go 600 km to Fairbanks (rather than 1100 km to Anchorage) to look for them. It was second major change of direction. Fairbanks was not high on our list of destinations.

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Days 26-28: Stewart-Salmon Glacier-Hyder-Boya Lake

July 9-11

Our road trip interactive map

We are ready for more glaciers. Bear Glacier first, just a view from Cassiar Hwy across Strohn (glacier) Lake. In the afternoon of day 26, we took Glacier Hwy to Stewart with two more stops: at Clements Lake (scouting for possible camping on the way back) and Stewart Boardwalk (just to get a quick look at the tip of Misty Fjord and old port site). We drove through Stewart, crossed the border to Alaska, did not stop in Hyder. All quickly as we tried to get to Salmon Glacier before dark. Granduc Road climbs high above the valley floor. The road was build to gain acces to gold, copper and other metal mining sites (Premier Gold Mine, Granduc Copper Mine). Mining causes environmental damage, but the (good gravel) road provides access to glacier viewpoints. We were driving slowly, but still almost missed border crossing back to British Columbia. And soon we got first good views of the glacier. From Salmon Glacier Viewpoint (where it turns 90° right) we could see all the way up to the icefield.

It was decision time: look for wild camping spot or go back towards Hyder/Stewart. We drove a bit further up Granduc Rd and saw below two gravel flats divided by a stream, just between the road and lateral moraine. One of them turn out to be easily accessible and we had one of the most beatiful spots to overnight all to ourselves. It was magical. Joanna had enough energy to cross the stream and run over the moraine to sea the ice’s edge and glacial ponds. Piotr collected firewood. Dinner was late (it started to turn dark around 11 pm). We hoped to see the glacier in morning sun, but it was not to be. Clouds and passing rain. We drove a few more miles up the road and turned back to Hyder. This side trip was very worth taking.

Wild camping at Salmon Glacier with fancy food. Beers (strong just in case), no grizzly bears.

We visited Hyder, a very small town now, but with character and interesting past. Bought cod fish & chips at famous shack (the Bus) , which we ate later at Stewart Visitors Centre. Little time to look around. We drove all afternoon north on Cassiar Hwy towards Yukon Territory. Watching black bear and later arctic fox walking along the road cheered us up. After 400 km in mostly rainy weather we had no choice, but to rent a cabin on Dease Lake. Lucky as it was the only thing available for a reasonable price and it was getting late.

Cassiar Hwy is a major two-lane road, but not a big highway. Winding, with nice relaxing scenery, not much traffic. We drove 700 km of it (from Kitwanga to Yukon Territory); it was pleasant experience. The main stop of that day was at Boya Lake, it’s shallow water reflecting sunlight in vibrant blue colors between many small islands. We had time for short walk and lunch, checked out campground, but ended driving some more to Yukon. In hindsight, we shuld have stayed and kayaked on this beatiful lake. Later we found nice wild camping site off Alaska Hwy just west of Watson Lake to end the day.

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