Back to Yukon

We left Fairbanks yesterday after refueling and started the long drive back to the lower 48. We wanted to get to Tok before the Post Office closed as we had mail including a replacement GPS waiting for us there. We were in smoky conditions until shortly before we reached Delta Junction. We had hoped that we might see some buffalo in that area but apparently the prime viewing area was not on our route. We did stop at the Delta Information Center and saw the end of the Alaska Highway signposts. Now we just have to get to the beginning as we drove only a couple short sections of the Alaska Highway on the way up.

We arrived at Tok in mid afternoon to find that our mail including the new GPS unit was in fact there. We decided to go on.

We entered Canada at BeaverCreek without difficulty and only a short wait for 5 or 6 vehicles ahead of us. Around that time we started to see smoke again. We drove on looking for a place to stop and nothing met our needs. We were surprised to find that most businesses along this route seemed to have been closed. We were looking for a good pullout along the road to stop for the night but found nothing suitable. We ended up stopping at the Lake Creek Yukon Government Campground. It was a nice quiet campground in the woods along the creek. We did not notice the smoke when we were stopped but the mosquitoes were everywhere.

We continued on this morning having decided that we would probably stop at Haines Junction. We had reluctantly decided not to make the 300 mile trip down to Haines and back even though we understand that it is a nice drive and an interesting town. The smoke was getting worse and we had decided that we would prefer to keep going than to stop in so much smoke. We did stop at the visitor center in Haines Junction and talked to a couple of people who told us that the smoke was worse going on to Whitehorse so that didn't make sense. So we turned about and drove about a half mile back to the Klaune RV Kampground in Haines Junction. This afternoon the smoke had eased a little and we looked around Haines Junction and drove about 30 miles down the highway toward Haines and stopped at Kathleen Lake in Klaune National Park and also walked part of the Rock Glacier Trail.

This is a statue that is located at the intersection of the Alaska hwy and Haines junction.