Alaska Trip

[Blaine]

I thought I would share some of the highlights of my families trip through Alaska last summer (2015). Each summer we go to Dawson City Yukon to visit family, but on this year we decided to take an extra week and drive through Alaska. Here is a brief outline of the trip:
The trip ‘started’ at Dawson City, drove over the top of the world highway, entered Alaska at Little Gold Creek border crossing, then on to Chicken, Tetlin Juction and west to Tok. From Tok we went south towards Anchorage but decided to take the Old Denali Highway so we turned north on 4 at Gakona, then west at Paxon, then south again at Cantrell on the George Parks Highway until we arrived at Telkeetna. From there we drove through Anchorage onto the Kenai Peninsula, Whitter and Seaward. From there we drove back north through Anchorage and to the Knix Glacier, then Glennallen, down to Valdez with a detour to McCarthy. From Valdez we heading back to Canada at Beaver Creek YT and home from there.
I will post pics and descriptions of some of the notable things we saw on our trip. It was a great time, we could have spent more time along the way and taken longer to cover what we did but it was all the time we had to do this trip. Alaska is such a BIG state, the space, the mountains, the Ocean, the rivers, It is all really BIG. Alaska really is amazing and worth the trip.

Top of the World Highway
This is a gravel road from Dawson City YT to Alaska, which is only open in the summer. You start out by crossing the Yukon River via ferry, it gains a fair amount of relative elevation and you can see for miles and miles up top just before you enter Alaska.

The was a herd of Caribou up there along with a gold sluice as seen on Moose Creek on History Channel's Yukon Gold. iPhone pics didn’t really capture the Caribou as good I’d hoped. There are a few trails you can explore on up there, it is public land but there are active gold mines aways back off the road that you shouldn’t disturb.

Next up: The Old Denali Highway

 

[Dunco]

Awsome mate looks like an epic trip

 

[Fellow Jeeper]

That looks like a awesome trip

Sent from my SM-G935V using OB Talk mobile app

 

[Blaine]

YK/AK Border to Old Denali Highway to Telkeetna
I will apologize in advance for the gaps in the pics, it seems we didn’t take much for photos durning these next 2 long km road days.
After exploring some old mining access roads for a few hours we found the end of Top of the World Highway (which is a gravel road) at the border crossing shortly after the summit. We were pleasantly surprised by some fresh black top on the US side and thought this was to going to be an easy drive after so many km on the rough rough Yukon roads. But to our amazement the fresh pavement only lasted a couple miles and we were back to being beat up by pot holes. We stopped at Chicken Alaska, there is a neat bar and cafe you should see if you are driving through, and promptly headed on south. The drive down hwy 5 was scenic but we didn’t stop, preferring to make time and kms. There were some sections of road that parrelled creeks where you could see active gold mines slucing. We bought groceries at Tok and headed down hwy 1 to Gakona where the Richardson Highway 4 heads north. We camped shortly after turning a a nice quiet campground along a river called Sourdough Creek. The next morning we drove north to Paxon and turned west on the the Old Denali Hwy 8. This was an impressive view at all times. Wide open valleys with big mountain ranges and glaciers in the background. We took a couple side road adventures to find a picnic spot after Maclaren River Lodge, which was the only thing close to a service spot along this section. We ran in to river crossings on these side roads/trails that were too much for a lone near stock Tacoma traveling solo, but it was a nice spot for lunch. It is worth noting that a creek in the Alaska is the size of river in the south and rivers are HUGE.

From here were headed west to Cantwell and got back on the George Parks Hwy 3. Cantwell has the honour of being the most expensive gas price on our little Alaska road trip. After driving this section I really was amazed at the size of the space, mountains and rivers. Alaska is BIG. We drove south to Telkeetna to camp for the night. After a late start and some touristing in Telkeetna I have to say this is a wonderfully eclectic little town that you real need to stop at. There is a brewery, art, hippies, air tours, mountaineers, river rafters and plain old tourists which is what we were to that town. I understand Telkeetna is a jumping off point for McKinley adventures, river guides etc. When we go back we will spend more time there. From there we headed south through Anchorage towards the Kenai Peninsula, after a couple of stops, to a campground just before the Wittier Tunnel. This is a beautiful drive, getting progressively more treed as you get closer to the Ocean with hanging glaciers in many spots along the way.

Wittier is a small fishing/tour/marina town, we found we couldn’t get on a boat tour with our dog (we did zero research on this) and there were no campgrounds or suitable shaded areas to park at so we headed back out the tunnel to Seaward. There we found a beautiful tourist town with a campground and some nice diner tour-boat tours. We headed out wale, wildlife and glacier watching in Resurrection Bay. There was a neat glacial lake at the toe of a huge glacier at sea level, only being separated by its terminal moraines, in which icebergs formed from a recent earth quake floated. This boat tour was well worth the time.

Next up Knik Glacier: off road adventures!