We woke to a gorgeous clear day making our drive out of the Stewart area all the more impressive in that we could actually see the mountains and glaciers surrounding us. We continued our trek north towards Alaska proper. On our drive out we spotted the bears that were supposed to be at the bear viewing area. They apparently didn’t get the memo and were lounging along the side of the road eating greens. During the course of the day we saw a total of seven black bears, almost all of them chewing happily away on roadside plants.
The following day, after camping near Dease Lake, we were driving along a burned area and noticed people camped out. We then saw a mushroom buyer and more cars parked along the side of the highway. We decided we should see what the fuss was about and quickly, after stepping into the burnt woods, found hundreds of Morel mushrooms. We spent the next 45 minutes excitedly picking as many choice mushrooms as we could. We quickly realized that we might have picked more than we could deal with and left before we stuffed the whole truck full (we spent the next couple of days with the heat blasting on our feet area drying the mushrooms in our gold pans – the only real use we got from the pans).
We decided to take the road less traveled to the north and took the 300 mile Campbell Highway, 200 miles of which were gravel. It was definitely the road less traveled, during the day and a half that we drove the gravel section we saw a total of maybe 20 other vehicles. The views from the highway were great with lakes, rolling valleys with distant mountains, and no sight of civilization. When we were camping we checked the time and found that we were eating dinner after 10 and the sun was still up at , a bit strange to be sitting around at with full light. To get to sleep at a reasonable time, we velcroed our jackets to the inside of our truck shell, blocking out the light.
We stopped at Five Finger Rapid on the Yukon River where they ran stern wheelers until the road was completed in 1953. Further north we stopped in at Dawson City and checked out the historic buildings. The entire valley has been torn up during the gold rush days. They ran giant floating dredges over the area and it now looks a lot like a gravel supply quarry. The town of Dawson City was pretty touristy but the buildings were interesting. We were surprised to find a ferry just outside of Dawson City was the only way across the Yukon. As we were waved onto the small ferry the crewman frowned then laughed and said “at least your tires are on”; we looked back and noticed that the ferry gate couldn’t close because our truck was in the way but our tires were on… The ferry ride was exciting, the river current was strong (5+ mph) and the “docks” were just gravel bars that they gunned the engine to keep the ferry against as cars loaded and unloaded.
Finally crossing into Alaska proper we went through the most isolated border crossing I’ve ever seen (pictured left). Our first stop now that we survived crossing the Yukon was Chicken Alaska. The town totaled 3 buildings with lots of chicken inspired stuff. We had some problems getting our phones turned back on so we headed into the big town of Valdez. The drive in was great with views of, what else, mountains and glaciers. The town itself was about what you would expect, which is to say not all that great. Alexis was particularly nervous of the “Man Camp” located near the airport and our campground. We did do a nice hike along the coast and got a good view of the oil tanker loading area. We also toured a fish hatchery where we saw thousands of pink salmon trying to get a couple hundred feet upstream from the ocean. Next we’re headed into Wrangle St Elias national park.
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