Souvenirs From The Road: How About a Ferry Ride? Part 1

Day 98 – August 7 It’s a very foggy morning when we leave Valdez. Our destination is a return visit to Tok and the Sourdough Campground. The Tok Cut-off road is the worst ever! It took over 6 hours to travel 240 miles. And…..it’s hot today! 82 degrees! The drive took us along side of the Wrangell Mountains which are just big and beautiful, full of glaciers. Unfortunately, our schedule didn’t allow any time to spend here. Thankful we spent time here 13 years ago!

Wrangell Mountains

Day 99 – August 8 is a perfect weather morning, warm enough to start the day in shorts! We are headed for a return trip back to Cottonwood Campground at Destruction Bay in Yukon Territory. Customs was very pleasant. It was one of those long, hard driving days with road construction and frost heaves and a long line at customs. The campground had the same musicians playing that evening – Canadian country and western! Kluane Lake is still beautiful and this is still a really great campground.

Day 100 – August 9 We are headed to Whitehorse today. It was an easy and scenic drive. We are staying at the Pioneer Campground. The best thing about this campground is that they have an awesome RV/truck carwash. And we needed it! Enjoyed the afternoon. Toured the Yukon Brewing Company. Then we went to the S. S. Klondike National Historical Park. Did you know that this was the largest sternwheeler on the upper Yukon River? Built in 1929 as an ore hauler, she was holed and sank in 1936. Then rebuilt and relaunched in 1937. Carried cargo and passengers until 1955.

We also visited the largest fishing weir located at the Whitehorse Dam. That was cool as there were spawning salmon making their way up river. It’s been a great day!

They make things other than just beer!

Our samples!

S. S. Klondike

Greg and Ron checking it out.

Really?? A piano on the fish viewing platform. Glad I dressed for it!

Yep folks! Hard to eat this camp food!

The line going back through customs!

Day 101 – August 10 Destination today is a return trip back to Skagway where we will be starting our journey down the inside passage on the Alaska Ferry System.

One stop we made on the way to Skagway was at Turqoise Lake. Beautiful!

Beautiful lake on our drive! Diatoms are algae. They form calcium carbonate and give us such a pretty view.

What has changed since June on this trip is the snow melt and the amount of tourists on the many cruise ships! So – to avoid those crowds it was laundry, defrosting the fridge and working at getting rid of all the dust in the RV. We went back for a great dinner at the Skagway Fish House.

Day 102 – August 11 Today we are waiting to board the ferry at 3:30 for Juneau. So people watching in town, we ran into Sweeny friends Sammy (high school classmate) and Sharon Brooks. What a small world! We got into Juneau at 10 pm and WOW! We haven’t experienced darkness in a very long time. So, it’s dark and it’s misting rain. A strange place. But we found our campground ok. A long day……

Greg, Mary, Sammy, Sharon and Ron in Skagway!

Sharon and Sammy waving good-bye to us from their cruise ship as we leave on the ferry.

Sights on the way.

A view of Haines from the ferry.

Getting passed up by a cruise ship!

Greg backing his RV onto the ferry.

Day 103 – August 12 We open the door this morning and it’s the WOW Factor! Beautiful camp here at the Mendenhall Glacier Campground. (NSFS) Everything around you is green with lichen and fir trees. Expecting the weather to get bad, we strapped on our hiking boots and headed out to Mendenhall Glacier. Another really great USFS visitor center. The Juneau Icefield is about 1500 square miles. Thirty something glaciers. We enjoyed the Nugget Falls Trail. There are viewing platforms around the streams for the salmon (and possibly bears). We found it pretty foul smelling from the decaying spawned salmon.

Nugget Falls. Unfortunately I lost my other pictures of Mendenhall.

In town, watching how they move the fish off the boat to the cannery.

The view at our campsite. Lots of blueberries to pick too!

Next stop was in town at the Mount Roberts Tramway. Gave us some great views looking down at Juneau.

Day 104 – August 13 Beautiful, lazy morning. Ate one of the best hamburgers ever then drove down the road to The Shrine of St. Therese. Absolutely beautiful! The stone chapel was built in the 1930’s. You walk across a causeway to get to the chapel. There are gardens all around. It’s a beautiful, peaceful jewel here in southeast Alaska. We get to work “graveyards” tonight, catching the ferry for Peterburg at 6 pm and arrive there at 3:30 am.