Homeward bound

The blog is going to get more compressed as we head on home.  The last three nights we had very spotty internet and thus no blog.  We are travelling more and stopping less.  I think we are all anxious to get back to familiar surroundings.  After staying the night in Teslin, we went on to Watson Lake to see the Sign Forest and the Northern Lights Museum.

On our way to Muncho Lake we encountered three black bears, a grizzly, and two herds of bison (more than 150) and spent the night there (no internet). Leaving Muncho Lake we saw two fox, one Dall Sheep, five Caribou, and thirteen stone sheep.

We stopped for a short stay at Ft. Nelson to take in the Museum there and spent the night in Ft. St. John (again no internet).  We then travelled to Dawson Creek (Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway) and found a RV park in Whitecourt but it was late so again no blog.  Today we made it to Edmonton and I finally have internet and am catching up for the days missed.

On The Road South

For two days we traveled further south.  Our first stop was at Carmacks where we repaired the vent on the ceiling fan and then on to Teslin via Whitehorse.  There were lots of beautiful views when it wasn't raining.  Unfortunately it did rain a lot.  The rain let up when we stopped at Whitehorse.  We visited the Transportation Museum with the world’s largest weather vane, a DC 3 that points into the wind at all times.  We also drove over to the world’s longest fish ladder.  The ladder was built to allow spawning salmon to get around a hydroelectric dam on the Yukon River.  Too bad we are about two weeks early before the salmon get to this point in their migration.  We will still get to see the salmon as the ladder has a webcam that we can log into when we get back.

Dawson City

Yesterday was for catching some extra sleep after the long night at Diamond Tooth Gerties.  After a leisurely breakfast we went out to see the sights.  We drove the Dodge up to the top of Midnight Dome.  From there we had a spectacular view of Dawson City and the Yukon River valley.

Huge landslide just outside of Dawson City

Yukon River

Dawson City from above

Any place a Porsche Cayenne S can go so can the Dodge 

Back on down the mountain to lunch at Klondike Kate’s.  I felt like I was almost home.  I had a pulled chicken sandwich and they loaded it with slaw on top.  A little more shopping and it was back to the RV for some of our Halibut and grilled tuna (from OBX).

Top of the World

We survived the drive to the Top of the World.  The road from Tok to Dawson City is called the Top of the World.  The road follows the top of the mountain range not unlike the Blue Ridge Parkway back home.  At many points it is narrow; almost one lane and we needed to slow way down to get by other large vehicles.  The road sort of follows an arch from Tok, through Chicken, and over to Dawson City.  Most of the road is unpaved and hadn't seen a grader in quite awhile.  I guess we were lucky it wasn't raining as much of the surface appeared to be clay and would have been very slippery.  Anyway it reaches its highest point just after we entered into Canada (The northern most international border crossing in North America).  We stopped at a rest area and said our goodbyes to Alaska.  It is hard to believe that we are on our way back home.

Just before we got to Dawson City Dave wanted to stop and get some pictures at Foreplay Mountain.  Turns out he misread the name it was Mount Fairplay.  Oh well, on we went.

 The only way to get across the Yukon River to Dawson City is by ferry.  The ferry has no dock; they just run it in close to shore and drop down the ramp while the captain holds the boat on shore with the prop.  You drive on and he backs away into the fast flowing river.  He does a slipstream across the river and repeats the landing on the other side.  Later on that evening we walked over to Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall for some drinks, gambling, and the 10:30 show.

Dave went back for more pictures.

Back to Tok

Hard to believe but we are on the way back.  We had a bit of a scare as we dropped the RV down off the leveling jacks.  One of the tires was low on air.  Luckily another traveler had a air compressor we could borrow and we got it pumped back up.  Took it to a tire repair shop and they replaced a valve stem.  Whew, it could have been a lot worse.  Then we drove back to Tok from Fairbanks.  We stopped one last time to see the pipeline bridge over the Tanana River.  Along the way of course we spotted another moose alongside the road.  Even though we have seen many, you just have to stop and snap a couple of shots.  Supper at Fast Eddy’s and then back to the RV to rest.  We have a big day of driving tomorrow.