The last day of the trip was familiar to us - Whitehorse to Anchorage. We knew the places to stop for gas and breaks and we were expecting the roads to be bad, and believe me, they were. I mentioned in the last blog post that we were hoping they'd do some road work around Kluane National Park. Ha! Be careful what you wish for!
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| It's really hard to drive fast in gravel. |
On the drive we saw more grizzlies!! This one was hanging out in the lupin just eating flowers and minding his own business.
Later we saw a family of three bears - a mama and two older cubs. We didn't get pictures because it was on one of the nicer stretches of roads and I was driving as fast as I could. But they were cool, I promise.
Just like last time, the scenery from Whitehorse to Anchorage, especially around Kluane National Park was absolutely amazing. Mountains in all directions and this time, no snow!
When we entered one of the little towns around the National Park, we saw a familiar friend:
More amazing scenery...this time closer to the US/Canada border:
The border! And some tourists...
We did not have the super friendly border agent that we had last time. This guy was all business and didn't have any entertaining anecdotes about his giant orange cat. This guy also had a really hard time believing Andy was a lawyer. He believed me, but was skeptical about him. Obviously being four months older than Andy makes me look much more mature and responsible.
We hit Tok around 11:30 Alaska time (helped that we gained an hour at the border), fueled up and kept cruising. I was happy to see gas prices back in the US dollar per gallon vs. 129 CDN cents per liter we were paying in BC. Some day I might do the math and figure out how much gas is per gallon in Canada. Or one of you can do that for me. Thanks.
The road from Tok to Glennallen was absolutely absurd. In April the roads were pretty good - generally not so frost-heaved and with some well-marked gravel patches that don't surprise you. Now, it's a total nightmare. It wasn't even from construction or anything, the roads just completely deteriorated. I figured they would be at their worst in April, not into the summertime. Apparently something about finally thawing out just did a number on the pavement. We hit a GIANT hidden pothole head on around 65 MPH and I thought the wheels were going to fall off the car - it wasn't marked, it wasn't obvious, we just hit it all of a sudden and I almost peed my pants. Thankfully we didn't damage the car (that we could tell) and we just had to take it slow until Glennallen when the roads improved quite a bit.
The views heading into Mat-Su were as impressive as last time. We saw a lot of cool lakes and trails that we'd love to explore one weekend. It's only about 100 miles from Anchorage, so it would be totally doable to just head out and spend the day wandering around out there. We also got a good view of the Matanuska Glacier. It's really big and caused quite the traffic jam of travelers stopping to take pictures. Andy was driving like a horse running back to the barn and didn't want to stop and risk getting trapped behind all the motorhomes we worked so hard to pass, so I had to take a picture of it across the car out his window:
We rolled into Anchorage about 5:30. It looks like a totally different place than in April - so much greener and with lots of flowers blooming. Right now there are a ton of lilac bushes in our neighborhood blooming - it's kind of like going back in time to the spring. I'm interested to see how gardening will be up here after dealing with horrible clay soil and hot temperatures (but relatively cold winters) in Salem. It'll be interesting for sure.
So that was the drive! Here's a comparison of last time to this time. When you see it in pictures it really looks SO much more direct. In the summer time, I would say Cassiar is the way to go...though you miss the buffalo herds around Liard Hotsprings, and the incredible scenery from Fort Nelson to Watson Lake. It's kind of a toss up if you consider all the stuff you miss by not taking the traditional route.
Note: The last time I posted a map like this, I did not zoom in and realize that Google maps defaulted to the Cassiar route (even Google knows it's faster to go that way). So I fixed the other map. Go here to see what I'm talking about.
Later we saw a family of three bears - a mama and two older cubs. We didn't get pictures because it was on one of the nicer stretches of roads and I was driving as fast as I could. But they were cool, I promise.
Just like last time, the scenery from Whitehorse to Anchorage, especially around Kluane National Park was absolutely amazing. Mountains in all directions and this time, no snow!
When we entered one of the little towns around the National Park, we saw a familiar friend:
 |
| Don't worry, wooden police officers can't hand out tickets. This time I wasn't fooled by the crafty Canadians! |
The border! And some tourists...
We did not have the super friendly border agent that we had last time. This guy was all business and didn't have any entertaining anecdotes about his giant orange cat. This guy also had a really hard time believing Andy was a lawyer. He believed me, but was skeptical about him. Obviously being four months older than Andy makes me look much more mature and responsible.
We hit Tok around 11:30 Alaska time (helped that we gained an hour at the border), fueled up and kept cruising. I was happy to see gas prices back in the US dollar per gallon vs. 129 CDN cents per liter we were paying in BC. Some day I might do the math and figure out how much gas is per gallon in Canada. Or one of you can do that for me. Thanks.
The road from Tok to Glennallen was absolutely absurd. In April the roads were pretty good - generally not so frost-heaved and with some well-marked gravel patches that don't surprise you. Now, it's a total nightmare. It wasn't even from construction or anything, the roads just completely deteriorated. I figured they would be at their worst in April, not into the summertime. Apparently something about finally thawing out just did a number on the pavement. We hit a GIANT hidden pothole head on around 65 MPH and I thought the wheels were going to fall off the car - it wasn't marked, it wasn't obvious, we just hit it all of a sudden and I almost peed my pants. Thankfully we didn't damage the car (that we could tell) and we just had to take it slow until Glennallen when the roads improved quite a bit.
The views heading into Mat-Su were as impressive as last time. We saw a lot of cool lakes and trails that we'd love to explore one weekend. It's only about 100 miles from Anchorage, so it would be totally doable to just head out and spend the day wandering around out there. We also got a good view of the Matanuska Glacier. It's really big and caused quite the traffic jam of travelers stopping to take pictures. Andy was driving like a horse running back to the barn and didn't want to stop and risk getting trapped behind all the motorhomes we worked so hard to pass, so I had to take a picture of it across the car out his window:
We rolled into Anchorage about 5:30. It looks like a totally different place than in April - so much greener and with lots of flowers blooming. Right now there are a ton of lilac bushes in our neighborhood blooming - it's kind of like going back in time to the spring. I'm interested to see how gardening will be up here after dealing with horrible clay soil and hot temperatures (but relatively cold winters) in Salem. It'll be interesting for sure.
So that was the drive! Here's a comparison of last time to this time. When you see it in pictures it really looks SO much more direct. In the summer time, I would say Cassiar is the way to go...though you miss the buffalo herds around Liard Hotsprings, and the incredible scenery from Fort Nelson to Watson Lake. It's kind of a toss up if you consider all the stuff you miss by not taking the traditional route.
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| "Traditional" route going through Mile 0 of the Alcan at Dawson Creek |
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| Via the Cassiar Highway |
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