Mendenhall Glacier:
Spawning Salmon:
We then climbed back on the bus and the driver took us for a quick tour of Juneau and dropped us off at the Juneau Harbor where we could tour shops, eat lunch, and take a trip up Mt. Roberts in the tram.
View of Juneau from tram:
Cruise ship in harbor:
It would take several days to fully explore Juneau -- we got just a small sample. We'll definitely have to come back someday and stay longer.
About 4:00 PM, the bus driver picked us up and drove us back out to Auke Bay where we boarded the boat for our trip back to Haines.
Juneau & Coast Mountains
More magnificent scenery!
Seal sunning on a buoy:
Hey guys, it's my turn!
On Friday, we walked over to the Elks Club and had a hamburger dinner -- they were really delicious! Then, on Saturday, we went back to the Elks Club for steak dinner -- again really good, although Earl and I had to wait and wait for our steak to be cooked. Apparently, the slip of paper with our name on it had been misplaced and by the time we'd received our steaks, Bill and Gisela were done with theirs.
Saturday afternoon, we walked over to the Southeast Alaska State Fair. The fair had some animals (pigs, goats, chickens, and rabbits), some vegetable and flower exhibits (although by Saturday, they were past their prime), and some trade booths. The best fun, however, was had at the logging events -- lots of macho guys sawing logs with chain saws, running over logs and throwing a big chain around a log and securing it (there's a name for this event, but I don't remember what it is), ax throwing, etc.
On Sunday, when it was time to leave Haines, we didn't want to leave, so we decided to move over to the Elks Club so we could wash our vehicles which had gotten filthy driving through the construction on the Alaska Highway east of Kluane Lake. We hadn't been able to wash them at the RV park because they didn't allow anything other than using Windex on windshields. We could understand them not wanting us to wash our rigs at the site -- a lot of RV parks have that restriction; however, it was beyond us why we couldn't have used our waterless wash since it would have used none of their water nor would anything have gotten on their precious grass.
After two days at the Elks Club, we still didn't want to leave, so we moved to Salmon Run RV Park on Lutak Road out past the ferry terminal. There is no electricity past the ferry terminal, hence this park has no hookups. However, it has an absolutely beautiful view of Lutak Inlet and the mountains. We could also watch the ferry come and go and, in the evening, watch the cruise boats heading out of Lynn Canal from Skagway. That was quite a site, especially when it got dark -- the cruise ships were lit up like Christmas trees.
Ferry coming into terminal:
View from our campsite:
Maxx doing his high wire act:
Takin' it easy:
The guys bought fishing licenses and did some fishing at Chilkoot Lake. All told, they caught 7 Dolly Vardens. This is the first time we'd had Dolly Vardens and they were quite good -- better, we thought, than trout.
We finally forced ourselves to leave Haines on Thursday, August 16. We drove 104 miles to the Million Dollar Falls Yukon Government Campground, stopping along the way to admire the view:
Haines Highway view:
More magnificent views:
And even more views!
Yukon's government campground are really very nice -- all of them we've been to have big, level spaces, and usually have firewood available to burn in the fire rings. This particular campground is located along the Takhanne River and has a boardwalk trail and viewing platform of the falls and rapids (unfortunately, there is no good vantage point from which to take a picture of the falls -- although you can see them from the viewing platform, the picture would be taken from straight above). From some places in the park, one can catch a glimpse of the St. Elias Mountains. The park ranger who came along to take our money later came back to point out the mountain behind us -- the sun was setting and it was lit up like it was made of gold.
Million Dollar Falls rapids:
Sunset on the mountain:
The next day, we drove 154 miles back to Takhini Hot Springs near Whitehorse, Yukon where we'd stayed on June 13. Since we didn't have hookups, Earl and I went into town on Saturday to do laundry, grocery shopping, and fill the truck up with fuel.
On Sunday, August 19, we drove 122 miles to Mukluk Annie's. We'd stayed here on June 10 on our way to Alaska. We had their salmon bake again, but were disappointed to learn that they would not be open on Monday for breakfast due to it being Discovery Day, a Yukon holiday. Their blueberry pancakes were the main reason we'd stopped here again.
Monday we drove 159 miles to Junction 37 Services Campground at the junction of the Alaska and Cassiar Highways. We had breakfast at their restaurant the next morning and then headed down the Cassiar to Moose Meadows in Dease Lake, B.C., 96 miles down the road. Our campsites backed up to Cotton Lake where we could hear a loon calling. When we woke up in the morning, we could see that a light dusting of snow had fallen overnight on the nearby mountains.
We set out for Kinaskan Provincial Park -- 131 miles down the road -- and ran into more construction with muddy roads! The views on the Cassiar were wonderful, but we'd had enough of muddy roads.
Cassiar Highway view:
Our rig after the mud:
The picture of our rig, above, doesn't show it at it's worse. In this picture, you can still see the "Not For Hire" written on the side, even though it is somewhat obscured. When we finished going through the construction, we couldn't even tell there was anything there, except we could barely make out the outline of the stickers that spelled out the phrase. And, of course, when we got to the Kinaskan campground, neither of us could get our slides out again!
View from our site:
No comments:
Post a Comment