Two Weeks in Alaska

It's been a busy and exciting two weeks in Alaska, lots of adventures and hundreds of great photos and stories to share!

We decided to take the Alaskan Highway from Whitehorse, Yukon to the Alaskan border. The road was a mess with over 100 miles of gravel and dirt due to construction but we made it to Tok, Alaska with no trouble. The most obvious evidence of our trip on the Alcan highway was an amazingly thick layer of dirt. Our first job in Tok was to wash everything!

We had replaced some tires in Whitehorse right before we left and shortly after arriving in Tok, Charles realized he had left his computer at the tire shop in Whitehorse. He  made the messy 800 mile round trip in one day (cartoon here)!

Tok is the hub of most routes from Canada to Alaska; a place to decide where you'll go next. We chose Fairbanks, 200 miles northwest.  Fairbanks is a lovely small town (45,000 people) and a great place to celebrate the Summer Solstice. in late June they get around 22 hours of sunlight a day and the other 2 hours feel like dawn or twilight. It's also a great place to relax, make new friends, stock up on groceries, and drive the car to other great spots not so accessible by coach.

Fairbanks and nearby adventures

While in Fairbanks we took the 200 mile gravel drive to the Arctic Circle and back. It was a great chance to see some of the Alaskan tundra, the pipeline, and of course the Arctic Circle. We also took a side trip down Elliot Highway to The Manley House, a roadhouse established in the early 1900s to support gold mining in towns nearby. 

We spent a day in Fairbanks exploring the town and really enjoyed the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska.

We had been warned that wildfires might make some parts of Alaska less pleasant during the Spring and Summer and a rash of storms and lightening strikes soon had Fairbanks and areas northwest covered in a dense smoke. We found there were fewer reported fires in the south (300 in the entire state) so we escaped to the south. In Fairbanks we met Chris and Mac, on another Bluebird Wanderlodge, and they decided to travel with us. We are now a Tribe!

We set our sights for Valdez and made a number of short jumps to get there. We took a short side trip on the unimproved but scenic Denali highway and stopped at a lovely wooded campground midway on the Richardson highway. 

Denali highway and fish ladder at Chitina

Further south on the Richardson highway we went East on the Edgerton highway to Chitina then McCarthy/Kennecott to visit the Wrangell-St Elias National Park and take a flight over the glaciers.

Kennecott glacier and mine from the air plus restored mining town

Our last leg of the trip to Valdez was over the Thompson Pass with beautiful views of the Worthington glacier and the Chugach mountain range.

Worthington Glacier - 30 miles north of Valdez

More adventures coming up in Valdez so stay tuned. Here's a map of the Alaskan roads we've traveled so far. There aren't that many in Alaska and you can see we've done quite a few already!

Our Travels in Alaska so far

Here's the link to our travel photo collection on Flickr, newest photos first: Flickr photos