Glacier-topped mountains as seen from the Alcan (most of these photos up to the border with Alaska were taken alongside the road, usually from rest stops).
Kluane Lake, with its vast size looking more like an ocean than a lake. It's 50 miles long and covers 158 square miles.
One of the massive mountain ranges on the surrounding Kluane Lake -- and some very photogenic driftwood. (And no, I didn't arrange them to look like that.)
I took this while driving Tundra along the Alcan. The window to repair roads up here is short -- maybe May to October, if the weather holds. Dust is one of the many challenges driving here -- along with rocks kicked up by vehicles that can do a number on windshields. As of September 27, I've dodged THAT bullet.
A closeup of one of the many glaciers on the Yukon's mountains.
On the evening of the 17th I "boondocked", staying at a large pullout near an overpass on the Alcan. It bordered a very picturesque creek. And had a lot of flying insects.
At the boondocking site, near sundown.
As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I'd brought an arsenal of bug repellents to ward off the hordes of insects. Here's the one that worked best for me, and it's DEET-free -- a Thermacell device. You simply turn it on, which lights up the butane cartridge that in turn heats up a mat that gives off an odor that keeps the bugs away, up to an area of 15 square feet. I tested it out by walking around the boondocking site with it, and I could tell that the insects stayed away. It's worked the few times since then that I've used it.
The next day, I woke up and saw this brilliant sunrise, with the bonus of a solar pillar, which I'd seen on 3 different occasions at Faranuf. I took it as a good omen for entering Alaska that day...
ALASKA! Surprisingly, I was the only vehicle at the border station. The guard on duty asked what "FARANUF" meant, so we chatted for a bit since there were no other cars behind me. I found out that he had previously been stationed at Yuma. When he asked me if I carried any fruits or vegetables that I'd bought in Canada, I showed him the bag of baby cut carrots I was munching on. He smiled -- yes, border guards actually do that on occasion!
When visiting Alaska you can, at least in theory, spend the night pretty much anywhere -- "Nobody's going to tell ME where I can or can't stay!" That's the Alaskan way of dealing with "rules". I make it a habit of stopping at rest stops, so I can be sure that the trailer is still hitched up right and that nothing has come loose. It was at the first rest stop in Alaska that I saw this display. I have been warned, and I could care less if the "insect vampires" were part of the food chain. I wasn't going to be a part of THEIR food chain...
I took the Alcan up to Tok, then turned west onto the Tok Cutoff. The Cutoff was in pretty bad shape. If it wasn't frost heaves, then it was patches of gravel, or cracks in the road. But the scenery along the way provided some compensation -- that is, when you could take your eyes off the road.
At the town of Glennallen, I took the Glenn Highway, which would eventually take me to Palmer and Anchorage. But as this was still my first day in Alaska, it was getting late, so I turned onto the road to Lake Louise, which had a campground. The road climbed up to the top of a hill, where I looked into the rear-view mirror and saw --
It's something you can't see from the highway -- massive Tazlina Glacier, with the mountains rising about the clouds. I doubled back into a pullout and took the photo. I'd stay at that same pullout a month later on my way out to Alaska. It made a great boondocking spot, with amazing views.
After going 17 miles on the Lake Louise Road, rising and falling over frost heaves that were like an E-ticket ride in Disneyland without the fun, I finally arrived at the campground, and stayed there for 5 days. I spent my 60th birthday (August 20) there, and since I was able to receive 4G coverage through my WiFi hotspot device, I received over 200 birthday wishes from my friends on Facebook. Thanks once again everybody! And I never thought I'd spend a birthday in Alaska...
One of the reasons I stayed for 5 nights at Lake Louise was because, according to the weather sites on the Internet, it was raining cats and dogs in Anchorage, my next stop. But those same weather gurus said it was raining at Lake Louise, or there was at least a 70% chance it would -- and it never did. So, since I kept Tundra hitched to Discovery because the site wasn't level, so I would have had a hard time hitching and unhitching them, I did some walking. Here's Lake Louise --
And these are some of the cracks and rollercoaster rides on the road that I had to negotiate very carefully. I'd read on a display that the original road, built by the Army after WWII, ran straight, but the army forgot about the permafrost underneath, so the road ended up in mud. Now the road weaves, as it goes from one hard base of rock to the next, which provides it with a firmer foundation. Though, judging from the state the road is in today, not as firm as one would want.
Not only do you have to deal with frost heaves, but also gravel or dirt sections of the road. Though at least there are markers to give you some warning that things ahead aren't as they should be.
And -- looky here, a birthday present seemingly from above! I needed a pair of heavy gloves, and I got my birthday wish when I found this pair on the road. Though they smelled -- awful. I kept them in the back of the truck so they wouldn't stink things up until I was able to wash them. But it's been over a month now since I found them, and used them only once. But I'm glad they're on hand, so to speak, just in case.
Gee, I'm only up to August 22. But Alaska was that way; there's so much to see....
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