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June 18th 2010

Published: June 18th 2010

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MarkG

Welcome to Alaska

I've come back into the States for a couple of days.

Having driven along the Alaska Highway from Watson Lake up to Beaver Creek, my original plan was to backtrack to Whitehorse and then head north up to Dawson City. But the Alaska Highway is a BAD, BAD road. To be fair, it is built on permafrost, so it's to be expected really, but the road is rough and full of potholes where the ice has melted underneath it and the tarmac has started to sink into the mud that supports it. So my original plan to not drive the rough (but relatively short) road between Tok and Dawson City has been revised (saving around 400 miles of the journey) on the basis that it can't be much worse than driving back down the Alaska Highway.

Since I last posted a blog, I have been mostly in the Kluane National Park (it's pronounced "Clue-Arnie", if you are wondering) on the Yukon/Alaska border. And pretty spectacular it is too. Lots of mountains, so I've been doing a fair amount of mountain climbing.

Having left Whitehorse, I spent a night just outside the town of Teslin, before pushing on towards

Pine Lake (nr Haines Junction)

Haines Junction. From Haines Junction, I headed south, down towards the BC border, stopping at Kathleen Lake to have a gentle wander around the shores followed by a tough-old hike up the side of a mountain to see the views back across the lake.

Heading further south again, I walked on a rock glacier (it's like a regular glacier, but made of rocks rather than ice), and then hiked up a great little valley to the St Elias Lake, nestled between the mountains. South again to the Million Dollar Falls, before turning north again and heading up to Kluane Lake (stopping to hike the 15km long Auriol Trail on the way).

Yesterday morning was a somewhat wet and miserable, so I stopped off at the Kluane Museum of Natural History: a surprisingly good little museum focused on the wildlife of northern Canada & Alaska. And about 20 mins after I had learned all about the elusive Grizzly Bears, as I was driving further up the road, I finally spotted the first grizzly of my trip - a mother with a really young cub.

Once past Kluane Lake, I really have been in the North American taiga region

Kluane National Park

("Taiga" is apparently a Russian word meaning "Land of the Little Sticks" - although, somewhat cynically, I'm not convinced that a five-letter word can really describe such a nuanced concept. But that notwithstanding...). The trees in the taiga grow in very shallow soil above the permafrost, which the tree roots can't penetrate, so it creates a sort of natural bonsai effect. The tallest trees are only about 18ft tall, with the vast majority of them being shorter than me!

Overnight last night at a tiny little campground just south of Beaver Creek, before I set off this morning to face the challenge that is US immigration. To be fair, they were very helpful. It is just somewhat unfortunate that their entire computer system crashed about 10 mins before I got there, and it took them nearly 90 mins to process me!

Once I was through, I drove further along the Alaska Highway - generally much better on the US side, but still not a great road - until I finally got to the town to Tok.

So I'll be spending the night here tonight, before setting off back tomorrow to the towns of Chicken (yes, really) and