After saying goodbye to Whitehorse, we hit the road with the idea of stopping in Beaver Creek for the night. As we neared Haines Junction, we started seeing these sharp, jagged snow-covered peaks. These were the
St. Elias Mountains. This range includes Mt. Logan standing at 19,550 feet, making it the 2nd highest mountain on the North American continent.
We spent some time at the Kluane National Park and Reserve Visitor Center in Haines Junction on the eastern edge of the park. The park covers over 7700 square miles of incredible wilderness. It's also the traditional home of the Champagne and Aishihik
Dän (people).
After lunch we left for Tok, AK but were so busy looking at the mountains that we missed the turn to the ALCAN and kept going on the Haines Road! It's about 100 miles to the Canadian/US border and winds from Yukon into BC with a time zone change thrown in.
The detour was a happy accident. At one point, I mentioned to Chris that there weren't any cars on the road. It's at this point where we started to figure out that we weren't heading for Tok. Fortunately, we had plenty of gas so decided to carry on.
We drove through Chilkat pass (~3500 feet, a wide alpine valley) with alpine tundra on both sides and snow covered peaks in the distance. The wind was howling and the clouds, while not storm dark, were still a bit spooky. Desolate, beautiful, stripped to the essential.
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| Rainbow, Haines Junction |
At the Canadian border, we decided to turn back and spend the night at Haines Junction. A good day!
On the way to Haines Junction, we saw wild horses on side of road, elk, an eagle, black bear and arctic squirrels that look similar to prairie dogs.
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| Arctic Squirrel |
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| Strutting her stuff |
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After lunch we left for Tok, AK but were so busy looking at the mountains that we missed the turn to the ALCAN and kept going on the Haines Road! It's about 100 miles to the Canadian/US border and winds from Yukon into BC with a time zone change thrown in.
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