Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Whitehorse to Anchorage

Destruction BayFrom Whitehorse, we continued on the ALCAN.  Wildlife sightings weren't quite as prolific as they were during the previous leg - a couple of foxes were about it.

The run into Destruction Bay was pretty much a cake walk.  The reason we mention this, is that Destruction Bay is one of the places that is legendary among ALCANers  as having incredibly rough roads.

Well, the Canadian government finally got around to re-doing the roads.  There were a couple of sections under construction that were not so much fun, but pretty routine.

Destruction Bay itself wasn't too much - just some houses and the usual road side businesses.
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Alaska Border Crossing 

After Destruction Bay, we crossed into Alaska at what I think is the second most remote border crossing.  I had a brain fart and when asked if this was my first time into Alaska, I said "yes!" Even though we had all been many times via airplanes and cruise ships:  I was thinking "first time driving."

Fortunately the Bofrder Agent laughed it off and proceeded to warn us about the road ahead.

He was not kidding.  Just after the border station, was some of the worst road we had encountered to date.  The road typifies the word "frost heave".  We went up and down, up and down for quite a few miles before the road smoothed out

Tanana River

It was pretty late when we crossed into Alaska show we boondocked at a roadside boat launching ramp on the Tanana river.   This is just off the highway immediately past the river.  It offers reasonably flat parking, quiet and we were quite happy to boondock in the one of the long parking places designed for vehicles with boat trailers.

We will caveat this by mentioning that on the other side of the highway and the other side of the river is a rest top commemorating the old Tanana River Bridge.  It is quite pretty and interesting but it is not RV - particularly big RV friendly - you can get turned around in there, but parking might be an issue.

Nobody came to launch or unlaunch a boat the time we were there.

Tok

They say in Alaska "All roads lead to Tok".  And that is pretty much true.

Tok has a Valero station that is worth mentioning.  Not only fuel, but it offers free dump and RV wash.  It has earned a spot in the GPS.  From Tok we took the Tok cutoff and met with many miles of construction.

One of the more spectacular parts of the Tok cutoff was the Matsunga Glacier.  The road parallels the glacier and the runoff.

Anchorage

During this trip, we stayed in Anchorage twice.  I was not terribly impressed with Anchorage.  The only thing of note was the headquarters of Great Alaskan Holidays.  It turns out none of the Ford dealers in Alaska can service Motorhome chassis and Great Alaskan is the recommended service center for Ford Motorhomes.

Hmmm.  The Ford dealer in Whitehorse could service it....

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