ALASKA AT LAST!!!

June 28th
After two weeks of traveling we finally made it to Alaska!
Awoke in Teslin, YT this morning to a cloudless, cold day with temps in the 30s.

We started out in the low lying mountains around Teslin, following the lakes and rivers through the spruce and pine forests.

After following the Alaska Hwy for 800 miles we turned south on Hwy 8 toward Carcross.

Carcross is a very picturesque little village surrounded by a lake, a river and mountains.

At Carcross we took Hwy 2 towards Skagway. It seemed kind of strange to be driving south to go to Alaska.






 After we left Carcross the mountains got more and more rugged with some fabulous scenery as we approached the U.S. border.

We only drove about 150miles today but it took us 5 hours because I was stopping every few minutes to take pictures.

This valley is called Tortured Valley because of the rock formations and stunted trees growing here.

In the picture below Yoda is obviously in awe of the beauty before him. As you can see, the wind was quite brisk with temps in the 40s and 50s.

The border is at the summit of the road through the Coast Mountains and is about 3230feet above sea level.

From there it is only 11 miles to Skagway on the coast so it was a very steep decline of up to 12 deg. I had to leave the truck in 1st gear most of the way down to keep from riding the brakes.

We breezed through customs I think partly because traffic was getting backed up the mountain.
We arrived in Skagway just after noon Alaska time. (Another time zone to adjust to).
Our campground is next door to the dock where the cruise ships dock.

 There were two large ships in port when we arrived so the town was full of tourists but almost no cars.
 It was a nice afternoon with temperatures finally getting into the 60s. Skagway is a beautiful little tourist trap, er, I mean town. Located on a narrow inlet from the sea, it is surrounded by steep snow capped mountains. It has lots of nice old buildings with the usual tourist fare, souvenirs, t shirts, jewelry and eating establishments.

Prices are high but not nearly as high as Canada. I did find a nice old fashioned hardware store with a little bit of everything. I found a drill attachment that I can use to help us raise and lower the stabilizer legs on the camper.
On the other side of the campground is the railway station where we will catch the train tomorrow for a ride back up into the mountains.

This evening we went to a live theater production about the gold rush days that was pretty good.

Gas today was $1.09/liter in Teslin with our discount. We have now driven over 4,000miles on this trip.