"There are strange things done in the midnight sun". (Robert Service: The Creamation of Sam McGee"

We have started another phase of our trip, the mainland Yukon-Alaska chapter, and are camped in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory for the weekend. This is our third trip to Whitehorse so we feel right at home. It has been a wonderful week and we are due a little down time for laundry and grocery buying.

This meadow had 1000's of wildflowers

The bad weather in Juneau only lasted overnight and we had a great trip on the ferry, to Haines. We met a Tlingit family returning to CA after attending the Celebration in Juneau and sat next to them the entire trip. Jacob was from Haines and it was like having a personal tour guide as we traveled up the Lynn Canal. The Canal is actually a very long and deep fjord that reaches to Skagway and it is lovely.

We got off the ferry in Hanes which is now my new favorite Alaskan town (it used to be Valdez). It is set in a bowl of glacial mountains facing the fjord and everywhere you look it is stunning beautiful. It is a real town too. Only small cruise ships can dock there and they only have two a week so the businesses are mostly run by locals for locals. There are so many outdoor activities available however, that they get a lot of business from the cruise ships that stop at Skagway.  Tourists come in on the Fast Ferry or by air for the hiking, rafting, wildlife tours & etc. They are all gone by 5 pm and that’s the way Haines likes it!

We chose Ocean View RV because it faced the harbor and we liked it so much we stayed five days. In a small town like Haines it doesn’t take long to get to know folks. When I went to buy our tickets for the fast ferry to Skagway, the lady recognized me and said I had been around long enough to buy local tickets;

View from our campsite at Haines

View from our campsite at Fass Gas (Haines Jct)

saved us $40. We made the day trip to Skagway and had fun but were so glad we were not staying there. Five cruise ships in port equals about 10,000 people in a town about the size of Blue Ridge. Go figure!

Our other excursion was a raft trip on the Chilikat River. Sorry, but we were not impressed. I could have given the raft guide a few tips but he was young and strong so we let him wear himself out. The river is braided and since it is glacier fed it was at 36 degrees. We had more fun exploring back roads on our own.

The 159 miles from Haines to Haines Junction is one of the most beautiful roads in North America. It has views of three huge parks; Tatshrnshini-Alsek Wilderness Provincial (BC), Kluane NP (Canada) and Wrangell-St. Elias NP (USA), these are International Heritage areas and make up the largest land mass held internationally in the world. We took our time and made lots of stops.

Going from the sublime to the ridiculous, we spent one night in the RV parking lot of the Fass Gas station in Haines Junction. The Hi County RV park in Whitehorse is very nice though. Our site backs up to an Aspen forest with lots of briar roses and other wild flowers.

At Haines Junction we reached the Alcan, the famous Alaska Highway, and it required a decision from us; North, South, East, or West? We chose east to Whitehorse so that we can go north to Dawson City. We also chose to pay an outrageous  price for an internet connection so that we could catch up before we head into the hinterlands of the Yukon Territory.