Today, we visited to Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park. Exit Glacier is the only part of the park publicly accessible by road. After listening to a brief historical talk by one of the rangers, we took a hike up to the edge of the glacier. Due to safety concerns, we were not allowed to walk up to the glacier’s edge, but rather to a fence about 70 feet away. As we approached the fence, a very friendly park volunteer talked about the glacier and how it has changed during his lifetime.

After our hike, we drove back to Seward and ate a late lunch at Ray’s Waterfront near the small boat harbor. Originally, we planned to visit the Alaska SeaLife Center earlier in the day, but Valerie’s dad discovered that admission was half-off after 8pm, so we rested in the RV until the appointed time. The Alaska SeaLife Center was a great opportunity to see the marine animals close up. Valerie really liked the sea bird exhibit (mostly because of the puffins). The exhibit had both an above ground and below ground viewing area so she could watch the puffins waddle on land and dive below the surface of the water. While Valerie was looking at puffins, I admired some harbor seals that were napping in their enclosure.

In the morning, we drove the car to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center just a few miles from our campsite in Portage. Visitors can either walk or drive around the center. During our walk, we saw musk oxen, bison, elk, moose, a lynx, a porcupine, a black bear, and three brown bears. It was interesting to be able to see these animals up close without them being afraid and running away from us (as they might in the wild).

After a quick lunch of tuna sandwiches, we drove to Seward, AK. We are camping at the Resurrection Bay beachfront campground operated by the city of Seward. The site offers water and electrical hookups, with a dump station available offsite. Unfortunately, many of the camp sites are sloped downward toward the bay, making it difficult to level an RV. After several unsuccessful and one successful leveling attempt, we walked to the harbor front to scope out local restaurants that we could eat lunch at tomorrow.

Today, we took a boat cruise of Prince William Sound to see glaciers! We left the RV at the campground and drove the rental car to Whittier, AK. The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel from Portage to Whittier is only open 15 minutes in each direction per hour and costs $12 for cars and $35 for RVs 28 feet or longer. After making our way through the tunnel, we parked the car, checked in for our cruise, and walked around Whittier until boarding time. Whittier is a small town, so walking around the harbor front only took about half an hour.

The cruise with Major Marine Tours was great. It was a beautiful day with clear skies and we viewed several glaciers (although sadly no glacier calving). The onboard ranger was very knowledgable and the $19/person prime rib and salmon buffet was excellent. After the tour, we were tired so we headed back to the RV park to rest. We might stop by the nearby wildlife center or Forest Service visitor center tomorrow morning before heading to Seward.

We finally made it to Anchorage! Our first stop in the city was at the airport to pick up a rental car. After a bit of a delay caused by a glitch in the rental car company’s computer system, Valerie and I rejoined Valerie’s parents at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Anchorage. Valerie’s mom was very happy to return some of the unused items that we had purchased from other Wal-Marts earlier in our trip.

After a quick lunch from the nearby Pizza Hut, we headed to our campsite: Portage Valley RV Park in Portage, AK. Just a short drive from the tunnel to Whittier, this conveniently located campground offers water and electrical hookups, showers, and portable toilets. The showers were great; the portable toilets were less great.

The Tok Cutoff Road from Tok to the Richardson Highway was probably the bumpiest highway we’ve driven on in Alaska. It seemed like several sections of the road were in the process of being resurfaced. After turning off, it was mostly smooth sailing to Glennallen, followed by a long stretch of construction on the way to Tolsona.

Our campsite was the Tolsona Wilderness Campground near Glennallen, AK. This is a fairly rustic campsite that only accepts cash. (This is the first campsite we’ve stayed at that did not accept credit card!) The showers were great and only cost a quarter for 5 minutes. We took a short hike around the campsite where we spotted some moose tracks. Afterward, we ate dinner at a restaurant in the nearby Tolsona Lake Resort Motel & Cafe. The portions were large and the food was surprisingly tasty.

We made it to Alaska! The last 20+ kilometer stretch of the Alaskan Highway in Yukon was under heavy construction. Most of the road surface was gravel and traffic was restricted to one-way travel under the direction of pilot cars. We had heard a lot about frost heaves while researching this trip and we were happy to find that the road was free of any particularly dangerous heaves. Once we entered Alaska, the road quality improved dramatically.

Earlier, in the morning, we stopped by the Village Bakery in Haines Junction for some delicious cinnamon buns, scones, and bread.

Our campsite is Tok RV Village in Tok, AK. It seems like a pretty good campground, with well maintained bathrooms, laundry facilities, and plenty of mostly level campsites.

Today, we drove through Whitehorse, the largest city and capital of Yukon! We parked by the visitor center, where the Yukon tourism associate pointed out some of the key destinations in town. We ate a hardy lunch at Klondike Ribs & Salmon in downtown Whitehorse. After lunch, we stopped by the MacBride Museum of Yukon History, but declined to walk through it due to a lack of time and a steep $10/person admission fee.

After a quick stop at the Wal-Mart in Whitehorse, we drove to Haines Junction, YT. Our campsite is Kluane RV Kampground. There is only one single-occupant bathroom for each gender, but they are clean and well maintained. There’s also a hiking trail that abuts the RV park that we walked along for about half an hour.

I’ve been told that there’s a good bakery in Haines Junction and I’m looking forward to sampling their goods tomorrow.

We’ve seen more wildlife along the side of the Alaskan Highway than at any of the national parks. Today, we saw a few more bison, a wolf, and 8 bears (no bear families today). Valerie’s mom is very excited whenever we encounter wildlife. We sometimes slow down the RV to take pictures when it is safe to do so.

We stopped by the signpost forest in Watson Lake and the nearby visitor center. We watched a short movie about the construction of the Alaskan Highway and then received a whole lot of helpful information from a Yukon tourism associate.

Our campsite was the Yukon Motel in Teslin, YT. It has free WiFi in the restaurant, which serves pies and cinnamon rolls. It is located just after the bridge to Teslin, so bridge noise might keep up light sleepers (like Valerie).

After filling up on gas and propane in Fort Nelson, we started our drive to Summit Lake in the Stone Mountain Provincial Park. We briefly tried to walk around the lake, but cut our hike short due to mosquitos. As we drove down the mountain, we saw six bears (including what we assume was a momma bear and two cubs), a herd of bison, and lots of stone sheep. We stopped at the Salt Lick Viewing Area near Muncho Lake for a quick hike to view salt lick (but sadly no animals licking the salt) followed by lunch in the RV. Finally, we headed to Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park for a dip in the hot springs. As expected, the hot springs were hot and the facilities were quite nice (except for the lack of a shower).

Our campsite was the Liard Hotsprings Lodge (across the street from Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park). I would not recommend this campsite. In retrospect, we should have dry camped at the provincial park instead of staying here.

We left camp around 11:00 this morning to head to Dawson Creek, the official start of the Alaskan Highway (aka ALCAN or Alaska-Canada Highway). After a quick stop at the visitor centre and a quick lunch at Pizza Hut Express, we departed for an 7+ hour drive to Fort Nelson in British Columbia. During our long drive, we saw a bear foraging along the side of the road as well as what was either a large dog or a wolf. While I was expecting the Alaskan Highway to be difficult to drive, this section of road is much less scary than the logging road on the way to Grande Prairie from Jasper NP.

Our campsite was the Triple G Hideaway in Fort Nelson. They have good WiFi, laundry machines, a restaurant, a friendly staff, and campsites that are level. However, to use the showers costs 1 loonie.