July 14, 2024 – Sunday – Day 21 – Off the Dempster Hwy
It was a bright and noisy night. However, things did quiet down at some point in the night. We took a picture of the sun at 12:30 am and it was still up in the sky. It will be 1-1/2 weeks until the sun sets again.
We slept late but we were on the road around 9:30 am on our way south. Tuktoyaktuk is an interesting place, but like many places in the world, there are not much of the old cultural left, it is very westernized. The restaurant had a sign that they only serve hamburgers, chicken and fries. “No Traditional Food”. I understand, because it is a much easier life for them. We could not find many souvenirs to buy, most of the shops were closed. I guess Covid had a big impact on their tourism. The road to Tuktoyaktuk was built only 7 years ago, so their tourism was not very mature when Covid shut them down 4 years ago.
The trip back to Inuvik was quick and we spent our time reviewing this week’s Sunday School lesson. In Inuvik we got some gas and then parked outside the visitor’s center to connect to the internet. I was able to update the blog and then we also Facetimed the kids to talk with them. Before leaving town we found a car wash and sprayed off most of the mud. We probably lost 100 lbs. of mud.
We drove south for about 4 hours and found a campsite at Rock Creek. It was still a warm day, but it will cool down later tonight.
July 15, 2024 – Monday – Day 22
It was a rainy morning, but we left about 9 am. Today was a day of driving. We planned to drive to within a couple of hours drive of Dawson City. We filled up with gas at Eagle Plains (the gas is $6.88/gal, but it is the only place to get gas). We then continued south.
Our plan was to drive until 3 pm and then find a camping spot. We started looking for spots and they were either taken or too exposed to the highway. We finally found a place on the river after stopping at 5 other spots. Each campsite was 10-15 minutes apart, so it was 4:30 pm before we finally set up camp.
July 16, 2024 – Tuesday – Day 23
It rained all night, but it stopped before we left camp. It took us about 1 hr 45 min to finish the Dempster Highway. It was a relief to end ~1200 miles of dirt road. I always have that concern that something may break, or we would have other problems, but we had no issues. When we made it to Dawson City, I noticed that some wires had pulled loose back by the receiver hitch. I don’t remember rubbing the back end of the van anywhere, or driving through weeds or sticks, but something caught them and pulled the wires loose. They are the wires for the trailer plug and the rear aux lights, so nothing important. I quickly used a couple of wire ties to hold them up. I will fix it more permanent when the rain stops.
We decided to spend the night at the Bonanza Gold campground, just outside of Dawson City. We spent the afternoon washing more mud off the van ($6), did our laundry ($10) and took showers ($2). It was raining the entire time we were at the camp.
Later in the evening we went into town to eat dinner at the Gold Pan Restaurant. I had chicken strips and Eva wanted to try poutine again. This time it had some tender beef and good cheese on it. It was much better than the Costco poutine we had a few weeks ago.
After dinner we walked around town a while, but it started raining again so we went back to camp. We need to find somewhere that has sunshine.
July 17, 2024 – Wednesday – Day 24 – Into Alaska
It was another rainy night and morning, but the rain had mostly stopped by the time we got up. We took a shower and then parked by the laundry to wash our towels, sheets and a few other things. We also called Alyssa and Kayla.
We didn’t leave the campground until around noon. After getting gas we drove to the top of Midnight Dome, a high mount above the Yukon River and Dawson City. We ended up above the clouds so we could not get a good view of the valley, but it was nice up there and we were able to see the sun.
Next, we ate lunch at Sourdough Joes and filled up our water at the visitor’s center. We then took the ferry across the Yukon River and continued towards the US border.
The highway into Alaska is called the Top of the World highway. From the Yukon River the road climbs high into the mountains and continues on top of the mountains for 40 to 50 miles. The mountain tops are rounded, so the road stays on top and weaves between the mountain tops. There are a lot of forest and meadows, and everything is green. Unfortunately, the rain and overcast skies continued as we drove towards Alaska, so it was hard to get a good picture, but it was a very beautiful drive.
The US/Canada border is on top of the mountains and the border patrol people have two little cabins they live in on the mountain top. We crossed into the US, so after 24 days of our Alaska trip, we finally entered Alaska.
The highway stayed on top of the mountains for another 20 miles until it finally descended into the valley. We found a campsite at Walker Fort Bridge campground. This is the nicest BLM campground we have ever stayed at. There are only a few campsites, but they are large, flat and well-spaced. The bathrooms are clean and there were no mosquitos. The rain stopped and the sun came out, so we spent the evening outside eating dinner and playing games. We are still at a higher elevation, so the night got pretty cold, but there was no rain.
July 18, 2024 – Thursday – Day 25
It was a good night and morning. We continued on the Top of the World highway to Chicken, Alaska. This was an old mining town. We took a picture at the chicken and the gold dredge.
We arrived at Tok around noon. After getting gas, I spent another $5 to spray more mud off the van. We also stopped at a gift shop and bought some shirts for the grandkids. After we ate lunch we spent some time planning our next few days, so it was around 4 pm before we left.
From Tok we turned south and drove about 3 hours until we camped at an old campsite about 60 mile north of Valdez.
Corey & Eva's Travels 