Today we quickly visited Haines (not much to see – only a few shops) and in Pleasant Camp we left Alaska and entered Canada again. We drove into the St Elias Mountains, which was amazing… only glaciers as scenery and cold temperatures accompanied with lots of wind. We were lucky to see the bald eagles flying around us, astonishing big birds! We’ve left British Columbia and entered for the first time the amazing Yukon territory. The nature is totally different from what we’ve seen so far, small needle like spurs, tundra and lots of colorful flowers. We drove across the Kluane National Park and Reserve, which is a Unesco World heritage and also amazingly beautiful. We stopped at the Kluane Lake at the Congdon Creek campsite, which was a special site. The site was located on the bear corridor from the mountains to the lake and due to the bear activity the entire tent campground was surrounded by an electrical fence. Never seen before and gave a strange feeling. We spent the night at the campfire with Martin, Ben and Michèle. For the first time we experienced the ‘never ending day’. We went to bed only at midnight and it still felt like early evening. Again something new we need to adjust to 😊. Friday was David’s birthday and besides the fact it was on a special location, going from Yukon to Alaska, there was no occasion to celebrate. The weather changed from partly sunny to cloudy and rain. During the waiting time at construction works we met 3 Canadian motorbikers: Gayle, Dan and Gretta coming from Ontario and discovering Alaska. They’ve invited us to stay at their place on our way to Canada. Around lunchtime we stopped in Pine Valley at a French bakery where we met 2 Portuguese guys: Las 3 Américas Motorcycle tour 2018; very nice people who drove from Porto Allegre towards Ushuaia and then all the way up to Inuvik and they will end in Miami! Another great meeting on the road! While we were eating our cinnamon bun, we helped a couple from Arkansas who had some issues with low tire pressure. We hit the road again and about 30kms from Beaver Creek we entered again Alaska and hope to stay here now longer than a few days 😊. The plan is to stay until the end of July. In Tok we decided to stay for the night and to finally upload our blog after poor internet connection. It started raining during the night and it didn’t stop until Sunday morning. Due to the weather conditions we decided to go to Valdez instead of McCarthy (later in planning) in the hope to find better weather. Unfortunately it wasn’t the case; we passed the Thompson Pass literally into the clouds and couldn’t see much of the Keystone Canyon. After a visit at visitor center and the news that the weather would be similar on Sunday, we booked a wildlife and glacier tour and stayed 2 nights at the campsite in Valdez. To celebrate David’s birthday, we went to Mike’s Palace (still not clear if it was an Italian or Greek theme) to eat some Alaskan king crab. It was a Lion King diner! On Sunday we had THE perfect day, very hard to describe what kind of great and amazing nature and wildlife we discovered. It’s too hard to describe with words and the pictures shows only a fraction of the beauty. During the cruise to the Colombia Glacier we were able to spot sea otters, sea lions, harbor seals, orca whales, a hunchback whale, bald eagles and puffins. The weather was perfect; no wind and sun; which made it possible to sail smoothly through the broken ice pieces of the Colombia glacier.
Today we returned the same road as we came and were finally able to enjoy the beauty of the Keystone Canyon and the Thompson Pass. In Glennallen we took the Glenn Highway into the direction of Anchorage. We drove along the amazing Chugach Mountains and the Matanuska Glacier and stopped at King Mountain campground.
