Road Conditions
Remember in part one when I said how good the road was? Well, now I found exactly where the Alaska Highway is notorious for having poor road quality: from Destruction Bay, YT to Tok, AK, the section with permafrost. The reason it’s so hard to keep an even road surface up here is quite logical: permafrost doesn’t want to melt, but stripping away the protective tundra layer and replacing it with gravel (or chip and seal) does exactly that. And what happens to a road surface when the underlying ground begins to melt? It drops, causing frost heaves. Huge, undulating frost heaves.
As a driver up here, your best friend quickly becomes the orange flags placed alongside frost heaves. While the speed limit is 55 mph, I think taking the frost heaves at anything over 20 mph is how the car parts laying all over the road got there. It’s like playing a live game of the hare vs. the tortoise, watching people pass you at well over the speed limit, only to pass them 30 miles later with a flat tire by the side of the road.
In addition to the frost heaves, throw in a 50 mile section of severely washboarded gravel with more potholes than road and two very long construction zones with 30+ minute waits, you end up with a very long driving day. But with no flat tires and no rock chips, I’ll take it.
Our Route
The drive from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory to Tok, Alaska is 380 miles long. All mileages below are from the junction of the North Klondike Highway & the Alaska Highway in Whitehorse. The highway passes through the town of Haines Junction at mile 89 (population 824), where the road for Haines, Alaska heads south. For interior Alaska including Anchorage and Fairbanks, you continue on the Alaska Highway. Around Haines Junction, you begin to have beautiful views of the Kluane Mountains of Canada’s Kluane National Park. We will be visiting Kluane on our return trip in the early fall.
Kluane Mountains
The highest point driven on this stretch of the Alaska Highway is Bear Creek Summit at 3,294 feet followed closely by Boutillier Summit at 3,293 feet elevation. The mountains visible from the road are up to 17,147 feet tall (Mt. Luciana). From Haines Junction until Koidern, the highway is bordered by an unbroken chain of 8,000 foot mountains interrupted only by a few large valleys cut by glacier fed rivers. Most of the Kluane Range’s higher peaks still had snow on them. The Kluane Icefield Ranges are Canada’s highest and the world’s largest nonpolar alpine icefield.
Kluane Mountains & Kluane Lake
At mile 122, you begin to have views of Kluane Lake. Continuing along Kluane National Park, you reach the Visitor’s Center at Tachal Dhal (formerly known as Sheep Mountain). This is an excellent place to view Dall Sheep, especially in the spring and fall. As we were driving through I spotted a bunch of Dall sheep high on a slope. Look for the white dots.
Dall sheep high on the slope, look for the white dots near where trees meet large dark area
We stopped for lunch at a pull-out near mile 132, with beautiful views of the Kluane Mountains and Kluane Lake. After getting back on the road, we were treated to a close-up view of a roadside grizzly bear at mile 141, just past Congdon Creek Campground. There was no place to pull over, so we were unable to get any pictures, but it was a very large, beautiful grizzly, probably a male. During this drive we also spotted two coyotes and numerous waterfowl, including swans.
Lunch spot in Kluane National Park overlooking Kluane Lake
We passed through Destruction Bay (pop. 55) and Burwash Landing (pop. 84). Near mile 195, we began to view the St. Elias Mountains and their Icefield. Canada’s highest mountain, Mount Logan, elevation 19,545 feet and 6 other peaks over 16,000 feet are in the St. Elias Mountains. Spectacular views! Next up was Beaver Creek (pop. 112).
At mile 288 we crossed the International Border between Canada and the United States. Approximately one half mile later we went through Customs and Border Protection. This was fun because the clearance for the lane we were supposed to go through was listed as 12’10”, which happens to be the exact published height of our RV. We had a couple of tense moments when we were driving under the awning. If it were 12’10” and we were 12’10” we assumed something might catch. But nothing rubbed. This crossing was very similar to our crossing into Canada a little over three weeks ago.
About a mile later, the highway enters the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, a 730,000 acre refuge. This sections was also quite scenic with lots of small lakes/ponds/streams and views of the Wrangell Mountains and the eastern end of the Alaska Range. We crossed the Tanana River, which should be familiar to any viewers of Discovery Channel’s Yukon Men.
Wrangell Mountains are still quite snow capped
At mile 379 we reached the Tok (pop. 1,435) community limits. We will be staying at the Tok RV Village for 2 nights before heading to Wrangell-St.Elias National Park & Preserve using the Tok Cutoff Road. Time to stock up on groceries, give the batteries a good charge, do laundry and some other necessary tasks. The Alaska Highway continues northwest to Delta Junction. We will be driving this final section in August at the other end of our loop.
