The Road Less Traveled

Yay!  Welcome to Alaska!

As the ferry docked just outside of Haines, Alaska we sadly said goodbye to the ferry and our restful sleep.  We would not have restful sleep that night, thanks to Tucker, but we'll get into that later.

The next (and last) leg of our journey to our new home would take us through the town of Haines and along the Haines Highway to Haines Junction, which is in the Yukon Territory of Canada. That's a lot of Haines'!

It is only 146 miles to Haines Junction from Haines, but once you get past Haines Junction there is nothing but the wide open Yukon Territory for a really long time.  Thus we decided to stay overnight in Haines Junction and then finish our journey to our new home the next day.  And let me tell you, for not being much of a town, Haines Junction had quite a bit to offer in the way of entertainment ....including a drunk Canadian lady getting sassy with the Chinese guy running a Chinese restaurant/bar/motel because his Canadian waitress would not serve her more alcohol and she being such a good customer and all, he should cash her check for her.  And the food at said establishment was a little more authentically Chinese than I think I would like to admit.  The boys had burgers which they deemed amazing, but I went with the Beef and Broccoli with chow mein since the waitress said the Chinese food was really good. Let's just say, the broccoli and chow mein were really good, but I'm not convinced the beef was in fact beef. But really, what did I expect from a Chinese place in the middle of nowhere in the Yukon Territory of Canada?  I'm really not sure.......but beef at the least.

Here's a little map to show you where in the world we were.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I think the memory of the not-so-beef beef got me all discombobulated.

The ferry docked in Haines at 11:45 a.m.  You would think that it would take a while to unload all those cars but we were off within about 10 minutes of docking.  We stopped in Haines briefly to buy Jason a jacket. Yes, we moved our children to Alaska in the middle of winter and one of them did not have a warm jacket, only a thin fleece jacket. Cue bad parent sign.

But in our defense, we had bought him the jacket he really, really needed (wanted) which arrived by mail two days before we left and then didn't fit.  So there. Anyway, we didn't buy him a jacket in Haines either.....things were a bit pricey there. He would continue to layer a flannel and another fleece jacket of Joe's until Fairbanks.  Rest assured he stayed toasty warm. :)

Here is a pic of downtown Haines.  Not much to it, but quaint and beautiful.

Haines, Alaska

After the jacket shopping stop, we hit the Haines Highway.  Here is how the Milepost describes the Haines Highway:

"Noted for its grand views of glaciated mountains and the variety of its scenery--from coastal forests to alpine tundra--the Haines Highway winds through the Chilkat River flats outside Haines before beginning a long climb up to the summit, where it meanders through a wide alpine valley before descending to Haines Junction via a series of long, easy grades."  My description.....absolutely stunning scenery. But before we got to see much of that scenery, one or both of the cats had finally had it and let loose a stinky deposit in their kennel, of the #2 kind.  We quickly pulled over and all spilled out of the car trying to get away from the stench.....our first introduction to the Alaska cold. Here's Justin taking a selfie while Joe and I deal with the situation.

Once the situation was duly handled, we were back on the road in a jiffy.  This part of the highway followed the beautiful Chilkat River that was mostly frozen over.

Chilkat River

About 20 miles from Haines is the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.  Large concentrations of bald eagles gather here during the winter months due to a natural phenomenon that results in about five miles of the river remaining ice free during the winter months, which allows the chum salmon to spawn later in the year.  The open water and salmon food source bring the eagles to the area every winter from November to February.  What an amazing sight!  These birds are spectacular!  They were perched in the trees all along the highway.  At one point we saw a group diving down towards the water but there was no where to pull over and watch them.  Ugh! Here's a few pics.

This is not a good picture of the eagle, but I love how the branches of the trees are in focus and the eagle sits in the background. 

Since there was no foliage on the trees, they were really easy to spot.  Do you see the eagle?

As the highway left the river, the scenery changed, but was equally beautiful.  

There is not much traffic along the Haines Highway this time of year and we rarely saw other vehicles, except for four who had also disembarked the ferry in Haines and were traveling the same way we were.  They all passed us by when we were dealing with our stinky situation on the side of the road, but we met up with some of them again when we stopped for lunch at the only place you could stop, the 33 Mile Roadhouse.  Yep, it's located 33 miles from Haines.  This place is known for their fantastic burgers and according to Joe and the boys, they did not disappoint.  I had some really great soup.  The place looks like a cabin with an old gas pump out front, and a few smaller cabins behind it.  Joe and I figured their main business during the winter must come on ferry arrival days. Here's a funny tidbit......If you go on their website, it says that their price for gas is about $5.  The price of diesel is also about $5. 

Cool old gas pump still works.

33 Mile Roadhouse Restaurant

The boys heading back to the car with burger-filled stomachs.

The view across the street from 33 Mile Roadhouse.

Another fifteen miles or so we came to the Canadian border, paid our $50 to pass through with guns and were on our way.  They didn't want to see said guns and make sure we were claiming what we were really bringing, only the $50. Joe was bummed he had left the handguns in California to be shipped to us later (you cannot legally bring handguns into Canada).

From the Canadian border the highway climbed to an alpine valley and the scenery changed again. It was stunningly beautiful as well.  We passed our ferry mates along the way, which we did several times between Haines and North Pole.  Joe was clearly more comfortable driving the icy roads than they were and the ice road trucker had no problem passing while I closed my eyes.

 

Sunset.  I love this pic.

That evening we arrived at our motel, the Alcan Motor Inn in Haines Junction.  There were not a lot of choices for accommodations in this small town, but I had booked the Alcan based on really great customer reviews.  It did not disappoint.  Though is was really dated, it was exceptionally clean, comfortable and had all the amenities of home. Not surprisingly, one of our ferry mates was already there when we arrived and the ones we passed earlier showed up later.

After settling in, we went about a block down the street to the only food establishment open and well, I've already told you about how that went.  After dinner we went back to our room and settled in for a good night's sleep.  Or so we hoped.  Dear little Tucker was finally at his whits end with the traveling and once the lights were out started meowing loud enough to wake the dead. And he would not stop no matter what we did.  This went on for a couple hours.  Finally I decided to give him one of the sedative pills the vet had given me, hoping he would just calm down and sleep.  Nope.  Instead he just stumbled around the room like a drunken kitty, still meowing.  Desperate, I stuck him in the cabinet under the bathroom sink and boom, he was out.  A few hours later he was up again, stumbling and meowing.  This time I stuck him in one of the dresser drawers, where he stayed quietly until we got up. Thank God for cabinets and dressers, and Tucker's love of them.  To this day, he sleeps almost everyday behind one of the bottom drawers in the kitchen.  He opens it himself, climbs in, and some days stays in there all day.  This is how I know where Tucker is these days:

That morning we were back on the road for the final push to North Pole.  Just down the road from our motel we made a left turn onto the world famous Alcan Highway, which would take us home.

As the sun rose we passed through Destruction Bay, a small community on the shores of Kluane Lake in the Yukon Territory.  The sunrise was gorgeous!

Kluane Lake sunrise

Later that morning we crossed the border back into the good ole' U S of A and into our new home state of Alaska!

Leaving the Yukon Territory

Pit stop so Brandy can get a picture of the Welcome to Alaska sign!

Later that afternoon we stopped in Tok, Alaska for lunch at a place called Fast Eddy's, along with several of our traveling ferry mates. By 6 pm that evening, we were pulling into our driveway at our new home in North Pole, Alaska, ready to begin another new adventure.......living in Alaska!