A side trip to Skagway

We wind our way up to Tok Alaska, then down the Alaska highway across the border into Yukon in Canada over some pretty terrible roads.  No problems at customs, although we have heard some horror stories of folks having 3 hour searches of thier RV. 

We stop at Whitehorse for a few days.  One of the attractions is the "Frantic Follies"  a vaudeville type variety show with 1890's dancing girls, skits, recitaations (with supporting acting) of Robert W Service's "Cremation of Sam McGee"  banjo duets, etc. etc.  A truly wonderful evenings entertainment!

We drive around Whitehorse taking pictures of some of the many murals that decorate public buildings.

 

The road takes us past the Carcross Desert - yes, sand dunes in the far north!

Skagway is a 90 mile side trip down the "Glacier Highway" - over 20 glaciers can be seen along this road, the most prominent being Bear Glacier

The town is very much turn of the century style with false front shops

Another reason for visiting Skagway was to get together with some dear friends that we worked with last winter in Arizona.  They worked for the summer in Skagway.  It was a wonderful , but short reunion.

Here we are in a view looking down the fiord over Skagway

Southbound from Alaska

A side trip to Valdez

We start the long trek southward but we still have a few  places in Alaska to visit - the first of these is the town of Valdez.  It is 115 miles south of the Glenn Highway which

is on our route out of Alaska. 

The scenery is spectacular - peaks ahead of us on the highway still capped with snow in early August, 

And the solid white peaks of 16,000 ft high dormant volcanoes.

and the absolutely magnificent views of Worthington Glacier and fabulous waterfalls  Cascading down from thousands of feet above, just before reaching the town of Valdez.

Valdez lies at the head of a fiord that runs out to Prince William Sound.  It is surrounded by towering glacier capped mountains.  Valdez is the terminus of the Alaskan pipeline that carries oil 1200 miles from the north slope oil fieds around Prudoe Bay.  Here huge oil tankers take the oil south to refineries for processing

We get the opportunity to watch sea otters playing in the cold waters of the fiord, and salmon trying to work thier way upstream