Yukon Adventure Part 3: Haines Junciton and Haines

My drive from Whitehorse to Haines Junction followed the Alaskan Highway (which is known as the Alaska-Canadian Highway, or ALCAN Highway for the stretch in Canada).  This road comes with a phone-book sized guide that lists every intersection, landmark, store, hotel, and gas station along the roughly 1300-mile-long route.  The section I drove included a listing for a rest area.  I was quite excited about this, since I had left Whitehorse before breakfast and hadn't seen a store or gas station for well over an hour.  A pit-stop was becoming very necessary, and I was (foolishly) envisioning something with a heated building, running water, and maybe even a vending machine.  Instead, I found this:

In retrospect, it makes sense - in an area with so few people it isn't worth getting electricity or running water just for the few travelers that come through.  So after a rather chilly dash to use the facilities, I dug through the car for some breakfast snacks and headed on down the road. 

I arrived in Haines Junction shortly before lunchtime.  With two roads (the ALCAN, plus the road to Haines, Alaska) and a population of almost 600, this is a major town!  One of the three gas stations was open year-round, so I stopped to fill up and get a little advice.  The very friendly woman behind the counter gave me a run-down of the area, and recommended one of the two hotels.  She actually said that both were fine, but that the owner of the one hotel played on an her hockey team, so I should go there.  Walking around town the next morning I saw that indeed there are two hotels, both including restaurants, one additional restaurant, a school, and a giant hockey stadium.  That was Haines Junction.  Continuing north 80 miles on the ALCAN I went up to Burwash Landing (popluation 73), just to see the sights.  Burwash Landing was another stopover during the Yukon gold rush, with its big lake now frozen solid.  Here's a boat that has been pulled up on shore for the winter:

And here, in historic downtown, are some cabins from earlier settlers.  The cabin on stilts is for storing food.  The height keeps food safe from scavengers, and the cold climate takes care of any needed refrigeration.  

It was too cold to do much exploring on foot, but the scenery was amazing!  Burwash Landing was my final destination, as far north as I would go on this trip, so from there I turned around and headed back to Haines Junction.  I didn't quite make it to the Arctic Circle, but this is definitely the farthest north I have ever been!  Here's a view of sunset on distant mountains as I headed back south.  

I spent the night in Haines Junction, then in the morning left the ALCAN Highway, the Yukon, and finally, Canada on my way back to Haines, Alaska.  Here are a few pictures of that drive:

First, a lake with a mirrored surface, reflecting the clouded mountain above:

A little further south (and a little higher in elevation) another lake, frozen solid:

At this point, I decided to get out of the car and go for a short hike.  With no cell phone service, no other cars on the road, and no real idea of where I was, I put on my bear bells and hiked as far as I could while keeping my car in sight.  The trail I picked went up to the remains of an old glacier, which looked like a giant gravel pile.  The rocks were pushed along in front of the glacier, and were left behind when the glacier retreated.  Back in my car and further down the road I crossed the pass through the mountains:

The snow was deeper here, and there were no trees:

Coming through US customs and continuing down the pass, the high winds blew existing snow back up into the air.  The near-whiteout effect was really neat, especially when huge mountain peaks appeared to float in the clouds:

Down near sea-level the snow disappeared and I ran into an unexpected sight: hundreds of bald eagles hanging out along the shores of a river.  Apparently this is a known haven for the eagles.  This river has a late salmon-run, so the birds can come here to get fish late in the season.  This picture isn't the greatest, but if you look carefully you can see not only the two birds on the shore, but a few more perched in the trees in the background:

From here it was a short trip into Haines.  It was dark by the time I boarded the ferry and headed back to Juneau.  What can I say about my Yukon Adventure?  I really enjoyed it, and would love to come back sometime in the summer, to experience the long days and warmer temperatures.  But it was also neat to be there when all the tourists were gone, to meet the people who live year-round in these small, sparse communities, and to see the mountains covered in snow.