We crossed into Canada on Friday the 31st and it was like we entered a winter wonderland. It felt like the snow covered mountains were in our reach and there was snow on the ground.
We were only in British Columbia for a little while and ended up in Yukon where they have really nice campgrounds with pit toilets, garbage and free wood for $13 USD. We made our way to Million Dollar Falls campground and decided to hang out there for a couple days. It rained on and off for most of the weekend so we were in and out of the camper. We did the short walk to Million Dollar Falls and around the campground.
Sunday we headed to Haines Junction to get a few supplies and gas. We stopped off for a quick hike on Rock Glacier Trail which had some pretty great views.
Our friend Paulo told us he had stayed at an abandoned campground in Burwash so we headed there. The iOverlander reviews were mixed as to whether it’s abandoned or just very unused. There was no signage for it but the garbage cans and picnic tables looked new like maybe someone was working on it. In any case, we were the only ones there and parked with a decent view of the water. It may be unused because it’s so windy there. It was sunny but it was so windy we couldn’t even have a fire. We only stayed one night and decided to head out the next morning.
We crossed back into Alaska with the fastest easiest crossing we’ve ever had. We were delighted to find a new super smooth section of the Alaska Highway and zipped right along…until we couldn’t. After that nice section the orange cones and Road Damage signs started appearing very frequently and we were dodging potholes that could swallow up our rig. It was everything we rememered and expected!
Going slow isn’t a bad thing because we were able to see another big bear casually strolling across the road without a care in the world. It was neat to see him up close and not running away.
We pulled into another free campground and as we rounded the corner we saw our friend, Paulo. We hadn’t been in contact with him for a few days so it was great to run into him and catch up. We foraged for some fire wood and were able to enjoy a beautiful night and a fire with him.
The next day we grabbed showers at a gas station and continued toward Tok. We had gone to a restaurant called Fast Eddie’s when we were here in 2018 and wanted to go back for their pizza. Paulo joined us and the pizza was as awesome as we remembered it to be. We said our goodbyes to Paulo as he was heading north to Fairbanks and we were heading south.
We headed up Nabesna Road to camp. We had met some great people at the Wrangell Mountains Lodge in 2018 and wanted to go back to say hi. The weather was good as we drove and were once again in awe of the views. We found a free campground close to the lodge.
Unfortunately, our friends were in Anchorage so we would miss seeing them. We drove Nebesna Road to the end and back and stayed one more night in the free campground. We then headed south towards McCarthy.
The road to McCarthy had been washed out the week prior and I had been watching reports of the fix. We were going to come back to it after going to Valdez but when we saw that it was fixed and the weekend weather was going to be sunny, we changed our plan and headed that way. As we were turning off the Richardson Highway toward McCarthy, I saw two vehicles coming at us and I was pretty sure they had Four Wheel campers on them. It only took a second and I realized they were our friends John & his dog Blue and Mike & Gina who we had met in February at the Truck Camper Rally in Quartzite, Arizona. We knew they were in Alaska and thought we’d catch up with them in Valdez. The fact that we turned onto the same road at the same time as them was crazy! We found a boondocking spot and had a nice campfire and had a great night catching up with them. We went our separate ways in the morning but hope we cross paths with them again.
We continued toward McCarthy but decided to do our hike on Sunday so we found a decent spot on the side of the road to camp for the night. The mosquitos are out in full force now so sitting outside is pretty much impossible. Sunday morning we got up and headed into town.
You cannot drive all the way into McCarthy. Only residents can have their cars on that side of the river so you have to park and walk. We paid $5 to park for the day and walked about a mile into town. There is a shuttle that will pick you up after a pedestrian bridge but we didn’t take it. We went to the McCarthy Center Store to purchase our shuttle tickets to Kennecott Mine which is another 4.5 miles one way from McCarthy. Back in 2018, we remembered this shuttle to be only $5, but today tickets are $15 a piece. Totally worth it though because we did not want to tack on an additional 9 miles.
Once off the shuttle you are in Kennecott and can go check out all the historic buildings. It’s a really neat place with so much history. People still live there as well and it’s amazing to think how remote they are and how difficult it is to get supplies to a place like that.
We walked down the main road to the trailhead excited to get back on to Root Glacier. We were happy to have a beautiful sunny day and all the mountains were visible. Back in 2018 when we did this hike, it was raining and overcast so we didn’t get the full experience of how beautiful this place is.
The hike was fairly easy and we made our way onto the glacier. We bought crampons so we could walk with more traction and went up further on the glacier than we had before. We took many moments of just standing there in awe of where we were and the beauty of it all. We drank from the running glacial water and were just giddy to be back here.
We made the trek back to the mine and went through the old buildings while we waited for the shuttle to come pick us up. If you like history, this is a cool place to visit even if you don’t hike to the glacier.Once back in McCarthy, we headed to The Potato for a beer and good food and then walked the mile back to our truck.
We decided to drive back to a boondocking spot on Moose Lake that we had spotted on our way in. As we were driving along, we finally saw a big moose in the middle of the road! It was pretty awesome and topped off an already amazing day. We got to our spot, happy to see noone else was there. The mosquitos drove us inside but our view from our back door can’t be beat!
This neck of Alaska doesn’t get near the praise it should. The Wrangell-St. Elias Mountain National Park & Preserve is beautiful. It’s peaceful and not very busy. We love this area and are so happy we were able to come back to experience it in better weather. We will continue south today after laundry and showers and hope the rain holds off as we head back to coastal towns.
Off to Valdez…