Today we entered Alaska! We have spent a month in Canada. Now we have about 6 weeks in Alaska. It was just a short drive, 113 miles, to Tok. Within the first half hour, we saw a bear. Although it is brown, it us a black bear.
At the Yukon-Alaska border, a group of passengers from a Holland-America tour bus were taking each others’ pictures at the Alaska welcome sign.
A few more miles and we came to the US Border Station. We saw lots of the Border Patrol while we were in Texas. It was good to see them again today. I forgot about the rules against bringing in fresh fruits and veggies. I had to turn over tomatoes and some grapes. I don’t understand it. We went to a store in Tok and bought more tomatoes grown in Mexico, just like those I had to leave behind.
Crossing back into the US means we don’t have to tax our brains as much. We are back to miles and gallons, Fahrenheit and pounds instead of kilometres, litres, Celsius and kilograms. Yea!
We saw this old truck on a hill above the highway. It must date back to the building of the Alaska Highway.
On the whole, the roads are much better here than in Yukon. The first 14 miles past the border station were new and very smooth. Then there was some frost heave. But it isn’t as bad as yesterday.
The road borders the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, which has includes hundreds of lakes, many unnamed, and hosts a great number of birds, both nesting and migratory. It provides habitat for migrating sandhill crane and nesting trumpeter swan. We hope be to able to see a little of the refuge while we are here.
I enview your great adventure. You might have mentioned that the Alaska Hwy was a construction miracle during WWII being build in record short time with little regard for the best route or environmental concerns. That Canada allowed this road is a sacrifice that Canada made for our American cousins who were afraid the Japanese would invade Alaska and it would be hard to defend without this road across our "sovereign nation". This road like all roads in the far north should not be paved. A good quality gravel road can be maintained more easily to repair frost heave.
ReplyDeleteI love the amount of wildlife you are seeing. As for Sandhill Cranes, they nest reguarly on my farm. A number of years ago they showed up as they were moving east from their traditional central north America flyway. The are wonderful to see and most startling the hear.