Day 107: Kluane Lake to Haines, AK

July 30, 2014

Well it started raining again about midnight last night and was still raining when we woke at 6:00. There was some hard rain, but mostly just a moderate continuous rain. Crazy weather that we are having – our morning temperature was just a few degrees cooler than the Oneonta, Alabama temperature today. We are sure everyone at home is enjoying a break in the heat.

We had breakfast and then readied Fred for a travel day. We put everything away outside last night (thankfully since it was raining this morning), but had to do the inside this morning. It rained all the way to Haines Junction.

However, as soon as we turned off the Alaska Highway and headed south toward Haines the highway improved drastically and the weather began to improve as well. By the time we got to Haines we had bright sunshine and blue sky!! And even better that's the forecast here through the weekend. We were really surprised at how good the highway was to Haines. It was one of the best we have driven on since leaving the lower 48. When we left the Yukon and entered British Columbia the road was not quite as good but still much, much better than the Alaska Highway yesterday. We then re-entered Alaska and the road was still good. Yep, we started this morning in Yukon Territory, then entered British Columbia so we could then re-enter Alaska to go to Haines. All in the course of 197 miles. Thankfully, we again had an easy border crossing back into the US. For the first time today they asked for our papers on Scout. He had to have a physical and all his vaccinations up to date before we left home. We had everything ready to hand the agent as soon as he asked, answered the usual question about firearms and we were waved back into Alaska.

It was a really pretty drive today. The road to Haines is a National Scenic Highway but we know it would have been much more impressive with sunshine – but at least it had quit raining by then. We drove by many glaciers and through areas of alpine-like meadows. We also saw more snow capped mountains.

Just outside of Haines is the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. We pulled pulled over at one of the observation points and quickly saw an eagle out on one of the bars. Yes we know we have enough eagle pictures... but these are in a different location.

Fish wheel we saw operating just outside the Bald Eagle preserve

On into Haines we located Hitch-Up RV park, our home for the next several days. We have a grassy site and full hookups. Internet here is slow when it gets busy. After getting setup we took a walk into town.

Main Street, Haines

We walked down by the marina and found a Holland America cruise ship in port. It was the sister ship to the one we were on 8 years ago.

We enjoyed looking at the boats at the marina and then just walking around town and getting familiar with things. There is an IGA grocery store here, several restaurants, some bakeries, and of course some ice cream stands. Today we had soft serve vanilla which was almost like Dairy Queen and only $3.00. (We have become accustomed to much higher prices in Alaska.)

We also visited the world famous Hammer Museum. Actually, we just looked at the displays outside, but they were very interesting.

 

 

 

When we returned to the park a very interesting “RV”, “Tour Bus” pulled in. We had seen this bus while downtown but when it pulled in we just had to go take a look. This tour bus has over 20 people touring Alaska. We have heard German being spoken but don't know if it is an all German group. They set up camp much like we do just on a much larger scale. They all got off the bus with certain duties – like setting up tables and chairs for dinner, cooking dinner, etc. Those 26 windows on the side – that's where their beds are. The US folks here call it the coffin bus. We understand that these buses are used by European tour companies and yes, they all really sleep that close together.  At least these people are out traveling and seeing the world and from our observation have a great time doing it.

 

That's it for today. We are so thankful for the sunshine today. Tomorrow we plan to do some exploring in the area. There may be more bear and eagle pictures.