Haines, and the Million Dollar Falls.

August 5, 2013

This is the Wonderful view behind our camper at the Haines Junction campground we stayed at! How nice to wake up to this!

This was the mile marker sign at Haines Junction...

The "Junction" part of town - with us parked in front of it for a minute.

Here is a great sculpture in the 'square'.. It is a hunter, sitting on a snowy peak, LOOKING and looking for critters... and down below on ALL sides of the peak! LOL!
Bear, moose Dall sheep, caribou, wolf! LOVE that creator's sense of humor! LOL!

And on down the road to Haines... This drive was one of the MOST beautiful drives we have had ALL the way down to Haines....  One treat after another!

And then we came to a sign that said "Million Dollar Falls" and tent campground.. turn right... So we did, with apprehension, hoping that our camper would fit on the narrow road....  Well, not only did WE fit, but MUCH bigger campers, or huge motor coaches would fit as well in most of the spots!  Dry camping with clean, nice bathrooms..  But the BIGGEST treat was the FAB site that greeted us down a short walk to those Million Dollar Falls!  This is how it started.. but we could hear BIG water, so we kept going .....

And GOING and the more we walked on the great, sturdy platform with high rails RIGHT down to over the top of the water falls!!

Definitely a MUST do for a campsite that would be a GREAT place to stay for an overnight or a week.. Best news:  $15.00  per night.....

After our lunch there at the falls and back on the road, more Beauty to see around every bend...

Glaciers, at every turn, it seemed.

And I LOVED the site of the Green foreground and the mountain and snow farther up...

And another Glacier!

And finally, back into Alaska... at the border.

Thought this was interesting:  This sign was in front of the cabin in the picture below...

Another rest stop along the way, with the Chilkat River pretty much on our right all the way down to Haines....

Here is something interesting - this is a fish wheel, and we were told that the water keeps it moving and any Salmon caught in the wheel are caught in those 'funnel looking' things and then sold.. None were going into it when we were there, however.

The river at this point was VERY wide!

And then we got into our campground, and as usual, there were the FLOWERS everywhere!  These were in front of our campground.

Welcome sign, with carved totems on each side.. loved it...

And if you SQUINT real hard and look to the left of the first A in Alaska, you will see that TG had to get into the picture...

 After we got settled in our campsite, (At Haines Hitch-up RV park.), we went down to scout out the town.  Den spotted this Diamond T and we just HAD to stop and talk to the wonderful couple who owned it....

This was a 1948 Farm truck, that this guy reworked to become his puller for his 5th wheel. He did a FABULOUS job and it took him 2 years....

After about 2 hours of talking to them "Don and Patty", we went on down to the bay - to check out the ferry schedule..

At the Dock, this is the ferry we will take on Friday over to Skagway..

And this one below, was heading for Skagway as we watched.

Lots of waterfalls on our drive around the lake...

And we came across this unusual front yard - filled with all kinds of 'sculptures' for a better word, made of stones, stacked to make 'sort of figures' on the lawn.....

And one of the homes, had this in their front yard on the bay:  A lovely chair for reflecting on life, health, wealth, comfort, joy, appreciation, and love....  very peaceful place to just sit...

And this GREAT wood carving of a bear on this front lawn...  HUGE!

The Bay.......

Our campsite at Haines Hitch Up RV park. Grassy sites, wide space between the next site..  And the VIEW!

Here is the camp office..

Wifi at our park is REALLY slow, so we came into town to a FAB lunch place, and great Alaskan Amber beer!!!!!! (OH, and GREAT FREE WIFI!!!!!)

Might just have to come back here to post again.... and we were told by a 'friend of ours' that we need to ask for a "Duck Fart".... in this bar..  we WILL be back!

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Minor Hitch in our Gittalong!

August 1, 2013

Lots to catch up on here!  No wifi for several days!  

One last stop at the North Pole, and Den thought it would be fitting for me to wear my parka, sipping a glass of my FAVORITE wine in front of the North Pole!  

The sign on the base of the pole tells of it's history!  

"This pole is one of 2 manufactured in 1951, as part of a campaign to properly mark the Top of the World.... After a Grand Tour of the U.S., it's twin was pushed out of the tail hatch of an Alaska Airlines DC-4 over the Geographic North Pole on the Arctic night of December 11, 1972.. After being re-discovered (in an old Junk Yard), This pole has been prominently displayed in it's current location since the Dedication of the Park on July 4, 1976 by the North Pole Jaycees.."

This park is only about 85 miles or so from the True North Pole..

What this picture DOESN'T tell you, is that it was about 83 Degrees here this day!! LOL!

We drove down to Tok from Fairbanks and stayed at the Tok Rv park for one night.

Trees, very quiet at night and nice.

We left Tok on Aug 2, and we were very near the Canadian border, when we heard a 'POP" and Den got out to investigate, and discovered 2 flats on passenger side of the rig.. bummer....  SO, he backed the rig up about 200 feet into a parking lot of the only GAS station we had seen for 115 miles BACK, and checked it out... the nice guy in the service station made a call and the closest guy who MIGHT be able to help him, was in Beaver Creek, about 25 more miles down the road... so, Den changed out the blown tire for our spare, and aired up the other one with a rock imbedded in it, to keep it from going flat and dropped me and the trailer in that gas station and drove on to Beaver Creek, which is back in the Yukon.

This pointy rock was probably thrown INTO the back tire when the first one blew..

So, with our poor tire on our rim, he drove through the border, explaining what had happened, and took the tire to the guy in Beaver Creek, and was back in about 3 hours, with a loaner tire, and Good News!  He hitched up , and we drove on to Beaver Creek to a campground - no wifi but quiet and the closest one to a 'fix' for our problem.

                      

This area through here was quite swampy, which always surprises me up here, and we have seen a lot of swampy areas up here.

Canadian Border again.

We had a VERY nice view of Resurrection Bay as we ate our lunch at a pullout!
Just BEAUTIFUL!

Then we began to see more and more mountains with snow on them off in the distance...  

Got our campground at Beaver Creek, he relaxed a bit from all of his running for the day and the next Morning, he was on the road at 5:00 A.M. to go BACK to Tok to pick up 2 new tires, and THEN back through customs again (the guy in there was REALLY getting a kick out of Den going back and forth (in a good natured way!).  Back to our C.G. at Beaver Creek, went over to the tire guy next to our park and the guy mounted both new tires and was only charging $30.00 for all of his mounting, unmounting, etc.  AND the loaner tire... Den paid him more for all his trouble and doing this on a Saturday as well. We were veery Blessed that this did not happen on a narrow mountain road, that it was not RAINING and that the tires could at least be FOUND and not have to be ordered and shipped...  Even though it was a LONG couple of days, all is well that ends well, and the tire guy gave the pointy rock to Den and said - maybe your wife can make a necklace out of it, and By Golly when we get HOME I will do exactly THAT! LOL!  

No wifi at Beaver Creek, so no posting from there....