Return to Tok

Good morning, my friends. We’re in the last several hours of our time in Alaska. We spent yesterday getting groceries and planning for our border crossing. I’ve refrozen some ice blocks I brought along from home. We’ll add any fresh produce, meat, and eggs…anything that might not pass muster…in an insulated bag with the ice blocks, and then hope for the best. We bought just enough food to get us to Whitehorse, where there is a good-sized and fully-stocked grocery store. The one we had available here in Tok had pretty limited stock. 

Backing up to our drive on the Tok Cutoff…the road wasn’t as bad as we feared, but it was still pretty rough. We stopped again at the Willow Creek turnout to take in the view of the mountains. When we headed south past this stop, there were more clouds in the sky. It was hard to tell what was mountain and what was cloud. The sky was clear on Saturday, and so we could see all of it. The image below doesn’t begin to take in the grandeur of the mountain ranges in Alaska. The appear far away in the image below. Standing where we were, they appeared close enough to reach out and touch.

I zoomed in and took close-ups of the mountains so you could get an idea of it. At the far left is Mt. Drum (12,010 feet). At its right flank is the smaller Snider Peak (8,250 feet).

Moving a little to the right is Mt. Sanford (16, 237 feet). We’ll get a better look at this from a different spot.

Farther to the right was Mt. Wrangell (14,163 feet). Technically, Mt. Wrangell is a “shield volcano.” It last erupted in 1930.

Farther to the right…these two big boys. The one on the left is Mt. Zanetti (12,989 feet ) and it’s neighbor to the right is Mt. Blackburn (16, 390 feet). 

Those peaks are all in the Wrangell Range. I’ve included the height for each one to give you some perspective about Denali at (20,310 feet). It’s the highest peak in North America and nearly a mile higher than the highest of the peaks listed above.

On down the road, we got another look at Mt. Drum (on the right) and Mt. Sanford (on the left).

Here was another shot I had to grab through the back window as we sped by. This is Galkona Lodge & Trading Post. It opened in 1904 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Next, we passed by the post office that serves the community of Gakona (population 181). Originally, it was an Ahtna Athabascan wood and fish camp, and it became a permanent village. It is located at the confluence of the Gakona and Copper Rivers. (Gakona is the Athabascan word for “rabbit.”)

And because the drive/ride was so tiresome, we stopped at this rest stop near the Slana River for lunch, espresso, and naps. The Slana River flows from its source glaciers some 55 miles to the Copper River.

Next, we passed by the turn off to Mentasta, 7 miles to the left.

I wanted to share the story of this unincorporated primarily Athabascan community. The residents lead a subsistence-based lifestyle. This area was hard hit by a 7.9 eqrthquake the shook the interior and south central regions of Alaska in November of 2002. The quake was centered about 80 miles south of Fairbanks, and it was the strongest quake ever recorded along the Denali Fault. The fault runs in a great arc from Southeast Alaska through Canada, then re-enters Alaska and slices Denali Nationa Park in half. The road we were traveling (the Tok Cut-off) along with the Richardson and Glenn Highways all sustained damage. Certainly, we could detect the road damage through this area.

Finally, I included this image to show you how densely the fireweed was growing on both sides of the road. In my reading about fireweed, I learned it is among the first things to return after a wildfire, which is how it gets its name. At the roadsides, brush and grass is kept cut back so that animals can’t jump out from  larger trees and brush into the highway and cause accidents (not to mention dead animals). It’s our theory that the fireweed is the first thing to return after an effort to keep the roadsides clear of brush.

So nothing much happened here yesterday. We bought our groceries and then took it easy for the day. We’ll have a long drive today over the worst of the roads we’ve encountered on our trip. After that, we’re hoping for smoother sailing as we head south. We’re both ready to be home, but it will be another two weeks on the road before we get there. We briefly considered hiring some kind of helicopter service that could just pick us up with straps and a hook (or something) and transport us there in a matter of hours. Or maybe not. It could be fun, though, don’t you think?

With that, I’ll be on my way. If we’re lucky, we’ll be staying in one of the Yukon government campgrounds tonight. They’re mostly first come, first serve, and so we’re hoping we’ll find a spot. If not, there’s another campground just down the road. Fingers crossed.