After waking up from my awesome camping spot on the lake I headed off for Haines Junction for a phone call, I waited a little longer than I thought and didn’t get on the road until about 4pm, I still made it to another lakeside campsite for the night. It was another beautiful night and I was amazed at how late it stayed light out, I knew it was going to happen – but it’s still weird to actually see it light out at midnight.

Woke up the next day and headed off for a day of adventure in Alaska. Crossed the border without too much fuss, then headed though Tok and started down the southern route towards Anchorage. Unfortunately I could see some weather on the southern horizon and it was getting windy, but I drove right into it anyway and decided to make my way down to Valdez. I drove right into the rain and clouds. The road was great, but I couldn’t actually see that much of the surrounding mountains. I stopped quickly at some nice falls (Bridal veil falls) then into Valdez. It was a rainy seaside town, smaller than expected (that’s been happening a lot) and I had a wonderful burger at the Harbour Cafe. I looked around quickly at hotels, but they were $90 for the low-end ones so I decided to drive back and camp in the largest national park in the USA. Drove back and headed into the Wrangell-St. Elias park and found the first campsite just inside it’s boundary. So wet, but I managed to setup a tarp and the tent and had a good sleep as it was quite late when I rolled in and I was tired.

Woke up the next day to bright sunshine! Decided to drive the 100km into the park to McCarthy – it was pretty awesome, big mountains on both sides, a 100 year old bridge that was 250ft above the water (and still in great shape) – which apparently the built in 2 months in the dead of winter, very impressive. Got to the end of the road where there is a foot bridge over to the town of McCarthy. I didn’t end up going as I saw that the shuttle that went up to the old Copper Mine and glacier (5 miles away) didn’t start running until tomorrow! I decided instead that I could make my way to Anchorage by that night instead. Drove back along the same road (still beautiful) and then headed off for Anchorage. The drive was amazing, with huge mountains all over the place. Anchorage itself (and the surrounding towns) are way bigger than I thought, especially after all the other towns in the Yukon and Alaska have been so small. Met up with Phoebe and LB and went for Pizza!