Our Northern Adventure – Part 2: Watson Lake to Anchorage
May 2026:
At Watson Lake we joined the Alaska Highway heading west and we continued to drive long distances – this stretch was 2,155km (165km/day on average). This part of the trip was more about watching the magnificent scenery roll by and covering ground. At Jakes Corner we left the Alaska Highway and headed towards Skagway on the Klondike Highway. Just outside Carcross we stopped for a quick look at the ‘desert’ (sand dunes created by sediment at the bottom of a former glacial lake) and then afterwards took a quick stroll around the pretty town, picking up a cinnamon bun from the renowned bakery there.
Leaving Carcross, we began to see tourist buses ferrying cruise ship passengers out of Skagway for visits to the various view points. The British passengers were gobsmacked to see Big Bertha rock up with UK plates! There is also a tourist train that climbs up from Skagway to the high plateau and we stopped to have a look before passing through the Canadian border. We then made the steady descent to Skagway, passing through the friendly US border point back into the States. On the way, we were very lucky to see a mountain goat, sporting his beautiful white fur coat.
How to describe Skagway? It was a little bizarre. We felt we had driven out of the wilderness and parachuted into Disney World. From May to September four mega cruise ships call in per day, everyday, and disgorge their passengers into a small town purpose made to extract money from their wallet/ purses. It must be like shooting fish in a barrel. We bought fuel, wandered around for a bit and took the ferry across to Haines which was very quiet, by comparison. We parked up next to the fjord and immediately saw whales and seabirds nearby. We stayed there for the following very rainy day, watching the wildlife.
From Haines, we crossed back into Canada and climbed up above the snow line into the Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park. The rain turned to snow and we camped out at the summit with Big Bertha’s heating firmly on. The next day we drove on to Kluane Lake, via Haines Junction, hoping for an improvement in the weather.
The weather did improve and we took a flight over the icefield. We were hoping to land on the icefield but unfortunately it was too windy. A disappointment for Dave.
Whilst in the air our pilot pointed out Dall Sheep wandering on a nearby hillside and after our flight, we hiked up to have a closer look at them.
We next crossed back into the Alaska, the border officers being super friendly and even extended our I94 to give us plenty of time to explore. After shopping for food and fuel at Tok, we headed south to Glennallen (good laundrette!) before taking the road towards McCarthy. We would not be able to reach McCarthy because of a bridge closure, but we did explore a good bit of the road before turning around at the old Gilahina Trestle railway bridge. On the way back Dave went fishing and caught a couple of trout which made a lovely meal. It was then a long run into Anchorage on the Glenn Highway.
