Road Trip 2010: Day 26 Destruction Bay to Tok, AK

UPDATE:
New pictures have been posted for the trip from Teslin, YT into Skagway, AK. They can be viewed here.

We are back in the USA after a couple days traveling the Yukon and are currently encamped in Tok, AK after a trip from Whitehorse, YT along the shores of Kulane Lake with an over night stop at Destruction Bay.

Tomorrow we are off to Valdez, AK. Where we will have another wildlife/glacier cruise, a "free day" and a couple of great group meals. (To go along with the impromptu late afternoon happy hours. All this socializing may kill me!)

One of these days I just may finally catch up with what the heck we are doing.

Maybe.

But not tonight. I'm pooped and my one-hour subscription is about to run out. Night all.

Finally gained enough time to start catching up!

Now, where were we.... Oh, yeah. Destruction Bay.

As I said, the wind died down overnight and the trailers stopped rocking in near gale force turbulence.

We started out heading west to the US border but first we had to clear Lake Kulane and its tributary river.

View from the highway west of Destruction Bay

View from the highway west of Destruction Bay

View of the Kulane River

View of the Kulane River

When we did cross the border we came to Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge.

Trumpeter Swans and cygnets near Tetlin NWR.

You have been warned!

The view from the visitors' center.

In addition to having a delightful conversation with one of the rangers (a Native American) who was doing some beadwork on a pair of mittens, we ran into a celebrity: A 14 year-old young lady out of Rome Georgia named Chandler Johnson. She was in the Visitors' Center to have the completion of her Junior Ranger form validated and to collect her reward. This was her 350th Junior Ranger Badge and the fiftieth state in which she had earned such an award. (Plus several territories: Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.) She's been at this since she was 6 years-old and figures she has 47 or so left to collect all of the Junior Ranger Badges. Meanwhile, she's been interviewed by several newspapers and publications (including Outdoors), met documentary maker Ken Burns, and been awarded a special Ranger hat by the National Park Service in Washington, D.C.

Chandler Johnson

On to Tok!