Day 28 - Jul 11 Valdez to Tok

Day 28 - Jul 11 Valdez to Tok

Bridal Veil Falls
Wrangle-St Elias National Park

This morning we woke to the first totally blue-sky morning we've seen since we arrived in AK. What a surprise to see all those beautiful mountains without their white shrouds. After breakfast, we packed up and moved on going north to Tok. We travelled again those beautiful highways with the ever-chaging scenery. Even though we travelled half of today's distance yesterday, it was coming at it us from the opposite direction and took on a familiar but different perspective. This state has the most incredible scenery - the best we've seen anywhere on any of our other journeys. If you like to bike, walk, hike, swim, hunt, fish, fly, prospect, camp, you name it, this state has it in the extreme.

Damn! Dishpan hands!

Is this real?

On our way by Tiekle River, we stopped at a diner where we'd stopped yesterday. Keith had made plans for the proprietor to show him how to pan for gold. The guy had a set-up on his property where he'd pan as a hobby. So Keith spent about an hour sloshing rocks and muddy water in a miner's pan. He's always wanted to try panning (bucket list again), and here was the opportunity. We don't think the real '49ers used plastic panning equipment. Maybe that was his downfall. Suffice to say we're still counting on Social Security to carry us through our old age.     

On our way out of Vadez, we stopped at a local cemetery looking for anything interesting. Here's a few headstones that made us laugh.

We are "en-camped" at Tok this evening, and will move on to Haines Junction in BC tomorrow. We will be retracing our drive on the Alaska Highway, with a detour to Haines and Skagway on Sat & Sun this weekend. We have some very interesting exploits planned.