WE ARE IN ALASKA! We put in some long driving days over the past couple days because we were ready to get back in the good ole USA. The adventures in Canada were quite fun, but there is nothing like American soil. We are two days ahead of our original schedule, but we will be able to spend those extra days enjoying Alaska.
We drove all day today- we were bound and determined to make it to Alaska before the day was over! My mother has taken a fervent interest in seeing how many people driving the other way she can get to wave back at her- so far the number of people is no more than three out of the dozens of people we have passed. Like my mom says, you have to find easy ways to entertain yourself when you are driving through the wilderness of the Yukon Territory. We drove through some of the most beautiful mountain ranges I have ever seen, and drove the perimeter of Kluane Lake, the largest lake in the Yukon, and wow, was it beautiful. The Alaska Highway also features some beautiful trestle bridges along the route.
We saw our first grizzly bear today! We have seen countless black bears along the side of the road- but we found a grizzly! Fun fact: grizzly bears and brown bears are considered the same species now. Park rangers say that if there is a grizzly bear in the area, there are no black bears because grizzlies are the more dominant species and they would run off or eat any black bears.
Road quality eventually plummeted and we traveled on a packed gravel road for quite some time until we were just a few minutes away from the Alaskan-Canadian international border. After a quick stop at the customs office, we were back on American soil!
We traveled a little farther into Alaska before stopping at a small town called Tok for the night. We pulled into the Sourdough Campground, famous for their sourdough pancake toss that they hold every night. Zach and I decided to drive around downtown Tok for awhile to kill some time. Downtown Tok consisted of a grocery store, a gas station, a visitor center, and three souvenir shops. I had read in a tour book that one of the gift shops often had Alaskan Husky puppies, so we went on a puppy search. The lady in the gift shop directed us around behid the shop, and there were four husky puppies!
We were able to partake in the nightly pancake toss, and it was quite an interesting experience. Basically, the leftover pancakes from breakfast every morning are used in a pancake toss. If the thrower gets a pancake into a bucket about 15 feet away, they get a free pancake breakfast in the morning. My grandpa was the only one out of us that got a pancake in! After the pancake toss and a delicious dinner, we headed off to a sunshine filled RV to go to bed!