Haines, the Haines Hwy and up the mighty Yukon!

Near Lake Chilkat where we were staying was a fast flowing creek.  Again this is somewhere the grizzlies hangout to catch salmon....in the season....of course we're not here for "the season" but we still went looking for them...with no success.  It seems a lot of people had the same idea as there were small bus loads of people coming out doing "nature tours".  It was still very quiet and people were very respectful.
 Stu wanted to do a hike up a steep mountain which would take a couple of hours, so we found the spot and off he went...always with the bear spray we bought last year, that Connie and Bill looked after for us in Denver.....

he said it was pretty hard work and all he saw was one porcupine...but the views were good...

While he was doing the hard yards, I was able to catch up on some great reading...( a book I found on the ferry over from Skagway), which I thought was particularly relevant, especially after our year last year....and yes...they got married!!!

On the way back into town we found a laundromat....an exciting find in any town when you are travelling, and spent a lot of money doing our washing and drying.....but we got to charge up the laptop and iPad which is also a bonus.
The townspeople of Haines decided they didn't want to be like Skagway and so chose to only have one cruise ship visit a week.  We were there the night  this cruise ship was visiting and it was really unimposing and manageable.  A good decision I think.

Everywhere we drove around Haines was stunning...

snow capped mountains everywhere, crystal clear, calm lakes.....and an area where 600 bald eagles were congregating...which was such a beautiful place.

I spoke to a lady who lived on this road with the above view...I said we lived on the water back home, but the sandhills weren't quite as impressive as these mountains...but I said we get dolphins out the back...she said she watches grizzlies catching salmon from her kitchen window....she won!!  We Skyped Joan and Mal from here as we wanted to share it with someone back home....photos just don't do it justice.

Haines is also the area where Jack London's book "White Fang" was filmed and we were told about a site where the people who made the movie donated some of the sets to the town of Haines, and they had set it up like a little street. It was great, but had very little publicity and not many people knew about it.

Just as we were about to drive out of Haines and park up for the night, we were driving through the town (which is really small) when I saw a moose, running flat out through the town.  I was so shocked I was yelling "mmmmmooo"  "mmmmmoooo" and couldn't get the words out. Anyway, Stuart saw it and gave chase in the RV, much to the disgust of the locals who were trying to scare it out of town as they are a menace.  Needless to say, no photos of the moose!
That evening we found a free camping spot off the road, had dinner, checked out our 300 photos we had taken THAT DAY.  I quickly went outside at about 9pm and looked at the sky, which was pink.  I nearly didn't mention it to Stuart as I knew the cameras would come out again, but fortunately I did and he and I quickly drove the RV up the road and got this view....

and Stu even did a quick video......Cruise ships...sunset...9.30pm Haines
We Skyped Mal and Joan again....took another 30 photos and this video....and went to bed.  The next day we were heading up the Haines Hwy on our way to Alaska. We had been told this was a scenic Hwy, but nothing prepared us for what we saw.

 It was exceptional and if you are ever over this way...do this drive.  It is only about 150 kms, but again took us about 8 hours.  We stopped every few minutes to take in the views, and we also drive really slowly to look for wildlife. 

We were assured this was the place to see grizzlies, but unfortunately we didn't.  But it didn't matter....we saw a squirrel....

 We stopped to go for a walk along an Eagle Preserve, and parked the RV in the car park.  While we were gone a street sweeper came through and flicked a stone up into the windscreen and put a crack in it.  We are furious as we will have to pay for a replacement when we drop the RV off in Anchorage, and we have been so careful while we are driving.  But just about every car you see up here have big cracks in the windscreens, so it's probably something that was going to happen.....and we didn't see any Bald Eagles!

 and here's the porcupine I actually managed to photograph!

This drive has probably been one of the highlights of our trip up North so far. It is isolated, there were hardly any cars on it, the sun shone and it got hot, it hailed, snowed, rained...heated up again...it was fascinating country and we both loved it....except when Stu made me get out of the car and take a photo of him, the RV and the view..then made the loud sound he does when he sees wildlife.  I assumed it was a grizzly behind me, screamed and ran back to the car, when in fact all it was was him hitting his head as he stuck it out the window!! Here's Stuart's version....Jen's close call

Such dramatic landscape!
We found another lovely spot to spend the night..."Million Dollar Falls", and they were lovely....but not sure if they were worth a $1 000 000!

So another fantastic couple of days on the road..we didn't cover much ground which is fine.....but we'll never forget what we saw.