Alaska – Tok – Gateway to Alaska– 18 of 49 states on our RV Adventure

Eric & Lora Benz
Jul 7, 2018
6 min read

If you are a first-time reader, welcome to Lora and Erics RV Adventure Blog. You can read about us at http://www.LoraandEricsRVAdventure.com. We started in December 2017 with a goal to complete 49 states before heading home to North Carolina.

After a great night boondocking for the first time on our journey we are ready to head back to the United States. We heading to Tok, Alaska known as the Gateway to Alaska. The city is the first on the Alaska Hwy route into Alaska.

The travel time from Kluane Lake DC1024 1624km Gravel Turnout to Tok RV Village & Cabins in Tok, AK is 4 h 27 min 361 Kilometers (224 miles) via YT-1 and AK-2 on the Alaska Highway.

We start off from the turnout after we realize we ran out of freshwater in our tank. We stop down the road at the visitor’s center to drop off our garbage and set up my GoPro.

Lora finds some painted rocks at the base of the Canadian Flag. She grabs them, so we can drop them off at another destination.

We drive along the perimeter of the Kluane Lake for a while. The size of the lake is amazing.

Eventually the lake disappears into the forest and hills. We have snow patched mountains on our left side.

Lora spots a coyote walking toward us on the left side of the road. I have vehicles behind me and I am going the speed limit, so we cannot stop for pictures.

Updating the tally we have the following: Black Bear: 14; Brown Bear: 3; Coyote: 3; Bison: ~15; Caribou: 2; Ram: 4; Elk: 4; Red Fox: 1; Bald Eagle: 3

We travel along the Alaska Highway with the snowy mountains on our right.

Soon we stop at an overlook of Kluane River. The river does not look as colossal as the lake. I am sure during the winter melt the river is roaring.

Continuing our way North West.

We stop a couple of time to get shots of the mountains. Lora takes pictures of flowers and plants at the turnout.

We learned from a Service Station Attendant, the construction crews along the highway reseed the sides with oat, wheat, and grass to attract animals to the side of the roads. Who would guess the bears, moose, bison are baited to eat on the side of the road.

We stop at another turnout and take more pictures of the mountains. There is a map showing the Mt Ellis mountain chain.

The truck and camper are getting dirty from all the gravel repairs on the highway. The condition of the road in Yukon are completely different than in British Columbia. We can bounce between 60 – 80 kph, but slow down drastically on loose gravel construction. By law we need to be below 50 kph in construction zones. The views are amazing.

We stop in Pine Valley for a bite to eat. Pine Valley is a Campground, Cabin, & Hostel. The establishment is run by a couple from France. We decide to eat breakfast. Lora orders a crepe breakfast and I order a quiche. The food was just right. Not filling, but very satisfying.

We get back on the road enjoying the amazing scenery. We can never get tired of the mountains and the ponds lined with trees reflect in the water.

I slow down and snap pictures while driving, not the safest thing to do, but I make sure there is no one around us.

We come up to a detour in the road where it appears the road was washed out at one time. It is another dust bowl to drive through.

All the length of highway we snap pictures.

We pass Canadian Customs on our left. We have a sign saying the US Customs and Boarder is another 20 or so miles. Ten miles before the border Lora spots a moose coming down a steep embankment. I quickly slow down and we both are taking photos. It is the first moose after thousands of miles in Canada with moose warnings.

Updating the tally we have the following: Black Bear: 14; Brown Bear: 3; Coyote: 3; Bison: ~15; Caribou: 2; Ram: 4; Elk: 4; Red Fox: 1; Bald Eagle: 3; Moose: 1

With the border on site, there is a pull off that has the “Welcome to Alaska” sign and the Alaska and Canada Boarder cut along the hill side. We take our photos, take down the GoPro.

We drive to the Customs Border Crossing. We are asked a few questions and off we go. Wow we really made it to Alaska. We traveled nearly 18,000 miles to get here.

Driving into Alaska, we expected the same scenery as we have experienced all the way here through Canada. That is not the case. It is very uneventful, road is a mix of patched areas, pot holes, and mess pavement patches. We immediately need to watch for dips, pot holes, etc because there is no warning like in Canada. There is rash on the side of the road. The trees do not look even healthy.

We stop at the Tetlin Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center. I take pictures of what is so far the most scenic landscape we experienced in Alaska. The roads are disappointing.

We see turnouts without warnings. In Canada there is plenty of warning and they normally with have a trash bin and sometime restrooms every 30 kilometers, sometimes much less.

We see a turnout sign that say in ¼ mile. In an instant we pass the entrance. Wow that was pathetic to have such a short warning when most vehicles on the road are trucks and RV that need much more time to slowdown and make a turn.

Another 10 or so miles we come up to our first Rest Area. It is a narrow entrance with a very small turn around circle. I maneuver the trailers backing up multiple times so not to run over the curb going around the circle.

There is trash overflowing the garbage can. The rest room is nasty according to Lora. We never seen a dirty turnout or rest area in Canada.

We go the remaining 20 miles to Tok.

We stop in a large parking lot and look at the campground options. We choose Tok RV Village & Cabins. The park is the largest in the city and most expensive according to reviews. We decide to stay there for the laundry and internet access. There is an RV wash as well that has a line of RV’s ready to clean the mud off.

We get a pull through site toward the back of the campground. We set up and relax before walking Bella Bee. Lora and I take our pictures of the campground.

The campground filled up quickly. Lora went to bed before 9:00 pm. I stay up to research our Alaska Adventure. Use reference maps from tours and previous visitors I figure how many days we should stay at each venue and what can we add unique to others. We have about 21 days where most people go through under 15 days.

In the morning we are up early. We wash up and decide to see what is in town. We visit the Visitors Center to get an Alaska Campgrounds book and booklets of the multiple locations we plan to visit.

We go next to the All Alaska Gifts behind the Visitors Center. There is a large moose on display. We walk inside and there are many taxidermy animals on display. The furs are amazing to feel. There are very expensive, some up to $800.00.

After purchasing a few shirts for Lora we head west toward Fairbanks on the Alaska Highway. We are on the lookout for any moose. We drive for about 30 minutes and decide there is nothing. We turn around and figure it’s time for lunch.

We stop for gas first before going to lunch. We paid $3.49 per gallon. get your gas when you arrive in TOK. We seen Village Gas across the street at $3.79 in the morning when everyone is leaving the campground. In the afternoon the gas changed to $3.49 competitive with the gas station down the street. The only restaurant in town of any decency is Fast Eddies. They have traditional American food and pizza. Lora ordered a burger and fries. I ordered a 17” pepperoni and green pepper pizza. I eat a little less than half and box the rest. Lora eats her burger. She is not impressed so she does not take pictures of the inside like we normally do. We have food and outside pictures.

We head back to the campground afterward and spend the remaining of the evening walking around or watching TV. I finish up our blog up to today.

We are heading to Valdez tomorrow. What is nice the distance between each stop in Alaska is not very far. Our plan is to be there of 4 nights. I emailed a campground after they did not pick up the phone for a reservation. Hopefully we will find a site easy…

We walked around one more time. RV’s are coming in steady now. Lora likes to take pictures of rigs she finds interesting. We learned Tok is a one night stop over destination. From Tok you can go South to Valdez, northwest to Fairbanks, or southeast to Chicken.