DAY 23 OF OUR ALASKAN ADVENTURES

We are finally on the road again, on a dark, cold, dreary day. We picked up the truck this morning at the Ford Dealership in Whitehorse. What a super group of guys in the service department. They got us on the road 6 days earlier than we expected, since our appointment was set up for next Tuesday. They found the EGR Cooler had malfunctioned and allowed antifreeze to get into the cylinders - fortunately it did not blow the head gaskets (like I know what I'm talking about - but believe me it is on the bill)!They also replaced both rear axle seals. We headed back to the RV Park, buttoned up the 5th wheel, hooked up and were out of there in no time flat. There was a joint sigh of relief to be on the road again.
We stopped at Canadian Tire around 1130am to dump our tanks and fill the fresh water holding tank. We LOVE Canadian Tire. It is similar to a huge Ace Hardware/True Value/Sportsman's Warehouse/Auto Zone with a dash of Lowes thrown in. The front of the building says; living, fixing, playing, driving. One nice thing is that they have a dump station and potable water on the side of the building - very accessible for RV's.
From there, we pulled into the old faithful Wal Mart parking lot for a quick lunch and then off to the Shell Station right next door for diesel at 97.9/L. It has been quite awhile since we have seen it that cheap.
We finally said good bye to Whitehorse at the city limits and headed north on the Alaska Highway again. We were only about 5 miles out of Whitehorse when we hit the frost heaves in the road and Bob had to drop the speed down to 50MPH (That's about 80km/h for you Canadians, eh). This road should NOT be included in a civilized society. We are beginning to see less snow along the side of the roads and on the mountains in the distance - that is a very good sign, however, the Weather Channel in Whitehorse was predicting FLURRIES for Monday and Tuesday!!
The drive was pretty desolate, and I hate to say it - boring, until we hit mile post 1566. We came over a ridge in the road and directly in front of us the view toward the north was absolutely spectacular. We could see the rugged snow capped peaks of the Kluane National Park Icefield Ranges. The park covers 8,500 square miles and contains Mt. Logan (19,550Ft) Canada's highest peak, and one of the worlds largest nonpolar alpine ice fields. Kluane National Park is considered one of Canada's best parks. We could not see Mt. Logan because it is further west in the St. Elias Mountain Range which basically parallels the Yukon/Alaska border. They surpassed all the mountains we have seen to date, but we have been told that we are just beginning to drive into the most beautiful scenery on our trip. I can't imagine, since the mountains today took my breathe away.
We got to Haines Junction, YT about 300PM and decided, since all our books showed the campgrounds North of here didn't open until May 15th or later, that we'd stop for the night. After the ordeal in Whitehorse, we were burned out and needed the rest. We pulled into the only RV Park that was open for the season, Kluane RV Kampground with an amazing view of the mountains. We were lucky enough to get an Internet connection and power - still no sewer or water at this or any of the RV parks yet. We will spend the night here and head out tomorrow morning with high hopes of getting to Tok, Alaska by the end of the day. Just to give you an idea of the size of towns along the Alaska Highway, Haines Junction has a population of 840 and is at 1,956 ft. When we checked in, we were the only ones here, but by 6pm the front row of the parking area was full. Everyone must have had the same idea. The sun was out and the outside temperature was up to 60 degrees. It was the end of a perfect day with the mountains as a back ground when we looked out of the windows in the 5th wheel..