Road to Tok, Part 2, July 6, 2011

Destruction Bay, YT, to Tok, AK

The Cottonwood RV Park was a very nice place to stay. The lake was amazing and the color of the water was unbelievable…so green and deep blue. The lake is fed by a glacier and is so clear. Jim and I sat outside in the sun and watched a storm on the opposite of the lake. It just rolled along dropping lots of rain but not on us. The wind did begin to pick up as it moved and it was frigid. We kept looking around and waiting for the resident grizzly to show up. The owner of the park said one had been coming through the park in the last few days so we should keep our eyes open. He/she never showed up.
The night was great sleeping again…so cool. The morning was brilliant…opened the front window drapes to see the sun rising over the mountains…it was blinding. Almost hate to leave this place but we must travel on. We had heard some scary stories about the road from now until the Canadian/Alaskan border so we’re a little tentative. We did see more construction and came through a long patch of muddy gravel. Stones were flying everywhere. We could hear them hitting under the rig. We did hit a couple of very hard bumps. Thankfully no tires blew and no axles snapped. It got a lot better once we past through customs and back into the US. The scenery was a little different…we saw lots of areas which had been burned in previous years. New growth was apparent but in some places it looked like the trees had just burned. We did see lots of little waterways along the way and some had swans swimming. The Milepost said there would be and we did see swans. We came into Tok in the afternoon and headed straight to Young’s Chevron to fill up the motorhome. We could have stayed there for free overnight with a fill up but we thought we should find a proper campground. We found Tundra Lodge and RV Park on the Alaska Highway just past the fuel station. Very nice wooded campground with a rv and car wash. I’m sure they make a pretty penny since everyone making it that far has probably come through the muddy gravel too. We washed the tow but not the motorhome. Didn’t even have to unhook the tow…we just settled in for the night. I even did some laundry. So happy we have a small washing machine/dryer in the motorhome. We can only do small loads but it’s great! We’ll get up and head to Fairbanks in the morning.