August 23, 2007 – Tok Cutoff and the Wrangell Mountains

The mountains were out!!!

And the clouds are rolling in...

These are the Wrangell Mountains that are in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. This is the largest US national park and includes nine of the sixteen highest peaks in the US. They are covered year round with snow and like the other mountain ranges in Alaska, they create their own weather.

We were so excited to see them before the clouds covered them.

We made a stop at the Visitor Center for the National Park – lots of information about the park itself and its history.

Our travels continued on the Tok Cutoff and we crossed the foothills of the Alaskan Range:

In November 2002, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in North America was in this area. It created 12’ deep holes in this road. Can you imagine driving along and the road just opening up???

We did see another bear today plus a fox with a kill... Sorry, no pictures...

We made it into Tok and have now completed our circle of Alaska. We don’t want to leave!!!

We are staying at the Tok River State Recreation Site and will be in this area for a few days. I have made reservations for a flight trip on Monday. We will go on the mail run to Chisana in the Wrangell Mountains - isn’t that great!!

We are also planning to do the final preps before we head down thru Canada.

I did a quick trip to the visitor center and met Jeanie who remembered me. She was one of the entertainers at Sourdough Campground when we were here before. She told me they are having a final party on Saturday with entertainment, native dance, contests, food, crafts, etc. So we will be moving to Sourdough on Saturday.


Miles Traveled: 180
Routes Traveled:
Alaska: AK-10 (Edgerton Highway); AK-4 (Richardson Highway); AK-1 (Glenn Highway); AK-1 (Tok Cutoff)