THURSDAY |
ALASKAN STOP #40TOK RIVER STATE RECREATION SITETOK, AK |
By 9:24AM we were only a short distance from Dot Lake and the skies looked pretty gloomy.
But just 20-minutes later the sun was peaking through the clouds.
With less than a hour drive to arrive at our next campsite we waited this morning to hit the road. We wanted to give enough time for anyone in the campground we were headed for to pack up and leave before we arrived. That way we would have the best chance of securing a better than average site.
There are only 27 campsites at the Tok River State Recreation Site and 8 of those are tent only sites. Another 8 of them are right on the side of the Alaska Highway (not very desirable) and there are 2 pair of buddy sites that take away 4 more sites from the total we could chose from.
If you're keeping track that only leaves 7 sites for us to choose from and fortunately only one was occupied when we drove through the campground at around 10:30AM. The site that was occupied would have been third on our list if we had them all to choose from, so we selected what we consider the best site in the campground (#19) which is on the end of the row, backs up to the river and is right next to a day use pavillion that everyone gets to share.
It's only Thursday but we suspect the campground to be full come tomorrow night because it's Labor Day Weekend which is the very end of the tourist season here in Alaska.
The clouds were cleared out nicely by the time we set up in our site for the weekend.
A little later in the day we were getting good exposure on our solar panels.
We even have the bathrooms right across the street from us, how convenient.
Not to far behind our site is the Tok River.
It's has a pretty swift moving current when you get down close and take a look at it.
Tricia is once again not feeling 100%, so we're postponing all of the chores we need to take care of before leaving Tok on Monday morning.
We both spent the entire day in the comfort of THE POD, Tricia got in a little extra sleep and no one even unlocked the front door until I went out for dinner at 5:30PM.
YUMMY! Not pictured is the slice of Peanut Butter Pie I had for desert.
All in all we were only here for about two hours. Why? Because as I said before, we knew we'd have another opportunity to visit on the way out of Alaska. This time we're here at the Tok River State Recreation Site about 4-miles outside of town and we're staying for 4-nights over the Labor Day Weekend.
We'll do most all of the same stuff as we did before, gasoline, showers, laundry and blogpost upload. But we also need to refill one of our 30lb. propane tanks, stock up on groceries and we'll need to dump our tanks before leaving town.
That's one of the great things about Tok (pop. 1243), even though it's a relatively small town they have everything an RV traveler needs, including an RV repair business, an Ace Hardware store, an RV wash station, an RV dump station, several private campgrounds in addition to the State Park where we're at and possibly the best Visitor Center in Alaska. There they have information on all of Alaska, not just the immediate region where Tok is located.
Just as a WARNING, be careful when driving into town! The speed limit drops from 65MPH, to 55MPH, to 45MPH and finally 35MPH all in the distance of less than a mile. Also note the State Trooper Station and Courthouse are located in the 35MPH section of town!
If you drive into mainland Alaska you are going to pass through Tok, there's no getting around that fact. Actually, you are going to pass through Tok twice, once on the way in and once on the way out.
The Alaska Highway is by far the preferred route of RVers heading to Alaska. It's paved almost the entire way and is a 129-mile shorter drive. The other route is mostly gravel roadway and involves a mandatory free ferry boat crossing over the Yukon River at Dawson City. The ferry has been known to go "Out of Service" at unscheduled and inopportune times.
While we are on the subject of travel routes in Alaska, I have another map I'd like to share with everyone. It shows the major highway system in Alaska.
The "RED" routes are highways Tricia and I traveled upon while visiting Alaska this summer. We did each highway in it's entirety, with the exception of the Dalton Highway that ends at the northernmost highway point in Alaska at Prudhoe Bay. We did however travel a good distance of it when we drove 60-miles inside of the Arctic Circle on the summer soltice.
The "PURPLE" routes are highways we did not explore this time around, like the Top of the World Highway, the northernmost section of the Dalton Highway, the Denali Highway and two highways that can only be reached by the Alaska Marine Highway ferry.
What does all this mean? It means Tricia and I are already planning a return trip to Alaska to see all the things we missed this time around. Next time we may even be traveling in a van and on the Alaska Marine Highway system.
I hope you are all enjoying your long holiday weekend.
Tricia and I are making preparations for leaving Alaska today and venturing out into the relatively unpopulated regions of the Yukon Territory in Canada.
OUR ALASKA DEPARTURE CHECKLIST |
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The refrigerator and pantry are full. |
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ROVER's 36-gallon gasoline tank is full. |
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THE POD's 3-30lb. propane tanks are full. |
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THE POD's black and grey waste water tanks are both empty. |
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THE POD's 39-gallon fresh water tank is full. |
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We have at least 6-gallons of clean drinking water. |
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All eight tire pressures have been checked. |
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The GPS is set for our next destination. |
It appears we are all prepared to go!
WAIT JUST A DAGGUM MINUTE!
As you can see from the graphic below, we've only been in Alaska for 99 nights.
WE CAN'T LEAVE YET!
Luckily I know just the place between here and the border to spend one more night in Alaska.
OUR ALASKAN CHALLENGE: |
| COMPLETED | PROGRESS BAR |
STILL TO GO |
| 99 | 1 |
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Until next time
