June 22nd, 2026
Million Dollar Falls Campground, Yukon Territory, Canada
Woke up early this morning and got things packed up. Then walked over to take a shower and get
dressed.
Loaded the bike and geared up.
Left key in the tent and rode off for the next adventures
after 2 full days off the bike trying to get other things done.
Just a short distance down the road we turned off onto the
highway that heads over to the coast and the town of Skagway.
Amazing drive, and it just keeps getting better as you go.
I passed by a few of the scenic overlooks as I was not
wanting to spend too much time and had an idea of those I really wanted to stop
at.
The first was the Carcross Desert.
This desert looking landscape is dropped into the midst of
mountain peaks and pine trees!
The reality is that this sandy region of dunes is the
remains of an ancient lake bed.
During the last ice age, the glaciers built up around here
started to melt and huge lakes of meltwater were created. Sediments washed into the lakes settled to
the bottom. As the ice finally melted
away the lakes were drained off (though todays rivers were created at that
time) leaving behind the region of sandy soils.
The region around Carcross town itself was nice with the
huge bodies of water nearby.
Shortly after that you go back into British Columbia for a
bit.
Farther down were some other lake views and the one near the
town of Fraser also had view of the railroad that run up the Chilkoot pass
between Skagway and Fraser.
This was
also where the Canadian customs office is, though they do not check things
going out, only in, same with the US borders up here.
About 15 minutes past the custom
stop, you reach the top of the pass and this is where the actual border
is. You also get the large Welcome to
Alaska sign here as well.
15 minutes down the roads you
reach the US Border station to officially enter Alaska. This stretch of no mans land (area between
two countries border stations), which is roughly 8 miles, is one of the larger
gaps between border stations.
Once through the US Border, it was
only a short distance down the canyon to reach the coastal town of Skagway.
I got stuck behind a tour bus
coming into town, and then the entire main road into town is under
construction. As I could not see around
the bus, I did not realize this right away and sat there waiting for something
to move so we could go.
Eventually I went over a block to
another street parallel to the main road and made my way to the port area where
I needed to go for the ferry crossing. This is where I also noticed two massive
cruise ships were in port (actually 4, but I did not see the other two until
later).
I turned to go back toward
downtown, as I was hoping to find a place to have lunch, but thought I would be
screwed due to the thousands of people dumped on the town at the moment.
I cruised a few roads and passed a
pizza place that I had found on map earlier as a good option, but missed the
turn as I was looking at the odd “Godzilla” statue at some sausage food truck
place.
I went around the block and pulled
up near the pizza place, the street was empty outside, so was not sure it was
open, but sign was lit and I saw someone being seated near front window.
Shocked that the place was empty,
I quickly parked the bike right in front of the window and went in to get a
table by the window.
Ordered the big nachos and enjoyed
a nice long lunch as I had about 90 minutes before I needed to check in at the
ferry terminal.
Talked a bit to a guy who was
sitting at nearby table who had seen the bike and connected me to the bike from
the jacket and helmet sitting on the chair at my table.
Once outside as I was checking
over the luggage and fixing a few straps another guy stopped to talk for a bit
as well.
I have noticed a bit more interest
in my travels when people see the Arizona plates or are bike riders
themselves. Also seeing far more riders
up here than I did the first few days of the trip.
I finally headed over toward the
ferry terminal, but stopped first to get a photo of the sausage Godzilla, and
again near some old railroad engines.
Once at the ports, I went inside
to see what I might need other than the ticket that was on my phone.
They printed up the boarding
passes and destination badge that had to go on the bike. Then they told me where to queue up to wait
for the ferry. They had all the bikes
line up against the railing at edge of lot instead of using any of the numbered
lanes in the large lot.
Parked the bike and then went
inside again to use restroom. I then sat
on the railing and waited along with everyone else. Talked some with several of the other bike
riders and a few of the car drivers as well.
Probably spent 40 minutes talking with one older guy who had lived in
the region most of his life.
The ferry finally arrived, running
a bit late, and then took forever to unload.
The sailing time was supposed to
be 2:00pm, but that was when we started to board.
About 2 dozen cars had to go on,
most of them RVs, and we had roughly 20 bikes.
As this ferry is part of the
Alaska Marine Highway System, it makes multiple stops between Skagway Alaska
and Bellingham Washington. They had to
load the vehicles in an order that would make sense for letting those out at
the earlier stops, and I am guessing to leave room for those cars that might
join at other ports as well.
The route to Haines, which was the
first stop, was only an hour long. The
final stop in Bellingham was almost 4 days later.
I was getting off at Haines.
This meant we were the last group
to board and they put the cars on first, so the 8 bikes going to Haines were
the last to board of all vehicles, which kind of sucked as the wind had picked
up, temps had dropped and rain was on the horizon as we waited.
Once aboard, had to figure out how
to strap the bike down and then make way up to the passenger decks.
I headed to the top deck where the
main lounge was, the aft deck and snack bar and cocktail lounge.
Lower decks were mostly cabins and
a few other shops, none of which I needed.
By time I reached the front
seating lounge, we had already pulled away from the dock and were starting to
turn around.
I went outside and walked along
the side of the ship to photo and video and eventually ended up on the rear
deck 1 level up. This level was a
partially enclosed space (open on 1 side) with lounge chairs where many people
were sitting for the voyage. Also, the
deck some pitched their tents for the voyage. (That is one cool thing about
some multi-day ferries is they allow you to tent on the deck if you do not want
to buy a cabin).
I then went to the snack bar to
get a drink and something to snack on, and then found a chair up front in a
quieter spot.
I watched outside a bit and ran
out to get photos when needed as the windows were too dirty for photo out.
I eventually grabbed my stuff and
wandered around the decks more doing photos as we were getting close to the
port in Haines.
I watched the docking process, and
then as soon as they announced we could go below, I got in elevator with a few
of the other riders, same ones I had rode elevator up with.
The elevator has some odd issue
(even had a sign to press a button if it got stuck). It did not seem to want to move and when it
did, just went down one level, and then back up.
We all decided to take the stairs,
which was confusing as half way down they moved the stairway to and different
area, so had to find the last section of stairs.
Once down, I unstrapped the bike
and loaded up my gear and got ready, then when we were given the signal, we all
backed out and rode off the boat.
At the top of the exit ramp we had
to get scanned out by the port officer, and then we were on the road toward
Haines.
I stopped in town to refuel as the
next leg was a long one and would take most of my tank.
The first few miles were right
along the river which was over flowing, in some cases just a foot or two below
the road bed. We were pretty much at sea
level near here.
Eventually started to head up in
elevation and move away from the river.
The road soon reached the Canadian
border (after passing the US Border station) where we again had to go through a
series of questions.
Once past there the road started
to climb into the mountains, reaching average elevations near 3000 feet for
many miles.
The winds picked up, clouds moved
it and temps dropped. Thankfully no rain
actually came down along the road, but could see it in the distance over the
mountains.
Very few cars on this road,
guessing most of the people getting off the ferry stayed in Haines. I did meet 4 of the riders heading up the
road, but they pulled off before the border and never saw them again.
I was hoping to reach a campground
back up in Yukon (was still in British Columbia for the time being), but that
was nearly 4 hours away from Haines.
As things got colder, I was also
getting tired, and the thought of riding that much longer was a bit of a drag.
As I came down off a hill, I saw a
sign for one of the provincial campgrounds they have all over this part of
Canada. The places have basic services
and only cost $20 Canadian dollars a night.
I decided at that point I was too
tired, so would pull off and tent camp tonight.
Pulled off the highway onto the
side road which soon turned to gravel road.
It went back about ½ mile before reaching the first part of the
campground. I road in a bit, saw a few
empty spots, but did not see the kiosk where I would pay. I went back, but all I found there were trash
bins and bear proof food lockers.
I rode a bit farther into the park
and eventually found the payment station.
I took out the envelope and pencil, then got on bike and rode the circle
till I found a camp spot that looked okay, was close to a restroom and not too
far from the pay station (actually ended up roughly 200 feet away.
I parked the bike, then walked
over and filled out the form and put my money in the payment vault.
Hung my copy on the post for the
spot, then got to work unloading the bike onto the ground or the picnic
table. I then setup the tent and moved
stuff inside it, all while trying to not be carried away by the mosquitos.
I had sprayed a little repellent
on me and then setup the new bug repellant device that runs off the gas
cannister I have for my camp stove. Has
seen them in use back in Whitehorse and they worked great.
Took about 15 minutes, but then
the air was mostly free of mosquitos in a 15-foot circle.
I kept my mosquito net hat on
though as I was moving around in and out of that range.
Once everything was in tent, got
the bike secured and covered and the sat down to eat a pack of tuna for dinner.
Once done, I decided to put the
rest of the food in a bear locker as we were in active bear country, and also
needed to toss the packaging. The trash
that was supposed to be near pay station was not there, so had to carry it all
they way to the locker as well.
Then realized I had not brought a
padlock to lock things (to protect it from human theft), so had the make the ¼
mile hike twice.
I then hiked over to the trail to
go see the water fall, and that was impressive.
What I at first thought was just a
series of impressive rapids turned out to end with a small, but powerful
waterfall. No way you would ever kayak
this narrow but powerful stream.
Once done with that I went back to
the camp spot and got into tent to get air mattress setup and then went to bed,
it was late and I was beat.
Catch ya down the road.
Todays Route:
