Friday 13th June Valdez to Tok

Up at 6am, bags out at 7am as we leave Valdez heading for the Dog Sled Capital of the World, Tok. On today's journey we passed through Keystone Canyon which is a gorge with perpendicular walls and had we saw our first black bear. He walked past our bus and then stood up right in front of my window and started to eat a bush.

We had wonderful views of Bridal Veil Falls and Horsetail Falls within Keystone Canyon, Worthington Glacier, and Thompson Pass. Thompson Pass is a 855 metre high gap in the Chugach Mountains and is the snowiest place in Alaska. During winter Thompsons pass has treacherous road conditions. We visited a Visitors Park and had lunch at Glennallen which is the gateway to the Copper River Valley and Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Americans' Largest National Park. We stopped at Mentasta Lodge on the Glenn Highway for afternoon tea. There were trumpeter swans on a nearby lake. The trumpeter swan named for its resonant call, is North America's largest wild waterfowl, with a wingspan of up to eight feet. We had our first moose sighting in a lake eating the weeds.

We arrived in Tok and it was raining. We had to go to a Visitors Centre because our motel room was not ready. The motel was very basic, no internet, no coffee and no bottle openers. Our coach driver had to drive us all to dinner at Fast Eddies because there wasn't anywhere else to eat in town. The meals here were huge and the food delicious.

We stayed in Tok Lodge.