Grizzly Lake Campground on Tok cutoff

Wow! Long day over the roughest roads yet! We headed out at 7:45 and got gas in Destruction Bay near our site. This town was destroyed by an earthquake years ago, hence the name. It is on a beautiful lake in a World Heritage Site Park.

I saw online that from Destruction Bay to the US Border was the worst stretch of road conditions. It was no lie! Lots of frost heaves (where the road is displaced due to freezing) permafrost breaks of dust and gravel from 50 ft to 100's of yards. Huge potholes, etc. Our top speed was 45 mph, and most of the time, we were going 10-15 mph.

At the US Border, we got gas again, paid $2.16 per liter, so about $8.60 per gallon. We saw a mother moose run across the road with two young calves. After we crossed the border, we also saw a small bear near the road, but unable to say if it was a grizzly or black bear. With the camper, you can't just "whip around" and go back. We also saw a snowshoe hare today.

We drove through some road construction, and they put this sludge on the road to keep dust down. That got all over our car and camper. We finally made it to the town of Tok, where we got more gas ($4.06 per gallon) and went to an RV/car wash.

We took what is called the Tok Cutoff, which will take us to Valdez tomorrow. We plan a few nights there before we get to Anchorage on the 20th. We stopped tonight at Grizzly Lake RV and cabins. It's a family run place on a small lake. There are plenty of mosquitos, but great views. We are within view of the Wrangell St Elias National Park, largest in the US.Read more