To Kluane National Park

We arrive slightly early at the Kluane National Park tourist information centre but spend a lovely few minutes watching the swallows flying about looking for a place to build their nest in the eaves.

After chatting to the ranger, we decide on a couple of trails, the first being a 3km drive along the old Alaska Highway on gravel up to the trailhead. We follow the Slims River trail as far as we could on the now derelict highway but cannot cross the creek, so decide to return. The views over the Kluane Lake and valley are stunning.

We then head for the Soldiers’ Summit at Destruction Bay - a memorial to the place where the two ends of the Alaska Highway met in 1942. It was an incredible feat of engineering and hard labour in dreadful conditions. It’s 1400 miles long, built in just 8 months in 1942 to connect the lower 48 states to Alaska after the attack on Pearl Harbour - the US wanted to protect Alaska which was vulnerable.. 6,000 military troops and civilians worked in temperatures of up to -30C in the winter to +35C in the summer in mosquito infested swamps and bear territory. Many lost their lives.

We spend the night in Dezedeash Campground on the lake which is quite beautiful. We cook dinner over a roaring fire, and then a storm blows in and we retreat inside. After dinner, we decide to paddle in the lake as our feet are really dusty from the trail walk earlier in the day.

In the morning we detach the camper from the truck so we can go off piste, as we’ve decided to stay in the same campground for another night.

We drive south through the mountains and up over the 3,000 ft Haines summit which is spectacular. There is much wildlife to see along the way, including trumpeter swans with their cygnets, beaver lodges, bears and a golden eagle.

We follow a gravel track down Dalton Post to the river for a post of fly fishing (unsuccsessful) and the make our way back along the Haines Highway to the St Elias Lake trailhead. It is very hot and humid, so we load up with plenty of water, insect repellent and our hats and set off. The walk starts as an earthy rooty path through the woods and continually rises, opening out into alpine meadows, with plenty of evidence of moose and bear, but none to be seen on our walk.

We reach the lake which is stunning, with a huge beaver’s lodge, and sit and take in the view. The return journey is hard as the temperatures have reached 80C, it is very humid and the bugs were really bad - they come out in the evening when the sun start to fade.

We are glad to get back to the campground, after spotting two black bears on the way, where we cook simple sausages inside as the weather has brewed into another storm.