The Yukon

After 3 weeks and driving thousands of miles, we finally make it to the Yukon. I'm excited because of the Yukon's fascinating history and the stories that came from it.  BTW the Yukon is at least twice the size of California with less than 40 thousand residents.

Yeah! We made it!

Shortly after crossing the border, we find ourselves in Watson Lake. A few weeks ago, all north bound traffic was stopped for days in Watson Lake because of a large washout on the Alaska Hwy. In fact, the manager of the RV park we stopped at 20 miles west, tells this story when the road opened again. The Alaska Hwy opened it at 11pm for a single lane of full supply trucks only.  First came the fuel trucks followed by those carrying food.  Everyone was so happy to get rolling again.  The truck drivers were honking and waving while the residents all cheered them on. The Alaska Hwy is truly the lifeline for supplying all the small communities up the line.

In Dawson, a local resident tells her story of the town's experience of the road closure. Fortunately, one of the town's grocery stores had just been stocked, but the other one was awaiting truck deliveries. The owner had supplies flown in at a great cost.  The residents happily paid for the extra expense to get their supplies.

There are two main attractions in Watson Lake:

•  the Northern Lights Center, which is disappointing because of the washed out colors in their iMax Aurora Boreas film. Perhaps they need an upgrade to their projection system.
• the Signpost Forest, which is free and amazing to wander through.

Watson Lake welcome sign

Northern Lights Center

Entry into the Signpost Forest

Row after row of

single rows made up

of single signpost posts.

After wandering around the Sign Post Forest, we're back on the road for some classic Yukon scenery.
About mid day we stop for a short hike to see some waterfalls.

Long board walk through forest

A squirrel protests our presence

One of two of the double waterfalls.

Driving the Alaska Hwy does have some downsides.

Peter is VERY happy he installed an extra bug screen

A retiree from LA is going to have a job cleaning this car

In Teslin, we stop to see the Tlingit Cultural Center.

Totems of the 5 Clans - Raven, Frog, Beaver, Wolf and Eagle

Boat with traditional shape and decorations

Peter models his Eagle hat next to it's Totem Pole

Since it's Saturday and we don't have reservations, we stop outside of Whitehorse at Taggish. This small outpost was a major border stop manned by Mounties to collect customs from the Gold Stampeders entering Canada via the Chilkoot Trail. Apparently, the Mounties managed to collect a good sum of money in tariffs from the gold hungry crowds that came through this point. The town is home to only 206 residents, but it has it's own radio station that plays good music.

Mountains to south of Taggish River separating Skagway - major entry point to the Klondike gold fields

Taggish believes in the basics

People fishing from the bridge over the Taggish River

It's an ideal summer day and we enjoy the weather immensely. A lady we buy ice cream from says we should enjoy it as today is the best weather they've seen for the whole year. She tells us of the high snows and short supplies of the previous winter and of the store shelves going bare during the Spring Alaskan Hwy closure.

A summer's day in Taggish

We are surprised at how long the days still are. Sun sets around 10:30pm and rises around 5:30am. The sky is never really dark with a long twilight lasting through the night. It takes some adjusting to the long days and getting enough rest.

Sun thinking about setting around 10pm

Peter reading by sun light @ 10pm

Our campsite bathed in evening light

The next morning we head up the road for Whitehorse. 

By rocky cliffs

and snow covered mountains

past the Carcross Desert

But by far, the most spectacular sight is the lovely Emerald Lake, just south of Whitehorse. The lake gets it's stunning color from bottom deposits of marl, which is composed of clay and calcium carbonate.

Emerald Lake Yukon

Liard Hot Springs

We roll into Liard Hot Springs (pronounced Lee-ard, named by a French explorer for the abundant poplar trees) about mid afternoon with the full intention of spending a few days to relax and enjoy the area. We cruise the campground and find a lovely site. Then we go on a short hike to explore the area and check out the hot spring.
We find a grotto like source of nice hot water which gives the immediate surrounding area a somewhat tropical feel with lush ferns and vegetation.

Hot spring source

Surrounding ferns

The pools are formed by a small dam over the stream which allows you to find your optimal temperature. That is, the closer the source, the hotter the water is and further down stream, the cooler the water becomes.

Spillway makes a nice jacuzzi like jet for your back

stairs for entering pool

view from boardwalk to the pools

The downside is with the heavy spring runoff and the warm weather, the mosquitoes are out in full force with clouds of them hungrily following you when venturing out into the open. The bug repellants I tested at Tassajara don't seem to be much of an deterrent, so we don our  mosquito suits Peter insisted we buy at Cabela's in Reno (yes - Peter you were right. We do need them!)

The creatures from the Black Lagoon

Peter BBQing our dinner

Testing the water

Almost everyone at the campground has a method (or two) for keeping the bugs at bay, some are more effective than others:

• Deet based sprays don't work as well as expected. 
• Walking quickly will outrun them, but once you stop they will pounce on you. Even the park staff are being bothered by the mosquitoes and say they are the worst ever seen.
• A German lady park ranger at the gate was burning a coil by her door and reports it works pretty good unless a dog enters as the mosquitoes will hang out on the fur
• A local couple swears by a clothing spray to keep them at bay (note to self - buy some!)
• The mosquito suits do work, but you need to keep the netting away from your skin so they can't probe through it to suck your blood.

The blood suckers trying to get to us via our ceiling fan vent

Needless to say our relaxing stay at the hot spring didn't quite turn out as planned, so we pack up and hit the road early the next morning and high tail it outta there.

Whew - open road (notice dead mosquito on upper left windshield)

take us way from them

far, far away from them.

We stop at a famous overlook of the Liard River, which was once used as a lookout by thieves to rob unsuspecting travelers when the Liard was the main route of travel through this region.

Liard River We vow never to camp by still water again on this trip and to favor high, dry, breezy campsites.

The Alaska Highway

Finally after two and a half weeks on the road, we reach the beginning of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek.  Of course, we haven't been moving too fast over that time period, only driving around 4 hours a day, but still it's a lot of driving. As we soon learn, this stretch of road carries the same kind of mystic as the fabled US Route 66.

Me at Mile 0

Commemorating the Alaska Hwy

That night at Lake Charlie, we enjoy the results of the wonderful towering thunderheads we watched build the previous afternoon in an amazing thunderstorm and night light show. Thunderstorms are rare events in Corralitos, we enjoy the show.  The next morning the excitement has died down, but the rain lingers on for a drippy day.

We stop at Wal-Mart to pick up some needed supplies and discover what we had read about in the blogs is true, for a free place to camp, Wal-Mart stores allow over-nighters in their parking lots. Also, as the population thins out, the locals pretty much ignore free campers parked alongside the road and in turnouts along the highway, after all this ain't southern California.

Campers taking advantage of a free night

Come on - that's a $500K+ RV and you're too cheap to pay for a campsite?

We tend to stay in government sponsored camp sites as much as possible as they tend to be in beautiful locations and offer roomy and more private camp sites.  Since Peter installed our solar electric system we can dry camp for up to around 3 or 4 days, that is, until our water supply runs out and/or we fill our septic tanks. The one exception to the public camp grounds was at Lake Chelan, which was in a high demand resort area.  Morale of the story - beware of camping in resort areas.

After that we'll stay in a commercial RV Park with a dump station, water, electricity, and WiFi (hot showers are always a welcome bonus), of course usually the more amenities a park offers, generally the more expensive it is.  We've come to like the Good Sam parks as they offer good amenities for reasonable rates.

US National Forest campground - $10/night w senior discount

BC Provincial Park ~ $20/night

City of Chelan Park $50+ ouch!

But I digress... back to the road on a drippy day. Fortunately for us, it's a day with long stretches of miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. Since we are both craving a hot lunch we stop at a road house for some hot soup.  Seated next to us is a man and a woman who have been riding motorcycles. They are very cold and want hot food to warm up.  We again give thanks to be traveling in comfort.

AlCan on a rainy day

Yawn - where's the excitement?

Oh - we need the rain for the wonderful wildflowers

That night we stop in Fort Nelson (home of pricey fuel). Fortunately there's room at the only RV Park in town and we get assigned a nice spot. By evening the sky has started to clear and we enjoy walking around the town.

Fort Nelson's flags along the AlCan

A bit sketchy on the trailer leveling, Eh?

Hey David - here's a "cargo tent" for your truck

The Fort Nelson Heritage Museum dedicated to the "Veterans and Builders of the World Famous Alaska Highway" is next door to the Triple G Hideaway RV Park, so we decide to check it out. We discover 2012 is the 70th Birthday of the AlCan.
The museum has a collection of all kinds of vehicles that at one time drove or worked on the highway.

This old truck could have modeled for the Cars movies

Fancy old cars

and of course Army trucks

Vince, a recent high school graduate looking forward to university in the fall, works for the museum and shows us a reconstructed trapper's cabin. We are surprised to learn how warm the cabin is inside. Those thick logs are wonderful insulation, which the early folks in the region needed to get through the long cold (we're talking -50 degrees F and more) winters.

Entering the trapper's cabin

Peter check out the furnishings and tools stored inside

The next morning we're back on the highway and are soon stopped for road construction and repair work. It truly is amazing how good the road surface is and the amount of work that goes into keeping it open through all kinds of extreme weather conditions.

Waiting for the pilot car

These hardly working guys must have been trained by CalTrans

After about 20 minutes the pilot car comes through and signals us to follow through the construction zone.

The dusty construction zone

dustier

dustiest

Soon we are back on the open road and are happy to be clear of the construction zone.

Whew - clean air and open road again

We stop at Testa River Services for their scrumptious cinnamon buns

Indian Head mountain

Both the Milepost guide and road signs tell us to drive carefully because of the abundant wildlife along the road. We go on heightened critter watch, but don't see anything at all.

Up Stone Mountain - no critters

Over the top at Summit Lake - nothing

Surely through this canyon we'll see some sheep - nope, nada

We pass streams, and rivers with wide alluvial fans and still no wildlife.

Stream with glacial milt coloring the waters a light blue

Our lunch stop by the Toad River

Large alluvial fan along the Toad River

Then as if by magic we start spotting creatures on either side of the road.

Mother Moose with two calves

Stone Sheep at a mineral lick

We pull off on to the side of the road to snap photos of Wood Buffaloes, the smaller more northern cousins to our Plains Buffalo. It isn't until several days later do we find out in Whitehorse that these buffaloes are quite endangered as a species and we were lucky to have seen so many of them at once.

Mother and calve

Mommy wait for me!

Oh Mommy - I love you

I get out of the Navion to get better shots as they are mostly on Peter's driver's side of the road. Then I see the sharp horns and decide maybe it's smarter to stay in the IQ.

Young male with sharp horns

BIG male enjoying a dust bed

By the time we pass the beautiful Muncho Lake we're giving each other high fives for our high critter count in photos. Yup - there's the ones that got away too - Peter sees several coyotes and a red fox. I see a mother grizzly bear with two young cubs.... but all are too quick running back into the bush before we can snap photos.

Muncho Lake with waters colored from copper in the soils