DAY 33 – 36 ~ WHITEHORSE (June 19 - 22)

Whitehorse is Yukon’s capital city; a city that is surrounded by mountains and the Yukon River.  Whitehorse was born during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898 and was named after the historic White Horse Rapids which resembled the flowing manes of charging white horses.  These rapids prevented any steamer traffic from going any further south on the Yukon River.  Today the rapids are buried deep under water due to a dam that was built in 1958.

This city is located at Mile 918 of the Alaska Highway.  This is as far as we will be driving on the Alaska Highway. We will be staying here for 3 days and 4 nights.  Then we turn south and start the return trip.

There are a few attractions in this city that is worth visiting.  The BERINGIA INTERPRETIVE CENTER features life-size exhibits of animals of the last ice age.  The MacBRIDE MUSEUM of Yukon History has artifacts and stories of the people and events that built Canada’s Yukon.  You can try your hand at gold panning and get real gold dust.

About 25 miles outside of Whitehorse is the Yukon Wildlife Preserve; a unique wildlife viewing facility featuring ten major species of Northern mammals.  The facility is 700 acres, too much to walk it (but there are trails where you can).  We went on a bus tour with a guide that explained all the animals we viewed.   

DAY 34 ~ SKAGWAY, ALASKA  (June 20)
  

We were close to the US border of Alaska and decided to do a day trip there to visit Skagway. It is 106 miles from Whitehorse and Skagway.  So on this day we gathered up our US$$ and our cell phones (we have had them shut off for the last month) and our passports and headed west.

  

On our way we made a stop to visit the world’s smallest desert in British Columbia and visit the historical town of Carcross.

We were traveling on the Klondike Highway through the White Pass into Alaska and it was a beautiful drive with lots of scenery and a bear sighting.  A big brown bear strolling and eating along the highway in the rain.

We crossed over into the US and Alaska in the pouring rain.  Skagway was crowded with people from the 3 cruise ships that were docked there.  They were only there for part of the day and the rain was not going to keep them away.  So we walked up and down the streets checking out the shops.  We found some unique items to throw away our money on, but hey we are supporting the American economy.   We had lunch at the Red Onion Saloon; built in 1897 and was considered Skagway’s most exclusive bordello.  The bartender kept 10 dolls on the back bar, one for each girl.  When a girl was with a customer, her doll was laid on its back.  By mid afternoon, the rain finally stopped, the sun came out and it was a beautiful day.

We came back to our car and found a note on the windshield in a plastic bag.  Our tail light had been smashed and the back bumper dented....  The note was from the driver of a Princess (cruise line) shuttle.  There was contact info to file a claim with.  Wow..  maybe we can get a free cruise out of this.  The driver had gathered up all the broken plastic pieces of the taillight and left them on the curb.  Dave collected them and when we returned to the trailer he put all the pieces back like a puzzle and taped it all in place.  We can now continue with our trip with a tail light.

Since the rain stopped and some of the fog lifted, we were able to see the scenery better along the White Pass on our trip back to Whitehorse.  The scenery along the White Pass is filled with rolling hills of granite with many pockets of lakes.  In the background are the snow capped mountains.  Awesome!
  

There are two trains (one is a steam train) that do day trips through the White Pass from Whitehorse to Skagway.  You can see the railway tracks that these trains travel on in the above and below picture.

See the road going up the hill.  
That's what the road was like from Whitehorse to Skagway.

DAY 37 ~ WATSON LAKE  (June 23)

We left Whitehorse and turned back and returned to Watson Lake for an overnight stay before we head south leaving the Yukon and start our return trip home.

Goodbye Yukon and hello British Columbia.

DAY 32-37 ~ THE YUKON (June 19 - 23)

In the 1800’s the Hudson Bay Co. set up trading posts in the Yukon.  In 1895 the Yukon became part of the Northwest Territories.  The Yukon became known and populated during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897 and in 1898 it split from the Northwest Territories.  In 2003 the name Yukon Territory was officially changed to Yukon.

We are visiting the southern end of the Yukon.  We will be spending 5 days in this area.  This is as far North as we will be traveling.  So we will see daylight 24 hours per day.  I did find out one night when I could not get to sleep around 1:30 – 2:00am that it was somewhat dark. It was more like dusk, but only for an hour.  By 3:00am it was full daylight again.

DAY 32 ~ WATSON LAKE  (June 18)

We continued to travel the Alaska Highway.  Even though this highway is now paved, and has been paved for many years, it is not a smooth ride.  The road is only a two lane road and at some points very narrow.  It is full of dips and pot holes and very uneven.  Parts of the road are being repaved and or oiled.  So we are traveling on dirt and gravel.  Being in the passenger seat and trying to read is impossible.  That book is flying everywhere while trying to read and hold onto it.  Try being the driver and pulling a trailer.  All you can do is look at the scenery.  And it is awesome.  Beautiful snow capped mountains, meadows, lakes and forests.  It is a pretty drive.  And the wildlife is everywhere.  On our trip to our next stop we saw Black Bears, Stone Sheep and Bison.

It is 470 miles to our destination of Whitehorse.  So to break up that long ride we did an overnight stay at Watson Lake, the half way point.  Watson Lake is also Mile 635 on the Alaska Highway and is called “The Gateway to the Yukon”.

We have been to Watson Lake before and the most exciting thing to visit here is the SIGN POST FOREST.  It started in 1942 during the construction of the Alaska Highway.  The US Army Corps of Engineers erected mileage posts at their camps showing distances.  A homesick soldier added his hometown sign to one of the mileage posts and soon others followed.  One signpost located at the corner of the Alaska Highway and the road to Watson Lake still exists.  That is where the Sign Post Forest is today.  People from all over the world have added their signs and it is still growing.  At the end of 2004, the signs in the Forest numbered almost 55,000!

Next stop is WHITEHORSE, YUKON.

WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS ON THE ALASKAN HIGHWAY

For 9 years we have been Trailer Tripping all over the country (all 49 states – including Alaska) and 10 provinces in Canada, visiting tons of national parks, state parks, forests, woods, etc.   In all that time we have never seen as much wildlife as we have on this two month trip.  They are everywhere.  Maybe it is global warming.  Or maybe they all know we are visiting and they have come out to greet us.  Most of our wildlife sightings have been during our drive on the Alaska Highway. 

We have seen 11 bears; including 1 Grizzly and possibly an Alaskan Brown Bear.  They rest were black bears.  We may have seen more, but they were just black blurs running into the tree line.  We have seen Elk, Mule Deer, Bighorn Sheep, Stone Sheep, Mountain Goats, Caribou (reindeer), Bison, Coyote, a family of beaver and their lodge, Muskrat, Weasel, Marmot, different species of squirrels, a big Porcupine walking along the highway, huge Ravens and thousands and thousands of misquitos!  It has all been such a thrill, except for the misquitos.

 Grizzly

 Black Bear

Black Bears - A Mom and her 3 cubs

Alaskan Brown Bear

 Female Elk

 Bighorn Sheep

 Stone Sheep

 Female Carabou

 Bison

                                                         Golden Mantled Groundsquirrel

                                     Beaver couple - there was also two young ones nearby

DAY 30-31 ~ TOAD RIVER (June 16 – 17) - Mile 422

We spent two nights at Toad River Lodge and RV Park.  This area was populated during the building of the Alaska Highway.  Today it is just a lodge and RV park.  There are a few homes and some highway maintenance buildings.  But that is it, except for the river.  It is a place to relax and perhaps do some fishing.  We had great views of the mountains and saw a lot of wildlife in the river.  Every evening we saw moose in the river looking for food and nearby there was a family of beavers dragging branches and chewing on them.  You can see their lodge from our RV site. 

View from our RV site

Beaver lodge in view of our site

This bull moose came out both evenings.

There is an interesting story about how Toad River got its name.  This is just a story.  Don’t know how true it is.  Around 1942 when the Canadian and US armies started building the Alaska Highway, there was no bridge yet build over this river.  So people and equipment had to be “towed over the river so the proprietors of the lodge adopted “Towed River” as the name of their lodge.  The rest is history.

Another fun and interesting story about this lodge is their hat collection which began in 1979.  “One evening after a stressful day at the lodge, the proprietors were having a brew or two.  One had to leave to see a man about a horse and the other tacked his hat to the ceiling.  There you have it.  It doesn't take much to get something started around here.”  There are now over 8,000 hats from all over the world.  “Do not leave your hat unattended!”

We got a real treat on our first evening here.  After we arrived and got settled into our site, and after seeing the bull moose playing in the river (our first moose sighting during this trip); we were greeted with a sudden rain shower and the most beautiful double rainbow ever!!  It was a perfect double arch over the river, right outside of our trailer.  You could clearly see both ends.  Unfortunately there were no rewards of a pot of gold.  Several people invaded our camp site to observe and take pictures of this rainbow.  We met some very nice people that evening.

We have been traveling north for the last couple of weeks and the further north we go the daylight lasts longer.  In fact it never really gets dark.  We have found ourselves staying up past midnight simply because it is still light outside.  It is really confusing and very hard to get used to.  We have to force ourselves to go to bed.  We cover up all the windows to make it darker and simply do not look outside.  We look at the clock, see it is midnight and then we yawn....time to go to bed.  At 3:00am in the morning it is daylight again......

 Sunset at 10:25pm

It is now 11:15pm