May 27, 2015 Wednesday

Today was our first gray day. Clouds spilled over the rim of the Pelly Mountains and raindrops fell on our heads but not hard enough to free the truck from its “chocolate coat”. We were amazed by how big the Little Salmon Lake is. I bet we drove at least 45 minutes to an hour beside the lake before finally reaching the end! Yukon’s motto, Larger than Life, is certainly true. Everything may seem bigger in Texas but that is because the Texans have never been to the Yukon Territory! They truly have big water here and lots of it. And I am totally in love with the Yukon Territory.

Before long we were driving beside the Yukon River which is huge and wild. We stopped at the site of the Columbian disaster in 1906. The Columbian was a river boat that supplied mining companies with blasting powder. They were headed up river fully loaded when someone spotted ducks. A crew member grabbed his rifle and ran toward the bow to take a shot at the birds. He tripped and fell discharging his rifle into a powder keg. This caused an explosion that destroyed the bow of the boat. A quick thinking captain beached the boat and men jumped off to go for help to the Tantalus Mine. By the time they returned with a rescue party the boat was gone and 6 crewmen including the shooter were dead.

At Carmacks, we crossed the Tage Cho, which means Big River or the Yukon. We refueled in Carmacks where people commented on our accents. It is very amusing to be the ones with accents. After refueling, we crossed the Yukon again and headed up the Klondike Highway toward Dawson City. Still paralleling the Yukon, we stopped to see Five Finger Rapids. Now the river is quite full due to the Spring run off so we were not able to really appreciate how wicked these rapids were for the riverboats. The rapids were dramatic enough to please us. Riverboats ran the Yukon until 1955 when the highways were finished.

Pelly Crossing is not just a bridge across the Pelly River but is also a First Nation community. There is a wonderful lookout point on the hillside above town. When we arrived there, another couple was taking in the sights. A dog wandered around them so we assumed it was their dog and petted it. They got in their vehicle and drove off leaving the dog. Now we were unsure what was going on but the dog seemed perfectly content to remain where he was so we decided he must be the greeting committee.

Now we were anxious to see if the fuel station at the junction with the Dempster Highway had been rebuilt after a fire two years ago. If it had been, we would head up the Dempster Highway to the Arctic Circle; if it hadn’t we would go to Dawson City first then backtrack to the Dempster Highway. Luckily the station, (well it was simply a fuel stop, no attendant) had been rebuilt. After having to watch a lesson in how to fuel a vehicle, what to do in case of fire, how to treat a person with burns, how to shut off the pumps, etc. we were finally able to get fuel.

Tonight we are in the Tombstones Territorial Park Campground. You feel like you should be at 11,000 feet surrounded by barren peaks but you are only at 2800 feet and the barren peaks are only 5000-6000 feet high. Latitude certainly makes a difference. Tomorrow we will go to the Arctic Circle!

Five Finger Rapids on the Yukon

May 26, 2015 Tuesday

Having spent the night at the Downtown RV Park in Watson Lake, we turned north on the Robert Campbell Highway. Primarily a gravel road that is an alternate route to Dawson City, Campbell highway offers some adventure. We had read many tales about the difficulty of this route so we were prepared for whatever it might offer. I must say we were surprised by what a good road it really was. There was construction on an early part of the road with widening and rebuilding the road base going on, however we were allowed through with no delays. We just had to watch out for the large equipment as they had the right of way.

Many lakes are along both sides of the highway its whole length. There are float plane airports on some of the larger lakes particularly if the lake is located near a settlement. For example, there is one on Watson Lake. Yes, there really is a lake at Watson Lake. Even though this route took us through some prime caribou grounds, we never saw a single one. No moose either though I did see their tracks when I was taking photos at Simpson Lake. We did see many snowshoe rabbits and arctic ground squirrels.

We refueled at Ross River, a small First Nation village in an area called the Pelly Trench. The Pelly Trench is a deep depression or canyon caused not by erosion but by tectonic activity between the North American plate and smaller plates called terranes. It is really quite an amazing sight. Not too far from Ross River is the Lapie Canyon. This is a gorge cut by the Lapie River. It is quite deep and the water certainly roars through this gorge. It is dramatic enough simply to drive over the bridge spanning it but actually standing on the bridge to photograph the gorge gives you weak knees if you don’t care for heights!

Faro was a slight detour from our route but we wanted to see this little mining town. Today I am not sure what keeps it alive except that the golf course runs through town. At one time it was quite a lead/ zinc mining town supported by the Cyprus Anvil Mining Company. The mine is no longer in operation.

 Lapie Canyon

Little Salmon Lake

We ended our day on the banks of the Little Salmon Lake at Drury Provincial Campground. The lake is gorgeous with the ridge of the Pelly Mountains on the south side. A very short lived storm came up, ruffling the surface of the lake but providing very little rain. With the beautiful clouds, I had visions of a glorious sunset but wait the sun sets long after my bed time so no sunset pictures. Now for the only bad part of the day. The road crews spray the Campbell Highway with calcium chloride solution to keep the dust down, which by the way, is bad. Guess what they were doing today? Yes, spraying the road. We had to wash the back of the camper off just to be able to get inside. The truck looks like it has been dipped in chocolate up to the door handles.  I sure hope we can find a car wash in the next big town we hit.

May 25, 2015

We reached Watson Lake, Yukon just before lunch time. The air here is thick with smoke due to a large forest fire burning northwest of town. Watson Lake is famous for its Sign Post Forest. A homesick soldier working on the Alaskan Highway back in 1942 started the Sign Post Forest with just few signs about home and how far from home they were. Now there are over 80,000 signs from all over the world. Needless to say, we added one of our own to the forest. Watson Lake also has a museum and movie theater presentation about the Northern Lights which we plan to see once laundry has been completed. Being able to take a hot shower was pure heaven!

From this point we will leave the Alaskan Highway and head northwest on the Campbell Highway. This is a much more primitive road but is the shortest route to Dawson City. When we stopped and asked about it today, we were told it had just reopened after being closed by a washout. Before we leave tomorrow, we will be checking again to make sure no fires have closed the road. There is only one fuel stop along this route and it is a distance that will not allow for backtracking with the amount of extra fuel we can carry.

This afternoon, we plan on walking around Wye Lake here in town. Maybe we will see some wildlife. I will pass on bears though. We saw 6 more black bears this morning. They all appear to be addicted to dandelion flowers. They paid no attention to traffic nor photographers as long as those bright yellow blossoms were within close reach. We stopped at the Whirlpool Canyon rest stop on our way to Watson Lake. This overlooks Whirlpool Canyon on the Laird River. Wow, was that dramatic. The debris pile contained enormous logs, whole trees, roots and all in the corner of this huge whirlpool.

We caught this fellow in the middle of his morning dust bath!

This will probably be my last post until we reach civilization once again in Dawson City in about three or four days.  We will be detouring up the Dempster Highway as far as the northern circle before finally reaching Dawson City.  So far the adventure has been everything we could hope for and more.

May 24, 2015

Upon leaving Summit Lake this morning we happened on a nice herd of stone sheep. Several big rams were delighted to pose for us on the roadway and seemed totally unaffected by the attention. Now I don’t know if this is a statement about man/female attitudes but the females stated well away from us and watched us warily from the cliffy outcrop. The stone sheep are much grayer than our big horn sheep in the US Rockies.

This drive from Fort Nelson on has been through spectacular scenery, lots of topographic and lovely vistas. Unfortunately, the air is thick with smoke from numerous forest fires raging through British Columbia and Yukon Territory. It does create misty photographs but does not do justice to the beautiful views.

This section of highway is amazing, steep hillsides with cliffs of tortured limestone, raging rivers, the Trout, the Racing, the Toad and the Laird, plus vast deltas flowing from narrow steep canyons in the mountains. Muncho Lake, “Big” Lake in Kaska, lives up to its name. Teal water laps at the base of sheer cliffs. This stretch of highway was the most difficult during construction. It required blasting the roadway from the cliffs. Occasionally, heavy equipment vanished into its icy depths. Caribou are found in the area, but not by us. Moose have also remained quite shy.

Bison have been reintroduced into this area and these seem to being doing quite well judging by the “calling cards” they have left along the road. We finally came across a small herd just south of the bridge over the Laird River. One young male was pleased to pose for us, the remainder of the group simply lay in the shade and took siestas. Another male was at the gate to the Laird Hot Springs Provincial Park and was quite photogenic.

Here are a couple of ewes just chillin' in the morning sun and soakers at Laird Hot Springs.

Laird Hot Springs was such a delight. The water is quite hot, 100 degrees mid pool hotter toward the spring entrance. The area is full of mud flats, ferns and wild flowers. The springs are a very popular stop along the highway. We camped for the night but others just stopped for an hour or two and drove on. We would stop here again in a heartbeat. The campground is wonderful with more privacy than we have seen at other provincial parks.

May 23, 2015

We are camped for the night at Summit Lake which happens to be at the highest pass along this Alaska Highway…4250 feet. It is a lovely spot but very popular with locals as well as travelers. We had hoped to see stone sheep during our drive today. We were skunked in that regard but happened to see 4 black bears, a momma and her cub, and two solo bears all within 5 miles. They were very healthy and robust. Add to our animal count two marmots beside the roadway. The moose continue to elude us.

We began our travels today with a visit to the Kiskatinaw Bridge. This is one of the original bridges along the Alaskan Highway built of wood and still in use. It is unique because it curves in a 9 degree arc as is crosses the Kiskatinaw River. When the concrete pillars were poured in November of 1942, an unusual cold snap hit. The pillars had to be protected from freezing by being wrapped and kept at 72 degrees until the cold snap ended. Just one more challenge faced by the builders of this road.

The highway drops into the Peace River gorge in a dramatic fashion. The highway sign reads “extreme grades ahead” which was a little bit of an understatement. The crossing of the Sikanni River was also dramatic but not as breath taking as the Peace River.

We stopped in Fort Nelson for lunch and totally missed seeing the largest chopstick factory in the world! Then it was on to the winding climb up the western side of Steamboat Mountain, which is where we saw the bears. A little rain fell on our heads then about 5 p.m., the sun popped from behind the clouds and off we went with cameras to capture the area.

The entire area we drove through today was heavily timbered with fir, spruce, black cottonwood, alder, larch and aspen to name a few. The Alaskan Highway has been an easy road to travel. We can now see why it is so very popular with RVers.

Below are photos of the Kiskatinaw Bridge and Mama Bear and her cub.

Dawson Creek is quite an interesting town. There is a wonderful visitors center with a little museum. Next door, in an old grain elevator, is an art gallery with a display of photos taken during the construction of the Alaskan highway in 1942. It was an amazing engineering and physical feat and was completed in only 8 months. Tomorrow we will actually start up this historic highway.

Outside of the gallery is one of the Mile Zero markers. This one commemorates the construction of the Alaskan Highway in 1942. The US and Canadian governments shared the cost and the US provided the manpower and engineering for the project. It was quite an undertaking.  The second Mile Zero marker is a couple of blocks away and is the official mileage marker for the beginning of 1200 miles of highway through the Canadian wilderness. After the road was turned over to the Canadian government, it became a great adventure to travel this route and it still is today.

Below are photos of both mile markers and the grain elevator art gallery in Dawson Creek.

May 21, 2015

It seems they do a lot of wildlife ranching here in Canada. We passed an elk ranch not far south of Edmonton.  While the landscape in still flat, rolling country, there are more trees now, aspen and conifers. The soil is very rich looking. I wonder if I can sneak some home for my garden? This area is rich in gas and oil but it does not have the frenetic traffic of the Midland/Odessa area in Texas. Perhaps this is due to the lower speed limits and more polite drivers!

Through the day, the land climbed to a plateau then began morphing into foothills with heavy timber. Highway 43 is a fast route northwest of Edmonton. It is a divided highway with 4 lanes almost all the way to British Columbia. In fact it was so fast that we decided to go on to Dawson Creek after arriving at our original stopping point, Grand Prairie, at 1:30 in the afternoon. We did run into our first highway work in Grand Prairie then again in Dawson Creek. So far we cannot complain about the waits.

Again our early start put us into Dawson Creek this evening where we will stay another day to rest up, do laundry, shop and play tourist. Dawson Creek is the actual start of the Alcan Highway and so is the true beginning of our Alaska adventure at Mile Marker Zero.

We are self-contained campers in our rig and that is proving to be a plus tonight as the campground, Northern Lights, had a water main break. We were really looking forward to a nice hot shower but that is a no go this stop. Tomorrow we get to sleep in and play tourist, both of which will be great!