Whitehorse YT

After leaving Tok we stopped at the visitor center for the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge.  We had stopped there back in early June on our way into Alaska, but they had been unexpectedly closed.

This time they were open.

Dorcas bought a bead kit from the First Nation lady that works there.  She had seen her beading there when we passed through in 2011.

Dorcas and the bead lady

Our border crossing back into Canada was quick and uneventful.  This was our third and final border crossing into Canada.  After a 278 mile day we spent the night at a pull-out about 15 miles
NW of Haines Junction.

Our camp near Haines Junction on the Alaska Highway

At Haines Junction we stopped at the Da Kų Cultural Centre operated by the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations people.  

World's largest gold pan

A conical fish trap

Another unique men's room sign

An historical sled

After departing camp near Haines Junction, we drove 107 miles to Whitehorse, where me made camp at the Walmart RV park.  There were about 25 other RVs parked there.

Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon and its only city. We were in Whitehorse for two nights at the end of June, but, except for the Canada Day parade, we didn't see very much.  This time through we were able to see a few more of the sights.

Our camp at the Walmart in Whitehorse

When we stayed in Whitehorse for Canada Day there were over 75 RVs here.  This time there were only a couple of dozen or so.   At all our stops after leaving Tok I have looked under the coach to see if there was telltale oil on the ground.  It looks like the repair took; knock on wood.

Both the coach and the car are FILThY

After resting for a while we visited the Yukon Transportation Museum.  Following are photos from that visit.

The world's biggest wind vane: DC-3 CF-CPY

It was very fascinating and a little eerie when the wind direction changed and the plane began to silently rotate.

I can't resist taking pictures of a fine canoe

This heater was used to heat plane engines and the motor oil during frigid sub-zero nights in the bush.  It looks like and works just like my Svea 123 camp stove.  Occasionally things got out of control and a few planes were torched.

Diorama of the Whitehorse depot

"Martha's Milepost" was dedicated on her 100th birthday and depicts significant lifetime events

The Queen of the Yukon replica.

The original Queen of the Yukon crashed and was destroyed in 1929.  Its remains are buried under the runway at Whitehorse International Airport

Turntable drawbridge model

Another canoe picture

Canoe quilting art

A unique way to portage a canoe 

We couldn't figure out what this was, there was no placard, but it sure was big

The Yukon crest

SS Klondike II

Miles Canyon on the Yukon River

We had dinner in Whitehorse at the 506 All Day Grill and it was nice enough to eat outdoors  A great meal.

The Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre is owned and operated by the Department of Tourism and Culture, Government of Yukon and is dedicated to the presentation and preservation of the First Nations and scientific history of the vast sub-continent called Beringia.

The Bering Strait was once a vast treeless plain connecting Asia and North America.  This "land bridge", known as Beringia, is where humans first came to the Americas.

The giant beaver, Castoroides, existed during the Pleistocenee era and grew to over 6 feet tall

The Beringian crossroads allowed animals like mammoths, bison and moose to reach the New World, and horses and camels to strike out into the Old World.

The washrooms at the Beringia Centre were voted the best facilities on the Alaska Highway 

The most complete mastodon skeleton ever found in the Yukon was discovered by a crew working on Bonanza Creek (the original site of the Klondike gold strike) in the early 1970's.  It is now known as the Earl Bennett Mastodon, after the miners that made the discovery.

American Scimitar cat

We departed Whitehorse on Sunday Aug 13.  Time is running out on this phase of our adventure.  We need to be in Ely MN on Sunday Aug 20, over 2400 miles away.  Time to get rolling!