Homebound Down the ALCAN: Yukon and British Columbia

From Whitehorse we continued south and east across the Yukon Territory, then into British Columbia.

Camp near Pine Lake YT (MP 699). A super-wide double ender with toilets

We chased the pot of gold but it eluded us

The Sign Post Forest is Watson Lake’s most famous attraction. Travelers from around the world have been bringing signposts from their hometowns to the Sign Post Forest since 1942 and continue to do so today.  The tradition began during the Alaska Highway construction in 1942, when U.S. soldier Carl K. Lindley spent time in Watson Lake recovering from an injury. A commanding officer asked him to repair and erect the directional signposts, and while completing the job, he added a sign that indicated the direction and mileage to his hometown of Danville, Illinois. Others followed suit, and the trend caught on. Today there are over 83,000 signs in the Forest, and the number grows each year as visitors contribute signs and continue the tradition. The Town of Watson Lake maintains the site, adding more sign posts as they fill up.

We posted our sign

Real estate was at a premium on the posts.  I was tempted to pull an older, less substantial sign down to make room for ours.  Many folks had done just that.  At the bottom of each post were several older signs that had "fallen" off.  However, I was prepared and carried a 3' step ladder and was able to reach high on a post where there was some room.

We even found the sign we posted in 2011

On September 28, 2016 there were 83,886 signs in the forest.  But who's counting.  No really, I mean, who's counting???

Watson Lake signpost forest: sign count by year

After we left Watson Lake we almost immediately crossed into British Columbia.  We had hoped to spend the night at Liard River Hot Springs, but the campground was full when we arrived.  We had met to a lady at Watson Lake who was from Juneau and was traveling to Idaho to watch the solar eclipse.  We ran into her again here at Liard, and she had scored the last campsite.  DANG!

No room at the inn

Flexibility is a virtue, and we made the best of it.  We parked in the day use parking area and hiked to the spring for a dip.

What CAN you do here?

We had dinner at the day use area and went back to the hot spring one more time for a final dip.

Toasty water at Liard River Hot Springs

After our second visit to the spring we left the park and found a nice spot to park just a few miles down the road.  Faithful readers will know we are not strangers to roadside camping

Camp near Liard River YT

At one point we rounded a bend and found ourselves smack in the center of a herd of bison.  This ain't Yellowstone, folks.  They were right there in the middle of a 100 kph (62 mph) highway.  Click HERE to see a video of the bison

Bison on the boulevard

Caribou on the carriageway

We also saw some less conventional wildlife.  We later learned that a nearby outfitter was letting these horses roam freely on the highway.

Horses on the highway

Between a rock and a wet place

When we passed through here in 2011 this place had excellent home made cinnamon buns.  We were looking forward to some more.  DANG!

It's a good thing we didn't need any fuel!

At $1.59 per liter, I certainly would snivel (~$4.79 per gallon US dollars)

Another interesting potty door.  Kinda like a freezer latch

There is a reduced speed zone coming into the Village of Teslin.  We saw this mountie on the side of the road and hit the brakes.  They sure fooled me!

Faux Mountie

A glorious sunset

Flowers at the Fort St. Nelson Visitor Center 

This map gives a good depiction of the length of the Alaska Highway

Normally Mile 0 is at the beginning of one's trek up the Alaska Highway.  We're a little different; we did it backwards.  We came by here only on our way home.

Does anybody really know what time it is?  Does anybody really care?  (Chicago/Robert Lamm 1969)

On this day we had a strong tail wind, which seems to almost never happen. I was getting a little over 10 mpg.  SWEET!

Flags blowing at the Dawson Creek railroad depot museum and visitor center

Departing Dawson Creek we entered Alberta CA and began our long trek across the Canadian plains.


Oh, by the way, news from the good luck department:  I am a long time subscriber to Sirius satellite radio.  I received an email for a sweepstakes offering free tickets to this event.  I entered, and we won two tickets.  The event is in Charlotte on September 15.  It will be tight, but we plan to make it home just in time.

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!