Dancing Shoes and Finally….Moose(s)

Beautiful totem pole in Whitehorse

Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon Territory (75% of the 35,000 residents of the Yukon live in Whitehorse) and has the requisite fast food chains and a Walmart. The Walmart lot was chock full of RVs and trailers who are allowed to stay overnight for free.  We opted for a traditional campground. We spent a day in the downtown section touring the Visitor Center and a First Nations Cultural Event.  The Center had a very interesting video on the Yukon and lots of information on the Klondike gold rush.  We listened to music at the First Nations event and talked to a woodcarver from Vancouver who explained a little about the different styles of the various First Nation groups. He also offered us some locally smoked salmon (delicious).  There were several artists demonstrating and selling their work, including weavers, basketmakers and woodcarvers. And many were in native garb. 

We walked along the Yukon riverwalk to the S.S. Klondike, the last remaining paddleboat of the Yukon River.  During the gold rush heyday (around 1898-1910), there were several hundred paddleboats on the Yukon.  The boats took supplies and stampeders to Dawson City, where the Klondike gold camps were clustered, and then took the gold ore back to Whitehorse. There were photos of the moving of the paddleboat from the shipyards to its current location.  This involved moving the boat down one of the main streets of the town.  They used bulldozers and millions of kilograms of soap flakes! Must have been a pretty clean town after the move.

This was the largest of the paddleboats that were used on the Yukon River.  Over 200 feet long.

Left Whitehorse to continue north to Alaska.  We were fortunate to have decent weather this day. The highway parallels the Kluane Mountain range so we were treated to tremendous views of the mountains. The visitor center in Haines Junction had a stunning video on the Kluane Mountain range and the Wrangell-St Elias icefields.  We didn’t see the icefields as they were hidden by the front range, but the photos were amazing.  The ice is over 2200 meters deep!

Kluane Range has the highest mountains in Canada, including Mt. Logan which is over 19,000 feet high. Today, the clouds are obscuring their height.

The mountains seemed to go on forever and ever.

 

The beginning of the Kluane Lake.  This is the largest lake in the Yukon.

The purple wildflowers are called fireweed. 

Russ declared the water to be very cold!  Too cold to go swimming, that was for sure.

Spent the night at a campground on the shores of Lake Kluane – Yukon’s largest lake, near a place called Destruction Bay.  This campsite was actually our second for the night.  Originally we had planned to stay at a campground about 20 miles further north, but after Russ paid his $12, they pointed us to a parking spot next to the end of the motel. Not the kind of ambiance we were looking for.  So we backtracked 20 miles to a site that was right next to the lake.

The campground is in the middle of a grizzly habitat so we received lots of warning to not leave trash or any food items outside our trailer.  Of course, didn’t see any bears.  I have to say that we haven’t seen as much wildlife as I was hoping.  I guess the critters aren’t by rivers because the salmon are not yet running and they aren’t eating the berries because those aren’t ripe.  Did manage to spot two moose though!

This guy was at the far side of a small pond.

This young fellow was right next to the air force base runway near Fairbanks.

The road north of Destruction Bay is the worst we have encountered.  Lots and lots of potholes, heaves and gravel for about 120 miles. Really had to slow down. Even with the slowing, the insides of the trailer got pretty rattled.  When we took a break and went into the trailer to have lunch, all the shoes we have lined up by the door had danced their way all over the trailer. We ended up with dancing shoes all the way to the Alaska border. I guess we got to experience the road as it was 30-40 years ago.  The trip would have been pretty tough if the whole road were like this.

This "police car" was pretty effective in getting cars to slow down....to take its picture.

Lots of roadwork going on. We had to wait several times to be escorted through the construction area.

Once we got to the Alaska border, the road became much tamer.  Still some heaves, but tolerable.  Made it to Tok for the evening.  There was live entertainment at the campground – some very enjoyable bluegrass and country.  So enjoyed our 4^th even though we didn’t have fireworks. I was glad to be back in the States.  Canada is beautiful, the people are extremely polite and it is fun to see how other people live, but there are differences and I am so used to my world (iphone, my kind of yogurt) that I was thrilled to get them back.

Crossing the largest undefended (by military) border in the world.

The drive from Tok to Fairbanks was pretty bland.  A few dramatic views of the Tanana river but missing the mountain and lake vistas of the previous two days. Ended our drive down Alaska highway and started on Richardson’s Highway which goes between Delta Junction and Fairbanks.  Delta Junction is the official end of the Alaska highway.

Celebrating - we finished driving the Alaska Highway!

This was one of the bulldozers used in the construction of the highway in 1941-42.

I think Russ took a picture of every piece of WWII roadworking equipment we saw! The military abandoned them by the side of the road after the construction was complete.

A view of the oil pipeline on the way into Fairbanks. I was surprised at how little security there was. The pipeline provides 20% of America's oil.

Corrigan had heard that the mosquitos were big in Alaska, but this is ridiculous!

Will be staying in Fairbanks for several days, seeing the sights.  Then we go to Manley Hot Springs to visit my friend, Jill, and to meet her friends who live there. Planning on spending about two months in Alaska proper before we start back to sunny Long Beach.