Alaska Trip 2011: The Road to Whitehorse

This is page 14 of our Alaska 2011 trip journal. Click here for the first page. If you want to bookmark this journal, http://jeanne-travels.blogspot.com always links to the newest page.

Trip Overview

Now that I have figured out how to add Google Maps to the blog pages, I thought it might be nice to post an overview of part of the trip, to help put things in perspective. This is the long stretch of highway between Shelby, Montana, and Whitehorse, Yukon.

If you are looking at this in email, you might not see the map. In that case, just click on "View Larger Map", and it will bring up the map in your browser.



View Larger Map

A. Shelby, MT Last stop before entering Canada
B. Calgary, BC First stop in British Columbia
C. Edmonton, BC Capital of British Columbia
D. Dawson Creek, BC Start of the Alaska Highway
E. Watson Lake, YT First stop in Yukon Territory
F. Whitehorse, YT Klondike Highway crosses Alaska Highway

Whitehorse is a junction point of sorts. There are multiple paths you can take north across Canada to get to Alaska, but they all eventually end up in Whitehorse. Then from Whitehorse there are multiple routes to go on into Alaska. So this is not the last time we will see Whitehorse.

Please let me know if the maps are working for you, and if they are helpful.

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Alaska Trip 2011: May 25 - Side Trip to Skagway

This is page 13 of our Alaska 2011 trip journal. Click here for the first page. If you want to bookmark this journal, http://jeanne-travels.blogspot.com always links to the newest page.

The Klondike Highway crosses the Alaska Highway near Whitehorse, making a couple of choices for side trips or loops. We decided to take a side trip south to Skagway, Alaska. There is only one road to Skagway, and this seemed like the best opportunity for us to go there. We will spend a few days there, and then decide if we will come back the way we came, or take the ferry across to Haines.


View Larger Map

This is soooo easy I don't know why I didn't try it sooner. I figured out how to add a google map to the blog page. Hopefully this will help put things in perspective. This map shows the route from Whitehorse to Skagway. The straight dashed line is the 60th parallel, which is the dividing line between Yukon and British Columbia. The bent line below that is the US-Canada border. The yellow line above is the Alaska Highway (Yukon Rt 1). The area is roughly at the top of the southern tail of Alaska that goes down the coast. You should be able to use the + and - to zoom the map in and out. Zoom out if you want to see how this area relates to Canada and Alaska.

Heading South

OK, here are the inevitable windshield shots. See those mountains out there? We have to cross them later today, and then make our way down to sea level.

Emerald Lake

Yes, the lake really was that green, maybe greener. It's caused by sun reflecting off calcite deposits on the bottom of the lake. The scenery on this trip continues to amaze me.

Carcross Desert

They call this Carcross Desert, and advertise it as the world's smallest desert. It is not really a desert, but it does sorta looks like one. This is an ancient seabed, and the blowing sand has created dunes that look and at times act like desert dunes.

Bove Island

Yet another pretty pullout. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Dall Sheep

We pulled over to yet another beautiful pullout...

...I was taking pictures, and Dale was scanning the mountainside....

...he spotted some small patches of white on the mountainside. Could these be sheep or goats? We got out the spotting scope for a closer look. Hmmm.... Maybe, maybe not. If they are, they aren't moving.

But look - there's another group further down the mountainside, and these do appear to be moving. We were able to focus this group in with the scope enough to confirm that they were Dall Sheep, based on the horns. What fun! This is why we got the scope.

I know you can't really see much in the pictures, other than that these guys moved around a bit, but I wanted to show why we were so happy to have the spotting scope. We would have missed these guys without it. With it, we were able to bring them for a really good look. Too bad we can't capture a picture of it.

Crossing The Mountains

Remember those mountains you saw earlier? You can see we are now getting a little closer to the top. It's only abut 3,000 feet at the pass, but in just that distance, the lakes went from thawed to frozen. I'm guessing even these will melt in the summer.

Bear Butt

And here's another quick, stick-the-camera-out-the-window-and-click shot. There were a couple cars pulled over here so we had a little warning something was here, but did not know what until we got close. There was no way we had room to pull over our rig at that spot, so we settled for one shot of bear butt that almost did not make it into picture.

Welcome To Alaska

Arrived in Skagway

We arrived early enough to spend a little time looking through town, but I am going to put those with the rest of the skagway pictures, so things will be a little out of sequence. Thursday we took a trip on the Whitepass & Yukon Railroad, and then Friday & Saturday we did a little relaxing, and a little sightseeing around Skagway.

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Alaska Tril 2011: May 24 - Whitehorse Day Two

This is page 12 of our Alaska 2011 trip journal. Click here for the first page. If you want to bookmark this journal, http://jeanne-travels.blogspot.com always links to the newest page.

We slept in a little this morning, then headed out for some more points of interest in Whitehorse.

Beringia Center

This museum is dedicated to some of the natural history of the Yukon, some of which applies to Alaska as well. A good portion of Yukon and Alaska was untouched by glaciers in the ice age. The coastal mountains trapped all the snow, so there was simply not enough moisture to create glaciers. This makes the area highly attractive to archaeologists, since the land was not scoured clean by the movement of the glaciers. To highlight this, they have models of the wooly mammoth outside the building, and a skeleton on the inside.

When they talk about a land bridge from Siberia to Alaska, I always imagined a narrow strip of land at the point where you can see Russia from Alaska. There was actually a huge strip of land between the two continents. This map shows the relative position of the land, which they called Beringia. It's a lot easier to imagine people crossing that stretch of land than it is to think about them finding a narrow bridge. As the ice age ended and the massive glaciers began melting, the seas rose accordingly, and this stretch of land was inundated.

Apparently they have found skeletal remains of beavers as large as bears, so native tales about the giant beaver were not just myth.

The World's Largest Weathervane

OK, it's not the largest ball of twine, but it was interesting. They have mounted this DC-3 on a pedestal that allows it to rotate in the wind. There was only a slight breeze while we were there, but it was enough to move it around. They say it only takes 3-4 mph breeze to make it move. A rooster on a barn probably takes that much before it moves.

Yukon Transportation Museum

Dedicated to various means of transportation in Yukon, it had displays related to the building of the Alaska Highway, plus a few vintage vehicles, boats and airplanes.

Miles Canyon

After supper, we took an evening drive through Miles Canyon, just south of Whitehorse. This scenic, narrow canyon has almost vertical walls. The rock here is basalt from a now-extinct volcano. When the lava cools, it contracts, and fractures vertically. You can see these vertical lines on the canyon walls. When the river cuts through the area, the rocks split along these fractures, leaving the vertical walls.

There is a footbridge that crosses the canyon here - I walked out onto the bridge to get good views up and down the river.

We also saw these little purple flowers, which I later identified as wild crocus.

Above Miles Canyon

Further up the road, there was an overlook that looked down at the canyon where we just were. It also had some nice views looking the other direction.

On the way back to town, we drove by the lake and saw this float plane on the water, getting ready to take off...

...And saw a few more parked on the bank. We did not catch the plane taking off, because when it got to the position it wanted for takeoff, we were not in a position to catch it.

What's Next

We are still at 3500 miles traveled in the motorhome this trip, and I forgot to check how many miles in the trailblazer. Tomorrow, we will leave the Alaska Highway for a while, and take a side trip to Skagway. This is where we will actually go into Alaska for the first time.

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