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 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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Alaska Trip 2011: May 23 - Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

This is page 11 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.

Whitehorse, with a whopping big population of about 20,000, is the captal and largest city in Yukon Territory. About two thirds of the Yukon population lives in Whitehorse, which explains why the rest of the place is so sparsely populated. It is the "big city" in this part of the world. The city has several museums and attractions, and we plan to spend a couple days here.

Yukon River

This overlook shows part of the Yukon River, with Whitehorse in the background. From here it looks like the river is frozen, but I think it is just this location. The boat you see across the way is the S. S. Klondike, a historic site we visited later in the day.

MacBride Museum of Yukon History

Of course two of the most significant events in Yukon history were the Gold Rush, and the Alaska Highway, both because they brought people to this remote part of the world. Other displays were devoted to the formation of the mounted police, the First Nations, famous Yukoners and more.

This engine was used by the White Pass & Yukon Railway. More about them in a couple days.

Look! There it is! The elusive moose! Oh wait... it's stuffed.

The placards did not mention the white moose, so I don't know if it was an albino, or just a color variant of some kind.

What I liked best about the museum was the amazing display of stuffed animals and birds. They did a terrific job on this display. After seeing these, I'm sure I will be better at identifying some of these.

You can identify the muskox by the short, square legs. Ok, I have to give Dale credit for that comment, but it made me giggle. If you can't see it in the picture, it is just a muskox hide draped over a rounded form that has square legs, like a table.

On display outside the museum is this large copper nugget - the largest ever found in the Yukon. It's as tall as the eaves on the cabin behind it.

The S.S. Klondike

Before there were roads in the area, the major means of trasportation to and from the Klondike area was along the Yukon river. S.S. Klondike is a sternwheeler that was used during this era. The restored boat is now a Canadian National Historic Site.

The cargo hold

Engine room

Observation lounge

Cabins along the deck

View from the deck

The stern wheel

Oh No! Dropped the Camera! Wah!

While on board the Klondike, I dropped the camera and it broke. Don't know if I hit the shutter trying to grab for it or what, but this is the last picture it ever took. (R.I.P.) We still have the old camera that works quite well, but it's so big and bulky compared to my little coolpix. Yes, I'm pouting. Wah!

Long story short, I decide I can't live without my little compact camera. I found a Canon sure-shot at local Walmart for only 88 bucks. Features are similar to the old one. We'll see how it does.

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Alaska Trip 2011: May 21-22 - How Will We Know if the World Ends?

This is page 10 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.

Today we ventured back into the Yukon Territory wilderness. So if the world ended today as predicted, how would we know? No cell serice, no internet, no radio... Maybe the whole thing will pass us by if they don't know we are here? Our next major destination is Whitehorse, the Yukon capital. Looks like it will take us two days to get there.

Watson Lake to Teslin

There was an old log cabin along the road at this pullout. No indication around as to what it was for or how long it had been there.

From the same pullout, here is a view of the road ahead. This is near the Swift River.

Seems like we have always been able to find a nice, scenic spot to stop for lunch. Maybe it's because there just aren't that many ugly places. A couple of these are windshield shots, from before we pulled over for lunch.

Here is a view looking down into the valley from our pullout. This marshy area looked like it would be a good place to spot moose, but we still didn't see any.

Several places along the road here, there are rocky embankments like the one in these pictures. People have taken the larger rocks and spelled out messages or names. It's hard to see in these pictures without looking at the larger view, but it was plain as day when I took the pictures.

Rancheria Falls

This area had a nice nature trail to the falls. Ok, I admit I did not walk all the way to the falls, but I did get some nice pictures of the boreal forest along the trail. A boreal forest is the northern forest south of the arctic tree line. The trees are mostly pine and spruce, with aspens in some areas. The ground is frequently covered with moss, rather than other ground cover.

Gnarly old tree trunk!

I could be wrong, but I think this is moose scat. I put my foot in the picture (but hopefully not the scat!) to show the relative size - it's much larger than deer scat. But I'm not a wildlife expert, so please feel free to set me straight if I am wrong.

This is as close as we have come to seeing the elusive moose (elusive to us anyway) but we are hot on the trail.

Still No Moose

Another beautiful overlook, with lake and marsh below, but still no moose. There were actually two lakes you could see from this overlook. One of them was frozen, the other was not.

Still no Cell Service

We arrived in Teslin YT, where once again the phone showed service, but still calls would not go through. Maybe the world really did end, and we just don't know about it yet? (Just joking of course.)

We had a beaautiful view of the lake, and might have rested a day or two here if we had cell service and good internet. But we have been several days where no one could reach us if they needed to. We did manage to get a connection by going up to the restaurant, but that was about it. I'm still way behind on the journal, but I am NOT going to upload pictures at Canadian rates ($2 per megabyte).

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining - just telling the story of our trip. We fully expected to go through areas where there would be no service, but this one caught us off guard. Nothing in our research indicated we would be quite so long without service. What made it frustrating was that there were a couple phone calls we needed to make. I really did expect to make connection in the towns along the way. Live and learn.

May 22, Looks Like the World Did Not End After All

Or if it did, we missed it.

Teslin advertises itself as the Gateway to the Southern Lakes. I guess all things are relative. It's hard to get your mind around something north of the 60th parallel being referred to as "southern" but it is, after all, southern Yukon. There are a number of lakes around here, and it appears water-related recreation abounds in the summer.

Gloomy, Rainy Day

Considering we have been on the road for three weeks, and it is spring, we really haven't had an extraordinary amount of rain, and most of it has been light. So I can't complain when we have a rainy day here and there. It is to be expected. These windshield shots show rain spots and occasional wiper blades. It's all part of the story.

It's just as well it was rainy today - It seems this stretch of road does not have very many pullouts. We did find one in time for lunch, and the rain had slowed down a bit, so we got some pictures without the wipers in the way. Clouds are still obscuring the mountains though.

Marsh Lake

Just in case you were missing those rainy windshield shots, here are a couple more. This is one of the southern lakes, Marsh Lake. It was just thawing, so it was part water, and part broken ice. The ice seemed to have an aqua or green color to it, and I was wondering if it was an illusion due to the ice. These pictures did not pick up the color very well. Too gray out, I guess.

Back to Civilization

We arrived in Whitehorse on Sunday afternoon, and were relieved to find that we finally had cell service. We will stay here two or three days, depending on what there is to see and so. So far, we have traveled 3500 miles, not counting separate sightseeing trips in the trailblazer.

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