Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

Our time in Watson Lake was interesting and best of all, restful.  We had an opportunity to visit their Northern Lights Center which was not exactly what we thought it would be but was certainly interesting.  It is a planetarium dedicated to the science and myth of the northern lights.  The first half of the presentation focused on black holes.  While that is something that we both find very interesting, it was not what we expected.  Still, we learned a few things and it was a visually beautiful presentation.  The northern lights portions was very good.  We learned much we did not know and enjoyed seeing the video taken by a scientist who has studied the lights and taken pictures all over in areas where the lights are most active.  I had no idea that the northern and southern lights are actually mirror images of each other.  Nor did I know that there is actually a ring around the earth where the lights are found and it can even be seen from space.

There is a lovely little lake there called Wye Lake.  There is a nice nature hiking trail that travels around the lake and covers just under two miles.  We took Charlotte and Savannah on a hike around the lake.  There were lots of signs highlighting the plants found there and we learned a good bit.  It was a good stretch of the leg.

It is also home to the Watson Lake Signpost Forest.  It is actually a large area of sign posts from all over the world.  It was started by a U.S. Army soldier who worked on the Alaska Highway.  He was homesick and put up a sign showing the distance and direction to his home.  It grew from there.  Today there are more than 75,000 signs and visitors are encouraged to add their own.  What a hoot!

Speaking of the Alaska Highway, I was surprised to learn that the entire highway was constructed in only eight months!  Considering it covers about 1,488 miles that was quite a feat.  But of course, it had a military function so I am sure that played a big part in the speed.

Sunday afternoon brought rain and the temperatures dropped 15 degrees in under an hour.  When we departed Monday morning, the air was cold and the skies threatened rain.  We set out bound for Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory.  It is a distance of 300 miles so we figured it would take us the better part of the day given how the roads have been so far.  To our delight, the road was very good even with the couple of stretches of gravel.  There are lots of signs and red cones with flags along the way to warn of rough roads and ice heaves as well.  We were able to average 50 mph most of the way.  We had hoped we would see Caribou and Moose as the area we traveled was known to have a stable Caribou herd and there is lots of wetlands that are home to Moose, but alas we saw none.

The sky finally cleared and the sun lit the beautiful landscape.










 Moose and Caribou -- well almost.  These statues were the closest we got to them.

There are so many warnings about taking care to make sure camp fires are totally out.  In BC, there is a total ban on camp fires as already they have 15 wild fires burning.  We saw evidence of previous fires marring the face of the land.

One of many lovely lakes and ponds we passed.  All along the way water plays a big part in the landscape whether it is rivers, creeks or larger.  One would think we would see a moose!

TESL River Bridge is the third longest water span on the highway.  It was constructed with very high clearance to allow steamers to pass under it en route from Whitehorse to Teslin.  After the Alaska Highway was completed, the steamers were no longer used.

Whitehorse at last!  We will spend three or four nights here taking advantage of the many sights. We are staying at the Country In RV Park quite close to downtown.  Our first order of business was to wash our RV.  Lots of the parks provide facilities to wash RVs and trucks and ours certainly was in need.  Between the dust and the bugs, it was a mess.

While we were setting up, we met a nice couple.  The wife is from Louisiana and the husband from Alaska.  The winter in Baton Rouge and summer in Anchorage.  What a life!