Whitehorse to historic mile 1169, Alaska highway

What an incredible day. For a change we awoke to sunny skies with bonus mild temperatures. We drove about 240 miles with non-stop gorgeous scenery. The route was all at ~low elevation, mostly about 700 meters (the GPS is set to metric now so we can use it as the speedometer without doing math).

We were always in sight of mountains, mostly snow capped.

I had read that the highway from Whitehorse to the Alaska border was the worst section of the Alaska Highway to drive because frost heaves are the rule of the day. It was quite lumpy at times, and we definitely slowed down, but it was much better than last year according to someone we met along the way.





Beware of orange signs and flags. They can mark serious heaves.










A bit of construction to level out things.

A rare sight on the Alaska Highway - an intersection and a decision as to which way to go.

This is Haines Junction, in the Yukon, yet all the destination choices on the signs are in Alaska.

The southern shore of Kluane Lake.

We drove around the end of the lake across a large aluvial fan (?) - huge expanse of gravel that looked like it must be under running water sometimes.

Sheep warning. They were in the mountains although we didn't see them - yet.

Lunch stop along still quite frozen Kluane Lake.

We didn't see sheep in the hills until we dug out the binoculars.

 

Oh, there they are.

Roadside signs were common telling what was available in the community ahead.

I was surprised to see electricity featured along with fuel, food, lodging, etc. It appears you can also get cell phone coverage.

From a Yukon communities web site, I read that mail is delivered here three days a week, and a bank is open Mondays and Fridays. Schooling only goes to 8th grade, then one has to move or board the kids at Whitehorse or Haines Junction for high school. Wow. What a difference being this remote.

We drove farther than planned, stopping at Discovery Yukon Lodgings, a park recommended in Church's guide book. As we approached, the proprietors were just removing barrels blocking the driveway. If we had been 15 minutes earlier, we would have thought them closed as others in our fleet did to their dismay. Good thing we slept in this morning.

The owners met us and explained that they were not fully open as they were waiting for a fuel delivery, and they'd be shutting off the generator when they went to bed. As a result we'd get a reduced price which they would come by to get later. We mentioned we didn't need the generator, but we did take advantage of it.

The place has an interesting collection of stuff around. Amanda, who showed us to our campsite, took off to town (?). A fellow (turned out to be her husband, Bob, a fun guy) started to chat with us. I was looking at an old military vehicle that was used in the construction of the highway. He said "would you like a ride? It runs". We sort of declined, but he proceeded to start it up, then told me to get in and take it for a spin around the grounds which we did. We were glad the property was flat as the brake pedal went to the floor when I tried to stop. It is a 1942 Dodge 6-wheel-drive open truck.

He told us quite a bit about the history of the highway then said we should take a nearby Kawasaki mule (ATV) down to the bridge to see some of the original wood that was still evident from the 1942 bridge. We started to walk to the bridge when he came driving up in the mule and again offered it, this time mentioning something about a bear. We took the mule.


We may have brought the campground business as about 10 other rigs pulled in after our debut for the season.


Today is the first we've encountered many mosquitoes probably attributable to the pond on the property. Won't be the last I suspect.  

[Actually, we never were bothered by them again. Timing is important.]

Bob lit the campfire which we enjoyed. We got to meet more of our classmates.

We would highly recommend this campground. If you are early or late in the season you should email or call them to confirm that they are open. When we were there, their phone wasn't working (see next post for how that works), but email was.

Wildlife for the day - much less than yesterday - 3 bald eagles before we got out of Whitehorse, a bunch of Dall's sheep high up on a mountain, and 1 grizzly.





Today: 244 miles, 328 photos! Total miles 3563.