Welcome to the Yukon!

Blog for July 18, 2016

The caravan travels on a different schedule than we are used to. This morning we planned to leave the RV park at 8 a.m. (most days we are just waking up at 8 a.m. and it takes a minimum of 2 hours from get-up time until we have had our breakfast, packed the Airstream for travel, hitched-up and be ready to roll) but by that time today, we were almost the last of the 35 units to depart. The official time to be out of the RV park was 8:30 a.m., so you can see that there are a bunch of early risers traveling with us.

The early drive today was beautiful, through a canyon with the beautiful, turquoise-colored Toad River running through it.

“Originally, all of the rock of the Canadian Rockies lay flat on the shallow sea bed of the western continental shelf where it had accumulated grain by grain for over a billion years. About 175 million years ago the continent of North America began to move westward, overriding the Pacific floor and colliding with offshore chains of islands.

“The continental shelf was caught in the squeeze. The flat-lying layers slowly buckled into folds like those in the picture below. As time passed, folded mountain ranges spring up across British Columbia. By 120 million years ago, the Rockies were showing above the sea. They grew for another 75 million years, rising faster than erosion could tear them down - likely reaching Himalayan heights. Active mountain building ended in the Canadian Rockies some 45 million years ago. The peaks have since been eroded to a small fraction of their original size.” (Information panel at turnout)

Folded Mountain

Toad River through Peterson Canyon.

Mountain peaks near Muncho Lake.

Mucho Lake is one of the largest natural lakes in the Canadian Rockies.

A three and a half mile stretch of road construction. We arrived at the end of the line just as the lead car arrived from the other direction. A sign by the side of the road indicated that there would be up to a 20-minute wait for the lead car. We were lucky!

We were impressed with the size of this truck - see that driver by the from right tire? The truck is in the previous picture, too.

Lower Laird River bridge, the only remaining suspension bridge on the Alaska Highway.

We were warned to watch for bison on the stretch of road between Laird River and Watson Lake, today’s destination.

Just after Frederick took the above picture - there he was. This is a woodland bison, different from the prairie bison.

Also between Laird River and Watson Lake is evidence of a forest fire in 2009. It jumped the highway and halted traffic.

Two pictures taken at Allen’s Lookout. Legend has it that a band of outlaws took advantage of this sweeping view of the Liard River to attack and rob riverboats. This is looking south, and…

this is north.

A cairn at the look-out is dedicated to the surveyors of the Alaska Highway. 

We reach the Yukon Territory. Actually we crossed over the border between British Columbia and the Yukon Territory 6 times as the highway dips up and down across the border.

Airstreams invade Watson Lake, YT. We arrived at Watson Lake shortly before 1 p.m. and we are not supposed to check in at the RV park until 2 p.m. Gave us time to visit the grocery store.