OMG!!

Here are Saturday’s top three picks - 1) Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, 2) Kluane National Park in the Yukon Territory and 3) Cottonwood RV Park on Kluane Lake.

Haines Junction - Home to over 800 residents, many of whom commute to Whitehorse for work (about 100 miles one way!). They at least have eagles to soar for them along the road -

We interrupted this eagle while it was lunching off to the side of the road.
It immediately headed for the trees.

The look seems to be saying "thanks for screwing up my lunch".

Now it is just waiting for us to move on down the road.

For those coming or going to Alaska - Haines Junction is a decision point. Does one head south to Haines, Alaska or north to Fairbanks, Alaska. (Haines Junction is, however, still in the Yukon.)

Hang a right!

But, Haines Junction is much more than a decision point. It is surrounded with spectacular mountain views in every direction, borders on the Kluane NP and has the Kluane Lake (largest lake in the Yukon) nearby. The Village Monument - probably the most photographed spot in Haines Junction - is a ‘tribute’ to the incredible range of wildlife that packs the nearby National Park. It is a 24-foot-high sculpture of a mountain displaying the Dall sheep, caribou, moose, wolves and grizzly and black bears that inhabit the area.

The most shot image in Haines Junction. Perhaps that is because, like us, animal pictures are
needed to show off to family and friends. Most of the animals are still avoiding us.

Here are today's moose and dall sheep sightings.

Ahwww, look at the grizzly and elk. Aren't they handsome?

Haines Junction also houses the Visitor Centre for the Kluane National Park, a beautiful little ‘Welcome Park’, many delightful little restaurants, a bakery that will put pounds on with the smells, the proverbial General Store and scenery, scenery and more scenery!

I'm enjoying the view of the beginnings of the Kluane mountain range from the
Welcome Park.

Kluane National Park - Almost 14,000 sq. miles of protected, pristine wilderness which includes Icefield Ranges that are Canada’s highest and the world’s largest nonpolar alpine ice field. This NP is 80% ice and rock! Very little green. AND - remember those UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Jasper and Banff NP’s along with other surrounding parks and Glacier NP (US) combined with Waterton NP (Canada)) - well, Kluane NP and Reserve along with Alaska’s Glacier Bay NP and Wrangell-St. Elias NP (visiting next week) are all another joint UNESCO World Heritage Site!

The Alaska Highway parallels the Kluane Ranges (which are part of the St. Elias Mountains - and all are part of the NP) through this stretch - providing the stunning scenery.

The Kluane Mountains are beautiful and in vivid color right now. The cloud cover isn't too shabby either.

Then - the Kluane Lake (largest lake in the Yukon Territory) pops up. Just don’t know how much more of this beauty we can take. Which brings us to -

Cottonwood RV Park on the Kluane Lake - A Wilderness Paradise! Probably the first private park we have pulled into that looked as beautiful as the pictures. We are right on the lake with unbelievable views out our picture window - yet again!!!! Just the way we like to camp;-) The pictures will tell the story -

Another lake, another front row seat. I'm afraid we are spoiling Magic.

Elizabeth couldn't wait to get the S'mores - but catch the view!!

Wine, cheese and a warm fire (along with the blue anti-mosquito machines)
I saw a bumper sticker today that said
"There is not a single mosquito in the Yukon. They all are married and have very large families".

Caught in the act again. Never could get the ducks to swim close enough for a usable shot.

Are the S'mores ready yet???

Boil and bubble, toil and trouble.
The views across Kluane Lake from our campsite are stupendous.
The clouds just keep slowly roiling and morphing the shadows on the ground beneath them.

We understand that there is a grizzly bear family living on this mountain across from our campground.
And they visit the camp regularly. Still waiting for that to happen. Camera at the ready, of course.

Sunday was just a lazy day no matter how you look at it. We did manage a short (only about 1.5 miles) interpretive hike on the old Alaska Highway to Soldier’s Summit, the point where the ribbon cutting celebration took place to ‘open’ the highway on November 20, 1942. Hiking this original portion of the Highway, we were very grateful for the many improvements over the years -

The old Al-Can Highway can be seen in the foreground, with the new highway in the background.

Another view of the old highway. It is hard for me to believe that my Uncle Pete and his family of 5 drove from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Fairbanks, Alaska on this old highway.
This was in 1959 in a 1955 Chevy station wagon.

Now all we have to watch out for are limited shoulders and the ‘frost heaves’! Frost heaves result from ice forming beneath the surface of soil during freezing conditions in the atmosphere and causes the road to ‘buckle’;-( The Canadian Roads Dept. is fairly good at placing warnings where this has occurred - which is important. If one does NOT slow down before going over this abrupt roller coaster - especially in something like Magic - one winds up airborne*@$%@! One becomes VERY adept at reading the warning signs VERY quickly. Those provided by the Roads Dept. consist of 1) the diamond shaped warning sign for ‘bumps’ just before you hit the frost heave - this is the least used method and 2) the little orange flag by the side of the road at the point where the frost heave actually is - more commonly used BUT, not at every frost heave.

The dreaded bump sign and red flags mean "watch out - frost heaves/ROUGH road ahead".

Then there is the third warning sign - not left by the Roads Dept. at all - but by some unsuspecting motorist!! The skid marks -

We keep our eyes pealed. Skid marks are another warning sign that frost heaves are imminent.

The driver’s eyes are glued to the road watching for these skid marks at all times!!

One other interesting bit of history on the Highway Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and the Alaska Highway (which by now I am enamored with, in case you couldn’t tell) - at the summit there is a recorded CBC news broadcast from the day of the ceremony, which is quite interesting to listen to. There are also the flags of the US and Canada at the spot. However, all the pictures of the days festivities show the US flag and the Union Jack - of course, it was 1942!

At Soldier Summit, where Al-Can Highway ribbon cutting ceremony was held.

On our way again tomorrow - Alaska or bust!

Lots of Love to you all - and hope you are enjoying some of this -

E & G

Some Truly Amazing 'Stuff'

The Alaska Highway - It is hard to believe that as little as 70 years ago there was no road (not even a bad one) connecting the lower 48 states with Alaska - which means there also was no road in this part of the Yukon territory! Although the potential of such a road had been studied as early as 1930, under President Herbert Hoover, it was not until the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, that it was deemed a military necessity. President Roosevelt authorized construction of the “Alcan” Highway (the military acronym for the Alaska-Canada Highway) on February 11, 1942. The US secured rights-of-way through Canada in March. The formal agreement between the 2 countries stipulated that the US pay for construction and turn over the Canadian portion of the highway to the Canadian government after the war ended. In turn, Canada furnished the right-of-way; waived import duties, sales tax, income tax and immigration regulations; and provided construction materials along the route.

Also during that first month was a massive mobilization of men and equipment. There was the organization of civilian engineers, trucks, road-building equipment, office furniture, food, tents and other supplies - all to be located and shipped north. By June (less than 3 months from the start) more than 10,000 American troops had poured into the Canadian North. Guess they didn’t have a Congress and media to debate all the pro’s and con’s for 2 years before they went to work!!!!

Some sections of the Alaska Highway followed existing winter roads, summer pack trails and winter trap lines. Where no trails existed, reconnaissance parties scouted through river valleys and mountain passes, often struggling through waist-deep snow and climbing over boulders as big as boxcars, to find the best route. Recon parties often depended on local guides to help locate possible routes.

In June, 1942, the Japanese invaded Attu and Kiska Islands in the Aleutians, adding a new sense of urgency to completion of the Alcan. Crews working from east and west connected at Contact Creek on September 15, 1942. By October, it was possible for vehicles to travel the entire length of the highway. The Alcan Highway was officially renamed the Alaska Highway in March, 1943, and opened to the public in 1948.

If you travel in this part of the world and see how huge this territory is - it is unbelievable to think it possible to lay down 1,534 miles of highway through this wilderness in just 8 months and 23 days!! Especially when it is not in your country - not on land you own - and not close to any normal supply outlets! An amazing feat. Today, we can’t resurface an existing road of this distance in that amount of time;-(

Ah, we have finally made it to the Al-Can Highway.

The Yukon Territory & Whitehorse - Perhaps the following information on the Yukon Territory will help put the enormity of the above project in some kind of context. As one drives into the Yukon, the welcome sign says “Larger than Life”!

The Yukon Territory certainly is larger than life.

This is true. Not sure I can explain, but when we turned the corner onto the Alaska Highway into the Yukon Territory it DID appear that the land went on forever. That it truly is “Larger than Life”!! The area of the Yukon Territory is almost 190,000 square miles - the approximate equivalent of California and South Carolina added together. Yet the total population of the entire area is 33,000!! AND, 26,000 of those people live in the capital of the Yukon - Whitehorse. (I have NOT missed any ‘0’s’ here. The population of the entire Yukon Territory - an area equivalent to the combined area of California and South Carolina - is approximately that of the county we live in!!) And this is today - imagine the population back in the 1940’s when the Highway was being built. Not much in the way of man power in the area to call on for help.

A side note - 33,000 is the human population. The moose population is 50,000 and the caribou population is 160,000! (Not sure how they get these counts - but, it is on the list of Quick Facts from the Yukon Tourism and Culture.) So far - this is the only moose or caribou we have seen -

ANOTHER day where this is the only sighting of a Caribou/Moose/Elk.
We know they outnumber humans by a large multiple, but so far they have laid low.

Whitehorse is the Yukon’s capital city and is known as “The Wilderness City” due to the spectacular surroundings.

Welcome to the largest city in the Yukon Territory

It sits on the Yukon River and is named after the historic rapids which resembled the flowing manes of charging white horses. On the “Trail of 1898”, the stampeders had to bypass the treacherous water of the White Horse Rapids, which became known as the greatest peril on the trail. Unfortunately, construction of the Whitehorse hydro-electric dam in 1958 tamed the rapids - BUT, didn’t diminish the Yukon River’s place in the stat books as the fourth longest river in North America - measuring nearly 2,000 miles.

Headwaters of the Yukon River.

Whitehorse came about because of the Gold Rush and grew because of the railroad. Two entrepreneurs capitalized on the obstacles presented by the rapids in 1897 by building tramways to carry goods and small boats around the rapids. A roadhouse and saloon provided lodging and refreshments (and whatever else) to the tens of thousands of gold seekers on their way to the Klondike. In 1900, construction of the White Pass & Yukon Route railway from Skagway to a point past the rapids was completed and Whitehorse became a railhead. For years, Whitehorse continued its role connecting rail service from Skagway to the south with riverboat traffic to Dawson to the north. Then in 1942, the thousands of American Army personnel arrived to build the Alcan Highway and Whitehorse was the western base. After a bit of a lull for Whitehorse, the Alaska Highway was opened to civilian traffic and people like us began making treks to Alaska;-) This maintained the survival of Whitehorse - as it became a major stop on the journey, since it is the only city of any size on a 750 mile stretch of highway;-)

Many of the buildings still in use in Whitehorse emphasize the many lives - from gold rush days to transportation days to the tourism of today. One of the local restaurants (a lunch spot of ours one afternoon) is housed in just such a place. The Klondike Rib & Salmon is housed in the two oldest buildings still in use in the Yukon’s Capital. The dining room was originally opened as a tent frame bakery around 1900 to serve all those miners. In 1929 the building became a mail and freight business - Klondike Airways. Using snowmobiles and caterpillars, the company carried about 110,000 lbs of mail north to Dawson City each year. Before 1921 only first class mail was delivered in the winter. The rest of the mail waited in Whitehorse for the ice to break up and the steamers to sail - this usually happened sometime in May!!!! No FedEx back then!! In the 1930’s the building was used as a carpentry shop making, among other things, coffins. Thankfully for the restaurant - that business ‘died’ to allow the current quaint restaurant - which we thoroughly enjoyed;-)

The halibut fish and chips and caribou burgers were tasty.
The historical photos inside gave a good sense of the city over the last century.

Whitehorse sits at or close to many junctions, which allow for beautiful and interesting side trips.

Skagway - The oldest incorporated city in Alaska (1900), owing its birth to the Klondike Gold Rush. Skagway boomed as thousands of gold seekers arrived to follow the White Pass and Chilkoot trails to the Yukon goldfields. In July 1897, the first boatloads of stampeders bound for the Klondike landed at Skagway. By October 1897, according to a North West Mounted Police report,, Skagway had grown “from a concourse of tents to a fair-sized town, with well-laid-out streets and numerous frame buildings, stores, saloons, gambling houses, dance houses and a population of about 20,000.” Customs office records for 1898 show that in the month of February alone 5,000 people landed at Skagway!! By the summer of 1899 the stampede was all but over - and by 1903 the population had dwindled to 500. Fortunes come and fortunes go!! BUT, during the stampede that good old railroad - the White Pass & Yukon Route railway - turned Skagway into a terminus for the connection to Whitehorse. This coupled with its port allowed Skagway to persist. The port is Skagway’s mainstay even today as cruise ships line the docks in the summer making the town look as it might have during those stampede days -

Downtown Skagway, AK with one of the the five cruise ships that were in port while we were there.

For those of us who arrive by car instead of cruise ship, the drive on the South Klondike Highway from Whitehorse is beautiful and scenic as it crosses the border back into the US. It consists of lake after lake surrounded by the glacier capped mountains. And - if you are lucky as we were - the lakes seem like mirrors doubling the magnificence of the scenery!!!

Rainbow Lake perched alongside the Klondike Highway from Whitehorse, YT to Skagway, AK.

Old mining mill on the banks of Lake Tutshi.

The Windy Arm branch of Tagish Lake .

Windy Arm goes on for awhile.

And - maybe - there might also be a bear or two along the way -

We found this black bear grazing along side the road. It didn't seem too concerned with our presence ...

until another car, a truck, and a bus stopped to take a look.

It decided to try and leave by way of the steep rock wall...

After a couple of minutes, changed its mind and came back down to continue eating.

On our return drive to Whitehorse, we ran into this bear.
We are fairly sure it was the same one we saw that morning.

Atlin - A side trip to Atlin, a small community of 500 residents, will take you back into British Columbia (BC) to the northernmost town in the province. Most of these residents, however, consider themselves Yukoners, with the town’s designation as BC as a mere ‘accident of geography’. It is geography, though, that gives Atlin its beauty as it sits on the crystal clear water of the 90-mile Atlin Lake. Surrounded by spectacular mountains, Atlin Lake is the largest natural lake in BC.

A view across Little Atlin Lake.

Atlin was also ‘made’ by the gold rush. The Atlin Gold Rush is considered BC’s last great stampede, occurring after two miners hit pay dirt nearby in 1898. The news of the pair’s discovery brought nearly 5,000 gold-seeking hopefuls to Atlin. By 1899, Atlin was booming with trading posts and services that catered to the influx of residents - whose numbers were pushing 10,000!! Just as with Skagway - the population dwindled as quickly as it rose.

However, in the 1920’s Atlin was a popular vacation destination for the world’s wealthy elite. A local English Inn was particularly popular with the 110-passenger steamer making trips to the remote Inn twice weekly! In the roaring ‘20s the Inn hosted such notables as President Roosevelt and Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales. Many of the old historic buildings were a ‘feast’ for Gary’s trigger finger -

Good lunch at the Pine Tree. The tire repair shop also served the local's hardware and auto parts needs.

Just liked the looks of these old buildings in Atlin.

Boats such as this were workhorses on Atlin Lake.

Seemed like most of the miners laid to rest here were in their 20's and 30's.

Much of the area around Whitehorse has the fingerprints of the US Army. Since there was little (or no) development in this area until the Army was here creating the Alcan Highway - they took the opportunity to name the various lakes, mountains and streams. For instance - on the way to Atlin we passed over the Snafu and Tarfu Creeks. Many of you will know that these are Army acronyms for “Situation Normal All ‘Fouled’ Up” (or whatever “F” work you think the military might use) and “Things Are Really ‘Fouled’ Up”!!!

In between these day trips there was plenty to do in Whitehorse - golf a couple of days, local artists galleries, museums - and, of course, the obligatory restocking at WalMart;-)

Today was 4 weeks on the road - and we are still speaking and enjoying each other. Tomorrow we begin traveling again and not sure when we will have another internet connection. So - love to you all - and hope to ‘talk’ to you again in a few days -

XOXOXOXO

Elizabeth & Gary

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Sunday did take us north. After a leisurely morning and a fond farewell to Chuck and Grace, we ‘inched’ our way north. Ninety miles - 4 hours!! A combination of ‘not the best’ road and no need to hurry. Most of the roads up here are two lanes - one in each direction. The difference in a ‘major’ highway to a very small side road is the width of the two lanes, a shoulder (or not) and markings. This was our ‘smaller side road’ for today - width about 1 1/2 lanes, no shoulder and you get to drive where you want -

Headed north to check on the fire and road closure - not-so-wide road.

About 4PM the road closure appeared before us.

Road closed for the night. There should be an escorted caravan at 8 am of all goes well.

The closure was actually about 30 miles from the fire zone - but, was at a large rest area (the last one before the fire) where the waiting vehicles could ‘stage’. AND - that is just what happened. We were only the second vehicle when we arrived, but the area filled quickly. The highway maintenance woman told us there would not be any further escorting done on Sunday - but, the fire and weather permitting, they would escort a group through at 8 in the morning. So - we picked a good spot for Magic and set up for the night. This was much like the shuttle launch in Florida this past spring. Everyone was there for “the event” at 8 in the morning - this time it was an escort through a forrest fire!! And, there was nothing to do but have a communal party until then;-))

By morning between 40 and 50 vehicles had accumulated. (The first day they did the ‘escort thing’ they had 141 vehicles!!! No wonder they started to escort through - they had to do something with all those people.) Everyone was up by about 6 and ‘bugging’ those in charge about - how soon we would go?? Would we go?? Elizabeth included -

7 a.m. Elizabeth is checking with the caravan escort to see if we are still a go. Magic is to the right of the blue semi.

At 7:30 the “Start Your Engines” call went out and we were on our way;-) We had ourselves a convoy, good buddy!!

Breaker - Breaker - This is the Magic Bus.

As mentioned above - we had about 30 miles to go before we even got close to the fire. Fortunately, even though the road was narrow it was good. AND, there was only traffic one way so we could drive down the middle. Even though we were in a convoy, we made good time. Then we hit the fire area, which extended for about 10 miles. It was smokey - and there were hot spots fairly close to the road;-(

The fire and smoke along the route was very eerie.

Flare ups were still occurring along the roadside.

Can’t tell you how glad we were to get to the other side!! About ten miles the other side of the fire were the people headed south all lined up - waiting for the escort to turn around and take them through.

This line of vehicles was waiting their turn at the north end.
Gives an idea of the organized chaos.

Here we hit several mileposts in our journey - 1) we passed from British Columbia into the Yukon Territory, which made Gary feel like Sgt. Preston and made Elizabeth feel like we were finally out in the hinterlands,

Welcome to the Yukon Territory

2) we turned onto the Alaska Highway - FINALLY after more than 3 weeks on the road we made it to the Alaska Highway!!!! and 3) we both felt like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders. Neither of us realized how much the fire and waiting on the fire had stressed us out;-( We were just sooooooo happy to be on the other side and on our way again.

Now good road awaited us and it was only 9AM. Even the moose signs seemed hilarious, as we had seen them continuously since entering Canada - and hadn’t seen a one!!

This was the only animal we saw all day...

Suddenly the 200 miles to Whitehorse seemed like a piece of cake, and the one night stops in between went by the wayside. We had to admit we were both ready for a ‘city’ - so Whitehorse became the destination. That would be our base for the next 4-5 days and we would do side-trips from there. Hi Country RV Park was calling with all the necessities - full hook-ups, cable TV, WiFi (and fast), laundry - and the ever necessary WalMart nearby. Whitehorse here we come -

We arrived at out destination, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.

Thanks for listening - so glad to be on the other side -

XOXOOXOXO - E & G

The Grand Canyon of the Stikine

While waiting for the fire to settle down and the road to open up - a side day trip was on the agenda for Saturday. So - off to see the Grand Canyon of the Stikine. I must admit, after growing up in Arizona, there was a little bit of smug intrigue on my part;-) “Where is this??” you might ask. In the last posting there was a fairly lengthly discussion on Telegraph Creek - a rose by another name!!

You can get a bit of background on Telegraph Creek (why its name) from the last posting. Here is NEW information for you to digest:

Telegraph Creek Road was built in 1922 and was the first road into this remote area of northern British Columbia, long the domain of the First Nations Tahltan people. The 70 mile forest service road is a narrow gravel road with several sets of steep, sharp switchbacks. The caution is to “drive only in good weather conditions and do NOT take large RV’s”!! This one was for Magic KBUS - leaving Magic at the campground. These pictures will give you an idea - BUT, you really had to be here. They ease you in slowly - the same way we progressed through the adventure. Even my knees were knocking as we started up the really narrow, straight up in the air portion of this road (Elizabeth was driving and a good thing as that put afraid-of-heights Gary further on the inside)!

The long and winding road to Telegraph Creek.

What? Us worry?

Thanks goodness our brakes didn't go out on that stretch!

Settlement of the region grew with the discovery of gold on the Stikine River in 1861. Efforts to establish a transatlantic telegraph line also brought attention to the area in the 1860’s. The Cassiar (1873-1876) and the Klondike (1897-1898) gold rushes contributed to the growth of Telegraph Creek.

The scenery along this road is remarkable, with views of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine River. At one point on the narrow road you are on a ‘mesa’ that looks down one side to the Stikine River and the other side of the road looks down on the Tuya (which merges with the Stikine just down river). The canyon, and its walls, are exquisite. Interesting, also, that leaves seem to be already changing even though there are still about 18 hours of light.

Can you see the fire from here?

The Stikine River canyon. No pushing, please.

We just can't get enough of this scenery.

This canyon wall looks like a big monster to me. Can you see the eyes and nose?

As you can see the summer season is short here. The leaves on some of the
ground cover and the aspens are already beginning to turn.

The destination is Telegraph Creek, a mostly-Tahltan (First Nations) community of about 400. THE place to see in Telegraph Creek is the Stikine River Song, housed in the original 1898 Hudson’s Bay outpost (there is Hudson Bay again!). We did get a look at the building from the outside. But, a very unfortunate event had occurred a few days before and the owner of the River Song died as a result. (This area has such a close knit community even though the ‘communities’ are hundreds of miles apart - we actually heard the news of this death in Stewart - 250 miles south of here!) Everything in town was closed for the services (something we knew before venturing in this direction) but, we wanted to see the scenery.

The old crock pot was just finishing our pork and sauerkraut dinner when we arrived back at Magic. After a lovely visit with our ‘landlords’ for the last couple of days, Chuck and Grace, we sat back and enjoyed the lake one more evening. (Chuck and Grace, own this campground and live here in the summer. They spend their winters in Arizona, just as many of the Canadians we have met along our trail. Seems that Yuma??? is a favorite for the RV set!! They go across the border into Mexico for all their prescriptions and dental work!! Thought Canada had the medical plan we wanted?!?!? Why do all the Canadian seniors go to Mexico???)

Sunday may take us a little further north so we can be there on Monday for the 8AM escort through the closed portion of road due to the forrest fire. Or - maybe the rain Saturday night will have allowed the opening of the road. It’s always a mystery;-)

Love to all - E & G