Day 13: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory to Tok, Alaska

Sprinkles!

Tommy, Mom, Trudy, Dad: clearly loving their gourmet feast.

A Canada must... right?

As we headed out of Whitehorse, Dad and I decided we needed to hit up Tim Horton’s for breakfast once before we left Canada (even though my parents have one a few miles from their house). We “took the scenic route” around town before ending up back downtown to hit up the Tim Horton’s near the visitor center, which we’d seen the day before. My goal was to use up as much Canadian money as I could, so I bought breakfast for everyone. Desi and Tommy got donuts (D only ate the sprinkles off and gave the rest to Tommy; good thing he’d already eaten breakfast), Mom and I got bagels (I loved my pretzel bagel!), and Dad got a breakfast sandwich and a donut. I also grabbed a box of donut holes to go and a shot of espresso for a bit of energy. I’m not much of a coffee drinker, so the caffeine in coffee really hits me. It was good.

Decent-looking roads; beware the frost heaves!

Unbeatable views! Lake Kluane

Unbeatable views! Lake Kluane

The drive out of Canada was long and arduous. Yukon’s road’s towards Alaska are the worst we experienced. The pavement is damaged as a result of thawing permafrost and results in something called frost heaves, bumps and waves in the roadway that can be minor or quite large. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me anxious to be riding an RV over the frost heaves. In my Outback, they wouldn’t have been so bad, but RVs don’t provide the smoothest ride, plus there’s the nagging fear in the back of your mind that they could flip, so it made for a long drive. In addition, the road was gravel for a long portion, which made the drive that much more unpleasant.

Vent experiment to reduce thawing that creates frost heaves

Workers wetting the road to cut down on dust

That's not scary at all

And then the roads took a turn for the worst...

A highlight of the drive through the Yukon was the spot where we stopped for a picnic lunch out of the camper. We stopped at Horseshoe Bay along Kluane Lake and it offered an amazingly gorgeous mountain view. The sky was clear, the air was crisp, and a simple sandwich never tasted so good. Desmond wanted to explore a bit, so we hiked away from the camper and viewed the lake from a few other points while he climbed on rocks and dug through the gravel.

Lunch at Lake Kluane

Another feature of note along the Alaska Highway, which started in Canada and continued on into Alaska were rock messages. Apparently, they were started by a swim team in the 1990s and people continue to put messages into the sides of the highway with rocks. Usually, they are someone’s name or a location. My favorite was the one that said, “ROCKS.” Haha.

Rock writing

Our last stop out of Canada was a place called Buckshot Betty’s. Dad wanted to try to run through some of his Canadian dollars, so we all bought some ice cream bars and ate them on the deck of the little log diner. 

We jumped back into the RV and headed to border crossing, which went smoothly and then we were in Alaska! Immediately, the roads improved (although later we would experience some construction and frost heaves; though none were as bad as the Yukon roads) and I noticed some old telephone poles, which even had the old glass insulators on them. I’ve never seen those in use; I was fascinated with their appearance and couldn’t keep my eyes off of them.

Old insulators on telephone poles. Alaska... leading the future!

We arrived at our destination for the evening, Tok, Alaska, which is apparently the dog sledding capital of Alaska because so many people in town are involved in the activity. We saw no dogs and no sleds in Tok ourselves. We stopped at a liquor store to pick up some wine and beer and as I complained to Dad about the mosquito bites on my knees from Liard, a local commented that I’d been attacked by their state bird. Hahaha.

The RV park we stayed at had many other RVs from Great Alaskan Holidays who were part of our caravan from Iowa. We couldn’t help talking to them when we ran into them. In Whitehorse, we caught up with the couple from Ohio who we’d had dinner with the first night. They had some trouble with the slide out of their RV popping all the way out and had to duct tape it in place. We had the same problem, only, thankfully, ours only came out about an inch; still more than I’m comfortable with. Thanks, Obama. (Actually, thanks Winnebago). 

At the campground I chatted with a couple from Maryland. Desmond wanted to check out the gift shop in the RV park’s office (they had some clocks) and I picked up some fur-trimmed fingerless gloves that I’m going to enjoy wearing next winter. 

Noon? Nope, dinner time.

Taken at midnight inside the RV with no lights and no flash... all natural Alaskan light from the air vent.

We finally got a taste of the long Alaskan summer days; the sun didn’t set until almost midnight (and it really never sets; it’s always light out, it just becomes more like dusk). This can really throw you off because it’s hard to judge what time it is. As much as we rely on modern technologies, it makes you realize how much we also still utilize our innate tendency to judge time by the location of the sun. In Alaska, at 11 pm in May, to an Ohioan, it feels more like 4 pm. And then you’re confused about the fact that you are tired.

Day 12: Liard River Hot Springs, British Columbia to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

We had another long day ahead of us, up to the capital of the Yukon Territory, Whitehorse. The view was beautiful through mountains and forests, with mountain rivers and lakes offering gorgeous vistas. At one point, we spotted a large animal ahead in the middle of the road. As we approached, we realized it was a moose, who sauntered over to the side of the road. As we passed the moose, she started into a trot and then a full run alongside the RV. It was pretty fun to see her race along with us, while we hoped she didn’t run in front of us. Dad guessed she was running about 35-40 mph. 

What is it?

A moose and she wants to race!

We stopped for gas in Watson Lake and picked up some much-needed baby wipes and gas. Across the street was the Signpost Forest, where people from all over the world hang metal signs on posts (darn, I could have brought my old license plate there to hang up). We didn’t walk through, though it would have been neat, because it was drizzling.

Signpost Forest, Watson Lake

 

Beautiful scenery in Yukon Territory

We stopped for lunch along the highway at a picnic shelter (Desmond was, of course, pretending it was a clock tower) and ate some sandwiches and then hiked out to see some more waterfalls at Rancheria Falls Recreation Area. Thankfully, the rain had cleared so we could stretch our legs a bit. The trail led through a boreal forest and then to a boardwalk to view the falls. There were two nice viewing platforms and once again, Desmond let his imagination carry him away as he pretended the swirling, churning water was a bunch of spinning clocks. He didn’t want to leave, but back on the road again we went.

Lunch in a "clock tower"

 

Checking out Rancheria Falls

Even Big Clock gets a good view of the falls

Trudy enjoying the hike

Dad enjoying the view

We came to our destination point for the night, Whitehorse. We had to stop and pick up some more groceries and parked at the visitor center so we could walk somewhere downtown to eat dinner. I asked the women in the visitor center if they recommended anyplace and they suggested Klondike Rib and Salmon, which is apparently a very popular place in Whitehorse. There was a bit of a wait, so we headed to another place, which just seemed a bit fancy and Desmond was freaked out by the dim lighting, so we headed back to Klondike, and our table was ready. They sat us out in the tented patio and we sampled some Yukon Brewery beer with our dinner. I tried some meatballs made from a combo of elk, bison, and boar. Meh, they were dry. Thankfully, they had a tangy BBQ sauce; that helped. However, the service was friendly and I think everyone else enjoyed their meals.

We were able to walk through downtown Whitehorse a bit and check it out. It is pretty small for a capital city, in my opinion. The architecture indicated to me that there must have been a building boom around the turn of the century (gold rush?) based on the Old West-style buildings and then another boom in the 1960s-70s, based on the style of many of the updates and newer construction. It was odd to me to see so many buildings from the ‘60s and ‘70s; in Cleveland, those styles are viewed as pretty undesirable and are either being demolished or altered with more modern facades. 

We stayed at Hi-Country RV Park, at which Desmond was happy to find a playground. We arrived after hours and had to ask a fellow RVer for the code to the bathrooms. The camp was full of RVs, but had a good location and clean bathrooms; what more did we need?

Day 11: Charlie Lake, British Columbia to Liard River Hotsprings, British Columbia

On the drive towards Liard, we spotted quite a bit of wildlife. We saw a couple black bears and a grizzly cub amidst some bison. Dad figured the mama grizzly was just out of sight, hoping to snag a bison calf snack. So, obviously, we saw more bison and a lot of stone sheep on the side of a rocky mountain. I was excited to see the stone sheep; they would remind someone of bighorn sheep. 

Stone sheep

Quite a distance from Charlie Lake, we stopped at Trapper’s Den Wildlife Emporium, a small log building filled with authentic fur trapper and First Nation (native people) handiworks, such as moccasins, fur gauntlets, and birch baskets. I bought Desi a couple books, one about a boy and his moose and another about a dogsled team. He loves books and relating his experiences to books seems to help him appreciate what we are doing. I picked up a “pocket dream catcher” (a dream catcher with no feathers hanging down) for Desmond, since he’d been admiring dream catchers (they look clock-like) since Crazy Horse in South Dakota. We also stopped on the way in Fort Nelson at the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum. 

We made some sandwiches and wandered around the museum and museum yard. (or was it a junkyard?) They had many taxidermed animals from the area (Dad and I marveled over the frighteningly large size of the timberwolf) and Desmond tried to find as many things with dials as he could (clocks, watches, sewing machines, rotary phones, thermometers and many more in their large antique vehicle collection). I went to the RV to nurse Trudy while everyone else toured the museum’s yard. The guide said she’d given many children tours of the museum, but had never seen one get as excited as he did. Mom explained that technical stuff is right up his alley.

Junkyard or museum?

Farm machinery (I think)

I think I typed a sixth grade report on one of those...

This junk is awesome!

Beautiful Muncho Lake

After passing through the beautiful Muncho Lake region, we arrived at Liard River Hot Springs in the evening and I walked Desi to the playground at the Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park. The playground was very nice. However, I was a little concerned about the “bear conditioning project” taking place, which consisted of noises (high pitched and smacking) to deter bears from hanging out in the park. We had some lasagna for dinner and Mom, Dad, and I took Desmond down to the hot springs. Tommy stayed back with Trudy because the mosquitoes were pretty fierce in Liard. 

The walk to the hot springs went across a boardwalk over a bog; it was no wonder the place was full of mosquitoes! The pool at the hot springs was very nice. There were two pools, actually; one was hot and the other was warm. They were connected by some man-made waterfalls and nice decks with wide steps into the pools. Several people were swimming, even though it was after 9 p.m. We regretted not having bathing suits (Dad was the only person who packed one in his suitcase). However, the provincial park we were staying in had no running water (so, no shower houses and no flush toilets; at least the pit toilets were clean and not too smelly). If I’d gone swimming in the sulfer-scented pools, I probably would’ve wanted a shower. As it was, without suits and being forced to conserve our water in the RV without a water hook-up, we just waded in the water. It was still enjoyable. Mom and I noticed an improvement in our beat-up feet after our soak in the springs. Desmond was begging to play in the waterfalls and he almost tempted Grammy to jump in with her clothes on. I know better; he would’ve chickened out at the last minute. I was not walking back half a mile in wet clothes. I think Dad and Desi were the most disappointed not to be swimming in there. Oh well… next time.

Playing in the Liard River Hotsprings