We drove the Klondike Hwy from Whitehorse to Dawson City today. The drive was not too bad. Many frost heaves and pot holes but workers were out making repairs in several locations.
We plan to take the Top of the World Hwy from here to Alaska either tomorrow or the next day. Internet is very limited here so we will update when we can.
UPDATE:
It was cold this morning - 30 F - but beautiful blue skies
and sunny. We changed our plans and
decided to leave the Alaska Highway a short distance out of Whitehorse and turn
north on the Klondike Highway and go to Dawson City, across the Top of the
World Highway to the US/Canadian border, Chicken, Alaska and back down to Tok
(rhymes with poke), AK where we will rejoin the Alaska Highway. We know that the roads are not as good this
way – there will be some gravel – but it is also suppose to be one of the most
scenic, beautiful, “not to be missed” highways one will ever see. Due to our plans for later in the summer we
will not be able to drive this route on the way home and we were assured by
people at the visitors center in Whitehorse that everything is now open on this
route. We know several people who have
driven this route in larger rigs than Fred, towing their cars, and they
recommended we take the drive – “just take it slow and easy”. So.... we decided to give it a try.
For those RVer's coming after us, as you leave Whitehorse
going north there are several gas/diesel stations, once again they don't post
diesel prices, but gas was generally 1.459/liter. We will let you know if we can recommend this
route in a few day.
The first section of the Klondike Hwy was very pretty and
actually better than a lot of roads we have been on in the past few weeks. However, there was a sign indicating that the
US Customs office was closed so that worried us a little. We suspected that the closed sign just hasn't
been removed yet because, once again, everyone told us it was open. We debated turning around but decided to
continue on – a little nervous.
Next we came to the area of Fox Lake – a very large,
beautiful lake, but in this area the road became more rough and we started
seeing the “bumpy” road signs and frost heave flags.
This continued all the way to Dawson
City. Wildlife was sparse – bunny
rabbits – brown with white feet, squirrels, and arctic ground squirrels. The lake was still mostly covered with
ice.
This is the area of the huge 1998 forest fire. It covered over 45,000 hectares (112,000
acres) and the burned area was visible as far as we could see in all
directions. The forest is showing signs
of regrowth/reforestation but growth is so slow this far north that it take
many, many years for recovery.
We then came to Braeburn Lodge. This is a small lodge known for their
cinnamon buns. They are huge! Larger than some cakes and cost $10.00.
They are so well known for these buns that
the grass air strip across the highway from the lodge is know called Cinnamon
Bun Strip. Yes, the buns are good but we
would still rate the ones from Shepard's Inn as better. Our actual favorites this trip are still
the Bakers Cafe sticky buns in Custer,
SD, but of course, that's not Alaska Highway cinnamon buns.
Next we saw Conglomerate Mountain – or “Puddingstone.” It is called this because it consists of
pebbles welded into solid masses of varying size with a natural cement. Composition of the cementing material varies
as does the size and composition of the pebbles. It is the result of volcanic mud flows some
185 million years ago. Strange but
interesting.
Right after that we saw Trumpeter swans! So beautiful and graceful floating
along. They were very neat to see.
Shortly after lunch, it started raining. As usual, it was on off/on type of
thing. We started gaining elevation
again after crossing the Yukon River.
Interesting to us, we noticed that there is fiber optic cable buried all
the way through here to Dawson. We
thought this would assure us of good internet when we reached Dawson but not
so, at least not that we have found so far.
It is incredibly slow – like slower than old dial-up.
We were then stopped for construction – a new bridge going
in.
WE then drove through another older fire area and arrived at Pelly
Crossing area. There is what used to be a Yukon Government Campground here and
we had planned to overnight here but it was still early and we felt like
driving on. The roads, while rough in
places, were not as bad as we had feared so we felt we could continue. For anyone making this trip – the campground,
as indicated in the Church's book, appears to be free as there is no place to
pay- and appears the government has abandoned this one much like the Prophet
River campground we stayed at our first night after Dawson Creek. Just as we left the tiny community of Pelly Crossing,
we crossed the bridge and on the north end was a red fox! We have seen 2 others on this trip but just a
quick instant. This time we got pictures!
Too cute.
The road became much rougher almost immediately after Pelly
Crossing. About 25 miles out we saw our
first grizzly bear of this trip.
It's a
good day when we see bear! Also lots of
potholes and gravel areas. However, they
are working on it. There were several
crews out patching the road today. A
short time later we saw a smaller black bear.
He ran very fast across the road in front of us so we didn't get a good
picture of him
 |
| It's there! |
Then right before we
arrived at Dawson City, we saw a porcupine.
First time we have seen one in the wild!
We hope Scout doesn't meet up with one of these.
We finally arrived at Dawson City about 9 hours after
starting our drive – which is too long a driving day on bad roads– but we
stopped so often for pictures and short walks to overlooks that it really
didn't seem nearly that long. Tomorrow
we will explore Dawson, and then decide what we will do next. Stay another night – take the ferry across
and start for Chicken?
So far the road hasn't been as bad as we were afraid it
might be but certainly one can't drive the speed limit without jarring your
teeth. We found you just have to slow
down, watch for the frost heave flags and slow down and just slow down! It has been a beautiful drive through some
real northern wilderness and we know there is more to come. Still a little apprehensive about what is to
come but we are sure in the end it will all be good.
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