The most direct route northward to the Yukon from Alberta took us through Dawson Creek, BC where the Alaska Highway officially begins. The Highway has quite a history that you can read about in Erik’s post here.
The first thing we noted when we began driving the Highway was how wide and groomed the ditches were. There were about 25m of cleared brush on both sides of this two-lane road. We quickly understood why this was the case when we read the electronic message board’s notice of buffalo on the highway. Having these wide, cleared ditches meant drivers have more notice of any wildlife who may be attempting the crossing.
As we wound north, we also made our way into the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. Our forest scenery gave way to rocky cliffs and glacial rivers. I was like a dog with its head hanging out of a car window – I couldn’t get enough of the views and kept sticking myself and my iPhone out the window trying to capture the scenery in photos.
Our first stop on this highway was Muncho Lake where we stayed two nights. What a place! The green glacial lake was so clear, and so cold. We took the kids canoeing on the lake and could see the lake bottom clearly enough to see large fish swimming under the boat. We treated ourselves to a huge breakfast and a gourmet dinner at the lodge restaurant and celebrated our one-month tripiversary.
From Muncho Lake we made our way to Watson Lake – the entry point to Yukon. It was our richest stretch of driving for seeing wildlife. We spotted herds of buffalo, some caribou, mountain goats, and black bears. Once in Watson Lake, we registered with the COVID check-point and camped one night at a small RV park. Our site was across the street from the famous Signpost Forest, so we wandered through it and gawked at the volume of signs and stickers that decorated the posts. Even after an hour of walking, we still hadn’t been down every aisle. We later learned that there are about 80,000 signs posted. We got inspiration to make our own sign for our trip southbound in a month.
From Watson Lake, it took us 9 hours to get to Whitehorse and we had to be strategic with our fuel stops as stations were very few and far between. We also had to contend with construction sites, mud, and a narrower highway which led to a very happy arrival in Whitehorse.
We were all looking forward to arriving because we were renting a house to conduct our 14-day self-isolation. It turned out that we really needed this down time. Although we had only been driving and camping for two weeks, having left Shoal Lake on the 19th, our pace of movement and volume of activities were wearing us down. Our first few days at the house we rented were spent “chilling”, as Claire would say. The kids made forts, filmed a music video, played with the toys they had packed and ignored, and watched some tv shows on Disney+.
Keeping with the self-isolation rules, we kept to ourselves and tried to get some outdoor play time every day. We were not permitted to use any parks or play structures but we had a nice, large side yard to use. We were also very fortunate to be close to many hiking trails which we made good use of. There’s much to say about Whitehorse, at least our experience of the city, that we’ll share in another post.