Watson Lake to Whitehorse

On Sunday, June 1st, we traveled the 145 miles from Liard Hot Springs to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. We had some more watered gravel road construction along the way, no dust, but lots of bumps. If you look at the "Where we've traveled" map on the right, you'll see that we've now added the Yukon Territory to the map.

Watson Lake is the home of the Sign Post forest, some 65,000 street signs, personal signs, and every other type of sign you could think of. It was started by a soldier working on the Alaska Highway in 1942, and has been growing ever since. The town puts up new posts each year to accommodate new signs. We, of course, added signs to the collection.


We also visited the Northern Lights Centre in town, a planetarium featuring the myth and science of the Aurora Borealis. It was a fascinating show about a phenomenon we’d love to see, but probably won’t. Although the lights occur any time of year, it’s too light in the summer to see them.

The next day, after leaving Watson Lake, we crossed the Continental Divide again; this one divides two of the largest drainage systems in North America – the Yukon River which drains to the Bering Sea in western Alaska, and the Mackenzie River which drains to the Beaufort Sea, a part of the Arctic Ocean. The Yukon River system flows for 2,300 miles, and the Mackenzie River system flows for 2650 miles before emptying into the sea.

After crossing the divide, we passed Teslin Lake which is 86 miles long. The bridge across Nisutlin Bay, a portion of Teslin Lake, is the third longest on the Alaska Highway, almost 2,000 feet long. In mid-afternoon, we reached that day’s destination, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Whitehorse is the capital of the YT, and has about 24,000 residents, about 2/3 of the total population of the territory.

We spent two nights at a nice campground just out of town. We got our first look at the Yukon River here, the upstream end of riverboat travel which connected with the White Pass and Yukon Railway from Skagway, Alaska. Until the Alaska Highway was built in 1942-43, riverboat and rail were the only ways to get to Whitehorse. While here, we had a great meal at the Klondike Rib & Salmon BBQ, then crossed the street to attend the ‘Frantic Follies’, a vaudeville style performance in its 39th year of production. It was a great time for all.

While in town, we visited a good museum on the prehistoric history of the area which was once connected by a land bridge to Siberia. Many animals, including mammoth & mastodon, saber tooth tigers, camels, etc. came across during that period, as well as probably the first people on the North American continent. Debbie had the opportunity to participate in a dart throwing exhibition. This entailed throwing three to five foot darts or spears, using a hand-held launcher called an atlatl. The atlatl, which is actually an Aztec word, was used by natives all over North and South America to launch darts or spears. Her old softball skills came into play as she successfully threw the darts for distance and accuracy. We also spent some time in a modest but interesting Museum of Transportation, which had displays on all forms of transportation in the Yukon.

This stop also gave us the opportunity to catch up on our laundry and e-mail, although the internet service was too slow to post to this blog. From here, we’re off to Dawson City.