Yukon along the highway…Whitehorse Yukon part 4

Day 18 Mileage 3209.7 we drove from Johnsons Crossing Yukon today to Lake Laberge where we camped for the evening at a Yukon campground, again only $18 pre- purchased. A great campground on the lake with nice sites, pit toilets, tables and firewood included.

We stopped over in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon. A growing community, the population of Whitehorse is estimated at 42,986.  They say 75% of the Yukon population live in Whitehorse and surrounding area. Dawson City is the second largest community with a population of around 1300, all other towns have less than 1000 residents.

 Whitehorse was named for the Whitehorse Horse Rapids which before the river was dammed resembled the mane of a white horse. Whitehorse was established as a transportation hub in the building of the Alaska Highway. We visited the Yukon Travel Museum which featured a lot of the equipment in the building of the Alaska Highway and various forms of travel in the area through the ages. A very interesting and must visit museum.

Situated right next to the travel museum we noticed the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre and took the tour. There we met Ice Age giants like the woolly mammoth and the scimitar cat that ruled ancient Beringia. We learned about this era looking at skeletal remains, and interactive exhibits and we sat through a very interesting film going back 40,000 years. I had to look up Beringia and found out it was the land mass that used to connect northwest Canada and Alaska with northeastern Siberia, Russia about 11,700 years ago, just a little before my time. Because I was not around then how could I have possibly known about this, perhaps the day I skipped school. Now we know a little more about the inhabitants of the Ice Age.

Just pass Whitehorse we took number two highway or the Klondike Highway towards Dawson City. Whitehorse had the cheapest gas in a while at $1.999 sad when we think that is cheap.

Day 19 Mileage 3548 km. we drove 338.4 km. today. We left Lake Laberge today to Moose Creek Yukon campground at 559.9 km or 15 miles north of Stewart Crossing. It had rained all day so we drove further than planned but the rain stopped so we enjoyed a campfire then it rained during the night. A lot of road construction, one of many areas had the signs removed and we almost missed the turn off to the campground. On the way we stopped at the town of Carmack for lunch, the town of Carmack was established near a trading post established in 1893 by George Washington Carmack.  George was intending on trading furs with the natives and had discovered coal in the area but never became successful trader or coal miner. George ended up like thousands of others panning for gold and one of the Klondike’s first gold discoverers.

Pelly Crossing, the site of forest fire fighting efforts this summer as flames got close to the highway features a very long bridge over the Pelly River, one of many in the Yukon. Charlotte’s son Jeff was sent from Kelowna to Pelly Crossing to cook for the fire crews, we hoped to see him there. However the fires were under control and he was shipped to the interior of BC to feed the hungry fire crews there. The fires we had heard about were, as mentioned, under control and we really never experienced any smoke.

That’s it for this post will share the images we were allowed to take and some along the highway. The Klondike Highway just got a lot narrower and a little rougher, they skimped on the road shoulders.

Hope to see you down the road, see what tomorrow brings…

Gerry and Charlotte