Backtracking the Klondike Highway

The only positive about back tracking on the Klondike Highway is you get to view the landscape from a different angle and get to check out different campgrounds on the way back.

Day 23 Mileage 4293.3 drove 459.3 kms today, more than planned. Left Dawson City this morning with the plans of going to Tombstone National Park on the Dempster but it was rainy, muddy and lots of construction on a bad road to begin with, we opted to continue on. We stayed overnight at a Territorial Park Fox Creek a beautiful spot right on the lake with water pure and clean, would highly recommend this campground nice creek running through it, good tenting sites and could accommodate fairly large rigs. The drive today was bad, lots of construction, long wait times and very rough roads through the construction and very muddy as well. We were stopped for a while for a semi that was on fire, no one was hurt.

Day 24 Mileage 4476.9 traveled 183.5 kms today from Fox Creek campground south of Carmacks, Yukon to Squanga campground another Territorial campground on a beautiful little lake. The trip included a stop at Whitehorse the capital of the Yukon, around 35,000 of the Yukon’s 45,000 people live there so is a very busy center and a hub to the US and Dawson City. They say there is gold in the Yukon and there still is if you can file a claim on a carwash….A wash back home that would be around $12 set me back $38.50 here. It’s a gold mine with all the construction going on and the many gravel roads. You don’t see many shiny clean vehicles around here, now I know why. We picked up an extra gas can for our trip across to Yellowknife and fueled up for $1.99.9/litre. It’s too bad we have to follow our tracks back but have been told by several travellers that #4 or the Campbell Highway is very rough. We have had enough rough roads on this trip with construction everywhere. When asked where we spent our summer we can say visiting road construction sites. Rained today but stopped long enough to enjoy a campfire this evening we will see what tomorrow brings. We love this first come no reservation camping works well and campsites paid for are being USED!

Day 25 Mileage 4808.5 km travelled 331.6 kms today from Squanga Lake between Carcross and Johnsons Crossing to Watson Lake campground. Stopped for a rest and fueled up in Teslin home of the longest bridge on the Alaska Highway. Misty and rainy tonight got a fire going and worked on my blog while we have internet. Mostly rainy today high 17C and cool tonight and damp.

Day 26 Mileage 4836.6 only traveled 28 kms today. Stayed over at Watson Lake campground and went into Watson to use the free dump site provided by the town and we got water for free from A Nicer Motel in Watson which we really appreciated, offered to pay something.  The manager said everyone needs water and it don’t cost here. With good cell signal our Wi-Fi worked great and I finished another blog segment and got it uploaded. The truck needed an oil change and it was really hard to find anyone to do it. I bought an oil filter from Bumper to Bumper and an air filter. They gave me the number of 4four mechanics in town saying they may be able to do the oil change which was nice of them. A local lady steered me down the street to a shop that opened recently Alaska Highway Truck and Towing. The guys there took me in right away and did a great job a little rich on price as I supplied the oil filter and the change cost me 179.47 but it was done. Filled with fuel at 1.99/ litre, and changed the air filter, another maintenance day for the truck and camper. We spent a relaxing evening around the fire in a very quiet Yukon campground. Tomorrow with sadness we leave the Yukon for northern BC then hopefully on to the NWT. Today we met an older man on a motorcycle from Toronto who has been on the road for a month and is slowly working his way back home. He has traveled Northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and the south of those provinces as well on his motorcycle and most of Canada over the years. We have seen lots of motorcycles travelling these highways this summer.

Day 27 Mileage 5339.8 traveled 503.2 kms today from Watson Lake Campground to Fort Nelson, BC a huge drive through some mountain ranges including the Summit Lake pass, the highest on the Alaska Highway. Very scenic route rated triple A. Arrived at Beaver Lake Recreation campground to find it filled with some undesirables who were setting up to have themselves a good old bush party. We decided to leave and found a nice quiet gravel pit pull off along the Highway Seven. Backtracking is always anti climatic but traffic was light and the views awesome. Tomorrow, we head for the Northwest Territories and Yellowknife, its capital.

I am definitely running behind on my posts but the best is yet to come with our visit to the Northwest Territories and the end of the road past Yellowknife. Thanks for your interest and following along. At the end of this trip I will definitely summarize our feelings, the good and the bad along with things we would do differently including shedding excess weight from the truck camper. Enjoy the images, subscribe to be notified by email when we post….hope we see you all again down the road.

PS: for those of you with truck campers or vans and are going to be winter or late fall camping check out my post on our DC top DC charger install definitely the be best addition yet have not used our generator since.

Gerry and Charlotte