RV ALASKA - Alaska Highway Eastbound: Whitehorse to Watson Lake

From the time we left Alaska, until we branched off on the Cassiar Highway southbound from Watson Lake, Alan and I were just retracing our steps through Canada.  We had no planned stops; we were simply working our way back east.  As we ate up the road miles, we marveled at the incredible scenery in western Canada.  We also talked about how much we were enjoying the provincial parks in the Yukon Territory.  This was our first experience with public parks in Canada, and I have to say that we enjoyed them as much as we have enjoyed the public parks and campgrounds in the United States.  I was intrigued by the fact that we would find excellent campgrounds even in remote areas – and that they were being enjoyed by a fair number of people.  Even though government and provincial parks came with few (if any) amenities, we had quickly become devoted fans.

Date(s) – August 16th

Total Miles Traveled to Date – 13,789

Wildlife Sightings to Date – We saw 1 large black bear today.  At least we know that there’s some wildlife left in western Canada!

Our updated tally of wildlife sightings is: 4 feral horses; 96 eagles (including 2 fledglings); 4 seagull chicks; 16 swans (including 2 fuzzy cygnets); 9 sea lions; 27 seals; 17 sea otters; 4 cow moose; 1 bull moose; 1 grizzly sow with 2 cubs; 1 back end of a grizzly bear; 7 black bears; 1 coyote; 1 snowshoe hare; 3 rabbits (including one very fast bunny that just managed to cross the road safely); several small herds of bison with at least 2 dozen young calves; 9 deer (2 of them bucks with their racks covered in velvet); 9 mountain goats (including 3 tiny and adorable kids); 23 bighorn sheep; 62 elk (including 7 calves that hadn’t yet lost their spots and a number of bull elk with full racks covered in velvet); several small herds of pronghorn antelope (including 2 mamas with 3 newborn fawns between them); 3 great blue herons; dozens of American white pelicans; at least a half dozen families of adult geese with goslings; and several dozen ducks (with lots of little ducklings).

Highlight(s) of the Day – Y’all know I’m going to say the scenery, right?  Aside from that, it was a pretty quiet day on the road.  One of the most exciting moments occurred when we were stopped at a bridge just outside a small town (Nisutlin, if my memory serves me right), but we didn’t know why.  It wasn’t a regular flagger who prevented us from crossing the bridge.  It was the driver of a pickup truck with yellow flashing lights and an “Oversize Load” sign.  Hmm.  What’s going on?  We weren’t being allowed to proceed, but there wasn’t any other traffic coming across the bridge toward us either.  Then we saw It – a huge flatbed tractor trailer loaded with, uh, something very big.  No, I have no clue what it was.  It was huge, metal and very bulky and, I’m guessing here, pretty heavy.  There’s no way the eastbound traffic could proceed with that monstrosity taking up most of both lanes on the bridge.  Well, at least now we knew why we were stopped!  The truck driver went across the bridge v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y with his load, and those of us waiting in the eastbound lane moved to the right as much as we could as soon as we saw what was coming.  As the truck driver approached the end of the bridge, the driver of the “Oversize Load” pilot pickup hopped in her truck and slowly headed out.  I am very happy that we just had to wait for Whatever It Was to cross the bridge.  I would definitely NOT want to be stuck behind it, and I have to admit that I was really hoping its crossing hadn’t impacted the structural integrity of the bridge.  I did, in fact, breathe a sigh of relief once we were on the other side of the river.  Okay, so that wasn’t really a highlight, but with not much else happening, it at least gave us something to talk about, didn’t it?

Upon our arrival at Watson Lake, we made a beeline for the Sign Post Forest.  There was no reason the license plate we had screwed onto a post on our earlier visit wouldn’t be there, but we figured we’d check to be sure all was well.  Yup, it was still there.  And it was kind of cool to come back and see it again.

We were pretty sure we had arrived at the Yukon government’s Watson Lake Campground early enough in the day to snag a campsite.  Imagine our delight when we found out that Site #54 was available!  That was the site we had camped in on our earlier visit to Watson Lake, so we tucked ourselves back into it for the night.  On this stop, we had time to go see Watson Lake which was easily accessed from the park’s boat launch area.  Lovely, mostly undeveloped and a beautiful area in which to enjoy the great outdoors – Watson Lake Campground is definitely on our “return to” list if we make this trip again.

Lowlight(s) of the Day – Gas prices in Canada.  Ouch!  I just looked back through our expenses.  The highest prices we paid for gas were: $2.099 per liter at the Toad River Lodge on the Alaska Highway in Toad River, British Columbia; $2.109 per liter in Dease Lake on the Cassiar Highway in British Columbia; and $2.109 at the Bell 2 Lodge in Vernon, British Columbia, also on the Cassiar Highway.  Plus, there were plenty of places we were paying $1.889 to $1.999 per liter in western Canada.  Even with the exchange rate, we’re still talking between $5.00 and $6.00 (American dollars) per gallon.   Knowing that gas stations were few and far between in the more remote areas along the Alaska and Cassiar Highways, we were following the advice of others who had made the trip before us – we were driving off only the top half of our gas tank.  Filling only half the tank at a time helped reduce the sticker shock, but we didn’t find half-tank fill ups of $135.00 amusing at all.  I would say that I can’t wait to see how much we spend on gas for this trip, but that’s not true.  I can wait.  Because once I see that number, I’ll never be able to “unsee” it – and we all know that I’ll want to.

Campground(s) – Alan and I really liked the Watson Lake Campground on our first pass through the area, and we liked it even better the second time around.  (This time we got to see the lake!)  Beautiful sites, free firewood, so reasonably priced at $20.00 per night (Canadian dollars) – it was all good, and well worth driving several miles off the Alaska Highway on a gravel road.  Despite the fact that this campground had no electric at the sites and only a hand pump for potable water (I don’t think it even had a dump station, come to think of it), it will remain a favorite for us.  Not everyone’s cup of tea, certainly, but to each his own.

Special Message(s) – Ingrid, look!  Three months in and no fisticuffs yet!

Pics(s) of the Day

Whoa!  That's BIG!

I have an affinity for side view mirror shots.

Oh, look!  Is that more construction?!

All was well at the Sign Post Forest!

The lovely and peaceful Watson Lake

Two thumbs up for Site #54 at the Watson Lake Campground!

Tip(s) of the Day - Did you notice the clearance signs on the bridges in the photos?  They're in meters.  Be sure to convert the height and length of your rig to metric measurements before you cross into Canada.  You don't want to be wondering, "What does that mean?" as you go under a low overpass.

Up Next – The Cassiar Highway – unexplored territory for us, and just a wee bit nerve-wracking.  We understood this to be the most remote road we would travel.  We knew gas was available, but the stations were few and far between.  Wildlife was reportedly abundant.  Our gas tank was full, the camera was ready, and the kids knew where we would be when we left Watson Lake and headed south on the Cassiar.  Let’s see how this goes!