Alaska Highway: Yukon Territory

On July 5, we drove 197 miles on the Alaska Highway (#97) to reach our first stop in Yukon Territory, Watson Lake. This very small town's claim to fame is that it is the first stop in the Yukon enroute to Alaska and this is evidenced by it's "Signpost Forest", literally a forest of signs left by folks from all over the world on their trek to or from Alaska (pic 2). In Watson's "Downtown RV Park", another big gravel parking lot with hook-ups, we met some fellow Alaska RVers for the second time, of special note were Jenny and John from California and a couple from Georgia who gave us their secret recipe for delicious grilled Salmon (marinate then baste while cooking with sauce of equal parts lemon or lime, brown sugar and butter). Enroute to Watson Lake that day, we saw black bear, bison, moose, stone sheep and a wolf. We stopped briefly for a foot soak at Liard Hot Springs, a very popular "renewal soak" stop for Alaska-bound travelers (pic 1).

On July 6, we drove 243 miles from Watson Lake to Whitehorse, YT. Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon Territory and another "must stop" along the Alaska Highway and near it's intersection with the Klondike Highway. Pic #5 is of the Yukon River and a historic riverboat docked in downtown Whitehorse. Enroute to Whitehorse, we stopped at Mukluk Annie's (pic 3) a popular stop that offers free dry camping (aka no hook-ups) and houseboat ride on Teslin Lake if you purchase a salmon dinner. We enjoyed a fresh and delicious grilled salmon feast there, but it was at lunchtime and we were eager to get to Whitehorse, so did not take advantage of the free offers, but many people do. Just after Annie's, we encountered the bridgwork at Johnson's Crossing (pic 4). The width of the track between barriers was just 110 inches, while our rig is 102 inches wide. Thankfully, Steve is an excellent driver, but did admit afterwards that it was a little scary looking straight down into the water from his driver's side.

High Country RV park overlooking Whitehorse was quite nice, but "cozy". We ran into John and Jenny again and talked with an interesting fellow, Peter, from New Zealand, who was spending 11 months exploring North America by RV with a couple of his "mates". At a popular downtown restaurant, Steve enjoyed musk ox stroganoff while I played it safe with halibut. There is a Walmart in Whitehorse and apparently, 50-100 RVs often park there for free overnight. This is a very sore point with the RV parks, to the point where I heard one park employee refusing to give a registered guest directions there so he could buy groceries and supplies. Personally, we much prefer the security and comfort of RV parks and never really save money with Walmart's free parking because we inevitably spend much more on "stuff" than we would have on camping.