World's Largest Weather Vane

We decided to spend another day in Whitehorse.  I got an oil change in my truck, we did laundry and did some shopping.  However, the highlight of our day was to see the world's largest weather vane.  It is an original Canadian Pacific Airlines DC-3 passenger plane that is mounted so perfectly on a pedestal that the slightest breeze causes it to swing around and point into the wind.  It is located at the Whitehorse International Airport and is actually used by pilots to determine the wind direction.  We also visited Miles Canyon.  It is where the Yukon River has cut its way through a flow of basaltic lava.  The canyon used to be very treacherous for travelers going up and down the river, but today there is a hydropower plant downstream that tamed the waters.

Tomorrow we travel closer to Alaska, but we are debating which road to take.

World's Largest Weather Vane

Miles Canyon

Canoeing down the Canyon

The Yukon, British Columbia and Alaska (all in a day)

We decided to change our original plans a bit.  We wanted to go to Skagway, Alaska, but was planning to do that visit towards the end of our trip and take the ferry over to the city.  A few days ago the ferry workers went on strike and many tourists were stranded.  Not wanting to risk it, we decided to visit Skagway today.  The adventure started this morning when we hopped on a charter bus.  The bus started driving on the Klondike Highway towards Skagway.  Its route somewhat parallels the route used by prospectors in the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush.  The scenery was amazing.  Mountains and lakes everywhere.  Some of the mountains had glaciers on them.  We also saw a small black bear in the middle of the road.  We crossed over into British Columbia and stopped in Fraser.  In Fraser we got off the bus and boarded the White Pass & Yukon Railroad.  We traveled through the mountains on some pretty narrow tracks and ended up in Skagway.  Skagway itself was pretty much a tourist town.  There were 4 cruise ships in port and lots of people.  RoxAnne and I found a sandwich shop, bought a brown bag lunch and sat on a bench by the trains to eat lunch.  After a few hours in Skagway we hopped back on a bus and they took us back to the campground.  It was a good day.

Sights from the Train

Downtown Skagway. The building is covered in wooden twigs from trees.

Downtown Skagway with Cruise Ships in port.

Sights along the Klondike Highway

A black bear on the road as we rode in the bus

Whitehorse

We drove about 280 miles today from Watson Lake to Whitehorse.  It was a cloudy day and we had some drizzle along the way, but overall it was a nice drive.  As we traveled we went across a long bridge and through the town of Teslin.  The Teslin Lake is a huge body of water extending 75 miles, much of it along the Alaska Highway. 

Whitehorse is the capital of Canada's Yukon territory.  It only has a population of around 27,000, but about 75% of the Yukon population lives in Whitehorse.  It is a picturesque city with the Yukon River flowing through the center of town.  As we travel north, the hours of daylight get longer and longer.  The sunset in Whitehorse is at 10:43 pm.  It is really weird seeing daylight so late in the evening.  As we go further north, sunset will be later and later.  The sunset in Fairbanks, Alaska this evening is 11:12 pm.

Teslin Bridge crossing the Teslin River

The Yukon River as it flows into Whitehorse

Watson Lake

After leaving the Liard Hot Springs, we traveled a few hours up the road to Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada.  This is our first visit to a city in the Yukon.  There doesn't seem to be too much in Watson Lake, but they do have cell phone coverage and a laundry.  Watson Lake is known for its "Signpost Forest".  It was started in 1942 by a homesick U.S. Army GI working on the Alaskan Highway, who put up a sign with the name of his hometown and the distance.  Today there is well over 77,000 signs of all types posted in the "forest".   Actually, now there is over 77,001 signs posted in the forest.  I added a Camp KnoKoma sign to the forest.

See Camp KnoKoma sign 

Liard Hot Springs

Friday and Saturday night we camped at the Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Campground in British Columbia, Canada.  The campground features the largest natural hot springs in Canada.  The water comes out of the spring at about 108 degrees.  There were some trails to walk in the campground, but the main one was closed due to increased bear activity in the area.  The campground itself was nice, but it had no utility hookups.  Although we didn't have electricity at our campsite, we did have enough power in our camper battery to run the LED ceiling lights in the camper.  We also filled our camper's fresh water tank before parking, so we had enough water to wash dishes, take short showers and flush the toilet.  We visited the hot water of the springs several times before we left the campground Sunday morning.

RoxAnne soaking in the hot springs

Although we didn't see any bear at the campground, we did discover this baby mink.

 

Crossing the Rockies

We have been without cell service and the Internet for the last couple of days, but on Friday we crossed over the Canadian Rockies.  It was much more picturesque.  Many rivers, lakes and mountains.  We even started seeing wildlife, including our first bear.

Our first bear sighting

A herd of stone sheep

Muncho Lake

The Alaska Highway

Today we began our trek on the Alaska Highway.  We started at Milepost "0" in Dawson Creek and finished at Milepost "300" in Fort Nelson.  The Alaska Highway was constructed during World War II to connect contiguous United States to Alaska.  It was completed in 1942.  The highway opened to the public in 1948.  At the beginning it was known as a rough, challenging drive, but over the years the road was rerouted, straightened and paved.  It was actually one of the best roads we have driven so far this trip.  Much of the road was recently paved and there was hardly any traffic on the road.  We drove for miles not seeing any vehicles.  The disappointing thing was that we didn't see any wildlife either.  We are recently excited for tomorrow's drive where we will be crossing over the Canadian Rockies.

Dawson Creek

Today was a tough drive.  It rained and rained and rained some more all day.  It also came with some high winds.  However, we took our time and finally made it to Dawson Creek, British Columbia.  It is milepost "0" of the Alaskan Highway.  Tomorrow we start our adventure on the Highway which runs from Dawson Creek to Delta Junction, Alaska.   The total length is 1387 miles.

Pysanka

We drove about 8 hours today, with one long stop at a Walmart.  We started in the Province of Saskatchewan and ended up in the Alberta Province for the evening.  The campground is a community campground in Vegreville.  It is a nice area and only cost us $16.07 for the night.  However, the train tracks are right behind the camper.  The town is home to the world's largest pysanka (Ukrainian Easter Egg).  The egg itself weighs over 5000 pounds, is over 25 ft in length and is over 18 ft wide.  It took over 12,000 man-hours of design and fabrication to develop the structure.

As we drove today, we continued to see 1000's of acres of canola.  The seeds from the plants flower are pressed and the oil is extracted.  It is a huge industry in Canada.  In fact, Canola was registered as a trademark in 1970.  The name comes from Can as in Canada and ola as in oil.

So far we have driven 2604 miles.  We have another 1967 miles to drive till we hit Alaska.  I can't even guess how many more miles we will be driving while touring through Alaska.

The World's Largest Ukrainian Easter Egg

The Train is a little close to the camper

O' Canada

We left Medora this morning and headed toward Canada.  We have heard bad stories about the customs agents tearing apart your camper to check for contraband, but we had no problems at all.  He asked us a few questions about guns and alcohol, but that was it.  He didn't even care to see any of the vet certified paperwork we had for the dog.  Most of the roads we traveled were flat and straight.  You could see for miles in every direction.  What was amazing was the 1000's of acres of canola that was being grown in the fields.  It has a yellow flower on the plant and the fields went on forever.  We stopped for the night at a small, inexpensive ($26) campground in Craven, Saskatoon, Canada. The remainder of the week we will be driving 6 to 8 hours a day till we hit the Alaska-Canadian Highway (known as the ALCAN).

Canola Field

Mapping our Trip

Medora Musical

I went for a 3 mile hike this morning to a petrified forest within the national park.  I started the hike alone, but later caught up with a national park ranger tour.  I joined them for the remainder of the hike.  The petrified forest within the park is the 3rd largest within the United States. This part of the country was a subtropical forest 55 to 67 million years ago.  Volcanic eruptions from the west buried the trees and the petrified forest resulted.  They claim the trees were similar to the modern Sequoia and Cypress tree.

Our hiking crew

A Petrified Tree Trunk with a Rock Cap

In the evening we went to the world famous "Medora Musical".  It is a musical revue that looks back at the wild west days in Medora.  It premiered in 1965 and is held in the outdoor Burning Hills Amphitheater which has a capacity of 2856 visitors. It was definitely a family based musical with lots of dancing, singing and comedy.  It was also very Americana.

Tomorrow we head north and will be crossing over into Canada.  We don't have reservations anywhere, so I'm not sure if we will have internet access.  If we do, I'll continue the blog.

Badlands Chautauqua-A Gathering of TR’s

Medora was having a "chautauqua" this weekend.  I needed to look up the word, but it is basically an educational event for the community with speakers and specialists of the day.  They were highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  As part of this chautauqua, they had many gentlemen that looked like Teddy Roosevelt gather together for the weekend.  They remained in character while in Medora and gave educational talks.  His wife, Edith, was also in town, along with some of his children.  They even had a very small parade with an army band leading and the Teddy's following.  See video clip of parade at https://photos.app.goo.gl/DVG771Uq5LedAqCy9.