YUKON: LARGER THAN LIFE
- coupkovasvatava
- Jul 5, 2018
- 3 min read
At least that is what the sign at the Alaska-Canada border on the gravel road in the middle of nowhere said when we were crossing it. And it might have been true because during the eight days that we spent in one of the northernmost parts of Canada we did a lot of driving and still saw only a tiny little part of this huge territory.
The drive from Tok on the Alaska side to Dawson City on the Yukon side was one out of two ways how to get from Alaska back to Canada. It was the longer, but the worse one. No wonder that we chose it. The road is gravel, winding and sometimes quite steep as it follows the old gold miner´s track. And it is beautiful.
Dawson used to be the capital of Yukon until the 50´s when Whitehorse took over. It grew on gold mining and till today a lot of beautiful historical buildings can be seen all over the place. I loved riding its streets in my “caa caa”. There was no bridge so every time when we wanted to get there from our campground we had to use a ferry. It was a good adventure! I got a cold in Wranggler but mum let me taste frozen yoghurt from one of the awesome local shops anyway.
Last August they opened the last piece of the so called Dempster Highway that now goes from Dawson to Tuktoyaktut. It is 736 kilometres long, all gravel and rough and when you take it you have to drive it all the way back since there is no other ways out. I wanted to check it out but then mum saw people getting ready for the drive, packing couple of spare tires and canisters of gas… and decided to give us just a little sample.
So we drove 70 kilometres along it to the Tombstone Forest Park and it was absolutely stunning. I loved Denali but Tombstone blew my mind. There was much less people and it was overall really… wild! Goldstream trail was easy and I walked a big part of it, but Grizzly Lake was much worse and steep so I let mum carry me all the way up and down. I don´t understand why we couldn´t get to the lake tucked beneath mountains that reminded me of the famous Chilean Andas (not that I have even been there). Mum says we will do it again once I am a bit older and can walk on my own and she can carry our overnight pack. But I wanted to do it this time!
And then we drove two days and got to Whitehorse. There was a beautiful old wooden church built in 1900 and they had an amazing crafts room there where I made myself a necklace. Mum says Beringia museum with a huge mammoth was nice as well and I say they had a perfect kid´s area there. I went to check S.S. Klondike, an old steam ship as well and a library where toddler reading was running by accident. If I add the biggest laundromat I have ever seen where we did our washing and our free private campsite by beautiful Long Lake, I would say that Whitehorse was pretty cool.
I got to spend a couple of hours with my old friends, Mira and Tomas, and on the way we were again: via Teslin with its awesome playground and the longest bridge on the Alaska Highway, nice Rancheria Falls and then to Watson Lake famous for its Signpost Forest with tens of thousands of different signs from all over the world and the most expensive shower I have ever taken in my life.
Our last night in Yukon we stayed by beautiful Watson Lake. In the morning I tilted my breakfast, spent an hour at a playground and off we went. It´s time to explore the northeast British Columbia.
Your Annie
Some facts: When: 28. 6. – 6. 7. 2018 Where: Dawson City – Tombstone Forest Park – Whitehorse – Teslin – Watson Lake How long: 8 days How far: 1 114 km
