Skagway

Skagway is about the first Alaska you get along the Alcan, and the drive down to the town is amazingly scenic. Lots of ice and snow still up here. The road is pretty steep in spots, as you drop all the way back to sea level.

     

Wow, this is like nowhere else on Earth, vast rocky fields dotted with lakes and rivers, with the mountains towering over it all.

  

Passing through the US customs station, I’m in Alaska! Just before Skagway is the turn-off for Dyea. It’s a small camping area near the old town site of Dyea (gold rush town, now long gone) and the foot of the famous Chilkoot trail. The road is dirt, and a bit challenging!

  

The campground is very rustic, and feels very Alaska-like.

I meet back up with Dennis and Carol, and Sue V. joins us for a couple days. We take a walk through Skagway and have lunch at the brewery. Skagway is a big cruise ship port, and there are 4 ships docked there most of the time. Lots of tourists: the population swells to over 10,000 with 4 ships in! Here are a few pix.

        

That afternoon, I ride the bike out to the Chilkoot trail, and then to the abandoned town site of Dyea. There’s not much left out here. Some mossy old wood planks, and a few remnants of what was a thriving town during the gold rush.

     

That evening, we sat around a campfire and did that camping thing. The next day, we had tickets to ride the train up the old narrow gauge railroad line that runs between Skagway and Whitehorse. We met up with Dana, Sue, Charlie and Margaret at the train station. It’s a neat ride, and some amazing scenery…. don’t miss it if you visit!

     

After the train, we all posed for a moment, then went to an outstanding Thai place for dinner. Yumm!  So long, Skagway! Time to head down the road.

Carcross

On the road north, heading for Carcross, there are some neat things to see. Some nice waterfalls:
  
Teslin is a small town on the shore of Teslin lake, and is home to the Teslin Inland Tlingit First Nation peoples. There’s a big cultural center there, but it isn’t open for the season yet, so maybe next time. It’s a small town, with a really big bridge.

There’s a rest area with a viewing platform above the town, and I was fascinated by some of the international graffiti there on large boards that seem to be there for that purpose.
  
.At the Teslin motel, there’s a great wildlife museum with some really nice animal mounts on display. Worth stopping for!
        
Carcross (which is short for Caribou Crossing) is another neat little town between Watson Lake and Whitehorse. It’s a great stopping point on the way down to Skagway, Alaska.
  
Be sure to visit the sourdough bakery, the general store (said to be the oldest store in the Yukon) and the Carcross trading post, a gallery of very unique metal art.
  
Near Carcross is a miniature desert complete with sand dunes (really??) and several gorgeous emerald green lakes.
  
On to Skagway tomorrow!

Watson Lake

Dennis and Carol and I headed out of Liard together. We’re ultimately heading for Skagway and Dyea, and this is the first leg of the trip.

There’s a herd of buffalo in the area around Liard. Sometimes you see a whole bunch of them, and sometimes only a few here and there. This is one of the “few” times. They are impressive beasts up close!

        

The crossing from BC to the Yukon is always exciting, because the Yukon is much more wilderness-y and just feels untouched and wild. Some of the best scenery on the trip can be found there, and lots of animals. Crossing the border requires a bit of ceremony at the sign:

  

Right across the border is the town of Watson Lake, home of the famous sign post forest. It’s a hub of commerce for the Yukon (which means it has more than one gas station). The sign post thing started when a homesick serviceman put up a sign with the mileage to his home back in the lower 48, and the idea caught on. Today there are north of 80,000 signs, and travelers put up thousands more every year. Some signs are works of art, some are magic marker on a toilet seat, many are immensely entertaining! The forest is huge, so here are just a few shots to give you an idea….

     

Our sign from 2014 is looking good! As is my personal sign, updated with a sharpie.

  

Don’t have a sign ready? Use whatever comes to hand! I love the toilet tank lid… I wonder if there’s a toilet in a restaurant or gas station somewhere along the road that’s missing one….

  

The visitor’s center has a great display that shows some of the realities of building the road through untracked wilderness. Cruising along on the asphalt surface of today, it’s easy to forget just what a bitch it was to cut this road!

     

Another great attraction in Watson Lake is the Northern Lights center, which features an amazing film of the northern lights, but we all did that last time, so we pass on a re-run and head North.

After Watson Lake, it’s open road, and lots of it. The road gets rougher, and more narrow, but the experience improves, because of the amazing vistas.

     

There’s always road construction going on, and many sections have gravel spread on them, leading to dusty conditions…. Cough! I’m following Dennis. Remind me to go first next time!

  

We stop at another old roadhouse for the night. Rancheria Lodge is one of the oldest on the road, it opened in the late 40s, when tourists first started braving the then dirt road. Some of the buildings date back 60 or more years. There’s a nice little campground and a really good restaurant.

  

It’s on to Carcross tomorrow, and then down to Skagway and Dyea. See you there!