After we cleared the fire area near Stewart Crossing, we drove Southeast along the Klondike Highway towards the capital of Yukon Territory; Whitehorse. This modern city accounts for more than half of the population of the Yukon with 25,000 of 44,000 people. It is amazing to me that only 44,000 people live in an area larger than all but two states of the United States! No wonder I love this place.
The Klondike Highway follows the Yukon River in places and the views are often stunning, the image above is just South of the Five Fingers Rapids section of the Yukon River. On the various legs of our journey, we often read about and discussed the way travel is different today from back in history and along the Klondike Highway, that history is evident by the Stagecoach Roadhouses that were spread across this vast forested area.
I, honestly, cannot imagine traveling from Whitehorse to Dawson City by Stagecoach. I would have taken the sternwheeler down the Yukon River for sure. We arrived in Whitehorse on a Saturday evening of a holiday weekend and learned that almost EVERYTHING was going to be closed on Sunday due to the long holiday weekend. So, we rushed to the Beringia Museum, to see the exhibits about the land bridge that once existed between Siberia, Alaska and the Yukon during the Ice Ages.
My namesake, the Muskox, is, of course, a holdover from the Ice Ages, so I’ve always had an affinity for when much of North America was covered with ice sheets. We also live in an area greatly shaped by the ice ages in Wisconsin, so the Beringia Museum was a must-see. It was an amazing center with beautifully re-created exhibits and amazing specimens. The mining in Yukon has produced some amazing finds in the permafrost, like an intact wolf pup curled up like it is still sleeping and a fully intact Mammoth!
I was surprised that in the largest city in Yukon, many sites would be closed over a weekend, even if it was a holiday, but, I guess, Canadians have their priorities straight; life before work. We camped at the Robert Service Municipal Campground right along the Yukon River in Whitehorse, which calls itself, “The Wilderness City”. It was a nice site with views and access to the river, plus incredible berry picking on an island right in front of our campsite, which was called “Temptation Island”… for the berries, not the horrible reality TV show, eh.
We decided to stay two nights and made several walks around the city on their trail system that connects the entire town for bicycling, running and walking. We walked into town and visited the SS Klondike, which is a restored Stern-wheeled paddle boat on the Riverfront. We walked around the City Center and did some souvenir shopping. There is evidence everywhere of the pride that Yukoners have of being a frontier community.
Whitehorse is a cool town, but we wanted to keep moving, so we got back on the Alaska Highway and headed East Southeast. We had already driven the stretch of the Alaska Highway between Dawson City and Whitehorse on the way up, so it was one stretch that we had seen, but it was always amazing to see the mountains from a new perspective, it was like driving a new road at times.
We decided to spend one last night in Yukon at the Big Creek Government Campground along the Alaska Highway, just before the junction with the Cassiar Highway, which is a wilderness road that cuts south into Northern British Columbia.
It would be my last evening of Grayling Fishing, so I lobbied hard to stay in Yukon rather than keep driving when we arrived at the campsite in the early afternoon. Sarah acquiesced and we stayed. I went fishing. I was rewarded with about a dozen nice Grayling.
The largest fish was about 16″ and was beautifully marked. We had a site right along the Creek, so the sound of the rushing water was like a lullaby. We woke up to a soaking rain the next morning and broke camp to get on the road. Time, which had not been much of a concern, even a week ago, was beginning to creep up on us. If we wanted to spend time in Jasper and Banff National Parks in the Rocky Mountains, we would have to put in a couple of long driving days.
We fueled up at the Junction of the Alaska Highway and the Cassiar Highway and then drove South on the Cassiar. It was a rough, narrow, windy road for about the first 50 miles. Sarah was cursing me for choosing this route, when the road got smoother and widened out after we had been in British Columbia for a while. We had said our final farewell, of this trip, to the Yukon Territory!
Every road we drove had stunning views of mountains, but the mountains along the Cassiar were very interesting and had an almost iridescent sheen to them, when we could see them, as it was cloudy and rainy for our entire drive down the Cassiar. We crossed the famous Stikine River and passed through many First Nations lands. It was a beautiful drive and we saw 7 black bears during the drive, which included a female with at least two cubs. The forest began to change the further south we got. There seemed to be more species of trees and the undergrowth even thickened. I don’t know if it was the rain or the forest, but everything seemed to get greener.
We completed the 450 miles of the Cassiar in one day. We camped at Seeley Lake Provincial Park along the Yellowhead Highway. The Yellowhead Highway is an East-West Highway that connects the Pacific coastal area of Northern British Columbia to the Rocky Mountains of Eastern BC. Driving on the Yellowhead Highway, it felt as though we were back in civilization, there was a mix of mountains, forests and agriculture. The Seeley Lake Campground made us realize that we did not want to camp close to the Yellowhead Highway ever again, the noise from the traffic made for a fitful sleep after being in such secluded places earlier in the trip.
We got up early and drove the Yellowhead Highway East toward Jasper. This region has a rich history as an important logistical link to the development of the North, but also, it’s own unique identity with large rivers, like the Fraser, that are filled with Salmon from the Pacific Ocean. We saw Elk, Deer and Black Bear as we drove East towards the City of Prince George, a Metropolis of about 75,000 people: one city with a population greater than all of the Yukon Territory!
We passed through a town called Houston and stopped to see the world’s largest fly rod. Luckily for us, there was a Tim Horton’s right across the street, so we got DONUTS as well! Check out a video of how excited the girls were about donuts on our Youtube Channel.
After stopping in Prince George for lunch and fuel, we kept driving East. In the early afternoon, we drove back into the mountains and Sarah began developing some stomach issues. It had been raining for about two days now and the thought of camping out with Sarah having to go to the bathroom every couple minutes was not a happy prospect. We decided to get a hotel room in McBride, BC. We crashed at the McBride Hotel, a historical building in downtown McBride. It was not a nice place, imagine 100 years of cigarette smoke in the saloon downstairs permeating the wallpaper. But our room was clean and it was better than camping in the pouring rain with Sarah’s continued trips to the toilet.
We slept and got up early and kept working our way towards Jasper National Park in Alberta. We continued driving across the Yellowhead Highway and as we got closer to the Rocky Mountains, we, again, found ourselves with stunning views of Mountains and Lakes.
We passed through Mount Robson Provincial Park and found ourselves in Jasper National Park.
More soon, ~Umingmaq