"The Rush"
August 2017
The famous Alcan Highway was constructed in 1942 to support US troop movement during WW2 in response to the Japanese occupation of Alaska’s Attu and Kiska Islands. This is the only highway that connects US mainland across thousands of miles of rugged, remote and mostly unexplored land that once belonged to Russia.
Many towns, cities, and highways spawn around this connection to support troop movements, then cater to tourists in the later years. So leaving Dawson Creek in British Columbia and heading to Yukon Territory, we too started from Mile Zero Post like any good Alaskan pilgrimage.
But Mile-O Post doesn’t seem to be grandeur and colorful enough, so we were tempting to treat ourselves to more fanfare departure! Start the trip from the huge “World Famous Alaska Highway” sign with many historical building in the background seems befitting.
Just 6 miles outside Dawson Creek, the 1930 Pouce Coupe Trestle still smell of fresh tar and the solid structure built entirely out of wood was once fully operational, but now remains a tourist attraction that wary travelers can have a picnic on the nearby lawn… or tip-toed across it!
Short side trip from Alcan Highway, we visited the only banked and curved 1942 Historic Kiskatinaw Wooden Bridge. Although still in perfect condition, this beautiful bridge suffered the same faith as some of the old towns on Route 66; it has been bypassed in 1978 by a bigger bridge.
Continued to a very scenic Stone Mountain Provincial Park a few hours away, we picked a camping spot for the night. The cozy Summit Lake Campground answers all our camping desires; the tranquility of the Summit Lake and picturesque Northern Rockies in the background put a spell on us.
While at Summit Lake Campground, we met some friendly folks; Glen, Mary, and Winter the dog. Winter let out a small whimper as we stroked her head. Mary explained that Winter suffered an injury while the family camping at Liard Hot Springs campground. A 400lbs blond bear passing through their campsite and found Winter approaching him… then things started to happen very quickly; the blond bear took a swipe at Winter, Winter flies like a rag doll and landed next to the truck bumper about 5ft away. Blond took off and disappear in the tree lines. Winter was hurting bad, received some first aid for her head and upper torso injuries, as well as tons of love from fellow campers. Glen and Mary said the attack happened at their campsite 5 while other campers milling about their camping business!
Spent another day at the beautiful Summit Lake, we want to explore this beautiful area further. So, we followed the direction of some naked locals and crossed the freezing river on the Stone Mountain’s Muskwa-Kechika trail. The dirt trail zig-zag through some flooded road and dried up lakes. But after about 15 miles into the trail without seeing anything interesting, we retraced our route and waved goodbye to now clothed friendly locals.
Left Sumit Lake Campground, we arrived at Liard Hot Springs 2.5hrs later and proceed to check into site 8. The campground is basically wooded with many shrubs and trees to hide unwelcome guests. Taking precaution while visiting the beautiful hot springs; Kira in boots and jacket with her bear bell, and we in bear-prepped mode with flashlight and bear sprays when doing anything outside our trailer or truck.
The tranquility in the campsite generally is broken by gunshots from the park rangers to scatter the pesky bears. The Alpha pool still open, but the Beta pool little way out has been closed due to bear traffic since 2013. The boardwalk leading to the pool was a scene of the gruesome bear attack that killed 2 and injured 2 more people on August 14th, 1997. The rogue bear was finally put down by a tourist with a Winchester rifle. The Rangers were nowhere to be found during the whole ordeal! Now they are everywhere, both the rangers and the bears!
Leaving the Liard Hot Springs behind, we were heading to our first Yukon town at Watson Lake. This town was born out of necessity at the beginning of WW2. The tiny airfield at Watson Lake was expanded to accommodate the steady stream of Bell fighter aircraft and Michells bomber en route from the US to Russia along the Northwest Staging Route. But the marriage between capitalist and communist came to an abrupt end as the war winding down.
We came back to Sign Post Forest for night photoshoot. The sky was fairly clear during the day, but at night a brewing storm was moving in fast just as a local drunkard staggering out between the signs that surprised us. Realizing a paradox in a strange place, local folk has ways to be invisible regardless of our alertness. Cautiously, we retreated to a more open route.
In the morning we found some local treats; the morels and puffballs mushrooms. The morels have rarely been cultivated due to many difficulties. For one, the real morels will only grow in a few spring months in nature and only after a forest fire. Lucky us, we got our hands on these and proceed to make a scrumptious lunch with pork short ribs. The texture of morels was clean and not slimy, smoky and earthy, nutty and have the consistency of very soft meat.
4hrs away from Watson Lake, we stopped at Miles Canyon Basalts in Whitehorse. The 50ft basaltic canyon walls and strong torrent river were thrilling to look at but at a respectful distance. The wind was blowing hard and quite chilly which effectively shorten our visit.
The town of Whitehorse also born out of WW2 necessity; it served as major transportation hub during the Pacific War since Klondike Gold Rush. This town also ranks lowest in air pollution in Guinness World Records!
In the movie The Proposal 2009 with Sandra Bullock, you probably laugh (or even cry) at Betty White’s Tlingkit (pronounce “Klingkit”) Mother Earth dance. However, the Tlingkit Heritage Center in Teslin is the real thing and much different than what the movie portrayed.
Along with a small admission fee, the Teslin Tlingkit Heritage Center has lots of artifacts and cultural history to offer. While taking a sip from piping hot coffee and eating freshly baked fried bread offered, we found the Tlingkit culture, something with intrinsic value and hereditary roles will pass down through the mother’s line.
We visited the least-visited Kualane National Park the following day. But “an empire of mountains and ice” as UNESCO call it, wasn’t easily accessible by off-road roading, or even primitive trails. We either have to helicopter in or take an extreme backpacking adventure. Neither was an attractive option for us. However, it was spectacular sceneries can be had just outside the park doorstep!
Destruction Bay is a small community of 35 people (2011) who live few minutes outside the Kluane Lake alongside the Alaska Highway. This 100-mile relay station provides vehicular repair and supplies on the highway in the early year and stopover for the tourist in later years.
We settle in for the night at the most beautiful campground with eccentric hosts at the Cottonwood RV Campground after traveling few hundred miles today.
Cottonwood RV Campground is another quirky campground with only one water filling station, inclined sanidump near restroom make for very difficult to empty tanks, weak WIFI, pack out your own garbage when you leave… But it has free DVDs, nice lake view, plenty of hot showers and clean toilet. Linda, the host at Cottonwood advised us to be alerted for mother bear and her cubs. We told her that our campsite is always clean and free of food odor and no visible food container out in the open, but we have our pooch… So if no peaceful coexistence with the bears then we’ll lean toward self-preservation and will use bear spray if threatened. Linda relented but look at us strangely!
We enjoyed the Yukon excursion and knew there are more places to see and explore, and promise ourselves to come back one day to explore the fascinating native culture and perhaps travel outside of the beaten paths.
After a few days rest at the beautiful Kluane Lake, we bid goodbye to Yukon and drove 7hrs to Alaska the following day.
GPS Coordinates
- Mile “0” Post – 55°45’30.4″N 120°13’43.2″W
- Grain Elevator & Mile 0 Alaska Highway sign – 55°45’34.2″N 120°13’34.0″W
- Pouce Coupe Trestle (narrow Railway Ave parking next to trash can) – 55°42’42.3″N 120°08’34.3″W
- Historic Kiskatinaw Wooden Bridge – 55°57’26.5″N 120°33’51.7″W
- Summit Lake Campground – 58°39’05.4″N 124°39’11.0″W
- Liard Hot Springs – 59°25’34.7″N 126°06’03.4″W
- Sign Post Forest – 60°03’47.6″N 128°42’48.5″W
- Miles Canyon Basalts – 60°39’41.4″N 135°01’45.8″W
- Teslin Tlingkit Heritage Center – 60°10’38.3″N 132°47’11.7″W
- Cottonwood RV Campground – 61°05’18.8″N 138°32’00.1″W
References
- Destination details from local knowledge, some wwere extracted from handout literature, brochure, or website, and Wikipedia
- Coordinates are from Google map in Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds (DMS)