Into the Yukon Territory

In preparation for leaving Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park heading to Watson Lake in the Yukon we filled our trucks with diesel fuel before the fueling station closed. At $2.20 Canadian per liter it feels like we are paying California fuel prices! That’s about $6.11 per gallon after the conversion, but fuel locations can be some distance apart so regardless of the price at the pump we fill up whenever possible. We make it a practice of looking for fuel as soon as we are at half a tank and it has worked out well.

Wednesday, June 26, 2024, is the sixteenth day on our journey north from the lower forty-eight. We’re always on the lookout for any wildlife along our route and today we got some long expected satisfaction. Eighty miles into the trip on the ALCAN we spotted a black bear on the right side of the highway. Our excitement was tempered by the realization that he or she was ...pooping. Not a Kodak moment, exactly, but it was a bear sighting! Another black bear eating grass came later, but the real treat was near the Historic Mile 596 and the Hyland River when we observed in the distance a mama black bear with two cubs eating grass on the south side of the road. This time we slowed and pulled over hoping she wouldn't run off into the trees with the cubs, We rolled by, stopped up the road and got some photographs from a safe distance. We felt very fortunate to catch this amazing treat that many Alaska Highway travelers get to see along the route.

This is beginning to feel like a window into a Jack London novel. Unique wildlife sightings and incredible scenic landscape vistas are becoming a daily occurence. What will we see around the next turn?

Wednesday, June 26, 2024 we left British Columbia and crossed into the Yukon Territory at 60ºN Latitude making an important stop to get take this photo for the blog. This first sign, "Welcome to Yukon" is uniquely covered with stickers and autographs of many travelers to the territory. This would be the first of many dips in and out across the BC and Yukon border as we travel generally west.

When we arrive at Historic Milepost 635, "Gateway to the Yukon" we are 330 miles northwest of Fort Nelson and 275 miles southeast of Whitehorse in Watson Lake, Yukon. Originally known as Fish Lake, Watson Lake was renamed for Frank Watson, who settled here in 1898 with his wife Adela Stone, of Kaska First Nation heritage. Watson, who was born in Tahoe City, California, had come north looking for gold.

Watson Lake was an important point during the construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942. The airport, built in 1941, was one of the major refueling stops along the Northwest Staging Route, the system of airfields through Canada to ferry supplies to Alaska and later lend-lease aircraft to Russia.

Today Watson Lake is best known for its "World Famous" Sign Post Forest started by Carl K. Lindley of Danville, Il., a U.S. Army soldier in Company D, 341st Engineers, working on the construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942. Travelers are encouraged to add a sign to the collection and they now number more than 100,000!

Sean, Kathy, Karen and I added a contribution to the forest, hopefully a lasting memorial to this trip of a lifetime. All the spaces at eye level or below were taken years ago, so we needed a ladder to mount ours. It is secured with two wood screws to a 6x6 post near the southeast edge of the forest now totaling at least 100,002 signs.

After our signs were mounted we visited the nearby Visitor's Center to get more brochures, maps and the local information. Later it was on to the Baby Nugget RV Park to stay the night in their "Dry Camping" lot. We fueled up once again the next morning and got back on the road with the expectation of reaching Caribou RV Park south of Whitehorse, Yukon. This leg of the journey would be a four plus hour drive and put us 246 miles closer to Alaska.