We left the mosquito laden Liard Hotsprings park about 9:30 and waited until we were out on the road to hook up the toad (for new readers – the toad is our 2002 Saturn. Towed vehicles are commonly referred to as toads by RV’ers.) At mile 550.9, a place referred to Allen’s Lookout we took photos of the Liard River. Legend has it that a band of outlaws took advantage of this lookout to attack and rob riverboats. At mile 565.7 we crossed into the Yukon Territory for the first time. The Alcan crosses this border seven times while heading in a westerly direction. Stopped at Contact Creek Lodge to top off diesel at 96.9 cents Canadian per liter for $180 Canadian. Got 9.3 mpg!
We reached our destination for the day at Watson Lake, Yukon Territory and stayed at a Good Sam’s campsite. Pressured washed the car and the RV again at their coin operated pressure wash station. Quite inexpensive this time at 25 cents for 2 ½ minutes and we got done for about $3.00. Mosquitoes were again bad at the campsite!!
Watson Lake is famous for its signpost forest. It marks the junction of the Alaskan and Robert Campbell highways. In WWII Carl Lindley (1919-2002) of Danville, IL, a U.S. Army soldier in Company D, 341st Engineers working on the highway put up a post with a sign saying how many miles it was to various places in the US and people have been adding to it ever since. Today it has over 54,000 signs and covers nearly an acre of land. Many of the signs are official highway signs “borrowed” by visitors from their hometowns and put up here.
We visited the Northern Lights Center and saw a really neat film on the Northern Lights in a planetarium type setting. They also showed a fascinating film on exploring the planet Mars. We also visited The Alaska Highway Interpretative Center and saw a great show on the settlement of the Yukon.
After the Northern Lights show we drove out to see the start of the Campbell Highway, a gravel road about 300 miles long that would be an alternative for us to take to go toward Dawson City. There had been a severe thunderstorm while we were in the show. When we started along the Campbell Highway Pat noticed white stuff all along the side of the road. We thought at first it was wet “cotton” from the numerous Cottonwood trees but it just didn’t look right. A closer examination revealed it was about an inch and a half of hail! The hail had melted off the roadway but was still on the grassy areas. The temperature had been in the mid to upper 70’s prior to the storm but cooled dramatically after the storm.
We reached our destination for the day at Watson Lake, Yukon Territory and stayed at a Good Sam’s campsite. Pressured washed the car and the RV again at their coin operated pressure wash station. Quite inexpensive this time at 25 cents for 2 ½ minutes and we got done for about $3.00. Mosquitoes were again bad at the campsite!!
Watson Lake is famous for its signpost forest. It marks the junction of the Alaskan and Robert Campbell highways. In WWII Carl Lindley (1919-2002) of Danville, IL, a U.S. Army soldier in Company D, 341st Engineers working on the highway put up a post with a sign saying how many miles it was to various places in the US and people have been adding to it ever since. Today it has over 54,000 signs and covers nearly an acre of land. Many of the signs are official highway signs “borrowed” by visitors from their hometowns and put up here.We visited the Northern Lights Center and saw a really neat film on the Northern Lights in a planetarium type setting. They also showed a fascinating film on exploring the planet Mars. We also visited The Alaska Highway Interpretative Center and saw a great show on the settlement of the Yukon.
After the Northern Lights show we drove out to see the start of the Campbell Highway, a gravel road about 300 miles long that would be an alternative for us to take to go toward Dawson City. There had been a severe thunderstorm while we were in the show. When we started along the Campbell Highway Pat noticed white stuff all along the side of the road. We thought at first it was wet “cotton” from the numerous Cottonwood trees but it just didn’t look right. A closer examination revealed it was about an inch and a half of hail! The hail had melted off the roadway but was still on the grassy areas. The temperature had been in the mid to upper 70’s prior to the storm but cooled dramatically after the storm.
No comments:
Post a Comment