Whitehorse Adventure - Day 9: Watson Lake to Whitehorse

Day 9 (438 km traveled, approx total: 2700km) - Woohoo we are really excited to be getting to our final (outward bound) destination today!!

The landscape is pretty hilly and green with some barren mountain peaks jutting out above the horizon. An hours drive (in a slow SUV towing a trailer) from Watson Lake we cross over the continental divide which is the most rigorous, hilly section that we come to this day.

We stop for gas in Teslin Lake.  Unfortunately we missed the view point for the good picture opportunity of the bridge just before town (we may have to stop on the way back south).  Gas seems to be less expensive in Yukon.  Perhaps its that there are fewer taxes or maybe the gas-station owners just aren't trying to make as big of a profit.  We stopped just north of the town at a view point which is just beside the lake.  It is a beautiful spot so we relax in the clean, clear (read: smoke free) air and enjoy the sunshine while throwing rocks into the water.  Apparently throwing rocks is a past time that can entertain young boys for a long time!  Maybe they're just excited that they're actually allowed to throw stuff.




It is drier here than I expected.  In fact along the high in places there were sand dunes.  I suppose that I had expected it to be more like the area around Revelstoke, BC (my former home town) or maybe Valemont, BC - not too sure why I had that impression since they are no where near the yukon border!

We got into Whitehorse around 2:30 pm and our first stop was the RV wash.  When I was researching campgrounds I laughed at the frivolous idea of needing an RV wash while on vacation.  We cleaned off splattered mud from the many construction zones we had driven through, the ash from camping nearish to a forest fire and a large number splatted bugs who had met their untimely demise on the front of our trailer.  Of course all we really did was rinse, but it still looked a lot better!

After setting up and letting the kids have a bit of a run/play time we headed in to town to see what there was to see.  Our RV park (High Country RV) was right at first exit into town from the Alaska Hwy.  It was is a quick 5 min drive into the downtown core of Whitehorse.  We checked out the tourist info center to get more info on what the town had to offer.  After gathering many brochures for attractions we were off to a family BBQ.

The part that took us by surprise was how late it stayed light out.  We had previously lived in Northern Alberta and close to June it stayed light late and was dark for only a couple of hours.  However by early august the days were already noticeably shorter (more on par with southern parts of BC).  We finally left the BBQ at 9pm and the sun had barely begun to set this is highly unusual for us since both kids usually go to bed by 7pm (or shortly after) and hadn't stayed up very late so far on our vacation.