Alaska at Last!

We enjoyed at few days in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Apparently about 85% of the YT citizens live in Whitehorse with a population of about 28,000!  Nice city, we especially enjoyed our visit to the Beringia Interpretive Center!  It explained what it was like in this region when the land bridge existed between AK and the today's Siberia.  Folks that study this call the region Beringia.  They had done an excellent job showing how and why this was a "successful" region for so long.  They had some fossils and some reproductions of animals and people that existed in the region thousands of years ago! Beringia vanished at the end of the last ice age because the sea levels rose as the ice melted. But, it was interesting to visit the center and learn about this natural history of this area.

Another Summer visitor to Whitehorse!

Another interesting stop was the Transportation Museum. Its high point was a full size DC-3 airliner mounted as a weather vane!  I have seen many and old airplanes and walked thru more then I can remember; however, to see this full size airplane mounted on a single pole and swinging gently in the breeze always facing the wind was awesome!  That took some engineering skill and it seemed to move so effortlessly when the breeze changed directions!

The weather vane!

We moved on to Hanes Junction where we stopped for lunch. After that we came upon Kulane Lake and ran along it for quite awhile and saw some beautiful views.  We found a rest area on the Alaska Highway at north end of lake and stopped there for the night.  Since we had plenty of daylight left after dinner - sunset was at 2350 hours (11:50 PM) I had time for a nice hike in the woods.  BJ made me take the bear spray we had bought in Dawson Creek, but I never got a chance to use it!

Moving on after lunch!

Klune Lake south end

Gary stopped for this pedestrian!

A friendly fellow just out for lunch

Some more magnificent scenery

By now we had been in Canada for nearly two weeks and we were getting anxious to get to Alaksa!  We were now less then 100 miles so we were feeling good about getting the next leg started of our adventure!
Except that was when we ran into the worst road we had seen to date!  The final 50 miles to the boarder was rough, beaten up, potholed road that really slowed us down! There were sections under repair during the short repair season and other sections that should have been!

For the last 50 miles in Canada this was ominous sign of problems in the road!

This was really the only hold-up but rest of road was so bad we were limited to about 30 mph or less!

Alaska At Last - about noon on 9 June!

Now the next phase begins!  We are looking forward to it!!  We are going to spend a few days in Tok, AK the city you visit twice.  Alaska Highway is only road into AK and Tok is the first, or last depending on your direction, city you will visit in AK if you are in a road vehicle!

Always at home, no matter where we are!!