The Yukon

[Glacier]

I've travelled a couple times through the Yukon, and I must say that it's a great spot to visit in the summer. Many of you like to head down to Puerto Vallarta and such, but in my opinion taking a June drive through the Yukon is a must. I say June mainly because of the long hours of light. The fact that June tends to be drier than July and August is an added bonus. Really, if you want to see everything you'll need a solid month.




The land is vast, the scenery is beautiful, and the light never goes away. The drive between Fort Nelson and Watson Lake is the best place I have ever seen for viewing wildlife. During my last trip through the territory I saw 4 herds of bison along with two herds of stone sheep right on the road. In addition there were moose, grizzly bears, and porcupines wondering right beside the road.



As I've said the land is vast and largely unpopulated, but the highway is fast and straight. How unpopulated, you ask? Well, there are 36,794 people up there with 27,623 of them living in Whitehorse. That leaves 9,171 people who don't live in Whitehorse. All but 72 of these people live in 17 communities:

Dawson City ..............2,010
Watson Lake..............1,495
Haines Junction............864
March Lake..................540
Carmacks....................519
Mayo..........................487
Teslin........................459
Carcross.....................437
Mount Lorne...............410
Faro.........................390
Ross River..................378
Pelly Crossing.............348
Old Crow ..................249 (only community with no summer road access)
Tagish......................249
Beaver Creek.............118
Burwash Landing..........99
Destruction Bay...........48



As you can see there aren't a lot of towns, and you can drive several 100 km between them, but the Yukon is geared for summer tourism season. Besides the wildlife, there are some amazing scenery spots along with some very interesting museums. We thought that the museum of natural history in Burwash Landing would be lame, but we stopped anyway. What could a tiny population of mostly First Nations people in the middle of nowhere offer a bunch of city slickers? Boy were we wrong as it was well done and quite informative. Oh, and the person working where had moved up from the Okanagan 17 years ago.

Whitehorse has several museums well worth looking at. The transportation museum near the airport has the world's largest weather vane. Here it is:



There is a huge difference between the Yukon border and Fort St John in terms of light. We stayed in Pink Mountain north of Fort St John (considered way the heck up north by us southerns), and it was pitch black at night. The next night we rolled into Watson Lake at 11:00 pm, and the town was alive. I took pictures of the signpost forest without a tripod or a flash. This is truly the great thing about the north in the summer. People just stay out late walking around. It did get dim in Watson Lake shortly after, but never dark. Further north in the Yukon provides even more light at night.

What is the signpost forest, you ask? Well, it's a forest of signs.



Much of the drive through the Yukon is rolling hill kind of country. Watson Lake is on a bit of a plateau, but then you pass through the Cassiar Mountains before hitting Whitehorse. The lower elevation mountains around Whitehorse are made up for once you get to Haines Junction because from here you can see the Saint Elias Mountains.

At one point along the road you can see the 19,000 ft tall Mount Logan, Canada's tallest mountain. This area is the world's largest non-polar glacier area.

By contrast, most of the Yukon north of Kluane National Park was not glaciated even during the last ice age that saw almost all of Canada stuck under a mile of ice. This vast prehistoric continent called Beringia stretched across the Yukon, Alaska, and over to Siberia. Even part of the Arctic sea ice today did not have ice back then. You can learn more about this at the Beringia Interpretive Centre in Whitehorse.



Anyway, if you want my opinion, I think you should go for a drive. Take your time, and enjoy the scenery. And whatever you do, stop at Liard River Hotsprings. See you all there next summer at the 2015 Castanet G2G.

[Iamsomeone]

Interesting post Glacier. We've driven to Whitehorse once and had a great trip - one of our best vacations actually. We spent a week driving there from Kelowna (using the Highway 37 route), camping along the way. We spent a week in Whitehorse and found lots to do. Their museums are really interesting. Then took another week coming home on Highway 97. It was a beautiful drive with numerous sightings of bear, moose, fox, sheep etc.

"From Kitwanga Junction on Highway 16, to the Yukon, Highway 37 traverses through some of the most remote and beautiful scenery in British Columbia. It is one of only two land routes from B.C. to the Yukon Territory and the State of Alaska. The total distance from the junction of Highway 16 to the Yukon border is 725 kilometres (450 miles). Along the way, there are small populated areas."

We're hoping to do it again soon. We just might see you at that 2015 Castanet G2G!

[sobrohusfat]

Dang-it Glacier, what are you trying to do - wreck a good thing ... with more people !?

[matai]

Brrrrr, I would definitely go there for a month in June, only if I could go somewhere south for a month in december to compensate. Summer is short, i need ALL of it, lol

[Glacier]

Brrrrr, I would definitely go there for a month in June, only if I could go somewhere south for a month in december to compensate. Summer is short, i need ALL of it, lol

There are a tonne of Kwebeckers up there. I've seen more Quebec licence plates in the Yukon and even on the less traveled Cassiar Highway leading to the Yukon than I've ever seen in the Okanagan. I think it's because the Alaska highway also has the road signs in French. Québécois love their French (as you know).

[Lady tehMa]

What are the bugs like up there? I like relatively bug-free zones as I am viewed as a delicacy by most of them :/

[Glacier]

Unless you stay in a big city like Kelowna, you will find bugs anywhere you go in this world. Just go for a drive up to the nearest fishing lake around Kelowna if you don't believe me.

This year the bugs were almost non-existent in the Yukon and Alaska, which is really weird because they had record amounts of rain up there. The bugs can be bad up there, but the absolute worst location for mosquitoes I've ever seen is the lower half of the Cassiar highway from Bob Quinn Lake to the junction with hwy 16 near Kitwanga. North of Bob Quinn Lake, the climate becomes quite dry. Whitehorse, for example, is much drier than even Osoyoos or Kamloops.

Whitehorse is said to have the cleanest air of any city in the world, so give it a try. Even though I've driven up to the Yukon twice, I've never gone north of the Arctic Circle. I'm waiting until the build the road to Tuktoyaktuk first. That way I can drive right to the Arctic Ocean.

If you don't like bugs, perhaps the fall is a good time to visit. Fall being late August to early September. June is warmer than August up there, so August is a fall month. I've been told that the fall colours are quite spectacular at times.

[WeatherWoman]

Tell me more about cost.

Gas?
Accommodations?
Other?

[JLives]

My partner did some work up in Haines Junction and came back wanting to move up there. It's beautiful country.

[Glacier]

Tell me more about cost.

Gas?
Accommodations?
Other?

Gas is cheaper in the Yukon than neighboring BC communities because of lower taxes. I paid about the same in Whitehorse as I did in Vernon.

We did hotels this last trip, but I liked camping better because you have more options as to where to stay. We arrived in Watson Lake at 11:00 pm, and all the hotels were full. We had to drive another half an hour to find an available room. It seems like Watson Lake is a very popular spot to spend the night. We stayed in Watson Lake on the way home, and none of the hotels were full. This community of under 2,000 has a good half dozen hotels to choose from that charge about $130/night. I found that this is the the expensive of any community we found on our entire trip. Because there are so few towns up there, camping gives you a lot more options as to where to stay.

Food is more money for sure, but not always. We visited the Super Store in Whitehorse, and for some reason some things were the same price as Vernon while others a lot more money.

Even though there are so few people living up there, the summers are quite busy with 1000s of American tourists driving up to Alaska from the States. The long hours of light make it feel quite alive in in the summer. There are lots of Canadian tourists too, but I'd say there are more Americans for sure. 70% of the traffic from Haines Junction to the Alaska border near Beaver Creek (Canada's westernmost community) is American. This is why the Americans pay for much of the costs of this section of highway.

A friend of mine spend a month up there last year, and said it wasn't long enough to visit everything. Summers are amazing, but as the locals say, "the winters are long, dark, and cold."

[WeatherWoman]

I need a rough estimate..."trip cost about $xxxxx".

Please and thank you :)

[Glacier]

It cost us about $2,500 to drive to Alaska and back via the Yukon. We could have saved close to $1000 by camping instead of hoteling. We stayed with relatives in Alaska.

Gas: $1,000
Lodging: $1,000 for hotels/$200 if camping. Think of it as $120/night vs. $20/night.
Food: We brought our own food, while stocking up in a few major cities (namely Whitehorse), so it didn't really cost us any more than living at home.
Tourism stuff: $500 Bought some souvenirs and visited some sites. We actually spend most of this in Alaska since we were there the longest.

[GordonH]

Due remember a large supply of bug spray. lol