Into the Yukon
June 24-25, 2015








Heading north from Muncho Lake we came to Liard Hot Springs. It is a popular stop along the Alaska Highway; it was also a favorite of the army soldiers who built the highway in 1942.  The water was prtetty hot; I had to move to the cooler end of the pool.









Back on the highway we encountered this black bear having a meal alongside the road. It appears that the bears like the vegetation that grows in the roughly 50 foot wide cleared area adjacent to the highway. Perhaps they need something growing there that doesn't grow deeper in the forest.









British Columbia has about 250 of these wood bison. Unfortunately, they lose about 10 per year due to being hit by vehicles. One sees signs along the highway referring to the bison as "Alaska Highway speed bumps" and urging drivers to slow down.








A little farther along we entered into the Yukon Territory (the highway actually snakes back and forth across the BC-Yukon boundary six times). This brings us to the 60th parallel.









In 1942, a homesick soldier put up a sign in his camp in Watson Lake showing the distance to his home in Danville, IL. Other soldiers followed his lead and added signs of their own.This has now become a tradition; a lot of people from all over the world put up all kinds of signs. There are now an estimated 80,000 signs in the Watson Lake signpost forest.







The mountains along the British Columbia - Yukon border are very scenic. The highway along here is the only road for many miles, so we are passing through an immense wilderness area.








Little Rancheria Waterfall is a very pleasant and short walk from a rest area along the highway.









The bridge across Teslin Lake is the longest bridge on the Alaska Highway.



































This poster showing the life cycle of Chinook salmon was done by sixth and seventh graders in Telsin and posted at a scenic viewpoint above Teslin Lake. After spending 2 - 6 years in the ocean, the salmon swim 1840 miles upstream without eating to where they were hatched. There they spawn and die.








George Johnston (1893 - 1972) was a Tlingit native living in Teslin, Yukon who became a  skillful hunter and trapper. As a young man he acquired a camera and photo developing  kit and started teaching himself photography. Carrying his camera everywhere he went, he developed a striking photographic record of Tlingit life in the early part of the 20th century. He also had an interest in cars even though there were no cars, or even roads, in Teslin. In 1929 he bought this car in Whitehorse and had it brought to Teslin by barge. He then hired local men to help him clear trees for a three mile road in Teslin and made money by giving rides to people who wanted their first ride in a car. When the army came through in 1942 building the highway, his three mile long road was incorporated into it.

In the winter he painted the car white and drove it on the frozen lake for hunting.


The animal sightings along this stretch:
    two black bears,
    one herd of bison and a few stragglers,
    one fox who was too skittish to be photographed,
    and one rabbit (hare?).

Yet to be seen - a grizzly bear.