The Third Week Teslin/Whitehorse/Beaver Creek/Delta Junction

The Third Week

Teslin/Whitehorse/Beaver Creek/Delta Junction

18th August

Yesterday evening we pulled into the pretty town of Teslin, a small village located at Historic Mile 84 on the Alaska Highway. It is bordered by the waters of Nitsutlin Bay and Teslin Lake. We pop into the only store in town, the Nugget Bay Trading Post, for few grocery items. Find a spot to park for the night, the car park of the George Johnston Museum, a quiet spot. We start today (the 18th) looking through the Museum, beautifully laid out in a honey coloured native log building. We watched a great DVD telling the story of the life of George Johnson.

http://www.gjmuseum.yk.net/ This link will illustrate our story!

Our plan was to have the advertised breakfast at Annie Mukluk’s café but on arrival discovered it had closed the day before for the season. Meaning the holiday season had finished and winter was due!!!! It was a pleasant enough place to park though alongside the lake and prepare breakfast. We then visited the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre, some lovely exhibits here and a chat to Ada, a very pleasant lass who was happy to talk while we drank coffee she provided for us.

We leave Teslin and hit the road; destination today is Whitehorse, a small city that nestles on the bank of the Yukon River, Yukon’s capital. We park in Wal-Mart, I have lost my camera so I buy a new one in Wal-Mart, our overnight parking venue. Also buy a new Radio, CD and MP3 music machine for Ronnie to provide more entertainment while driving, and retired the AM/FM cassette radio! Relaxed rest of day, small grocery shop, CD player gets installed etc.

19th-22nd August - Whitehorse

Ronnie’s house heater isn’t working so short drive outside of town to an RV centre, they can look at it this morning fortunately. Decide to go and look at two points of interest nearby while job is being done – a 5 km bike ride, it’s cool this morning, so we rugged up, not forgetting gloves – first stop is the Yukon Interpretive Centre. Life sized exhibits of animals of the last Ice Age are on display here, we watched two informative BBC productions in a very lovely little theatrette. There was a display outside of how to use the ancient hunting tool, the atlatl. All quite interesting. http://www.beringia.com/


We rode a short distance to the Yukon Transportation Museum, some marvellous exhibits here from snowshoes to moose skin boats and dogsleds and early aircraft. Very informative. http://www.yukontransportationmuseum.ca/


Back to RV centre, heater is almost fixed. We hang around while they finish off. After lunch and heater installed and briefly tested in Ronnie. We go take a walk along the world’s longest wooden fish ladder. Salmon use the ladder to get past the Whitehorse dam on the way to their spawning grounds. http://www.yukonenergy.ca/services/facilities/fishway/


We also visit the Miles Canyon later this afternoon. A bumpy ride in Ronnie on gravel road and quite long walk through one of the trails, beautifully scenic and peaceful, eventually reaching the viewing site of the canyon. We chat to a ranger on the trail, he warns us to be careful of the wildlife and to make plenty of noise to keep them away. We followed instructions naturally. There is a footbridge that crosses the river, good photo opportunity above the gushing river. Scenery is fantastic. A very pleasant peaceful hour or so. A full day.

We discover that the heater problem still exists. Bugger. Decide to have a look around the city area this morning and head out to the RV place this afternoon and hope they can locate the problem. First stop is the McBride Museum. The museums here are very well laid out, so many exhibits that give a very comprehensive view of those early times. We then visit the Old Log Church Museum built in 1900, an excellent example of early pioneer architecture and one of the oldest buildings in Whitehorse.

After a brunch stop and a look at the SS Klondike, a beautiful old paddle steamer located on the river, we head out to the RV place and wait while it is worked on again. Eventually problem is located and all put back together – we shall not be cold in Alaska. A pleasant walk along the wetlands adjacent to parking area before dinner finishes the day quite well. Would you believe that on a mid arvo heater test and it DID NOT START!! Back to RV fixing place and this time every switch was replaced and it has not missed a beat since then!!

22nd August

Before hitting the road today we visit the Yukon Arts Centre. On arrival found it was closed, as well as it being an arts centre it is also the theatre venue which is open for ticket sales etc. Tammy, the helpful lady working there opened the Art Gallery up for us. So we had a private viewing. And what a beautiful collection of art works there were including some beautiful sculptures in jade (serpentine). We were also shown the theatre, great set up, very modern, great acoustics. They have a comprehensive theatre program for nine months of the year. The arts centre lies adjacent to the university in very pretty gardens and a great view over the city of Whitehorse. Outside there are a number of interesting sculptures that we wandered amongst after breakfast which we had in the carpark with view!

We hit the road. Beaver Creek is our destination today and travel is via Haines Junction where we stop for a coffee break in a rest area. There is another RV close by and we strike up a conversation with Emily and Hiram, travellers from Texas in a large RV. We were treated to look inside after we spent a pleasant half an hour chatting in Ronnie. Off again travelling through Destruction Bay that sits on the shore of the Kluane National Park. Words can’t describe the breathtaking scenery here, snow capped mountains, glaciers, tall pines trees, the beautiful Kluane Lake reflecting the forest. Many photographs taken en route with lots of oohs and aahs. Absolutely superb. There is a lot of roadworks going on, the road is very bumpy, poor Ronnie gets a good old shaking today. The initial road construction 60 years ago did not know how to put a road over Permafrost. The PF is eventually degraded and immense subsidence occurs and the road turns into a roller coaster ride. We saw a herd of about 15 bison on the road AND our first brown bear. We stopped and photographed him. We found a delightful lunch spot amongst all this fabulous scenery. Wow. On driving through the small township of Burwash Landing, an interesting log cabin style museum beckoned us in. Absolutely fabulous display here of wildlife of the Yukon. We spent an hour or so here looking at everything and watching a short video. Eventually we arrive at tonight’s destination Beavers Creek, a tiny town that has a population of 200. We find a very quiet spot to park for the night adjacent to the indoor swimming pool.

23rd August

We start the day with a look through the visitor centre at Burwash Landing. I saw an immaculate 2 door Cadillac outside the Information Centre. The Alaska Highway book briefly mentioned Sid’s “car museum” in Beaver Creek. So when we went into the Info centre and an immaculately dressed man with shoulder length silver hair and bald pate with a name badge that said “Sid”, I asked about the Museum! He said no one was home but gave us a detailed map and how to open the garages and sheds to see his treasures. Can only happen when on the road!! The only Ford Sunliner I have seen outside of Harrahs in Reno! http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/678.cfm


We leave Yukon behind shortly after leaving Beavers Creek and enter Alaska, a photo opportunity here. And then we go through passport control, we are now in the United States of America and we gain one hour.

A brief stop at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge and a look around the centre and travel on to Tok (pronounced Toke). There are many stops because of the huge operation of road construction that is taking place upgrading the highway. Huge machinery employed in this task. Cars are pulled up and one side of the highway is able to travel. One can wait for up to 10 minutes until it is your turn. A pilot car guides you through when permitted to travel on. Not unusual to see women operating the huge tractors and caterpillars. This work can only be carried out until the snow arrives when everything comes to a standstill until the warmer weather arrives. We arrive in Tok, have a look around a very well stocked gift shop here. I buy a cute Alaskan bear, his name is Brambles but he has already been nicknamed Bram. We had a look at some cute Husky puppies that were for sale and got off on the road again. Destination tonight is Delta Junction, the northern terminus of the Alaska Highway and the only road link between Alaska and Canada. We pull into the visitor centre, have a look around and then a walk through the adjoining area where old machinery is on display. Find an off road parking spot for the evening.

24th August

We leave Delta Junction this morning, on the road to Fairbanks, it is a bright morning which provided a spectacular panorama of the scenic mountain range here, ice capped and the highest peaks on the north American continent at over 20,000 feet. Absolutely glorious. The Alaska Highway has now become the Richardson Highway. A short drive out of town and we pull in where we can view a section of the huge gas pipeline which runs from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, some 800 kilometers long. Our next stop is at Rikas Roadhouse, not at all as it sounds, it is in fact set in a large national park on the banks of the Tanana River. There is a restored roadhouse here originally built in 1910. There are quite a lot of old log buildings here with lots of old artifacts inside so we spend time wandering through them before hitting the road again. http://www.rikas.com/roadhouse.html

Fairbanks at 64 degrees and 48 minutes North is in our windscreen view. Our most northern destination.

A very full and interesting week.