Days 16-18: Goodbye Canada, Hello Alaska

Days 16-18:

Our drive from the off-grid cabin to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, was supposed to be pretty straightforward with just one wiggle in the route: we’d head East on the Alcan Highway when we intersected with it in order to visit Watson Lake. The town itself was quite large, possibly because of the hoopla around the Sign Post Forest. Back in the 40s when the Alcan Highway was being constructed as part of the war effort (we didn’t want the Japanese to try and take over Alaska without having a direct highway route for troops to get there to defend the territory), a homesick soldier hung up a sign to an army mile marker post that listed his hometown of Danville, Illinois and how many miles away it was. Since then, the Sign Post Forest has collected THOUSANDS of signs that people from all over the world have left behind. As of 2018, there were more than 87,500 signs. The place was extraordinary.

We didn't see Havertown (didn't look too hard), but there were lots of signs from the Keystone State!

I was dealing with a minor work fiasco while M&D scoped out the signs, but when I finally caught up with them I heard about how they had already re-connected with some folks who we had seen the day before! We were stopped at a gas station in Dease Lake and I was inside dropping off my credit card to have the gas pump turned on while Dad cleaned the windshields (the bugs up here are for real, folks). Some guy in a truck pulled up and pretty rudely asked my Dad to move the car forward so he could get gas at the pump behind ours. Dad did (and, to Mom’s telling, was pretty chill about the whole thing – miracle of miracles), as I was walking back to the car, and the guy was apparently HORRIFIED to realize he’d made a mistake. He thought Dad was just blocking up the works taking his sweet time cleaning the windows, not realizing we still needed to pump our gas, too. So when I went back inside to re-claim my credit card and turn off the pump (it’s a whole process to get gas), he apologized to Dad profusely for being a jerk, generally. So anyway, while we’re at Sign Post Forest the same guy was there! And popped over to apologize again to Dad and generally do what dudes do in awkward situations like that. All’s well that ends well.

So we leave Watson Lake and pretty much put the pedal to the metal to get to Whitehorse in time for dinner. The Stratford Motel has LOVELY laundry facilities, so we got two loads of wash done and then headed to Dirty Northerners for apps and drinks before bed. That was a win because the service was good and the food was hot AND we could walk there and back.

Next morning, I was still dealing with the minor work fiasco from the previous day so M&D scoped out the Starbucks we’d passed en route to the bar the night before and picked up breakfast, coffee, and tea. We’re pretty sure that’s the first Starbucks we’ve seen since the states, though we concede there could have been one in either Banff or Jasper that we just didn’t see. Either way, great way to use up some Starbucks giftcards and get some hot drinks for the road.

Whitehorse to Skagway was a beautiful drive. We missed a turn and ended up taking the long way down, but still had plenty of time to make our 7:15pm ferry. The mountains by the Canadian/Alaskan border were stunning. Waterfalls everywhere and landscape unlike any we’ve seen to date. The trees were all really stunted and small, and there was this greenish yellow lichen growing all over the rocks of the landscape. We traced the route of the Skagway railway that my parents took when they were here on their Alaskan cruise and saw a train making its way up to the border. Border crossing was quick and easy (once we backed out of the trucks-only lane and into the passenger cars lane): we made it to Alaska!

Welcome to Alaska waterfall

We headed straight to the Skagway ferry terminal and got our car in line to board our eventual ferry down to Haines. We had about an hour and a half to kill when we took into account having to arrive at the terminal an hour and a half before departure to get the cars loaded onto the boat, so we, naturally, sought out a bar. Initial thought had been to window shop, but I’m no good at that; I buy things. So we headed to Skagway Brewing for some light dinner and beers. The waitress carded me and said “no way, I used to live in Collingswood!” After we chatted all things Flyers (she’s a big fan of Gritty) and Philly, a couple sitting behind us chimed in “we’re from Cinnaminson!” Small world. The beer was solid and the Caesar with blackened local halibut that the waitress recommended was excellent.

We were probably the 5^th car to park in the loading bay when we got into town, but we were 3^rd to last to board the boat. The trip down to Haines was beautiful – Dad whipped out the binoculars and we had a grand time spotting waterfalls and looking at the scenery – and our AirBnB was only a 12 minute drive from the terminal once we landed. We stayed in a 3-bedroom luxury yurt with a hot tub overlooking the bay. It was stunning.

hot tub

View from the hot tub

I was first driver yesterday on our way back into Canada for our final leg through Yukon. It was the first trip in a while that we’ve only spotted 2 bears during the drive – most other days we’ve seen 8-12. The drive took us along the backside of the mountain range that makes up Glacier Bay National Park and I have to say: the backside was stunning, so I can only imagine what it looks like from the Bay. A whole lot of wide open space kept us company during the drive, but there weren’t many other cars. Once we re-joined the Alcan Highway (if we had continued straight west out of Whitehorse we’d have stayed on it, but the detour to Skagway/Haines took us off it) the road quality degraded pretty rapidly. The views, though, were worth it. The Alcan Hwy takes a route that edges along the outside perimeter of Klaune National Park in Canada, so we stopped at an overlook to see Lake Kathleen and learned that Klaune, along with Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska and two others whose names I can’t recall) form the largest protected landmass in the world.

We stopped for lunch by a lake with a beaver dam and could see their handiwork 

Beaver tree felling

I stopped driving after 200 miles or so and was glad to take a nap for the better part of our last two hours of drive. Woke up to squeals from the front: we’d spotted our second coyote and managed to get photos of this one. Back to sleep for me, and happy to miss out on the bumps and “alley-oops” that otherwise would have certainly made me car sick in the backseat.

Our motor lodge was very cute last night in Beaver Creek, YT. Dinner was at Buckshot Betty’s, we got Creamsicles for dessert in the Motor Inn shop, and then off to bed.

The sun was this crazy red when we left dinner

This morning was a late start (we’ve had a lot of those recently) around 11am. We just passed out of Canada for the last time (unless everything goes to shit and we miss our ferry from Whittier down to Seattle in ten-ish days) and we’re headed towards the Richardson Highway! Tonight we stay in Gakona, Alaska, just outside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.