Yukon - Part 3

Dawson City to Watson Lake

From Dawson City, our travels through the Yukon this time took us to Tombstone Territorial Park (70 km north on the Dempster Highway). The Dempster highway is the highway that will take you to Inuvik, NWT and Tuktoyaktuk, NWT (and the Artic Ocean). Although we had been told by many that this drive is amazing and we should really do it, we were still a bit burnt out from our Alaska whirlwind tour that we decided to only drive up to Tombstone. And unfortunately, the rain caught up with us again in Tombstone so we didn’t get any hiking in but did visit their great Interpretive Centre (and had some lovely labrador/spruce tip tea).

From Tombstone we side tripped from the Klondike highway heading south to Mayo and Keno City (the latter being another former gold rush boom town which still does some mining but I think the population is only 20 people now). We visited both town’s museums and attempted to see the “sign post” lookout in Keno City but were socked in with the clouds (and the rain).

5 Finger Rapids (Yukon River) near Carmacks

We also checked out Atlin, BC (you can only drive to it from the Yukon) where we did some hiking and touring around their historic artifacts including an old power house. Atlin was another gold rush town that also still does some mining. The town is situated on beautiful Atlin Lake and is referred to as“The Switzerland of the North”. Their bakery had the best cinnamon buns we’ve had yet so we will have to add that category when we do another “Best Of” in 10 weeks.

Monarch Mountain hike looking down on Atlin Lake

And we went back to Carcross again as Mike wanted to do more mountain biking. Mike reminds me now that it was on our first visit to Carcross nearly a month earlier where I got the idea of the This Is That “hike-a-bike” post. I had kind of forgotten about it but sure enough, as we were biking in Carcross again and once again I was hiking my bike, it all came back and the blog post is now published. Also while in Carcross, Mike spent his evening watching the forest fire across the river from our campsite. Although this one was not nearly as devastating as the fires in BC, it is still pretty crazy how quickly they move and how much smoke they generate (and to see it all up close).

Biking in Carcross

And we just couldn’t seem to leave Whitehorse. We arrived from Keno City/Mayo, spent a few days, left again to check out Carcross and Atlin but then we needed groceries so made our way back and spent a few more days. On our last day we were sitting on a bench overlooking the Yukon river and wondering whether we shouldn’t just try and find jobs and stay. Although, we are told it is not finding the jobs that is the issue, it is finding housing and since it is a little too cold for me to think about staying in the van throughout September and October, we did leave Whitehorse and headed southeast to Watson Lake.

Grey Mountain ridge hike (Whitehorse)

So Watson Lake was (like for many) our first stop on entering the Yukon and our last stop on the way out. And it made it kind of fun to have come “full circle” on our Yukon adventure. We again talked to the staff who were equally as friendly as the first time and who gave us information on the next part of the journey down the Alaska Highway. It was also interesting to see people still just arriving to the Yukon to start their adventure.  We knew they were about to see some of what we had seen and perhaps be just as captivated by the Yukon as we had been.

So back to BC we go. But we are definitely sad to leave the Yukon.