Alaska Highway-Fort Nelson BC to Whitehorse Yukon

My Disclaimer: Our recording of our journey through Canada and Alaska will be in a bullet point format.  We have not had wifi or cell service at our end of day destinations. The reliability of having these services is not very good. So in the evening after dinner when my eyes are the heaviest, I’m doing a brain dump. 

Wednesday June 7, 2017

• A pleasant 62F with slightly cloudy skies when we got up at 6am.  For the rest of the day it turned clear blue skies and at 80F.
• Left Triple G Hideaway Campground at 7:30 and headed south for 5 miles (back tracked a little)
• Filled up with diesel ($1.239), still had 3/4 tank, at a diesel bulk station south of town.
• Road Condition: Very nice wide two lane for the first 20 miles. Afterwards, got back into old roads with lots of patch work.  Frost heaves were the cause of the patch work. Road narrows with many steep (10%) grades going through the northern Rockies. Very curvy. I would guess my average speed for the day = 40-45mph. Beautiful drive though. Hardly any traffic. Ran into construction. We had to wait for about 15 minutes and then piloted through a 10 mile gravel, dusty road. They watered the last 1/2 mile next to the person holding the slow/stop sign. Got the whole rig and Tacoma covered with mud. Not happy!
• Animal Sightings: Today we saw one black bear, one male moose, several Stone Goats and a heard of wild buffalo. All along the side of the road.  Must be careful, road signs telling of lot’s of accidents due to wildlife.
• After about 190 mile day, we got to our destination of Liard Hot springs Provincial Park at 1:30pm.  We had no reservations and we got the last available site ($26 CAD). It’s a busy time of year.  No hook ups, no cell, no internet, no nothing. Big on Quiet Time, We can only run our generator from 6-8pm and 9-11am. That’s ok, we really don’t need it. Best Provincial campground that we have stayed at so far.
• Took the boardwalk trail and visited the hot springs and hanging garden. Packed with people. I didn’t get wet but felt the water temperature. It was warm and also had a faint smell of sulfur.
• We are at Mile Marker 477 of 1222(Alaska Border) on the Alaska Highway.

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Thursday June 8, 2017

• Today’s drive is only 135 miles to Watson Lake, Yukon.
• With the short drive day, I spent the morning checking the RV.  Everything looked good. Lubricated some squeaky points on the retractable steps. Lubricated the lineshaft disconnect on the Tacoma. It was starting to get harder to engage.
• We left the campsite around 9:30am.
• Weather: Morning in the mid 60’s, afternoon at 80F. Clear blue skies all day. Turned very windy from the NE. Gusting to 30+mph. I was told from a local that this is very unusual.
• Sunrise: 4:15am Sunset: 10:45pm
• Animal Sightings: Today, just one bull buffalo.
• Road Conditions: No major climbs or descends. Pretty good two lane roads all day.
• As soon as we crossed into the Yukon, we bought diesel. We heard that it was cheaper there. We still had 3/4 tank, filled up at Contact Creek Lodge, in the middle of no-where. ($1.139/L)
• Arrived at our campsite at 12:30pm. Gravel parking lot RV Park. The wind is creating a constant dust storm.
• We visited the Sign Post Forest just a quarter of mile away.  As of September 2016, there were 83,000 license plates and road signs.  Our son Matt and his family put a license plate there last June(2016) when they made the RV trip to Alaska. Without too much effort, we found it.
• Our overnight stay is at Downtown RV Park in Watson Lake Yukon. ($40 CAD)
• We are at Mile Marker 613 of 1222(Alaska Border) on the Alaska Highway. We are about halfway.

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Friday June 9, 2017

• We left early this morning (7am) to get a good start to a 275 mile day to Whitehorse.
• We were hoping to see more wildlife starting this early, but they must have slept in.  We only saw a bear and her cub.
• Roads are in excellent shape all the way except for about 15 miles of gravel for construction (rebuilding the road). We had to wait about an half hour for the pilot truck and then the very dusty drive on gravel for the next 45 minutes. Excluding the construction, today was an easy drive, not much climbing, followed rivers just about all the way.
• Lost connection to SiriusXM radio
• Observations so far on the Alaska Highway: No accidents, nobody broke down, no police patrolling highway, roads are in good shape, no road kill animals, seen only a few black birds and no other birds, hardly any guard rails, Diesel/gas cheaper in the Yukon (less taxes).
• The weather is something else. It was cloudy early on, in the low 60’s and cleared to blue skies by mid-morning. The temperature climb to 84F by mid-afternoon. The sun was hot and intense. Air conditioning working hard to keep up with the sun shining through the windows.
• We arrived at Hi Country RV Campground ($40 CAD) in Whitehorse Yukon around 2pm.  We are planning on staying here a couple-three days. It is supposed to rain through the weekend and we hear that the next leg of our trip, the road could be rough.
• We are located at mile marker 888, a couple of days drive to the Alaska border (1222).