Whitehorse to Pelly Crossing

Wild roses and daisies

Yesterday we packed up our coach and headed up the road toward Dawson City, on the Klondike Highway. This road is fair to good, with a number of short (100 yard) gravel spots, and narrower (small shoulders). It passes Lake Labarge near Whitehorse, then climbs up into the hills. Most of the terrain is what I call “green rock”, smaller mountains mostly tree covered, with numerous rocky outcrops.

The guide book said to watch for elk and bear, but we spotted none in the likely locations.

We stopped in 3 spots along the way. The first was the Fox Lake Burn site, scene of a major forest fire in 1998. Unlike the forest fire we traversed near Laird Springs, this fire was later in the summer and consumed nearly everything except a small percentage of the fir tree trunks, which still stood 11 years later. The undergrowth had recovered somewhat, but is is still obvious that thousands of acres of forest were burned. There was a short guided trail to an overlook, with signs telling about the fire and its effect. We put together some lunch here.

More Yukon wildflowers

The next stop was the old Montague roadhouse, a historic site with the remains of the old log house still standing. As with the pony express in the old west, the Klondike trail was established for a time as a stagecoach trail, with roadhouses every 20 miles or so. During the winter, this was the only way to travel between Whitehorse and Dawson.

The final stop was to view Five Fingers Rapids, a notable geologic element on the Yukon River. These rapids were the only major impediment to river traffic between Dawson and Whitehorse, and until the steam paddleboats were introduced, a winch was installed upstream to pull the boats through the rapids. The paddleboats were powerful enough to push themselves up through the rapids without assistance.

The most remarkable sight along the way is the profusion of wildflowers that have appeared along the roadsides. The guidebooks claim that fireweed is the major color in July, but we think that the fireweed is bursting forth now, along with lupines, wild roses, small daisies, and dandelions. Some spots were quite beautiful.

Parked at Pelly Crossing Campground

We finally reached Pelly Crossing about 6:30 PM. Church's book said that there was a nice campground here, but we found it under excavation in its heart, grass unmowed, and litter strewn about. Regardless, there was a nice pull through site for us and we stopped for the night. We celebrated the independent lifestyle by watching “Open Range” on DVD.