Sunday 8/1/99
Day 4: Cassier Highway, Watson Lake & Whitehorse
We woke up at 5:30 and were ont the road by 6:00. It was cold and overcast with some sun breaks. We passed Tattogga and Eddontenagin whichlooked nice in themorning with green mountains reflecting off of the lakes. Just a couple miles between Iskut and 40 mile Flats we saw moose along the left side of the road. This is such a great place to see wildlife as there are very few cars with no off raods to go in the forested areas. This is the country of wildlife and I can't think s of another place like here. The scenary for the next thirty miles cosisted of ranches, llittle stores, scrawny trees, rivers and lakes with lots of jack rabbits and also some more moose.
We did seea family of three moose with near Lower Knat Lake. One put its head under the water for a long time to get a drink. The three quietly walked off thru the marsh and beck into the wood as we watched them. They were not afraid of us and were just enjoying the morning. We continued north and stopped to get more gas st Dease lake around 7:45. There is a oside road that will take your along teh Stikine River and eventually Telegraph Creek. Dease Lake is a long narrow strecth of water that runs along the road. It eventualy forms the Dease River taht runs into theYukon. We saw a fox run across the road about 10 miles north of Dease Lake. It was lon and skjinny witha grayand white tail.
We pass Simmons Lake which had a nice are fro possibly caming near the lake. It had shelter area but did not have any picnic tables. There was also a cabin on an island in the lake. Twin lakes were next as they were both small but also pretty lake, Both of these lake were right before Jade City. We got into Jade City around 9:00 and would stop at their store and walk aroun the yard in front. They have jade of all size sitting in the front outside withsome the sixe ofboulders. This is always a good place to rest and let thekids buy some rocks and get some pop. We finally found the bathroom which was between the teepee and the little white church. An interesting place in the middle of nowhere.
We passed some more nice lake after this as we went by Good Hope lake about 20 past Jade. This was a smal lake but looke nice with the blue sky and green mountains reflecting off of the water. The next lake was Aeroplane Lake as we took a nice picture of this lake looking south. About another 20 miles we pulled into Boya Lake Park to eaat breakfast. This has 45 campsights of whichhalf are near the water. We stayed here last year and they have great sunsets from theis lkae at night. We made some hash and chilli for breakfast and thenwalked around for a half an hour truying to get rested for the next long haul.. We did stop at Beaver dam rest area about 15 miels north but don't remember seeing any dam. Next stop was French Creek Rec. Area that had two campsights. The creek bedlooked to narrow and we didn't anywaterflowing. There are only 40 milesbefore we get to the Alaks highway now and things started to get pretty boring as there no lakes or wildlife to view. I was having trouble staying awake during the time and was glad to finally reach highway 1
We turned east on highway 1 and drove fifteen miles until we came to Watson Lake town. There is a Tour Center here for the Yukon plus the Sign Forest where many tourist have brought signs from their home town and attached them to trees and formed a long trail of signs. There were also a few gift shops that we went into. We left around 1:00 and started driving towards Whitehorse. As we would drive on teh higway ther would be rock formations along the side of the road arranged to spel peoples names. I have not seen this done anywhere els expect teh Yukon and a couple places in Alaska. We stoppe next at Rancheria Fallss Rec Site as we took teh short trail along boardwalk to the waterfools and the falls. We had Jacob take a picture of us because we have enought pictures of the falls from teh past. We stopped at Morely River Rec Site for lunch and also at Jakes corner to show the kids this place. Jakes corner is basically a gas station, restaurant, gift store and also a day care center buy day. We took some pictures and continued
We wanted to spend the night in Whitehorse as we both enjoyed this town as it's the capitol of the Yukon. We drove oer tehlong bridge taht would take us ointo Teslin and continue toward Whitehorse. We finally get there around 7:00 but would stop at Miles Canyon. The yukon river flows thru the canyon and there isa suspension bridge here. We walked across teh wooden suspension bridge and walked along the canyon for 1/4 of a mile. There wes a small rock island that some kids had climber downteh canyon and crossed the water to get tothe small rock. The canyon was to steep for all of us and didn't want to take a chance witht he kids but it did look like fun. As wew were walking back I noticed a sign for Canyon city. There was a trail leading up a steep hills. It was now 7;30 and decided not to take it. Canyon city was teh site of native fishing village and is currently an archeological digging sight. Back inteh truck we drove up a hill and found a lookout point where yu could see teh river and the bridge that we had crossed.
We continued on this road as it went past Robert Service Campground and eventuallly into town. We drove around town a little bit lookng at the layout of town and driving by the city park where they had a ferry from when it used to travel along the river. We spent an hour looking for a hotel room. most of them were $80 Cannadian and we were not ready to pay that price. We went to eat at Pizza hut and then went back to the robert Service campsight for the night. They charged $24 because we had twotents and four people. I was pissed but couldn't do anything at this point. I wil never stay there again. It was now around 11:00 as we put thekids to bed and Cindy and I read for a little while.
We drove 500 miles today and 1700 total