After leaving Watson Lake we were on the road again traveling through the Yukon territory.

About 5 hours later we arrived in Whitehorse, the capital and largest city located on the shores of the mighty Yukon river. We stopped here for a while to explore the visitor centre and walk around the quaint downtown.

We saw some interesting buildings like this “log skyscraper”,

and then walked over to the SS Klondike sternwheeler.

After our walk we settled in for a tasty meal at the Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ before hitting the road again.

On the next post we make it to the Alaska border!

Hello Yukon! We had been on the road for 7 days and visited two Canadian Provinces (BC and AB) so far. The Yukon welcomed us with all its might… mosquito-might! This caused my first and only meltdown on our road trip home. I found this bumper sticker very fitting:

Once we left the campground that morning we headed to Watson Lake and my day improved greatly. We splurged on breakfast at a greasy spoon in town and then headed to the Sign Post Forest.

This famous landmark started during the construction of the Alaska Highway back in 1942 when a homesick soldier added his hometown sign to the existing army signpost. Today there are more than 50,000 signs put up by travelers from all over the world. I saw signs from places I have lived in, like Italy and Canada,

signs of places I have visited in Europe, signs of places that reminded me of friends and there was even a sign of the place we were headed to in the near future to get married (Petoskey, MI).

There were many funny signs

and I even found one put up by a Venezuelan couple!

Needless to say we felt compelled to leave our mark on this forest too, so we grabbed one of the Rove’s plates and proceeded to add our contribution to this unique place:

And there it is! I wonder when we’ll be able to drive past Watson Lake again and look up our little sign 🙂

On the road again and headed to Whitehorse, but more of that on the next post.

We left our campground early to continue on with the wildlife viewing portion of our road trip. First we saw a mamma bear crossing the road quickly followed by her three cute cubs:

Further along a motorcycle rider driving south made us a signal to slow down, soon after we saw this big guy on the side of the road apparently enjoying a good snack:

Just as we thought that was the reason for the motorcyclist’s signals, we encountered a bit of a road block: a herd of wood bison crossing the highway:

We also saw a truck that had hit a moose. It was quite impressive to see how such a huge truck could be damaged so badly by one animal. Past of Fort Nelson we had to stop at the Tetsa River Campground as they proclaimed they had amazing cinnamon buns. Maybe it was a combination of the remoteness and the many miles travelled, but I’ll tell you those cinnamon buns sure were tasty! After that Alaska Highway culinary experience we drove a bit more and stopped for a couple of hours at Muncho Lake.

I wish we could have stayed here longer, I absolutely loved this lake with its quiet splendor and its very cool waters.

We made a quick stop at Liard River Hot Springs, were attacked by mosquitoes and so didn’t stay too long. The day ended on a delicious note as we made s’mores by our campfire that night, that was my very first s’more, and it won’t be my last! 🙂 The next day we would be headed to Watson Lake and the quaint Sign Post Forest, but more of that on the next post.

The first stop of this leg of our trip were the spectacular Athabasca Falls:

Jasper National Park also gave us the gift of the first of several wildlife viewings, this beautiful elk by the side of the road:

The majestic mountains soon made way for flat endless fields of canola; for a while it felt strange not to be surrounded by the Rockies…

Several kilometres later we finally made it to Dawson Creek and the official beginning of the Alaska Highway!

After driving nearly 800 kilometres, we were ready for some rest, tomorrow would be another day filled with more wildlife viewings, but more of that in the next post!