Left this morning around 7:30 in a light drizzle headed west to Watson Lake, Yukon. The rain wasn’t bad in the lower elevations, but as I climbed up Summit Lake Pass (about 75 miles from Ft. Nelson and the highest point on the Alaska Hiway), it rained harder the further up we climbed. I did manage to get a few pictures of the valleys below the pass, and as you can see, they are pretty impressive. I think above the clouds are the tops of the mountains, but I’m not sure:
At the top of the pass, they were working on the road and had it down to dirt and gravel for a distance of about 15 miles. The dirt wasn’t bad, the gravel wasn’t bad, but dirt and gravel combined with a steady rain was pretty tough. Funny thing, but the hiway can go from being a very good 2-lane road to being not much more than a dirt side road and back again in just a few miles.
After cresting the pass, we traveled along the Toad River (check it out…I’m not making this up) and the weather began to clear.
After climbing Muncho Pass, we came to Muncho Lake, which must be about 15 miles long. As you can see…very beautiful:
Today for the first time, I saw a lot of wildlife. We had a bear cross the road in front of us on the way up Summit Lake Pass (sorry, no picture), I saw a total of six Moose on three different occaisions, one on the side of the road to my left as I rounded a corner. Man, those are big animals. But the biggest surprise was the number of buffalo we saw, grazing along side the road. There were about 100 Buffalo scattered in a meadow right alongside the road:
Got to Watson Lake around 4:00 today, and here’s the proof:
Watson Lake’s claim to fame in relation to the Alaska Hiway is the “Sign Forest” that was started by GI’s building the Alcan in 1942 where they posted signs of their home towns. This thing is huge, but to give you an idea:
Tomorrow, it’s on the Whitehorse, Yukon. Miles today: 362. Total: 4,078.
