Sept. 13th Whitehorse

Totem in the center of Whitehorse

 We woke up to rain in Whitehorse this morning. We visited a museum for a few hours and the rain stopped. We drove to a hot springs site after lunch and on the way back I stopped for gas. While he was filling the car I asked the gas jockey it there was a good lookout site for the mountains we were seeing.  He told me there was one on Fish Lake Road, just down the highway. It was easy to find and up we went. We have rented a Jeep Cherokee 4WD so the mud and potholes weren't a problem. However 6 km into the bush I was getting nervous. At the 10 km mark I was more nervous, but we were getting glimpses of the mountain range. Finally at the 13 km mark we hit the end and the view was worth it. The Jeep Cherokee is now covered in mud.

Fish Lake

Road to Fish Lake

Sept. 12th Drive Fort Nelson to Whitehorse

We drove through mountains all day

Joan declined to stand beside the buffalo.

We are in the Yukon! The mountains surrounded us all day. The temperature was cold at night but quite pleasant when the sun came out. The leaves are turning and fall has started in the Yukon,   We drove to Whitehorse and arrived around 5 pm. There are plenty of hotels, but 4 of the first 5 I tried were full. It seems there are still a lot of tourists here. They must all be chasing the northern lights. Unfortunately after a bright sunny day we have a rainy night coming.

Drive from Cold Lake to Whitehorse

Sept. 10, 11

We are driving from Cold Lake to Whitehorse in the Yukon. On Monday the 10^th we drove across the entire province of Alberta and overnighted in Dawson Creek B.C. Dawson Creek is the beginning of the Alaska Highway which was built by the American Army Corps of Engineers during the second world war. On Tuesday we started our day driving in the rain. The rain turned to snow and we drove in a snow blizzard most of the day.

Snow on Sept 11th in Northern BC

There are mountains out there.

Wood buffalo are much smaller than their Yellowstone cousins.

When the snow stopped the weather slowly returned to normal and we started seeing the mountains around us. Then the wildlife started to appear, first elk and then buffalo. Even though we are not yet in the Yukon, I had to stop for pictures,which meant we traveled too slowly to reach the Yukon border today. We are still planning to drive to Whitehorse tomorrow.

Cold Lake Sept 7th to 9th

We are off to the Yukon for a 4 week vacation.  First stop was Cold Lake, Alberta  home to my brother and the 4 Wing Fighter Base. They fly F18 Hornets.   My niece is in the Air Force and arranged a tour of the repair and overhaul facilities on the base.  We were allowed some photos and I was able to sit in a F18 hornet and dream about flying such a monster.