Haines Junction, Yukon

It started raining in the night and was coming down pretty steady when we got on the road this morning, but it had pretty well stopped by the time we crossed the border into Canada.

It gradually cleared and we were able to see some of the beautiful scenery this portion of the road is famous for.

The highway from Beaver Creek, YT (at the border) as far as Destruction Bay, YT (about 200 km), was really bad. However, it was nowhere near as bad as the Top of the World Highway. Yes, it was really rough, and in some sections, 50 km/hr was too fast, but at least we weren’t in danger of sliding or tipping off the road!

There were washboard sections:

And lots of frost heaves and dips.

There is a huge highway improvement project underway (The Shakwak Project), which has been realigning and improving the 500 kilometers between Haines Junction and the Alaska Border. In fact, improvements to the road have been worked on continuously since the Alaska Highway was first punched through the wilderness in 10 short months in 1942. However, the section that we found so bad today, has been stumping the pioneer and modern day engineers alike. This section of the highway is laid on soil that is of glacial origin. The black road surface causes the permafrost to melt and the ice-rich soil underneath to liquefy. The liquid soil has little strength so it settles. Then, when it refreezes in the winter, it expands and heaves. They are experimenting with some different techniques to make it more stable, like these strange things along the roadway:

After the weather cleared up in the afternoon we were treated to some beautiful views of the Snow-covered Kluane Mountain Range, River and Lake. Mount Logan, Canada’s highest peak at 19,545 feet is in Kluane National Park (although you can’t see it from the highway).

We stopped for lunch at the Kluane River Overlook. It drains Kluane Lake into the Yukon River.

The wildflowers along the road were beautiful. These were at the Kluane River Overlook:

Later we drove along the shore of Kluane Lake. It is huge (400 square kilometers) and a beautiful blue colour when the sun shines on it. It reminds me of the colour of the glacier ice.

We stopped at the south end of the lake to take some pictures and let the cairns go wading. I love this picture of Gino!

This is Sheep Mountain and it has a large Dall Sheep population which can be viewed from the Visitor Information Centre.

We got to Haines Junction at about 4:00 p.m. after covering a little more than 300 kms in 6 hours of driving. We stopped at the Kluane National Park Visitor Information Centre and watched a film on the park. The park is almost 22,000 sq. km. and has very limited public access. It was created to protect the unique North Coast Mountains natural regions. It is dominated by mountains and ice. The Kluane Iceflield is one of the largest non-polar icefields in the world. Mount Logan rises out of this ice. The only way to see much of the park is flightseeing which is a little out of our price range. We have to be content with seeing it from the highway.

We may get some nice views tomorrow as we drive along the edge of the park on our way to the coastal city of Haines, Alaska. Yes, we’re only spending one day in Canada then right back into Alaska again for a few more weeks.