For two days, the wilderness has been our world. Starting from Burns Lake, BC, we started on the Trans-Canada Highway and left it to head north onto the Stewart-Cassiar Highway 37. This road, stretching for 722 kilometers, was once a path for loggers and miners; now, it welcomes travelers of all kinds.
The past few days found us repeatedly expressing awe as we witnessed scenic panoramas of mountain-river-lake-glacier country like we’ve never seen before. The landscape unfolded like a panoramic 3D movie, immersing us in its beauty as images of towering mountains, picturesque melting lakes, bubbling rivers, and a million trees appear in front and wrap around us to be viewed from the rear-view mirror and window. The stars of the movie are lumbering bears, galloping moose, meandering caribou, flying feathered wings, and scurrying squirrels. Each actor makes an entrance followed by a quick exit from the scene, as if to say, you saw me as you wanted to, now I am going on. Within seconds, the actor is off-stage foraging in the thick woods.
A few encounters.
The remoteness is accentuated by the absence of telephone poles, power lines, signs, and even painted lines separating the traffic lanes. Steep embankments and the lack of road shoulders prevented us from pulling off as often as we would like. But, when we did, the silence lifts the weight of road weariness, and in the only way silence can, shouts with exclamation to look and be struck in silent awe as the senses are satisfied with God’s creation.
We were continually awestruck.
Halfway up the Stewart- Cassiar Highway 37, we found ourselves at Dease Lake for an overnight at the Arctic Divide, a “self-check-in” log cabin where we had our room upstairs. Hanging over the stairway was a gigantic bison head which served as the sentinel to make sure we had removed our shoes at the door as requested by the signs. Dease Lake dining options were non-existent, so we bought a frozen pizza at the store. Kudos to the Arctic Divide for having a kitchenette.
Billy Bison says, "Take off your shoes!"
Early morning on the 3rd of May (today), we departed our log cabin abode and set out for today’s destination. A bear and two moose bid hello during the morning. There were perhaps three trucks and two cars in our three and a half hours of driving narrow roadways, twisting curves, and long straights. The mountains dictated our direction as they dauntingly made us go around them to the southeast when we were ultimately headed northwest. They were like Gandalf saying, “You shall not pass.”
There's a mountain in our way!
Alas, we reached the Yukon Territory!
We emerged from Highway 37 and finally entered the famed Alaskan Highway (ALCAN), our pavement guide for our final 850 miles (1370 km) to Fairbanks. Built in 1942 and improved on immensely since then, the ALCAN looks like the immensely wide Columbia River in Astoria, OR compared to the winding creek of Highway 37.
The ALCAN Highway
We finished driving to find ourselves in the urban terrain of buildings, traffic circles, parking meters, and commerce in Whitehorse, Yukon. It was a stark contrast to see more people in a few minutes than we encountered in the past two days.
Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon Territory. A jewel of Whitehorse city-center is the Yukon River rushing through town as it makes its way northeast to the Bering Sea. The river is joined by around 250,000 travelers who drive through Whitehorse each year.
About three miles (5.3km) south of Whitehorse is Miles Canyon. Gold Rush prospectors called it the Grand Canyon. The canyon is along the primary thoroughfare for all who were traveling north to Dawson City during the Gold Rush. In those years, waterway traffic was so substantial that the Mounted Police set out to check boats and to ensure safety for those traveling through.
Whitehorse got its name from the rapids at Miles Canyon. The term "white horse" was commonly used for standing waves or whitecaps at the turn of the century. The power dam raises the river today, and the rapids are no longer visible.
Miles Canyon, Whitehorse, Yukon
Tomorrow, we enter Alaska (Lord willing).
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