Our EPIC drive through the YUKON on the Alaska Highway! (Whitehorse, Kluane National Park, & MORE!)

[Music] [Music] after spending the last eight days driving up through british columbia starting from vancouver we have made it to the yukon canada is made up of 10 provinces and three territories and the yukon is one of the territories it is known for the klondike gold rush and its immense wilderness and wildlife in fact the territory is about 80 wilderness and there are more moose than humans over the next few days we're going to be driving over 575 miles through the yukon mostly on the alaska highway to finally get to alaska we have many stops we plan to make and the first is just 10 minutes up the road the signpost forest [Music] the signpost forest is located in watson lake and was created during the construction of the alaska highway in 1942 a u.s soldier named carl lindley spent time in watson lake recovering from an injury and was tasked with repairing directional signposts when completing the job he added a sign that showed the direction and mileage to his hometown of danville illinois eventually others followed suit and there are now over 91 000 signs here from all over the world the town encourages visitors to add a sign to the forest and they actually put up signposts all the time that way there's always somewhere to attach your sign to so we couldn't come here and not put up an adventures of a plus k sign so we made our own check it out look at little kona in the passenger seat you may be wondering well what is the sign like what material did you use a lot of people use wood but we use beware of dog sign and what's really cool is the visitor center will actually let you borrow a hammer and then obviously they don't let you borrow nails they give you nails to use that way you can put it up visitor center also has a really awesome display on the history of the alaska highway so definitely go check that out too and now we have to find the perfect post to hang up our sign [Music] aah is such a fun and quirky stuff we're just walking up and down all these aisles just looking for places we've been places we have some kind of connection to oh we've been there oh we've been there oh remember that place it's a lot of fun to bring back a lot of memories [Music] it's so hard to find a good spot to put our sign all the good spots have been taken i guess for like 91 000 signs too late i think we found the spot that fits right there huh [Music] adventures of a plus k will now forever live on in canada if you come to the signpost forest try to come find our sign and send us a photo with it we probably saw about 50 000 of the signs we wish we could have seen them all but time to get back on the road our plan for the rest of the day is to drive 155 miles to teslan it doesn't look like there's that much to see and do along this stretch of the drive it looks pretty remote so we're just going to book it there because it's already 4 30 and it's about a three hour drive and we are getting very very tired [Music] welcome to the yukon they said they said you'd get chips in your window on the alaska highway just got one first one [Music] so [Music] [Music] we just saw our first moose yes i was just thinking how we haven't seen any wildlife since getting here to the yukon and i'm assuming it's because it's raining and maybe they're all hiding in the trees but that was so exciting we've been keeping track of all the wildlife we're seeing minus the bison because that's just too many to count on my phone that way at the end of our time up in alaska we can count it up and just see all the different animals we saw and actually we realized we haven't seen any wildlife in the yukon because this road dipped back into british columbia which is where we are now but we'll be back in the yukon here pretty soon [Music] finally made it to our home for the night it's been a very long day about 13 hours of just go go go we're staying at a rest area just on teslan lake and yeah we are pooped we're gonna make some dinner and go straight to bed [Music] it's almost 10 p.m right now and it is still so bright outside we looked up what time the sun sets and it's like 11 15 or something like that and then the sun rises at 4 30. that is crazy [Music] it is a gorgeous morning here in the yukon quite a bit different than yesterday's drive-in and today we're taking a slight detour off the alaska highway to check out a couple spots on the klondike highway this highway actually takes you all the way to skagway alaska which we would love to visit but we're going to save the inland passage for a future trip [Music] the lady at the visitors center yesterday told us that the yukon is paradise and to be careful some people don't leave and based off the scenery we've seen so far i totally get it [Music] [Music] for our first stop today we're at something you may not have expected to see here in the yukon a desert we're at the car cross desert which is said to be the smallest desert in the entire world at 1.6 square kilometers however it's not technically a desert because the area receives too much precipitation and it's actually a collection of dunes and it's one of the few dune collections in northwest north america if you're curious how these sand dunes got here you have to go back about 10 000 years ago when much of north america was covered in sheets of ice these sheets of ice started to melt and it created ice dams which then created these glacial lakes and tons of sand and silt collected at the bottom of these lakes these lakes started to disappear and now today the watson river flows into bennett lake bringing lots of sand into the lake and in the spring the water levels of bennett lake starts to go down exposing some of the sand and then the winds pick up the sand and it collects here on these sand dunes [Music] [Music] [Music] we climbed up one of the dunes which was a bit of a workout but look at this view the combination of the sand the green the snowy peaks the lake it's one of the most interesting mixes of scenery we've ever seen [Music] [Music] [Music] next up we're heading less than 10 minutes up the road to emerald lake [Music] wow those colors are popping like a little a mini muncho lake [Music] this lake is one of the most striking blue and turquoise lakes we've ever seen and what's really cool is there's a mix of colors in there so you get to see like the contrast between the different shades of blue and according to the sign this color is created by the sun reflecting off of a white layer of marl on the lake bed and marlo is a white calcium carbonate clay that forms in the water and then settles often unevenly onto the lake bottom and it forms when enough carbonate from dissolving limestone reacts with calcium in the water so that's your science lesson for the day actually that's your second science lesson because adam already dropped some science knowledge earlier [Music] so we thought this would be the perfect spot to have some lunch we made some green chili pork in the instant pot we actually had it cooking while we were hanging out at the desert just down the road pulled up here made some veggies [Music] we're heading back towards the alaska highway to get to our final destination of the day the city of whitehorse but first there's a neat looking spot along the way called miles canyon that we're gonna check out [Music] [Applause] miles canyon is located on the yukon river which is the second longest river in all of canada at 3 190 kilometers long first nations use this nearby area as a fishing camp and they refer to it as kwanlin which means running water through a canyon later on gold rush prospectors called it the grand canyon and used it as the main thoroughfare when traveling north during the gold rush today it has a suspension bridge to walk across and some other trails to check out the canyon [Music] the walls of the canyon are made up of basaltic lava which originated from a low volcanic vent about eight kilometers south of here and the lava flowed eight and a half million years ago they drilled near the canyon and determined that the lava is 110 meters thick but you can only see about 10 meters of it right now and before they put a dam in along the river the water was about 10 meters lower exposing more of the lava [Music] for the rest of the day we're gonna head into white horse and we'll explore more of it tomorrow but for today we're going to get some chores done go to the library take advantage of the wi-fi so we can get some work done [Music] white horse is the largest city in the yukon and is named after rapids on the yukon river which resembled flowing means of charging white horses while the area was home to first nations for many years it experienced a rush of prospectors during the klondike gold rush and the area grew as a staging and distribution center the area boomed again during the construction of the alaska highway as one of the largest camps on the road today it is the capital of the yukon taking the title from dawson city in 1953 and to see more of the area we're gonna walk the millennium trail which is four and a half kilometers takes you around town along the yukon river [Music] this is an amazing trail so far it's been paved the entire way so it's doable for anyone it has incredible views of the river and the surrounding mountains we saw on a sign in town that white horse is nicknamed the wilderness city and i can't think of a better description of the city because not only do you have tons of gorgeous nature surrounding you but there's nature right in town too [Music] [Music] well it seems the other half of the trail is closed for whatever reason so it looks like we'll be heading back the same way we came [Music] [Music] this beauty behind me is the ss klondike which is the stern wheeler boat that ran freight between whitehorse and dawson city along the yukon river there were two klondikes that ran over time with the first hitting the water in 1929. it was the first stern wheeler on the yukon river large enough to handle a cargo in excess of 300 tons without having to push a barge it originally hauled ore but over time began to haul passengers and cargo as well however the first ss klondike hit a rock wall and sank in 1936 and a second ss klondike was built in 1937 to resume the tasks of the first the second ss klondike is the one that you see here today and it was moved here from dawson city in 1967. we had hoped to tour the inside but unfortunately the inside is closed currently for restorations but you can still walk around and check it out on the outside [Music] [Music] for lunch we came to klondike ribbon salmon which is a very popular spot here in town and it's housed in the two oldest working buildings still in use here in whitehorse they specialize in northern foods like fresh northern ocean fish wild game meats and smoked meats and i get the kick a klondike burger kick a because there's kids out there and it comes with a patty on here with a blend of elk bison and wild boar cheese bacon crispy onion ring and then all your usual burger fixings all right let's go all in on that [Music] that tastes so delicious and so fresh this burger is nice and lean but a good amount of fat in there great like grilled smoked flavor on there the bun is nice and you know pillowy got good flavor to it tastes really fresh fresh veggies bacon and cheese and then also this barbecue mayonnaise on there just wraps it all ties it all together and because it's called klondike ribbon salmon i had to get ribs and they asked me if i wanted half a rack or a full rack and i didn't know when i panicked and i figured adam was gonna have some of it so i got a full rack and look how massive this is it has this molasses sauce on top it just smells so barbecuey and smoky i think i'm gonna have to prepare myself for this experience there you go it's already messy and i haven't even tried it yet oh wow yeah buddy all over my face that's really good it's super messy it's all over me as it should be as it should be if it ain't messy it ain't eaten i don't know no it's really good the sauce is nice and thick and sweet the meat comes off the bone super well it's definitely worthy of naming a plate after that there are also a bunch of government officials from canada eating here and they all just watch me completely make a mess of myself so i'm making a really good impression [Music] [Music] we are in major food comas from that lunch that was so much food so we just grabbed some cold brews at midnight sun coffee roasters to hopefully wake us up a bit because for the rest of the day we're going to take advantage of this midnight sun and go for an afternoon hike at kluwani national park this park is located two hours west of whitehorse and is home to tons of wildlife the largest non-polar ice fields in the world and the highest peak in canada which is the second highest peak in north america mount logan at 5959 meters [Music] this stretch is just nuts there are so many mountains all the way behind over my left shoulder here just all the way stretching to directly in front of us this would be a destination on its own and we haven't even gotten started yet it is wow it's crazy this park is mostly wilderness but there are some day hikes to enjoy and for the rest of the day we're hiking the king's throne trail there are a couple different ways you can hike this trail you can either hike to the seat which is 10 kilometers round trip or you can continue to the summit which is 16 kilometers round trip but isn't a maintained trail our plan is to just hike to the sea but we may continue on a little bit depending on how the conditions are how we're doing on time and how the weather is because it looks sunny but it's actually raining on us right now [Music] this trail has been mega steep so far we're finally starting to get above the tree line and it's only getting steeper it looks up behind us but we have got us a view right here so many mountains this giant beautiful lake wow giant mosquitoes and mosquitoes are you having fun [Music] [Music] this trail's pretty tough we haven't done very many hard hikes this year so we're not in our best hiking shape it's not even just the elevation that we're gaining it's also just the kind of trail it is it's a lot of really loose rock and dirt which is kind of my least favorite kind of trail it just makes it harder to really book it because you kind of slide around a little bit but these views are fantastic [Music] so we have made the difficult decision to turn around it felt like we were making a lot of progress towards the where we think the seat is but looking at the map it doesn't really look like we're getting anywhere very fast and there's some dark clouds coming behind the mountain and we know it's supposed to rain these mosquitoes are awful we know it's supposed to rain in a few hours or so and we just don't want to risk being above the tree line if it comes sooner so we're a little bummed we kind of feel a little lame for turning around but we are so happy with the views we got to see and we weren't planning to make it all the way to the tippy top anyway so we'll just have to come back even with turning around on the way up i think i was thinking to myself this this might just be the most one of the most beautiful places i've ever been i mean come on this is this is beautiful all these day mosquitoes [Music] it seems like every single time we turn around on a hike because we think the weather might turn bad it ends up being insanely beautiful but it's better to be safe than sorry and thankfully our views are not over for the day because tonight we're hoping to camp out a free campsite that should have some really gorgeous views [Music] this is our backyard for tonight we have this glacial runoff river just rushing through here the amazing mountains on either end we are happy campers it has been a bit rainy this morning so we've just enjoyed a slow morning working in the van and our original plan was to spend the day hiking at kluwani national park but still a bit cloudy out so we're gonna push off hiking for a few more hours we've come up with a possible plan b last night we were reading this magazine this yukon magazine and learned about a place called long ago people's place which is a recreation of a first nations village and gives tours sharing the history and culture of the southern toshoni people it's a bit of backtracking to get to and we're not even sure if they're offering tours today but we've really been wanting to learn more about the first nations here in the yukon so we're hopeful that it works out [Music] we made it and we were told that we can get a tour so we're just waiting on harold to show us around this is harold who runs long ago people's place we learned so much from him and it's impossible to share it all but a good place to start is with an understanding of the different first nations and languages in the yukon this is all hafka baskin and these are dialects of the mother language and we are right here about a kilometer or two kilometers away from the village of champaign so we're right in the center central southern toshone and to the north of us is the northern deshoni and that's up around carmax mayo el saya quino area and then for a little bit further to the north and to the west is the han people and that's around dos and eagle alaska and then further up north is the queching and that and they run up around warcrow and that and then the inuits are right up along the top the southeast is the kaska tel-tan the inland trinkets and then the tagish people are right in the middle of it harold also took us to a cabin that his grandfather had built and lived in which was moved on to this property he explained to us how families would have multiple cabins in different areas depending on the season this cabin was lived in during the fall through the early winter to hunt and harvest fur but they'd migrate to a different cabin in the summer for salmon runs he also explained to us a bit about the two clans in the yukon the wolf people and then there's the crow people and in ancient times around this area everybody would be born into a clan um and you'd follow your mother's lineage so like for myself i'm a crow and that's because my mother was a crow and my grandmother was a crow and my great-grandmother goes back forever and the main law of the clan is that a crow has to marry a wolf and therefore all my children are wolves and my my daughter she's a wolf so her children will be wolves but my son is a wolf and he has to marry a crow and therefore all his children will be crows one thing that really impressed us is the resourcefulness of the first nations their relationship with the environment and how they utilize the land and animals to provide for themselves we got to see some living structures which were made out of natural elements as well as learn a bit about the different tools for hunting and processing their harvest including both large contraptions and smaller tools this here is a moose's shoulder blade and this is a hunt hunting instrument and what they would do with this is you'd rub this on the spruce trees in the fall and on the willows and this will um replica a bull moose scratching the velvet off its horns and a a moose will hear this sound and come to that that noise so if you start doing this you have to have your gun ready or your bone arrow already is part of a leg bone of the moose and it's um it's for a flushing tool for tanning hide and in our language we call it um what we're looking at here is technology that could be 10 000 years old and it's as humane as anything going on today as far as i'm harvesting fur bearing animals comes in through here he smells the bait in the very back goes in down in here and gives it a pull and that all drops on his spine this is a model of a double cone fish trap and the creek would be flowing this way this creates a natural eddy in the river and salmon swimming upstream from the ocean look for these places to to rest and they just swim in through the opening in the center and are caught in the maze of the of the outer cone and for the end of the tour we got to try a first nations food staple bannock flour baking powder a little bit of salt a little bit of sugar and water okay so you just break it open and put your stuff on it okay first try of bannock oh yeah i don't go the outside has a nice little crisp too you can see some little burn marks there on the inside you know my favorite word you know what i'm gonna say it is so pillowy look at this yeah man that is good it's so dense but light at the same time it kind of has a little bit of a stretchiness to it oh this is amazing yeah i love it thank you that was such a great experience the host harold and mita were so nice and welcoming and obviously knowledgeable i love learning about first nations and indigenous culture so it was just even better that i'm not just reading it from a book i'm actually learning it from the people who have lived it just such an insightful and great learning opportunity and at the end we got to end with tea and bannock and that was a great way to end it what i loved about it is just how authentic it felt it did not feel touristy at all we were just on their land we got to see a home that harold elders had built we got to see the tools that his elders had used it just doesn't get any more authentic than that and if you'd like to visit for yourself you can actually email them in advance or they'll eventually have like a scheduling tool on their website in the next month or two so make sure you do that so you don't just show up unannounced like we did they thankfully were so welcoming and they still give us a tour even though they had zero warning that we were coming and it cost 41.50 canadian per person which is more than worth it because this is their livelihood they run camps here and their whole goal is to educate others both first nations people as well as people just like us on their culture and i i seriously i don't have enough the right words i'm still processing it all to explain just like what a special experience that was out of everything we've seen on this entire trip up to alaska this is hands down one of the things that's going to stick with me the most forever we're now on our way back to kalani national park but to a different area to go on another hike [Music] we had hoped to attempt a longer hike here in the park today but we got kind of a late start so instead we're hiking the soldiers summit trail which is a short trail that takes you along part of the original alaska highway [Music] along the trail there's lots of signage about the building of the highway and how the building of the highway negatively affected the first nations in the area and then finally how the park today is working with those first nations to manage the park and also restore the relationship with the first nations and the trail ends right here where the actual ribbon cutting ceremony happened in 1942. i'm speaking to you from an improvised control room in the rear of an american army truck parked away up here on the soldier's summit a high pass on the canada alaska highway and when at this moment some hundred yards from my vantage point the official opening of this great road is taking place we shared some history about the alaska highway in our last video so go check that out to learn a little bit more but one thing i did not know is that the first trip from fort st john to white horse took 71 hours which is five times as long as it takes today and i will say i would gladly be on this road for 71 hours it has been gorgeous the entire time and even this hike which is meant to just be like a informative short hike has sweeping views of the area it is so beautiful out here [Music] we got back into the van went to turn the van on and the instrument cluster isn't lighting up and we had this issue back in tucson a few months ago and it's randomly back again it hasn't done it since then so what i think i need to do is take pull this out somehow um and then unplug it plug it back in just like any other electronic that starts to mess up everything was just going too smoothly yeah there's a tool that you can buy that's like there's little holes on here that'll like go in there and it hooks in and it'll pull it out i don't have it but one time a few months ago we were driving around and going over a bumpy road and this whole thing just jiggled out so should be pretty easy to get out also when this issue happens you cannot turn off the van without holding down the button for like 10 seconds yeah and the whole dash just is blank like you can't see your speed your fuel nothing finally got this did a little damage up here trying to squeegee this or squeeze this out but all right let's you ever wanted to see an insides of a sprinter okay there we go extreme cluster undone look at that it worked good as new still working all right a little bit of a road trip excitement yeah nothing like it yeah good stuff i'm just happy that when i plugged it back in it worked and like hopes good job here i'm just glad it worked i'll figure this definitely not in the right um area to be having yeah yeah so if something didn't if it didn't turn back on or something we'd be in a bit of trouble right now all right we're back on the road everything's going smoothly yeah thank goodness it's only gonna stay smooth that's right manifest it [Music] [Music] [Music] tonight we're camping for free right off of kluane lake and just like everywhere else we've been in the yukon it is crazy gorgeous we have loved our time here in the yukon it just has a rugged raw and just vast beauty to it we're gonna be really sad to leave but thankfully we'll be back in a couple months and to explore a different area of the yukon but tomorrow we're doing it we we are going to alaska the kick a klondike bar and it comes with oh what did i say klondike bar oh i wish it was he's been talking about fonda i've been singing the jingle ah mosquitoes getting in my hand i said do this okay i watched him suck my blood ugh can you like come over here and just like swat them away from me give me my swatter adam kona you know why the walls of the canyon are so cool why cause lava rocks we have a new fun game it's called is it a bear or is it a rock or a tree stump or a bush and usually it's not a bear [Music]

Channel: Adventures of A+K

Views: 248,415

Keywords: alaska highway, kluane lake, kluane national park, alaska highway road trip, alcan highway road trip, driving to alaska, alcan highway, yukon territory, rv alaska, carcross desert, whitehorse yukon, sign post forest, alaska highway vlog, things to do in the yukon, what to do in the yukon, things to do in whitehorse, what to do in whitehorse, van life alaska highway, van life to alaska

Id: r8G0TOlhREU

Length: 40min 10sec (2410 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 10 2022