Up the North Klondike Highway

Mom and I slept well, but apparently dad didn’t. We were up just after 6 am, but since we didn’t have any tokens for the showers and the camp office didn’t open until 7, we had breakfast first. We did a quick stop at Walmart and Canadian Tire for a few things we had forgotten about the day before, then headed north out of the city and onto the Klondike Highway.

I drove the first part leaving Whitehorse and it took a while to get used to the size to the vehicle and its handling. By 10:30, both dad and I were hungry, so we stopped for an early lunch at a not so scenic (you had to climb a small rise to get the same view as from the highway) scenic outlook near Braeburn. We continued up the highway, making stops at the Montague Roadhouse and Carmacks. Next stop was at Five Finger Rapids where we did a short hike 1 km down to a viewing platform. The view was nice down there, but that was a LOT of stairs to climb back up. After driving for a few more hours, we stopped alongside a pretty lake for supper. We cleaned up our dishes and continued north towards the Dempster Highway. The road had a fair number of potholes to avoid and a few gravel sections, but wasn’t too bad. The only live wildlife we saw along the road was a black bear who ran off less than a minute after we stopped. We got gas at the station at the junction (last gas station for 370 km) and talked to a guy pulling a 5th wheel who shredded one tire and got a slow leak in another, but judging on the amount of time it took him to get from Whitehorse up to Inuvik (only 1 ½ days), he was probably going too fast. I took the requisite picture of the signs at the start of the highway and off we went. The road started as gravel, quickly switched to pavement, then back to gravel again 5 km later. The road wasn’t in too bad a condition (we heard that the middle part is the worst) and were able to average about 70 km/h. We arrived at the Tombstone Mountain Campground at 8:30 and after driving around 3 times, couldn’t find an empty site. Since the next campground is 120 km north, we just parked in front of the park office. After a mug of tea, mom and dad walked around the campground to read the registration cards at all the sites, but still no luck.