Across the Southern Yukon to the Capital.
Watson Lake, Yukon is a good place to get lost. There’s plenty of signage. In the Signpost Forest, visitors have contributed almost 80,000 signs pointing to their home towns.
The Signpost Forest is Watson Lake’s most famous attraction. Travelers from around the world have been bringing signposts here from their hometowns since 1942.
While you’re in the Forest, you’ll also come across pieces of equipment that were used during the construction of the Alaska Highway. A time capsule was placed here in 1992. It will be opened again in 2042.
The incredible Northern Lights Space and Science Centre is in Watson Lake, too. Built in 1996 it celebrates the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights via state-of-the-art audio-video technology.
The Northern Lights Centre explains the Northern Lights with information from the Canadian Space Agency (Canadian rockets have been used to learn about Northern Lights). There are dazzling, “edu-tainment” shows daily in the 100-seat dome.
The Alaska Highway Interpretive Centre is also here, with the history of the Highway in photos and art. It’s set up as an information centre for travelers passing through.
Watson Lake’s rolling hills feature many hiking trails and opportunities to fish, run whitewater in a canoe and ride horses.
Back on the highway after your Watson Lake outings, you’ll soon cross the Continental Divide, with the Yukon River and Mackenzie River watersheds on each side of it, flowing in different directions.
From this part of the Alaska Highway, you’ll soon start seeing even more lakes and rivers that, together, form the headwaters or birthplace of the powerful Yukon River.
In Teslin, a visit to the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre will teach you all about the Teslin Tlingit people with its totem poles, ornaments and clothing.
Whitehorse: Capital of the Yukon
As you roll into Whitehorse, take a look at the Yukon River. Here, rapids obliterated the rafts of dozens of Gold Rush hopefuls in 1898, quickly drowning many of them.
Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon. It serves as the centre for transportation, communications and supplies, like it did during construction of the Alaska Highway.
Check out the Frantic Follies can-can dancers and vaudeville show, the Transportation Museum and the world’s largest weathervane, a Douglas DC–3 airplane, mounted on a rotating pedestal at the airport.
Be sure to take your kids to the Beringia Interpretive Centre to see woolly mammoths, and scimitar (or sabre-tooth) cats.
And they’ll also love the SS Klondike, until 1955 the largest vessel on the Yukon River.
Photo Credit:
Jadecolour at English Wikipedia [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons.