Fantasy Caravan Day 55 - Watson Lake, YT to Dease Lake, BC

On Thursday, we left the Watson Lake area and the Yukon Territory and continued south on the Cassiar Highway.

We soon crossed over into British Columbia, with lots of stickers from other visitors on their Welcome sign!

The road looked like a track for a roller coaster with hills bobbing up and down!

View of Cassiar Mountains (according to The Milepost, I wouldn't know!)

We decided to stop in Jade City...

It is really just a gift store...

There are evidently a lot of jade mines in this area.

Some items in the gift store:

(we didn't purchase anything - though others of our group did)

There was a guy outside who was supposed to be cutting or polishing... but the lady at the campground on Wednesday night had told us that all the cutting and polishing is done in China - doing it domestically would make the product too expensive.

I think this is "Needlepoint" mountain -- very sharp peak!

We had been seeing warning signs about loose gravel, and on previous days, we came across multiple instances where the gravel was definitely newly laid. We didn't notice newly laid gravel on this stretch of road, but there was a point where a tractor-trailer was barreling toward us at a high rate of speed, and although we slowed and pulled right, there was no way to avoid another rock chip on the windshield. Bummer!

We thought that the trees alongside the road were so beautiful -- they look like they might be outlined in ice, they were glistening so brightly. But, it did not appear to be wet, and it certainly wasn't cold enough to be ice (high 50Fs).

We came to roost at Dease Lake RV Park...

where one of our group built a fire in the fire pit...

... and we enjoyed its warmth and the warmth of camaraderie with our group.

Our ambassadors provided us with a dinner of make-your-own nachos -- yum!

The campground had a few interesting vehicles in front of the office -- I don't have any additional narrative to go with them, but am including pictures in case my brother is interested!

Starlink dish base in bed of pickup

According to what we were told about the campground, it is under new ownership -- so I don't know whether the new owners brought the cars with them or what. One of our fellow travelers pointed out that there did not appear to be any garage space under which the vehicles could be protected.

Fantasy Caravan Day 54 - Whitehorse to Watson Lake, YT

On Wednesday, we retraced a route that we drove a few weeks ago, but going south/east instead of north/west...

When we get into a campground in the evening, I put the address of our next destination in right away, and zero the trip counter so we'll be ready to go. The Garmin indicated that we would be on one highway (Highway 1 - Alaska Highway) for the whole distance (252 miles).

Even though we have traveled this way before, we got to see the scenery from the other side...

... which meant different views of lakes...

... and mountains!

We arrived at our campground, Baby Nugget RV Park. We had been told at our travel meeting on Tuesday evening that they do not have dumpsters available because they attract the bear... oh no!

"Nugget City" - lots of conveniences here!

The restaurant onsite provided us with a spaghetti dinner - yum!

The gift shop had all sorts of interesting stuff!

The lady who had been the proprietor of the campground/facility had told us about things to notice in the gift shop -- one was this beautifully hand-carved door.

Carved figure outside the gift shop

Mounted moose head that the lady had shot -- she only hunts for food, but it was such a gorgeous animal that they had it mounted.

We saw the bear around the facility as we walked back to Gracie after dinner. Needless to say, we didn't hang around outside or have any food outside!

One more picture -- from the road we traveled Haines to Whitehorse, but when I went through the pictures, I had forgotten why we took this one...

I only noticed the beautiful scenery, but... we took it because it illustrates what happens if you get distracted while doing your job! As a line-painter, your distraction can be noticed by many people throughout the year!

Fantasy Caravan Day 53 - Haines, AK to Whitehorse, YT

On Tuesday, we headed out to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.

An interesting note regarding Haines -- the boat captain told us that, at this time of year, they are losing 7 minutes of daylight each 24 hours -- or 49 minutes a week!

Before leaving Haines, we filled up with "cheap" U.S. fuel -- just $5.28/gallon for diesel. When we filled up in Haines Junction, YT, a few days ago, we paid CAD2.019/liter, which, with the current exchange rate, works out to $5.80/gallon.

Most of the fuel stations have the fuel in tanks above the ground due to the permafrost.

It was a beautiful day, and nice for driving...

Views along the Chilkat River on our way

It seems that often, when we see a sign indicated a "scenic view" or a camera or binoculars...

... the pulloff has trees blocking whatever view was once available!

There were pretty views, just not at the pulloff!

We went up over Haines Highway Summit...

... going along the same route that we had traveled on Friday on our way to Haines.

As Carl reminded me, though, we got to see it from the other side!

We stopped for lunch at a rest area just before we got to Haines Junction...

A couple of other rigs in our caravan decided to stop at the same place.

Outhouse (pit toilet) at the rest area -- thankful we have a toilet onboard!

Coming down into Haines Junction.

At Haines Junction, we re-joined the Alaska Highway to travel into Whitehorse. We had not traveled this part of the Alaska Highway previously -- so with the end of this drive, we have now completed driving the whole Alaska Highway!!!

So now we actually deserve the certificate that we were given earlier in the trip!!!

I neglected to take any pictures on the route from Haines Junction to Whitehorse, but one of our fellow travelers got one in a construction zone:

Do you see how you can barely tell that the pilot car has a "Follow Me" sign because of how dirty it is?

We picked up a good coating of that fine Yukon mud-dust on the Jeep...

... as well as on Gracie.

We're working on winning the "dirtiest rig" award by the end of the caravan!!!