Teslin, Yukon, CanadaTESLIN
Rancheria Falls
Our first stop was at the Rancheria
Falls and you could think it is the most favorite spot one RV behind the next
one – and yes some of the people we already know. A short walk mostly boardwalk
goes through a super cool forest with lots of moss and as we read here was a
hundred years ago a forest fire and you can still see some black burned trees:
this is a typical northern forest with black and white spruce just short of the
treeline. Up here in the north it takes 3 times longer for the forest to
mature.
At the end are the falls – which are
not the highest but look cool as there is so much water in the rivers.
It’s raining through the rolling hills
of the south Yukon
As we head west it starts to rain on
and off – what was still nice is that we could still see the mountains. After a
construction side when our truck was super dirty it was nice, when it rained to
wash away nearly all the dust.
We stopped quickly at the Morley River
Rec site – but then this is another river – we didn’t think it was so super special
And then we saw another black bear
right near the road – that was supercool to watch him.
Teslin
Photopoint: we couldn’t believe it
there was a sign turn off to photo point. I mean yes we did it and there we can
see the longest bridge on the Alaska Highway going over the Nisutlin inlet. We
did stop right after as here is the Yukon Motel: what was cute is they had a
lifesize Moose and Elk there so we could see their sizes. We also saw gigantic
sand bags as everything is flooded along the lake – it is sad to see the houses
and farm all flooded with the huge white sandbags around them.
As we continued on we saw a flooded
farm and discovered that the Teslin Lake Territorial Park was closed – yes it
is flooded too.
- This was once a summer camp of the Tlingit tribe from southern Alaska
- In 1898 the Teslin campsite boomed briefly as a stopover on the Canadian route to the Klondike – by 1903 the HBC already closed again
- Today here live around 500
- Teslin is the Tlingit word for “long narrow water” – the lake is 125 km long and around 3km wide
- We learn that the Salmon comes here all from the Bering See – normally the Salmon reaches Teslin in late August after they travelled 2950km : and what is amazing on that long journey they do not eat and rely entirely on their fat reserves for swimming upstream
- In 1903 the Nisutlin Trading post opened for the First Nations, even today the main economy here is traditional hunting, trapping and fishing
Tlingit Heritage Center
This is the main sight of Teslin: what
is cool when you drive in you are “greeted” by 5 beautiful totem poles: each
one represent one of the 5traditional clans 1) kukhhittan – Raven, Children, 2)
Ishkitan = Frog, 3) Yanyedi = Wolf, 4) Deshitan = Beaver, 5) Dakhl awedi =
Eagle. The poles symbolize the elements of land, water and air. After admiring
the poles we walked down towards the lake edge – again you can see where it
flooded we could still enjoy some beautiful views on the lake. We decided to
not go inside and rather to continue on, on our journey.
No Diesel at Johnsons Crossing
Next stop is fill-up: no luck as the
Pump says sorry we are out of Diesel – good thing we planned well ahead. We
read that here they sell the best homemade baking goods in the whole of Yukon,
so we stop and decide that 5$ for one is a bit steep for us – we don’t need it
that desparatly.
We stay at Squanga Lake
Soon after we came to this territorial
campsite and decided that it is 5 pm and time to stop for the day. We found a
nice spot with even lake glimpses. Setting up Paul started a new investigation:
why do we have a problem with charging? Is it the battery? Is it the pump?
There are so many factors and we need to decide if we have to put in a stop in
Whitehorse to get the parts. More investigation is needed.
As per Paul there were a billion
mosquitos hindering his work – Gine thought it was not that bad when she was
washing her hair. With no battery power
– laptop time tonight will be short cut.
And big surprise: it rained last night
– I think that is a nightly thing here. This morning there was mostly blue sky
with some clouds and (this is why we left fast) lots of mosquitos – you got
welcomed as soon as you leave the truck.
2025-05-22