Tatchun Creek Campground, Yukon, Canada
Klondike Hwy North
Gine lost her offline google maps
Yesterday evening Gine discovered that
she doesn’t has her Yukon/BC offline maps in Google maps anymore – weird as all
the Portugal/Spain ones are still there. That means this morning to go into the
Visitor info and starting downloading at least the Yukon part and this is not
the fasted internet.
We need some muffins for the road
We decided that we will get some more
of the super yummy muffins we got here before – only they are always sold out
early, we talked a bit too long and there is a long line-up lucky for us, there
were still a few left for us. Now we are ready to go, a quick last check on the
Yukon river and we are heading out.
On the North-Klondike Highway
- The Klondike Hwy goes from Skagway to Dawson City: we already did the southern part and now we drive the northern part – this was the connection during the Klondike Gold rush
Leaving Dawson we drove again through
the stone piles from the Dredges and then we head through the endless forested
area – it always fascinates us on how huge this country is.
Follow the Pilot car x3
Ok – as per google map we have a 3.5
hours drive – I don’t think google factors in the pilot cars. They do a lot of
construction all along the Highway and they use pilot trucks through the
construction site, once we hit the first traffic light we stop and wait – and wait
and wait. Paul said you think there is a mistake and they forgot it’s Sunday?
Then an ambulance drives through and comes back… we waited over 20 Min before
the pilot car came. Then through the dust and mud. We were happy it’s over when
the next traffic light says wait for pilot car – so we wait again…. And then
after a long stretch of gravelroad another traffic light: as we go out we talk
with our fellow camper fellows in line until we get guided through the dirtiest
constructionside of them all. Ok we are clearly not on time anymore!!!! And the
truck is dirty again!!!!!
The cruise stop: Moose Creek Lodge
Gine said we need a stop and so we
stopped at the Moose Creek Lodge – we had to grin a bit when it said this is
not a campground and not a picnic site????? We park admire the nice setup and
the old cars looking all ready for the tourists and then we discover why:
because the Cruise tours stop here for 15 Min break – ok so we leave because
they take over.
Coffee near Steward Crossing
Shortly after we cross the Steward
River we stop for coffee and met a local guy from Whitehorse who lived for 34
years in Inuvik. It’s funny we later met him again on the campground.
As we left we came through an area of
a forest fire and as it looks like it was brand-new – all black and dark soil
and we wondered if that was the reason we had smoke earlier in our trip when we
entered Alaska and the interiors were burning. It looks kind of weird some
trees are totally burned and some still have branches on.
They call it the firebelt:
- Along the North Klondike Hwy were in the last 50 years six major fires they have “reset” the forest: in this area the forest burns in a patchwork every 50 – 200 years
- Lightning causes 95 %of all the fires in the Yukon and often start in remote areas
- There is no unburned area n the Yukon, and many forest fires are overlapping – forests in unmarked areas burned before the 1940s, when the fire mapping started
- The forest here is fire-dependent
- The pioneer plant after the fire is the Fireweed, dragonhead and grasses – as they need direct sunlight and are replaced as the forest matures, even their rootsystem is still there you can’t see fireweed in a mature forest, but after a fire they re=appear
- The heat of the fire melts the resin that otherwise seals the cone scales of the black spruce and ldoge pole – this allows the cone to open and the seeds to fall out
- 2004 Dominion fire: the summer was unusually hot and dry and in this fire seasen 1.7 Mill hectares burned in the yuon in 273 fires (in 1994 the previous record was at 255 fires). This fire got started by lightning strike and consumed 29.000 hectares, even within minutes the aircrafts came to fight the fire within several hours it was several hudnreds hectars and growing. It was soon contained near the highway, but the remainder burned until winter snow and cold took over. Here you see the classig image of fields of pink fireweed contrasting with stark black tunks
- 1998 Fox Lale Fire: a human caused fire burned 45.000 hectars – you can already see young trembling Aspen. During the fire 4 firefithers were forced to take refuge in a pond when the flames trapped them in the burning wood, . They were in the cold pond for close to 4 hours and out of contact, then they warmed themselves by the buring water pumps and hiked to a helispot.
- 1995 Minto Fire: this was the hottest and driest summer on record. It got reported in June, at one time 195 people worked on the fire, it burned 59.000 hectares. You can see the Trembling Aspen
- 1969 Pelly Fire: record-breaking temperatures and dry weather, lightning struck along Legar Lake in middle of June , the town of Pelly Crossing was evacuated and the fire burned within 1.5 km of the town before a firebreak and cooperative weather stopped it (a firebreak is a fuel free line made by scraping away the humus and plants with heavy equipment). It burned 75.000 hectras
- 1958 Braeburn fire: in 1957 a improperly extinguished campfire spread into the forest and caused little damage, but the fire smouldered in the ground through the winder and in May the next year started burning, with 65 kmh winds it fanned out fast. It burned 147.000 hectares. Most of the blackened trees are now on the ground and bunchgrass replaced the fireweed The Aspen are still taller than the White Spruce and Lodgepole pine, but the conifers catch upon
- 1951 Stewart River fire: June 27 a fire near Stewart River Ferry crossing got reported, because the forest was so dry and the wind so strong, no attempt was made to fight the fire until July 12. 40.000 hectares burned before it got put out by the rain in September. The Stewart River and the highway act as fireguards.
- 1946 a forest fire swept towards Carmacks destroying the church, school and several houses, the fire fighting equipment had to come from Whitehorse with the Paddlewheelers and arrived 3 days later
Pelly’s Crossing
We stop again at Pelly’s crossing – if
I wouldn’t read it, I wouldn’t known that it is a town, as it looks like a gas
station with mini store. Here is also Big Jonathan’s House and one of the
traditional high caches, could read some info about him (by the way it was
closed).
- Pelly Crossing started to become a community during the Klondike gold rush and here was a ferry across the Pelly River
- Fort Selkirk is 25 Miles from here – but you can’t go there by car as it is on the other side of the river
- This is the area where the Selkirk first nations lived, one of the first Europeans meeting the Selkirks was Robert Campbell and in 1848 they started Fort Selkirk a Hudson bay Trade post
- Big Jonathan Campbell was born in 1875 and was the grandson of Chief Tlingit Thling and his father was Hudan. Hudan saved Robert Campbells live and then got his name. Big Jonathan had once the largest house in Fort Selkirk, in his house they celebrated potlaches and dances. After his death his house was taken down as a sign of respect. Many years later his house was reconstructed at Fort Selkirk and a small replica was built here in Pelly Crossing
Camping at Tatchun Creek Government
Campground
We decided to drive to the Tatchun
Creek campground and stay there for the night: it was 5.30 once we arrived here
– the plan was to be here around 3!!!
Driving the last 80 km for the day
through more forested area and some glimpses on the Yukon river – we were so
ready to arrive. We got a beautiful spot right on the river (I don’t understand
that this site was still available when the whole campsite was nearly full),
and as all Yukon Campgrounds it has free firewood. After setting up we got some
wood and prepared the fire – the time for BBQ – yeah!!! We can cook outside no
rain!! And then enjoyed a wonderful evening at the fire with river sound.
It gets dark!!
Tonight once it hit 10 o’clock – it
gets dark and once we go to back it is like pitchblack dark outside – we need a
light inside to see – what is going on, we are not used to this anymore – we
are used to no dark at all.
Sunshine at the Five Finger Rapids
Getting up and after the first coffee
we decided to leave as we are not really in the sunshine and drive up to the
parking area of the Five Finger Rapids – and it is fun to sit in the sun for
coffee and breakfast. By now the first little tourist van shows up – and a bit
later a Holland America bus shows up. And again Mandy is the big star!!
Finally we are ready for all the steps
down – on the walk through the forest we discovered a lot of mushrooms super
cool. And then we are at the 2nd viewing plat form – the Yukon River
is really a super wide river and it is kind of cool on how those islands sit in
the river – and there is a story to it:
- The mountains in front of us are called the Wood Cutters range, in honor to all the wood cutters who worked between 1898 and 1955 to provide wood for the steam wheelers on the Yukon River
- During the 1898 Klondike Gold rush thousands of prospectors navigated their handmade boats and rafts 1300 km from Bennett Lake to Dawson City: Five Finger Rapids was a major obstacle and many ended up in the water choosing the wrong chanel
- 4 little islands divide the river up into 5 channels (fingers)- only the nearest channel was passable for Steam Wheelers with a 30-60 cm drop – they had a cable on the biggest rock, so the steam wheelers could pull themselves through once the wheel lifted out of water – from 1900-1927 they blasted away rocks to get rid of the rapids
- Also the Chilkoot and White pass were the shortest routes to the Goldfield – the local Chilkats followed the easier but longer route from Haines: Jack Dalton was the first one to use the trial in 1894 he improved the trail and built caches and a trading post and then started to take toll, even he didn’t had the authority to do it. The Dalton trail also was the best way to get livestock into the interior – once the train over the White Pass was complete they could load the cattle on the train and the Dalton trail reverted back to bush.
As we head back up it gets super sunny
and super hot – we have to head to the lake for relaxing.
Carmack
And we continue on our journey south –
next stop is in Carmack another little old community, by now we crossed the
Yukon river several times. We stop at the Visitor info which is in the old
telegraph office and have a quick glance on the not so in great a shape
boardwalk but Gine said because the weather is so nice – we should head to the
lake and skip a few log houses, a roadhouse and a cemetery.
- In 1893 George Carmack found coal near here and built a cabin and a trading post
- In 1898 the NWMP established the Tantalus Trading post to monitor river traffic – it became an important river stop between Whitehorse and Dawson City
- The overland trail was routed through here in 1901 from White horse to Dawson City and a horse-drawn freight and passenger service started, drivers had to change the horses every 20-30 Miles and Carmack was one of the roadhouses along the way (once there were 52 roadhouses along the route) – it cost around 125 $ and took 5 days
- It then became an important stop for the steam wheelers
- The Telegraph stations were an important link in the Yukon and a big priority for the government, it reached Skagway in 1899 and 2 years later they were connected to Quesnel. This telegraph station was built in 1903
It’s not so sunny at Fox Lake
As we head further south there comes
the sign for the Twin Lakes TP, we decide to check it out the viewsites are
taken (and they are not that close to the lake) – the sites right on the lake are
like in a parking lot, we decided no. as we start to drive along Fox Lake we
see the campground and there are sites on the water available – we did find a
beautiful site right on the lake with great views. Pulling in and making coffee
and then the sun goes away – what!!!! We did enjoy the view and go for a walk
around the campsite to enjoy all the views – but the sun did not want to come
back out. That means shower in the windy shady cool spot.
Bread on the stick with some raindrops
When we arrived and the sun was
shining, Gine said I make some dough and we prepare fire and make the sticks
and then we can bake the bread on the stick over the fire. All prepared and
right before supper it starts to rain a bit – really!!!! At least it stops
raining again and Paul was smart covering the firepit so our prepared fire was
still dry – it was super cool making our bread with lake view and a warm fire.
After the 2nd set we already thought that the evening will be inside
as it started to rain – but lucky for us, it stopped again and the fire was
still going: we could spend another relaxing evening around the fire – nearly
until it was dark.
Change of Plan
Ok the plan was, that we stay for two
days on the lake and relax – and it started out like we could do it: we had
some sunshine for coffee even it was cool and the lake was totally flat. But
then came the clouds and the wind and we said let’s move on – and head further
south, as the more south we are hopefully the warmer it gets and so we are on
our way to Whitehorse.
2025-05-22