From the Yukon to the Rocky Mountains

It took 5 stages to get to Dawson City in the Yukon Territory - in 5 stages (about 2500km - we're taking a few detours, so it will be 3000km) we're going south again to the Rocky Mountains.

We're driving the Klondike Highway (Dawson City -> Carmacks), the Robert Campbell Highway (Carmacks -> Watson Lake), the Alaska Highway (Watson Lake -> Fort Nelson & Fort Nelson -> Dawson Creek -> Chetwynd), and finally the John Hart Highway and the Trans-Canada Highway (Chetwynd -> Prince George -> Jasper).

Until Fort Nelson, the scenery was great again, afterwards it was more like closing your eyes (and nose - we're in the outskirts of the oil and gas fields of Alberta) and pushing through. But behind Chetwynd it becomes bearable again and in the end really beautiful.

The absolute highlight of the driving days was the day through the 'Northern Rockies' between Watson Lake and Fort Nelson. There we were (finally) flooded with wildlife encounters: 1 black bear that let us observe for 20 minutes, 2 herds of bison, 1 wolf (the first wolf we ever saw in the wild), 2 (separate) caribou families, later another individual caribou, 1 porcupine, 1 family of bighorn sheep, 1 fox, a few deer and a group of elk. The following day we added a 'first in life': A lynx.

The otherwise only special occurrence of the driving days was also of an animal nature: A porcupine that walked smacking on the road, disappeared - while we, amazed by its patience to let us watch, didn't think it through - under our car. Because he felt safe there in front of us, we had to spend about 15 minutes trying to get him out again...

Now we're in the 'real' Rocky Mountains and let's see if that can still be topped.