Teslin Yukon

The car weighed heavy on our minds all evening, but we were able to jump start it without a problem this morning.  To recharge the battery, I drove the car today.  Boy, was that inconvenient.  I only ran off the road one time trying to make pictures.

We stopped at Rancheria Lodge to get a cup of coffee.  Rancheria Lodge is another one of those restaurants, roadhouses, gas station, and campground combinations.  Rancheria has been in business at least since 1949.  It was listed in the 1949 edition of the Milepost as a roadhouse.  In 2004, we stayed in the campground and enjoyed our visit so much we wanted to stop in this morning just for old time’s sake.

About 8 miles further down the road is the Rancheria Falls Recreation Site.  The Rancheria River runs beside the highway for several miles in this area.  At the Recreation Site there is a short trail which leads to the falls.  With the spring snowmelt there was plenty of water rushing through the rocks.

We think this is a particularly beautiful stretch of highway with the Cassiar Mountains rising up in front of us and the river and numerous ponds along the roadway.

We crossed the Continental Divide again.  We stopped for a photo, but there really wasn’t much to get a picture of.  There was no elaborate sign with 3 feet of snow all around like at Kootenay National Park.  The rivers from here flow either to the east into the Mackenzie or to the west into the Yukon.  The Yukon River flows northwest to the Bering Sea and the Mackenzie flows northward to the Arctic Ocean.

After these stops we finally arrived in Teslin about noon.  There are two museums we want to visit here, but they are both still closed for the season.  They should be open when we return on our way home.

For our camp tonight we are tucked away in the trees at Teslin Lake Territorial Campground.  There are 27 sites in this small government campground which sits on the bank above Teslin Lake.  The interior roads are gravel as are the parking pads.  Each of the wooded sites has a very large picnic table and fire ring.  There is also plenty of free firewood in shelters at the entrance and near the pit toilets.  There is a central water pump, but the water must be treated or boiled before drinking.  I doubt that pump gets much use.  The fee is $12 per night.  There are no modern facilities, but there are lots of trees and through the trees we can see the lake.

We’ve spent a lot of nights at Walmart and a few nights in rest areas.  Those places are fine and I don’t mind them for a night, but we’d far rather pay a small fee of $10 or $15 and dry camp in a small wooded campground.  It’s much more relaxing to us and, therefore, worth the few dollars.

CRITTER COUNT:  We didn’t see any wildlife today.  I was surprised.

Tomorrow, we’re headed into Whitehorse.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for tagging along.