Today we visited the Yukon Territorial government offices here in Whitehorse, the Territorial capital.  The building is about as big as you would expect for the seat of a territory with 37,000 residents:

We received a great tour of the Assembly chambers.  The Yukon Territorial Assembly has 19 members, 12 of which are from the majority party.  They meet for 60 days every spring and fall:

In the hall, there was a display about the ceremonial mace, without which proceedings cannot begin:

There was a 20+ pane stained glass mural depicting the history of the Yukon running the lenth of the building.  This is the beginning of the mural:

We walked a couple blocks to the SS Klondike, one of the sternwheelers used to carry gold from Dawson City to Whitehorse and supplies the other way:

Stacks of simulated supplies:

The SS Klondike had dining and lodging for 24 first-class passengers:

The Yukon rivers flows on by at quite a clip:

M may have lost his wallet:

Even Whitehorse has its hoodlums:

Heading North, there were several places to walk down to the Yukon River:

There were butterflies a plenty:

After a few hours driving, we reached the junction with the Dempster Highway, and drove towards Tombstone Territorial Park:

Good thing we filled up on gas at the junction:

After an hour or so of driving the Dempster Highway, we reached a streamside pullout to camp in over Shabbos.  Sunset here is at 12:46AM.  Here are views of our site at around 11:45PM:

North on the Dempster:

And South:

Good Shabbos from Tombstone Territorial Park, Yukon Territory!  See the trip map for driving details and current location.

On Saturday, we met Nigel and Sandra of Doin’NotDreamin’, who camped next to us at Clements Lake.  Last night, Sunday, we returned to Clements Lake, and found that they had returned here as well.  They had attempted to get up to the Salmon Glacier with their Class C motorhome but had to turn back when the road became to narrow.  This morning they headed out a bit before us, and we figured we would both stay at the same camping area at the North end of Dease Lake.

Another cloudy morning on Clements Lake:

I headed back into town to buy diesel and mouse traps.  I also visited the visitor center and picked up brochures for the next leg of our trip.  Maybe it’s because of the permafrost that gas station fuel tanks are all above ground in this part of Canada?

We drove back out towards the Cassiar Highway, once again passing amazing views.  A hanging glacier is just visible in the saddle at the skyline:

I couldn’t help stopping again at Bear Glacier:

Heading North of the Cassiar Highway, we lived by the rule of “don’t pass gas” and stopped at every available gas station.  They were 100 to 200 miles apart, and prices got up to $1.67 per liter, which is $6.35 a gallon. I tried not to think about it too much.

After the first 100 miles, the Cassiar becomes a narrow chipseal road with no center line.  At one point, we passed by a herd of horses next to and on the road:

Around 8pm, we reached Sawmill Point Recreation Site on the North end of Dease Lake, another free Forestry Service campground.  The temperatures are pleasant, but the mosquitoes are getting worse and worse as we head North.  Nigel and Sandra must have stopped somewhere else:

There are some interesting folks in this lonely corner of the world.  One RV overnighting here had a wood stove installed in it, complete with chimney coming out the side of the RV.

As we went to bed, we spotted a mouse in the RV.  So much for the hope that the mouse we saw last night had run out before this morning.  We set out the traps we bought in Stewart and hoped for the best (from our perspective).

See the trip map for today’s drive.