Otter Falls Cutoff to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

This morning after breakfast, we started our drive up Aishihik Road.  At the start of the road, there was a sign indicating the road was flooded at 25 km.  We continued along the dirt road anyway…what’s a little more dirt on the truck, after all.

We got to one parking area high above the river and looked down to see some flooded areas.

I can’t believe it’s that cold yet.

We finally arrived at the 15 km point on the route, and sure enough, the road was flooded.  We decided it would be best not to continue on since we didn’t have any idea how deep the water was over the road.  We could see no sign of other vehicles crossing, but several had turned around.

We had been hoping to be able to drive just another 2.5 km’s to get to the Otter Falls viewpoint.  As noted in the Milepost, “Otter Falls was once pictured on the back of the Canadian $5 bill, but in 1975 the Aishihik Power Plant diverted water from the falls.  The 32-megawatt dam was built by Northern Canada Power Commission to supply power principally to the mining industry.  Water is still released over the falls during the summer; flow hours are posted.”  There had also been a road sign early on in our drive to watch for bison over the entire length of the road.  So, we missed out on both counts.  We did see numerous patches of mushrooms all along the road.  They didn’t look very edible our opinion.

On our return the Alcan Highway, we headed back toward Haines Junction for a short distance to see the historic Canyon Creek Bridge.

We were going to pull into a rest area for lunch, but there were already several vehicles there.  So, we decided to continue on to Whitehorse and have a late lunch/early dinner in town.  Here, we’re approaching Whitehorse.

We arrived at Pioneer RV Park, took on more fuel at $1.285 per liter, parked and went to the Klondike Rib & Salmon BBQ to eat.  Back at the RV, we finished setting up, did some laundry, and relaxed.  We’ll be here for at least two nights before heading toward Hyder, Alaska.