Travels of The Mercury: Alaska – Canada Travels 2014, Whitehorse in the Yukon to Boya Lake on the Cassiar Highway in BC, August 12th to 16th.

Driving through Beringia.

It’s time for us to turn our Sprinter south as we head for Whitehorse, a good place to resupply.

Driving through Beringia.

We follow Highway 2 from Dawson City to Whitehorse for over 300 miles through the countryside of low forested mountains and broad river valleys. The country is beautiful; the road's in good condition and traffic is sparse. We're traveling along the eastern edge of a land mass called Beringia, The Bering Strait land bridge that connected Siberia and Alaska during the last glaciation 10,000 years ago. At that time great quantities of water were tied up in glacial ice and more land mass was exposed due to lower sea levels. The strait and much of Alaska and the Yukon were free of the ice that covered the high mountains in Alaska and much of central Canada. Here roamed nomadic people, mammoths, giant sloths, saber tooth cats and giant short-faced bears, a menagerie of challenging animals to make Beringia an interesting place for the up and coming humans.

Five-finger Rapids on the Yukon River.

On the way to Whitehorse we stop at Five Fingers Rapids on the Yukon River.

260 steps to descend to the trail to Five Fingers Rapids.

There is a 260-plus step stairway that leads down to the half-mile trail which we hike for a closer look at the rock islands that separate the Yukon into five channels of turbulent water.

The rock islands that separate the Yukon River into rapid filled channels.

This was a major obstacle to river boats going to Dawson City. The boats had to winch up river through the rapids to get back to Whitehorse.

The Beringia Interpretive Center

We spend a couple nights in Whitehorse to resupply and visit the Beringia Interpretive Center.

Mammoth skeleton, they really are huge. Wouldn't you have loved to see a herd of these creatures?

Here we see skeletons of ice-age giants like the Mammoth, Short-faced Bear and Giant Sloth.

A Short-faced Bear skeleton. A Grizzly Bear skull sets at its back feet. You would not want to meet one of these guys.

A Giant Sloth. I hope these guys were more cuddly than scary.

The theater in the center shows an excellent 35-minute film about how the creatures and humans of Beringia adapted and survived the ice age 10,000 years ago. Very interesting and well worth the visit. Plus you can take your picture with a mammoth and giant beaver.

Mammoth Love. Say Ahhhh.

Beringia had giant beavers, too.

We pass by Swan Lake on our way to Watson Lake. The Fireweed is still in full bloom.

From Whitehorse we head south on the Alaska Highway to Watson Lake where we turn onto the Cassiar Highway 37, leaving the Yukon and entering British Columbia.

Traveling the Cassiar Highway and no one in sight for many a mile.

The northern segment of the Cassiar Highway is narrow and unmarked but has good pavement and very little traffic. The scenery is outstanding. We spend the night at the French Creek Recreation Site, a little primitive, 5-site campground along the Dease River. Camping is free.

At French Creek we watch a beaver dining on willow.

The next day we leave early for a short 20-mile drive to our next destination, Boya Lake Provincial Park. The park was high recommended to us and it’s a natural beauty.

Our campsite at Boya Lake.

The campground is nicely laid out and well maintained by the friendly staff. There are forest and lakeside sites. The lakeside sites are definitely the best with views of a crystal clear lake colored in ever-changing hues of blues and greens due to limestone in the water.

The view of Boya Lake from our campsite.

Boya Lakes crystal clear water.

The Park had 3 canoes and 2 kayaks for rent. We rented a canoe on our first day.

We rent a canoe and paddle around the Boya Lake islands.

What looks like a shore line on the opposite side of the lake is really many islands that we could paddle around. We see fish below us in the clear water until the lake becomes too deep and turns a deep blue green. It's a really remarkable day because the air is perfectly still and the lake is a glassy calm.

More passages open up as we paddle through the islands.

We paddle up to our lake-side campsite.

Oh beautiful blue waters!

We pass by a Loon calling as it glides across the lake.

The Boya Lake dock.

We wanted to rent the kayaks the following day but strong winds came up and we decided to bike instead and have at least one ride on the Cassiar. Strong winds always slow a biker down so we struggled into the wind for about 10 miles and when we turned around had a great tail-wind to blow us back to the campground.