Tombstone Territorial Park to Whitehorse

Day 15 (18 Sep) — Heading back

Tombstone Territorial Park to Whitehorse (Takhini Hot Springs)

From today we turned for home, aiming for Vancouver far to the south. Probably about 3,000 km away.

A short break on the Klondike Highway. Walking to the river flowing right beside us, we found footprints of some animal on the slightly muddy riverbank. It might have been a dog, but the footprints were quite large, so perhaps a bear. In fact, later while driving we saw a bear. It just dashed across the road ahead, so we couldn't get a photo.

A little further south, we could see places where faint autumn colours still remained. Back along the Yukon River toward Whitehorse.

Just over 600 km from our starting point, after driving through the wilderness, we were back in the capital, Whitehorse. Around here we saw lots of cars with Alaska plates too. We went to the same supermarket as before and bought pork steaks. Actually, last time we bought the same meat and made ginger pork at Takhini Hot Springs. We couldn't forget the taste, so we decided to make it again.

Besides Alaska plates, we also spotted a Northwest Territories plate shaped like a polar bear. Inuvik, at the end of the Dempster Highway, is not in the Yukon but in the Northwest Territories. Or perhaps they came from the Great Slave Lake side.

After that, at Walmart, the famous North American store that sells everything, I bought sandals. The shoes I brought from Japan had been worn so constantly that they gave off a strange smell. Then we stopped at the visitor centre and went back to Takhini Hot Springs. I burned the smelly shoes as fuel for the campfire.

Pork sizzling on the grill. Ginger pork made with pork steaks is superb. By the way, in Canada beef and pork cost about the same; in fact beef was even a bit cheaper.

After dinner, the hot spring again today. Amazing that it's 8 at night and still this light! With it this bright, there's no way you'd see the aurora. Unlike Japanese hot springs, it's mixed and you wear swimsuits. As big as a pool. There were lots of couples, and one couple kept up passionate kisses the whole time without caring at all about the people around them.