Alaska Adventure: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

We've made it to Whitehorse, a veritable metropolis compared to the last few days. It even has a Starbucks and traffic lights. Today's drive was through rolling hills densly covered with boreal forest. No wildlife although there was plenty of evidence of past and present wildfires. We came around the northern end of the Rockies at Teslin, then began to see the rugged mountains of the Coast Range to the west. The ocean inlets and fjords are just beyond the Coast Range, not too far from where we are, but it will be another couple of weeks before we actually reach the sea.

The main point of interest today was Teslin Lake and a stop we made at the Tlingit Heritage Centre just outside of the town of Teslin. It sounded like they pronounce Tlingit as "Klinkit." The native Americans here are called First Nations, and one of them is a coastal tribe called the Tlingit. They are trying to re-establish their traditions and heritage here at Teslin Lake. The Heritage Centre was opened about ten years ago and as part of the opening ceremonies the clan poles for the five clans, Raven, Frog, Wolf, Beaver and Eagle were set up in front of the Heritage Centre for the first time in a hundred or more years.

Some of the photos I took around Teslin and the heritage center I have posted below.

This is the town of Teslin and the bridge across one of the bays of Teslin Lake. The lake is narrow but very long and we drove beside it for miles. The mountains in the background are probably the beginnings of the Coast Range.