Alaska Highway: Muncho Lake to Whitehorse

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Muncho Lake

   Muncho Lake is one of those places that stops conversation. Set in a deep valley of the Northern Rockies in northern British Columbia, the lake is about twelve kilometres long and a startling jade-green, a colour that comes from copper oxide minerals washing in from the surrounding rocks. The Alaska Highway runs along its eastern shore, squeezed between water and steep rock walls, and in some places the road hangs just above the lake with the cliff right at your elbow.

   Read the complete Muncho Lake write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Muncho Lake is where the day begins. Next is Watson Lake.

2. 2. Watson Lake

   Watson Lake is a small town in the southern Yukon, at the junction of the Alaska Highway and the road to the Cassiar country, and it is famous for one very odd thing: a forest of signs. In 1942, during the building of the highway, a homesick American soldier named Carl Lindley put up a sign pointing to his home town in Illinois, and others followed. Today there are more than a hundred thousand signs, licence plates and street signs from all over the world, nailed to posts in a field beside the road. People still bring their own, and a visitor centre helps you find a place to hang it.

   Read the complete Watson Lake write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Watson Lake comes up about 529 km into the recorded legs. Next is Whitehorse.

3. 3. Whitehorse

   Whitehorse sits on the Yukon River in a broad valley under bare hills, and with some twenty-three thousand people it holds around three quarters of the territory's population, which gives you a sense of how empty the rest of it is. It is also where everything you need is available, fuel, repairs, food and beds, before the long road west. The Alaska Highway runs straight through town, and the town sits at about Mile 918 of that famous road, counted from Dawson Creek in British Columbia.

   Read the complete Whitehorse write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 1430 km.