How much rain have we had up here in The North? Well, the picture above is of The Alaska Highway gone River. All roads leading to Alaska from the Yukon Territory have been blocked by washouts after more heavy rain and still melting snow.
Holy shit! The tourists were right all along… Alaska IS an island!
The Alaska Highway is closed from Destruction Bay to Haines Junction, and from Teslin to Junction 37. That’s roughly 220 miles of highway. The Klondike Highway is also closed due to washouts. It’s expected to take days to reopen The Alcan. One washout between Teslin & 37 is over 200′ wide and 20′ deep. That is a bit of a gully.
When asked when the roads were expected to open, The Yukon Territory’s Highways and Public Works spokeswoman Aisha Montgomery said, “We’re hesitant to give specific times.” Especially when the salmon are running…
To the 100 travelers who are stuck between a mudslide and a washout near the Rancheria Lodge I say: “Welcome to the Yukon!”
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“I went to bed and woke in the middle of the night thinking I heard someone cry, thinking I myself was weeping, and I felt my face and it was dry.
Then I looked at the window and thought: Why, yes, it's just the rain, the rain, always the rain, and turned over, sadder still, and fumbled about for my dripping sleep and tried to slip it back on.”
— Ray Bradbury from “Green Shadows, White Whale…”
June 10th, 2012 at 6:22 AM
Amazing. I drove the Alcan from Illinois with my Dad three consecutive summers starting at about age 13 – in a Dodge Omni packed to the gills, mind you – and now enjoy my pretty much yearly trips up to Alaska to visit my family, who now all live there. I would love to drive up again through the Yukon with my husband, it is a truly wonderful trip. (Not in the spring though, I take it…)