Day 39 – Watson Lake and the Sign Post Forest

Good grief, the black flies are bad. This morning our destination was Watson Lake and the Sign Post Forest. When we got in the truck to leave, the sunroof was covered with those pesky black flies.

Black Flies on Sunroof of the Truck.

On our way to Watson Lake, we stopped at the Alaska Highway Historic Milepost 804 in Teslin. Teslin sits at the confluence of the Nisutlin River and Teslin Lake. It has one of the largest First Nations populations in Yukon. Traditional fishing, hunting, and trapping is widely practiced and Teslin Lake is famous for it’s trout fishing.

Our first stop in Watson Lake was the Sign Post Forest. It’s located at the Historic Milepost 635. It’s a Yukon Historical site. Guess what? It was raining again.

So the story behind the Sign Post Forest starts back at the building of the Alaska Highway. A US Army soldier put up the first sign. People traveling the Alaska Highway have been adding signs ever since. Although we weren’t prepared and didn’t have a sign with us, it’s estimated that there are over 90,000 signs. Below you can see a sample of them.

We then went to the Watson Lake Visitor Center. It’s right across the parking lot from the Sign Post Forest. There are quite a few exhibits and free Wi-Fi. The people are also really nice and super helpful.

We’re staying just a short distance away at the Downtown RV park. It’s nothing fancy but there are full hook-ups and a laundromat. There’s was a big RV club/caravan staying here taking up most of the park. We got one of the only remaining sites.

I did some laundry and was really bothered by something that happened. One of my loads had just barely finished and some big guy started unloading it, putting it on the next washer over. Am I wrong for getting mad when a stranger touched my laundry? I was furious.

After dinner the boys went to the Northern Lights Center. It’s a planetarium that features the science about the Northern Lights. I stayed at the Airstream to finish laundry and take some downtime. I’ve been dealing with a respiratory/head cold so I am heading to bed early.