Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada (08-25-14)

The road to Whitehorse was a long one, so we had to stop for sustenance along the way.  For $10 you can take home the world’s biggest, but not the world’s best, cinnamon roll.  They aren’t kidding when they say it feeds 4. 

Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon Territory, and a pretty good sized city. The first thing we set out to do is go hiking. 










Unlike downstream, the Yukon River in this area is a beautiful blue. We took the 4 mile trail to the ghost town of Canyon City.

Before the railroad came, when goods were brought up the Yukon for distribution, a tramway was built here because of the rapids. Cargo was taken off one ship, ported by land on the tramway,  and put on a different ship. The railroad spelled the death of Canyon City, and all that’s left is the interpretative displays.

One of the “must do” things in Whitehorse is the Frantic Follies.  This is an old time Vaudeville type act, set in the late 1800s.  It was rowdy and fun.  They encourage some audience participation and after teasing a couple from Oklahoma City for a bit, every time they needed a town to be the butt of a joke- Oklahoma City was it!  At one point they seriously announced the “classical portion” of the program, saying they had the “sympathy orchestra from Oklahoma City visiting” and they all played a tune on their saws.

While exploring the rest of the town, we came upon the fish ladder.  The salmon in Whitehorse have the longest migration of any salmon in the world- all the way from the Bering Sea, almost 2000 miles away.

When the river was dammed in the late 1950s, the salmon had no way to make it upstream any further, so a fish ladder was built along the shore.  The salmon slowly make their way up this ladder to their spawning grounds.









We probably could have found a few more things to occupy us in Whitehorse, but we had a reason that we wanted to be outside of town on the day we left…….more on that in the next post.

Dawson City (08-23-14)

On the shores of the mighty Yukon sits Dawson City, Canada. Dawson was at the heart of the Klondike gold rush.






    
 
In 1896, when Skookum Jim and his pals discovered gold in Bonanza Creek, they set off a massive stampede of would be miners who flocked to this area to strike it rich.

By 1904, heavy equipment such as dredges, were being used to strip the river of it’s gold.  Bonanza Creek turned out to be one of the richest creeks in one of the richest gold fields in the world.

Although large dredges are no longer used, gold mining operations, both large and small, are still the main focus of this town.











The sides of the streets are piled high with tailings, for miles on end.

The town itself has retained it’s old world feel, with colorful storefronts, dirt roads and elevated boardwalks.

Random thought:
I have decided to invest in some weather predicting hardware.  The weather forecasters up here are just as accurate as their counterparts further south.  This summer has been one of the wettest on record, and we’ve spent a lot of time trying to reach areas where the sun was supposed to be shining, only to find more gray skies and downpours- so I am going to start using a Weather Rock.


  If it’s wet- its raining,  if it’s white-it’s snowing, if it’s warm-its sunny, if it’s gone-it’s windy.

Exit- Stage Right! (08-22-14)

Someone once told me that when the Fire-weed stops blooming in Alaska- summer is over.  Well, folks, the Fire-weed has stopped blooming and we have started our trek south.

Our road of choice is the Klondike Trail, which is actually 3 roads-  the Taylor Highway in Alaska, Top of the World Highway in the Yukon, and the Klondike Highway in the Yukon. 

 This route has a reputation- as both a beautiful, scenic byway, and a dangerous, slippery road. Indeed, 2 motor homes have “fallen off” the Klondike Trail  this summer.

The Taylor portion was the spookiest for me.  Much of the road is dirt, and it has soft shoulders with sheer drop offs.  Paul was confident and the truck handled fine, but the passenger admits to some white knuckle moments.

Its not a road that anyone takes when they are in a rush nowadays, for sure.  We took two days to drive it, spending one night near the Canadian border.

There are very few towns along the way, but the few that are here are definitely full of character!


 The town of Chicken has a population of about 200, mostly gold miners.  The story goes that the original inhabitants really wanted to name the town after the state bird- the Ptarmigan, but no one knew how to spell it, so they settled on Chicken. 

There are 3 business downtown, as well as an overgrown chicken.  The signposts point out distances from such places as Clucker’s Hall, Illinois,  and Chicken Scratch, NC.

The historic post office has been open since 1903, and receives mail twice a week.  There is no phone service in Chicken and the water and electricity are generated locally.

Once we crossed the border, the view got even more incredible.

 

The road was in pretty good condition and an easy drive.

This is why they call it Top of the World. 

You can see the road skirting along the tops of the ridges for miles.

We did drive through clouds at one point, but we only got rained on a little bit so the road didn’t get too slippery.

Eventually we landed where the Klondike Trail has been bringing people for over a century- Dawson City.

Alaska! (06-13-14)

Our last day of travel through the Yukon and British Columbia (we crossed the border about 7 times that last day) took us through some good wildlife viewing areas.

We saw mama black bear with two cubs…

And numerous buffalo along the side of the highway.










 

My favorite was this guy though.  He was munching the dandelions and grass, right next to the road, and there were no  other cars, so we could stop and get a good look.

He was only about 20 feet from the truck.

We also passed through Carcross (short for Caribou Crossing) and stopped at the local bakery, where we had heard that the cinnamon rolls are the best ever.  After missing out at the last place we tried to get them, we were hoping this place would be open. Well, not only was it open, this place had the best cinnamon rolls we’ve ever had!

 
As we approached the Alaskan border, I swear the mountains got bigger and bigger.








 

The scenery is incredible along this road.

The border crossing was uneventful, except I had to give up the tomato we had.  Apparently no tomatoes, green peppers or citrus fruits are allowed into the U.S.


Soon enough, we were in Skagway, Alaska!