Friday, June 27, 2008
Through Whitehorse to Skagway
[Be sure to click on the photos for larger versions.]
This installment covers Tuesday (June 24) through Thursday (June 26).
Tuesday was a group sightseeing day in Whitehorse. We boarded a bus late this morning. After stopping at an overlook of Miles Canyon, we took a two-hour boat trip on the Yukon River. From the boat we saw a couple of brown bears and a golden eagle. The whitewater that Whitehorse was named after was eliminated when the river was dammed to run a hydroelectric plant. During the gold rush of 1898, some 7500 boats traversed the rapids in this area. The first week, about 150 boats were lost. The author Jack London worked for a time as a guide through the rapids, earning the princely sum of $25 per trip.
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After the boat tour, we saw a short film about river traffic on the Yukon River and went on a guided tour of a restored riverboat, the Klondike II. The riverboat carried all types of cargo to Dawson City, including the famout Borden's Reindeer Milk. We learned that the fireman, who worked 4 hours on / 8 hours off feeding one log to the boiler every 30 seconds, earned $85 a month, or about 3-1/2 times the average wage in the Yukon. Because the male to female ratio in Whitehorse was 10-1, women said “The odds are pretty good, but the goods are pretty odd.”
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Next we toured the fish ladder that enables salmon to swim upriver past the hydroelectric dam.
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The bus driver then gave us a tour of a nice residential area across the river, then returned for a tour of downtown. We learned that the Yukon has about 35,000 residents, half of whom live in Whitehorse. The territory’s main industries are government, mining and tourism. Humans are significantly outnumbered by about 175,000 caribou. It gets cold in Whitehorse, but not much snow. Last winter there was about 2 feet of snow, and about two weeks when the temperature got below -50 degrees Centigrade.
We arrived back at the RV park about 5:00 p.m. Carol and I then drove downtown where we ran errands and had a nice dinner at Earl’s restaurant.
Wednesday was a free day for individual sightseeing in Whitehorse. Carol and I started the morning with a visit to the Yukon Transportation Museum (pretty self-explanatory) and the Beringia Interpretive Center. Beringia was the flat, treeless steppe that joined Russia and Alaska during the last ice age, about 40,000 to 15,000 years ago. As a result of the water consumed in forming glaciers, the seas were down over 300 feet, exposing the continental shelf. Because of the position of the mountains, this area did not get much rain, did not glaciate, and was home to many species of large mammals.
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Adjacent to the transportation museum we saw the world’s largest weather vane, an old DC-3 that has been mounted on top of a large pole.
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After the museums, we had lunch at Tim Horton’s, the ubiquitous Canadian pastry and sandwich chain. We then visited the MacBride Museum, which had a display of Yukon wildlife, exhibits on Yukon history, and the cabin in which Sam McGee (immortalized in Robert Service’s poetry) lived.
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Finally we drove to the rim of Miles Canyon and walked across the suspension bridge that we had seen yesterday from our boat trip.
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This evening our caravan had a very good steak dinner in the RV Park recreation hall. We departed later to see the Whitehorse Follies, a two-hour Vaudeville-type show.
Thursday was a sunny driving day from Whitehorse to Skagway, where we are staying at an RV Park located downtown near the cruise ship docks. We stopped en route at the small town of Carcross to visit their visitor center and eat some delicious ice cream. After crossing the border into the U.S., we descended a 3000 foot grade into Skagway – the Gatlinburg of Alaska. The main (only?) industry here is tourism. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the big cruise ship days. Today there were four ships in the harbor. The streets are lined with stores selling everything from jewelry to souvenirs, and nothing much in between.
We get one TV channel here from Anchorage. The prime time programming was all NBC, but they switched to CBS at 10:30, so we saw Letterman instead of Leno.
We do have Internet access, so tomorrow I hope to update the blog.
This installment covers Tuesday (June 24) through Thursday (June 26).
Tuesday was a group sightseeing day in Whitehorse. We boarded a bus late this morning. After stopping at an overlook of Miles Canyon, we took a two-hour boat trip on the Yukon River. From the boat we saw a couple of brown bears and a golden eagle. The whitewater that Whitehorse was named after was eliminated when the river was dammed to run a hydroelectric plant. During the gold rush of 1898, some 7500 boats traversed the rapids in this area. The first week, about 150 boats were lost. The author Jack London worked for a time as a guide through the rapids, earning the princely sum of $25 per trip.
.JPG)
.JPG)
After the boat tour, we saw a short film about river traffic on the Yukon River and went on a guided tour of a restored riverboat, the Klondike II. The riverboat carried all types of cargo to Dawson City, including the famout Borden's Reindeer Milk. We learned that the fireman, who worked 4 hours on / 8 hours off feeding one log to the boiler every 30 seconds, earned $85 a month, or about 3-1/2 times the average wage in the Yukon. Because the male to female ratio in Whitehorse was 10-1, women said “The odds are pretty good, but the goods are pretty odd.”
.JPG)
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Next we toured the fish ladder that enables salmon to swim upriver past the hydroelectric dam.
.JPG)
.JPG)
The bus driver then gave us a tour of a nice residential area across the river, then returned for a tour of downtown. We learned that the Yukon has about 35,000 residents, half of whom live in Whitehorse. The territory’s main industries are government, mining and tourism. Humans are significantly outnumbered by about 175,000 caribou. It gets cold in Whitehorse, but not much snow. Last winter there was about 2 feet of snow, and about two weeks when the temperature got below -50 degrees Centigrade.
We arrived back at the RV park about 5:00 p.m. Carol and I then drove downtown where we ran errands and had a nice dinner at Earl’s restaurant.
Wednesday was a free day for individual sightseeing in Whitehorse. Carol and I started the morning with a visit to the Yukon Transportation Museum (pretty self-explanatory) and the Beringia Interpretive Center. Beringia was the flat, treeless steppe that joined Russia and Alaska during the last ice age, about 40,000 to 15,000 years ago. As a result of the water consumed in forming glaciers, the seas were down over 300 feet, exposing the continental shelf. Because of the position of the mountains, this area did not get much rain, did not glaciate, and was home to many species of large mammals.
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Adjacent to the transportation museum we saw the world’s largest weather vane, an old DC-3 that has been mounted on top of a large pole.
.JPG)
After the museums, we had lunch at Tim Horton’s, the ubiquitous Canadian pastry and sandwich chain. We then visited the MacBride Museum, which had a display of Yukon wildlife, exhibits on Yukon history, and the cabin in which Sam McGee (immortalized in Robert Service’s poetry) lived.
.JPG)
Finally we drove to the rim of Miles Canyon and walked across the suspension bridge that we had seen yesterday from our boat trip.
.JPG)
This evening our caravan had a very good steak dinner in the RV Park recreation hall. We departed later to see the Whitehorse Follies, a two-hour Vaudeville-type show.
Thursday was a sunny driving day from Whitehorse to Skagway, where we are staying at an RV Park located downtown near the cruise ship docks. We stopped en route at the small town of Carcross to visit their visitor center and eat some delicious ice cream. After crossing the border into the U.S., we descended a 3000 foot grade into Skagway – the Gatlinburg of Alaska. The main (only?) industry here is tourism. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the big cruise ship days. Today there were four ships in the harbor. The streets are lined with stores selling everything from jewelry to souvenirs, and nothing much in between.
We get one TV channel here from Anchorage. The prime time programming was all NBC, but they switched to CBS at 10:30, so we saw Letterman instead of Leno.
We do have Internet access, so tomorrow I hope to update the blog.
