Oops- this is out of order. I thought I'd published it already!
Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon Territory and its largest city. It is where people working in Skagway do a lot of their shopping. Since we worked there in the late '90s, it now even has a Wal-Mart. We stayed at the Pioneer RV Park just south of town so we could get WiFi.
During the gold rush, it was at the end of the treacherous Miles Canyon rapids and sprang up for stampeders to regroup and recuperate before pressing on to Dawson City. Now travelers do the same before heading onto the last leg of the Canadian portion of the Alaska Highway or following the Klondike Highway north to Dawson City.
Whitehorse has some excellent museums. We went to the MacBride Museum, which has a fascinating new exhibit "Gold to Government." The photo to the right is Sam McGee's cabin. Robert Service used his name with permission in his famous poem, "The Cremation of Sam McGee." Sam McGee never lived it down.
Beringia, which interprets when there was a land bridge between Asia (Siberia) and Alaska, has wonderful displays of huge creatures like mammoths, short-nose bears, giant beavers and others. Though I had learned in school about this land bridge, I must say my mental picture was far from accurate. Miners in Dawson City and other areas uncovered many of the fossilized bones preserved in the permafrost that scientists have studied. After the movie, there was an atlatl demonstration. I gave it a try and I have to tell you, the tribe would have starved if they were dependent on me- I'd need a lot mor
e practice to be a Clan-of-the-Cave-Bear girl! George, on the other hand, threw it the farthest. We visited the transportation museum next door as well, also full of interesting exhibits and a half-dozen short films.
Another interesting tour is the one of the S.S. Klondike. It has been beautifully restored and speaks of a time when that was the only transportation between Whitehorse and Dawson, as well as to many other locations like Teslin south of here.
We tested the waters at Takhini Hot Springs, north of town. The pool is divided into two sections: one is quite hot, the other very warm. The facilities are older but we had a lovely soak. Their plans include adding some more natural looking pools and building a new bath house to upgrade the place.
Also fun, we hiked with RV friends Ron and Ginny Norton down Miles Canyon to the Canyon City ruins. The river is now dammed so the rapids are no more (see top left photo), but standing at the Canyon City site, with tin cans, depressions, a few boards and wires, you can imagine hundreds of stampeders working up the courage to go down the rapids. Actually the Canadian Mounties checked the rafts out first and made sure there was a capable pilot. Many stampeders portaged their belongings down below the rapid rather than risk losing them and lined their raft down or paid someone to take it through the rapids.
We made the mistake of trying to find lunch in Whitehorse on a Sunday. One that had been recommended for its salmon bake was closed as were nearly all the others. We ended up at a diner on Main Street- Lil's Place. Maybe we hit it on a bad day, but the service was beyond dreadful and the food not worth the long wait or much of a wait at all. If anything else appealing had been open, we would have left. However, just down the street a few doors is Mac's Fireweed Books. That's definitely worth a stop. They have a very nice selection of books. Whitehorse also has a nice little health food store, Riverside Grocery. It is amazing what things they have crammed on those shelves in a small space!
From here we leave the Alaska Highway to take the Klondike Highway north to Dawson City. We'll take that section of the Alaska Highway on our return trip. For now, we are following the trail of gold. Jaimie Hall Bruzenak
Photos by George and Jaimie Bruzenak
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