STARR TREKS Monday 6/15/15 Whitehorse Yukon
Last night, we looked out the window around 8 pm— it was very light out — and saw a rainbow in the distance— our 1st of this trip. Larry went out to dump trash and met up with a couple from ABQ— they had been on the road since Feb, going to CA first. It was warm enough last night that we ran the air conditioner for awhile before we went to bed.
We drove 274 miles today from Watson Lake to Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. We stopped at a recreation area called Rancheria Falls (prounounced the Mexican way— rancher—EE-a) — it was a short walk, part on a boardwalk to a nice little waterfall— it was a pleasant break, and it was warm and sunny. It has been much warmer here than i every imagined it would be. I wanted to stop at a museum in Teslin — has one of the largest native populations in Yukon, but Larry missed it driving by, so we stopped a little later for a lunch break. The Teslin lake is 86 miles long! It got cloudier and sprinkled off and on. Once again, did not see more than a bear or 2 — there is not even much roadkill! The Milepost book warned us to watch out for caribou and moose— NOT! We drove over the Nisutlin Bay bridge— longest in Yukon at >1900 ft long. Shortly after that, we got behind a truck that was painting the yellow center line on the road— we were first in line (became a long line) behind that line painter for several miles till they let the traffic go by.
A lot of the little towns are named after people who built the highway in 1942. We got to the Pioneer RV Park, a few miles south of Whitehorse — nothing fancy— it is like a big parking lot that happens to have pine trees around it. After hooking up, we drove downtown to the visitor center. There was quite a bit of traffic for a town of 24,0000. They cater a lot to RV-ers— lots of parking lots with designated RV parking. Larry got more info on the highway we will be taking in the next few days. We picked up the free tourist parking pass — good for 3 days all over town. We left the car and walked along the Yukon River to the SS Klondike National Historic Site. It was built in 1929 as a cargo ship, tho also carried passengers and mail. It ran aground, and was rebuilt in the 30’s, then used to travel to Dawson City till 1955. We missed the guided tour, so just walked thru the ship. There was a guy Greg, who answered questions— he is a Whitehorse native.
We then walked over to the McBride museum — had exhibits of local history, Canadian Mounties, lots of rooms with old stuff. When the railroad connected Skagway to Whitehorse, freight was transferred from train to riverboat to go on to Dawson City. Then the town really grew with the construction of the AlCan highway in 1942.
We then walked a few blocks to eat out— we really have not eaten out since Seattle. I saw an ad for “Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ — a Real taste of the Yukon”, so we tried it out. There were several people waiting, but our wait was only about 10 minutes. We had a delicious salmon appetizer, then I had halibut with vegetables, and Larry had their famous Fish and Chips— we split the meals so we could taste them both— excellent! It had a roof, but was sort of open air. I asked the waitress if it was open at all in the winter and she said no— they open around Mothers Day. It was a very busy place and the waitresses really worked! We had thought about dry camping in the Walmart parking lot, but changed our minds— we thought we would just drive over and see if it was feasible for on the way back home. At 7:30 pm, there must have been 30-40 motor homes parked there!!! We could hardly imagine that many boon dockers!!
Tomorrow, we have signed up to go to Muktuk Adventures for a tour of a place where they train sled dogs with a musher named Frank Turner— highly recommended to us by some full timer friends John and Eileen Meyer. She said that he is famous for the Yukon Quest— their version of the Iditarod.
No comments:
Post a Comment