Ray the bird man, has been very disappointed in not seeing any birds or BOB’s (Birds of Prey) along the way. We saw bears, moose (including a dead one on the side of the road with a black bear gnawing on its carcass) and wild goats. No deer either did we see. We finally arrived in Whitehorse at about 4:30 pm. We decided to set up our camp at the Hi Country RV park. Of course we never prebook any sites on these adventures, so we had to take a site that only had electrical and water. No sewer hook up. The young couple running the park said that we could possibly move sites the next day as some people would be leaving. The campground is very clean with a spotless laundromat and shower area for those wishing to use the facility. They have an excellent gift shop with better prices then things in downtown Whitehorse. When we went outside after registering it was pouring rain. Ray said lets just wait a few minutes to see if it lets up as he didn’t really want to set up camp while it was pouring. We stopped back inside the store for a few minutes and then thought what the heck we may as well just “get er done”. We ended up setting things up in a hailstorm and it was so cold!!! By setting things up we just backed in and plugged the fifth wheel into the electric so that we could at least get the slide out. We would hook up the water when the hail quit!
Our first full day in Whitehorse was eventful although we didn’t go right into the town. Our friend and former neighbour, Debbie Forsgren took us on a road trip down to Skagway. The drive is just beautiful. From beautiful green Emerald Lake to the deserts of Carcross. Here are a couple of shots of Emerald Lake. The photos do not do it justice as you cannot begin to imagine the different shades of green!
Yes a small desert is way up here in the north. Then the beautiful glacier green Bennett Lake that goes for miles and miles. The mountains are high and rugged. As we got closer to the Canadian border we drove through an area that is totally rocky with ponds scattered here and there. Some of the rocks have wind blown trees on them while other rocks are bare. It is almost moonscape in appearance. Skagway itself is nestled in a mountainous cove. There were two cruise ships in the harbour so many people in the little town. We had lunch down by the docks. The best halibut and chips I have eaten in a long time. Very lightly battered fish! We wandered around the town afterwards poking in the shops and saloons. They do have a very small Harley Davidson store, so Ray made a purchase of two t-shirts. That brings his Harley t-shirt collection up to about 27 short sleeved t-shirts now! Deb bought herself two beautiful lamps (which she had to pay duty on when we crossed back into Canada). I bought nothing. Mostly this town has saloons, cheesy gift shops and many many jewellery stores. Nothing intrigued me enough to want to buy and maybe pay duty on. We ended our first day in Whitehorse going over to Debbie and Lonnie’s for a drink.
Day two in Whitehorse, we went to the Transport Museum and also the Beringia Interpretive Centre. The Transport museum was interesting but the young guide appeared very nervous as it was only his third tour. There was a great display of all types of transportation over the years. The Bering Interpretive Centre is right next to the Transport museum. The Beringia is a region surrounding the Bering Strait, Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea. It includes parts of Russia and Alaska. During the ice ages Beringia had light snowfall so therefore was not covered in glaciers. It was covered in grass and covered an area the size of BC and Alberta. This is a great display of when the woolly mammoths and scimitar cats used to roam the Beringia.
Afterwards we went to the downtown core and found a Starbucks!!! Of course we went there and had a latte which we checked emails. The wifi in our campground is 30 minutes a day free and is very slow probably because everyone is using up their 30 minutes at the same time. We hooked up with Debbie and had lunch at a bistro called Baked. After lunch we drove up to the fish ladder and dam area. Toured the fish ladder facility to learn all about the Chinook salmon spawning. The salmon from this area travel down the lakes to the Bering Sea and back again to spawn. A 3300 mile journey in their lifetime. Amazing! The photo below is a display of wooden fish which have been hand painted by the local children. It was very colourful.
Day three in Whitehorse we went to a mining museum, which was quite boring. The self guided part was interesting the but young man who took us on the train ride through the grounds never explained anything at all and as there were no signs we had to just guess at what the equipment was and what it may have been used for. There were only the 3 of us on the train so perhaps he didn’t think he needed to say anything. When he was asked what a piece of equipment was used for, he had to ask someone else for the answer. Anyway the little jaunt out of town was not all a write off as Deb took us to a coffee place called “Bean North” where they roast their own coffee beans. We had a great latte there! Full bodied! That night we went to Debbie and Lonnie’s for a fantastic dinner. Keith (Debbie’s ex) had just returned from the coast so he was there as well as was Taylor (Debbie and Keith's daughter).
Whitehorse has just a few of the big box stores that we have in the lower Mainland. Canadian Tire, Marks Workwear and Walmart are the 3 bigger stores. The do have Reitmans, Starbucks (yes!!!) and of course two Tim Hortons. The craziest thing Ray and I saw was the 30 plus motorhomes and trailers parked in the Walmart parking lot! Not all Walmarts allow overnight parking but clearly the one in Whitehorse does. A lot of the RV's had awnings out and lawn chairs set up. Odd indeed!!
Across the street from Starbucks is a very unique writing desk. So I thought that I would sit a spell and work on my blog. Unfortunately the wind blue away my paper, but I managed to save my Starbucks Latte!
The trip up here has been worth it an Debbie made it what it was by showing us the area and the town of Whitehorse. My sides are still aching from laughing so much!!! We saw the MacBride museum which is an old log home. We didn’t go inside as I am not going into anymore old buildings due to the old mildew smells. We also saw an odd looking log cabin that Debbie referred to as Whitehorse's 3 story skyscraper.
It had been 15 years since we had last travelled to Whitehorse. We saw it this time in a totally different season. Everything was lush and green and the weather was between 7 - 18 degrees with a bit of a wind most of the time. In 2000 when we were up here, it was Fall and the colors were amazing! If it was not so far away to travel, it would be nice to see this beautiful town in the heart of winter. Although I would surely freeze to death!!!
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