After seven days on the road and driving 1200+ miles we had finally made it to the Alaska Highway’s only major city, Whitehorse. We were pretty glad to have a city day. Even though driving the Alaska Highway is amazing, it is a rough & tough road and after a few days even the heartiest traveler needs a bit of a rest.
We had arrived in town the evening before and one of our first questions to our campground host was “Where do you go for a windshield repair?”. We were given a name and number so we gave him a call, set up a time for the next day and had a relaxing rest of our evening at our campground. We also met our first Yukoner at our campground. Our camp neighbor turned out to be from Whitehorse and taking a “staycation” at the campground. His accent was also awesome. It was a mix of a Newfoundlanders (they sound like a mix of Irish/Scottish and Canadian) and someone from Wisconsin. We loved talking with him!
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory
The next morning after breakfast we drove into town and to the windshield repair guy. As it turned out a lot of people must have windshield issues in this town as it seemed that every 3rd business that we passed was for windshield repair/replacement. Our guy turned out to have set up an area in the back of a parking lot and was a little younger than us. After a look at the chips in our windshield he said not a problem to repair and after about 30 minutes we were on our way, windshield fixed and sealed. Thank you!
From our windshield fix we drove over to the Yukon capitol building (or as they call it their Legislative building). Unlike the other Legislative buildings that we had been to in Quebec, Manitoba, British Columbia or Alberta, this building had its own unique Yukon style. It had the look of a rustic yet modern small office building. We walked in and took a tour. While we couldn’t go into the actual legislative chamber as we had in other buildings this was just as neat nonetheless. We learned that since the Yukon is a territory (not a province) they get their powers delegated to them from the Parliament of Canada in Ottawa instead of from the Canadian constitution. It was pretty interesting compared to how the provinces and US states are able to control the laws within their boundaries.
The rest of the building was pretty neat as well. The building had a lot of windows and stained glass (much needed for wintertime when the sun barely rises). There were also a lot of neat tapestries on the walls depicting life in the territory. All in all it was a unique and interesting building.
From the Legislative building we walked next door to the Yukon Visitors Centre where participants in the Yukon River Quest were getting prepared to race. The Yukon River Quest is the world’s longest kayak/canoe race going 444 miles from Whitehorse to Dawson City, Yukon. Teams generally finish the race in 50 hours. Most of the boats were not single person but fit 2-4 people. We saw teams from all over the world. Most were from Canada but there also were U.S. teams and even a team all the way from Australia! We wandered around for a bit taking some photos but also trying to stay out of people’s way as they were preparing.
We were then getting a bit hungry and after doing a bit of Yelp research we found a restaurant called Klondike Rib & Salmon. This turned out to be awesome as it satisfied both Julie’s love for salmon and my love for ribs. When we arrived it was a little early for lunch (still 11:30am) but the restaurant was already packed. Lucky for us we got the last available table outside, sat down and had an amazing meal!
Once we were sufficiently stuffed and a stop by the local Tim Horton’s (we are in Canada after all) we stopped by Whitehorse’s most famous attraction, the SS Klondike II steam stern wheel riverboat. This boat and its predecessor carried supplies up the Yukon River to Dawson City and returned with gold from the gold fields of the northern Yukon. The boats operated from 1929 until 1950 when a highway was built to connect the two towns. The boat is now a Canadian National Historic Site.
We signed up for a tour and off we went. This was really interesting as we learned how the boat worked, how the hull was extremely flat to be able to navigate the river and what types of products were brought to and from Dawson City in the north. The boat was huge for its time. Three stories tall and 210 feet long, this boat could haul a lot of goods and gold. We went from room to room seeing where the engine broiler was as well as where the crew and passengers slept and ate. We finished the tour on the top deck, which gave great views of the city as well as a good portion of the Yukon River. From the boat we headed back to the campground for the rest of the night.
The next morning we woke up excited for another day. Today we would be taking a day-trip to Alaska! This would be just a day-trip instead of the start of our Alaskan adventure as we were heading to Skagway in the Alaskan Panhandle. There are not many towns in the Alaskan panhandle and most of them are not accessible by car. Skagway however is one of the few that is. For Skagway there is one road in and one road out. It was about a two-hour drive from Whitehorse and we were excited to go check out the town.
Carcross, Yukon Territory
We drove south from Whitehorse stopping in the small southern Yukon town of Carcross. One of the attractions in Carcross is their self-proclaimed “Smallest Desert in the World”. The Carcross desert is actually a large inland sand dune but its pretty neat to see nonetheless. From the desert we drove into the town. The vast majority of the 300 or so people that live in town are members of the Carcross/Tagish First Nations tribe. They had recently built a trading post/tourist area a few years ago and had painted the buildings in beautiful native motifs. There were also huge totem poles built depicting area animals. We wandered around the shops for a little bit stopping to get a coffee before walking around town.
It was here we found our favorite area of town, Bennett Beach and the Bennett Beach lookout. Carcross sits on the shores of Bennett Lake, a massive lake stretching from the Yukon, through British Columbia and ending just before the Alaskan border. From the lookout you can see the lake coming to a “V” shape as far as you can see with huge mountains on either side. We stayed up on the lookout for a while looking out at the view before wandering down on the beach and putting our feet in the water. This was a special moment…standing in front of a huge lake with mountains almost on every side of us. This was one of the coolest moments of the trip so far!
Skagway, Alaska
From Carcross we continued on south cutting through the most northwestern corner of British Columbia before crossing the international border into Alaska. As far as USA/Canada border crossings this one was pretty unique. The town of Skagway is about 14 miles south of the border. The border checkpoint is 8 miles south of the border. This means for the first 8 miles driving into the USA you do not see any USA customs official. This is pretty unique because for every other border crossing that we had gone through the customs station had been right next to or directly on the border itself. After doing a little research we found that this border crossing is the furthest offset from the border customs station in the entire USA.
We continued down the road (going way down in elevation from the mountains as Skagway sits at sea level), went through the customs station and continued into the small town of Skagway.
Skagway got its big boom in the late 1800’s as the largest and easiest entry to Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike gold rush. Prospectors would take steamships from the west coast of the USA and Canada to Skagway before trekking up the Chilkoot Trail to the northern part of the Yukon to reach the gold fields. Some however never made it to the trail as they set up businesses in Skagway catered to the gold prospectors.
For the most part Skagway of today still looks like it did in the late 1800’s. The buildings are kept in period style with shops that are mainly tailored to tourists. Tourism in Skagway is big money. The permanent population of the town is only about 1000 but during the summer season up to 1 million tourists pass through. How you ask…does a tiny town in southern Alaska see so many tourists? Cruise ships. Skagway is one of the main stops on an Alaskan cruise vacation.
Julie and I knew there would be cruise ships when we went to Skagway. The amount of people however took us by surprise. After leaving Edmonton and going through small town after small town in the middle of the forest we were used to having extremely minimal people around us at all times. After arriving in Skagway we walked down to the waterfront where 3 cruise ships sat in the northern Pacific’s emerald blue/green waters. Then in what seemed like a second, wave after wave of people started to pour out of the ships. No longer were we alone but surrounded by literally thousands of people.
At first we were overwhelmed by the amount of people. People were everywhere we looked. Most of them were also dressed extremely nice. After being on the road and camping (and being around a few people doing the same thing) just about everything was a shock to our system. Slowly though we adjusted. We didn’t exactly get used to the amount of people but we tolerated it.
We walked around Skagway stopping in shop after shop. We picked up a few souvenirs and stopped for an ice cream at a great little ice cream shop called the Kone Kompany. We then walked around a bit more stopping at the Skagway Brewing Company for a flight of beers. From there we walked back to the water taking a few more looks at the massive cruise ships. It was such a neat view seeing these massive ships in emerald color water with huge mountains right next to them.
Tutshi Lake, British Columbia
As we had a long drive to get back to Whitehorse we walked back to Bubbles and started our drive back north. After crossing back into Canada at Fraser, BC we stopped at Tutshi Lake at a small campground/boat ramp. The water looked peaceful and nice so we thought why not…lets take a swim! After changing into our bathing suits and stepping about ankle deep into the water we both decided that maybe this wasn’t the best idea as the water was ice cold. Oh well, still a fun idea. We skipped a few rocks before putting our clothes back on and heading back to our campground in Whitehorse.
Next up …. We travel north on the Klondike Highway and spend 5 days in Dawson City, YT!
