Brown Travels: May 2010

Skagway, AK

White Pass Train

Downtown Skagway, AK.

Should have bought this shirt! Loved it!

Glad we drove the car and not the motorhome down that winding 11% grade from the pass!

Alaska finally!

Here we are at the Alaska border going down the South Klondike Highway from Whitehorse to Skagway.

Kiwanis inukshuk photo-op at White Pass Summit.

Heading down from the White Pass Summit toward Skagway.

More Fraser area

The red building is the last water tower remaining from the WP&YR railway's steam locomotive era.

Area referred as "moonscape". Very beautiful.

The temperature this day was about 59 to 60!! Not as cold as it looks.

Fraser Summit Canada/US border area

Approaching Fraser Rest Area. The present-day location of Canadian Customs is also the site of one of the WP&YR railway stations. The station was named Fraser, probably to honor a politican from eastern Canada who had helped the railway company in its early days. Fraser is located on the stretch of track between the Summit, site of the International border, and Bennett, at the south end of Bennett Lake. This section of track was built during the winter of 1898-99, a winter that saw exceptionally heavy snowfall and cold temperatures. It also involved cutting a railway roadbed through solid rock. Rock debris had to be hauled by hand or by horse-drawn wagons.

This area gets an average of 24 feet of snow each year!!!!!!

Tagish Lake and Bove Island

Bove Island in Tagish Lake. Bove is the largest island on this long lake.

Tutshi Lake, site of Venus Mines concentrator, which had a capacity of 150 tons per day. A drop in silver prices caused the Venus Mill's closure in Oct 1981.

Tutshi Lake, south of Carcross, Yukon, in BC.

Emerald Lake, Yukon

Emerald Lake, also called Rainbow Lake by Yukoners. The rainbow like colors of the lake result from blue-green light waves reflecting off of the white sediment of the lake bottom. Thjis white sediment, called marl, consists of fragments of decomposed shell mixed with clay; it is usually found in shallow, freshwater lakes that have low oxygen levels during the summer months.

This was on our drive from Whitehorse in the car down to Skagway, AK. It was only 110 miles to Skagway from Whitehorse.

Carmacks

Mosaic at the rest area visitor information coming into the town of Carmacks. Carmacks was named for George Carmack, who established a trading post here in 1890s. Carmack had come North in 1885, hoping to stike it rich. He spent the next 10 years prospecting without success. In 1896, when the trading post went bankrupt, Carmack moved his family to Fortymile, where he could fish to eat and cut timber to sell. That summer, Carmack's remarkable persistence paid off--he unearthed a 5-dollar pan of coarse gold, during a time when a 10-cent pan was considered a good find. That same winter, he extracted more than a ton of gold from the creek, which he renamed Bonanza Creek, and its tributary, Eldorado. When word of Carmack's discovery reached the outside world the following spring, it set off the Klondike Gold Rush.

Trumpeter swans nesting in one of the lakes south of Carmacks.

Fox Lake still frozen.

Five Fingers

Along the Klondike Loop

One of the lakes along this stretch of 110 miles that we drove up this loop road.

The Casebeers and their traveling companions stopped at the BraeBurn Lodge for cinnamon rolls. Of course, we had already had a cinnamon roll at Mom's Bakery (see previous blog.), but Terry had to buy one for the next day, the next day, the next day, and again the next day. This cinnamon roll was HUGE! I even had some one day and he still have enough for 4 mornings!

One of the twin lakes along the road with the beautiful turquoise color and very clear. All this is north of Whitehorse on a day trip for us in the car.

Whitehorse interests

World's largest weathervane - a DC-3. According to Yukon pilot and aviation historian Bob Cameron, the vintage plane was originally a C-47 that was built in 1942 and few transport missions to Asia during the war. Converted to civilian life as a DC-3 after the war, she flew for Canadian Pacific Airlines, Connelly-Dawson Airways, Great Northern Airways and Northward Airlines from 1946 until 1970, when she blew an engine on takeoff and was then stripped for parts and parked at the Whitehorse airport.

A wonderful stop on the drive up to the Five Fingers area on the Klondike Loop road that goes to Dawson City and across the Top of the World Highway.

Sitting on the patio after having our wonderful cinnamon bun.

Mom herself, Tracie Harris, has lived in the Yukon her entire life (80) she said. She is also a gold miner with three claims. She has a foreman that handles everything until it's time to dump the gold. A very interesting lady. We stayed her for over an hour jus talking and enjoying the morning. The house sits above a creek that she regularly catches her breakfast/lunch.