Our bags had to be out by 6:45 this morning so we were up early. We ate at the breakfast buffet. We loaded the bus and we weren't on the bus more than 10 minutes before we made our first photo stop at Miles Canyon. The canyon was created over 8.5 million years ago as a result of lava flows in the valley. It was a beautiful spot with the Yukon River below. Some of the people had a contest to see who could throw a rock and have it land in the river below. I don't think anyone made it but one came close. The Yukon River is the 3rd longest river in North America, beginning south of Whitehorse and ends at the Bering Sea. It flows to the north. Then, back on the bus and on down the road. We were driving through the Boreal Forest, the largest forest in the world, most of our trip today.
Miles Canyon
Looking away from Miles Canyon
Beautiful scenery along the Klondike Highway
We stopped for another photo opportunity at Emerald Lake. It's notable for its intense green color. It was overcast the day we were there but we could still see the green color. The color comes from light reflecting off white deposits of a mixture of clay formation of shell and crustaceans crushed at the bottom of the shallow lake. The high concentration of calcium carbonate in the water here comes from limestone gravels eroded from the nearby mountains and deposited here 14,000 years ago by the glaciers of the last ice age. Glacial erosion was likewise responsible for scooping out the shallow lake bed. It is also known as "The Jewel of the Yukon".
Here we are at Emerald Lake
The next stop was Carcross, a small town of about 300 people. Our driver drove us around the town and pointed out the few things there. In the Yukon, a gas station makes a place a town. Carcross has a gas station that never has fuel and a post office that is never open! We had about 30 minutes to walk around. The surrounding snow covered mountains were absolutely gorgeous! There is a school here for Kindergarten through 8th grade. After that, the students are sent to boarding school in Whitehorse.
Montana Mountain, seen from Carcross but can also be
seen from Emerald Lake
The town of Carcross
Entering Carcross
We also passed the Carcross Desert, the smallest desert in the world. It is actually a series of northern sand dunes. The area's climate is too humid to be considered a true desert. The sand was formed during the last glacial period, when large glacial lakes formed and deposited silt. When the lakes dried, the dunes were left behind. It is about a square mile in size.
Carcross Desert
Another view of the countryside
During the Klondike Gold Rush, Bennett Lake was where the gold-seekers who had crossed the Coast Mountains from Skagway or Kyea, carrying their goods over the Chilkoot Trail or the White Pass, purchased or built rafts to float down the Yukon River to the gold fields at Dawson City. There were 7,200 boats that left at the same time from Bennett Lake. Bennett Lake is on the edge of Carcross. This was also the first checkpoint for those searching for gold. The stampeders had to have 1 ton of supplies (enough for 1 year and a little more than half of that was food) and if they didn't have it, they were sent back to Skagway.
Bennett Lake
Another story we were told is that there were 3,000 who died along the trail. If anyone found a body floating in the water, it was their responsibility to tie the body to their boat and turn it in at the next checkpoint. The Mounted Police would pay $10. for each body. Sometimes the stampeders would sneak a dead body that had already been turned in and and turn it in again to get another $10. The police finally got smart to that so they started cutting off the big toe of the body so they would know it had already been reported.
Only 1% of the world's population get to visit the Yukon and we are lucky we were in that 1%. It is really beautiful country. There are so many mountains, lakes and rivers.
Just before we got to Fraser, we drove through Tormented Valley. This area looks like it has a bunch of lunar rocks. The area was called Tormented Valley because the stampeders faced harsh conditions of extreme cold, with temperatures down to 80 degrees below 0 and winds close to 100 mph through here.
Tormented Valley
We arrived in Fraser, British Columbia and this is where we got on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad. It was more like a trolley car. We were allowed to go outside the car on the front or back but could not go in other cars like we could on the Alaska Railroad. I spent a good amount of time standing out back, watching the scenery go by! Sometimes we were right up against a mountain on one side and a huge valley on the other side!
All aboard!
Inside our car on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad
It was only 90 miles from Whitehorse to Fraser and then about 28 miles from Fraser to Skagway, Alaska. It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to get to Skagway. Once the train left Fraser, a Customs Agent walked through all the cars, checking passports. Coming back in to Alaska, we gained an hour. We walked about a block to our hotel. We went with two other women from our group to eat lunch at Skagway Brewing Company. Their signature beer was the Spruce Tip Blonde Ale and I tried it and really liked it. Conrad had the Boom Town Brown. They had really good cheeseburgers so we each had one of those. After lunch we parted ways and just walked around town the rest of the day. We had dinner at the hotel then got out and walked around some more before bedtime.
That pretty well sums up today. Tomorrow is a free day and maybe we can catch up on a little sleep tonight.
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