A Sunny Day and a Trip to Canada

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The clouds broke and the sun finally shone in Skagway. With the nice weather, we ventured off and up and over the mountains into the Yukon Territory of Canada. The scenic drive is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Driving northeast on the Klondike Highway, we paralleled the White Pass and Yukon Railroad as we headed to the summit of White Pass. Waterfalls cascaded along the rocks on both sides. We had excellent views of the still snow-covered peaks of mountains all around us.

We stopped and played in the cairns and lakes at the White Pass Summit. We crossed through the Canadian Customs and continued along this scenic highway with the Tutshi (too-shy) Lake to our right. We passed Bove Island, because the kids wanted their picnic lunch, but stopped on the way home to take a few snapshots.

The beach at Lake Bennett, in Carcross was a great, fun place for the kids to kickoff some energy. After lunch and time splashing and wading we found the Carcross Post Office where we were able to buy stamps to put into our passports and then have them stamped with Carcross, Yukon stamp.

The railroad bridge provided a bit of a thrill for the kids to cross with the spaces between the rails to worry about falling through. They were very tentative on the first time across, but much more relaxed on the return trip. We were there when a train came over those tracks about 15 minutes after we climbed off. A tour of the museum at the train station and an ice cream cone at the Matthew Watson General Store, the oldest operating store in the Yukon topped off our day in town.

Next stop was the Carcross Desert, the smallest desert in the world. It is less than 260 hectares and is the remains of the sandy bottom of a glacial lake left after our last ice age. The air is dry and the winds are strong and so sand dunes were formed. The kids surprised me by hiking up the highest sand dune to the very top. I never thought they would make it all the way.

We stopped by beautiful Emerald Lake. This is one of my most favorite stops along the road from Skagway to Whitehorse. The water is such a lovely color of green and is considered by many as one of the prettiest lakes in the Yukon. Exhausted and exhilarated, the four of us, granddaughters, Sahara, Asya and Rachel, along with Sahara's best friend, Cassie and I headed back south on the Klondike Highway toward home.

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