Breakfast in the Yukon...

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... lunch in British Columbia, tea in Alaska.

It's been a somewhat travel-tastic day... ok, truth be told, we've actually only driven about 100 miles, but because of the way that the state borders form a jigsaw puzzle pattern up here, to get from Whitehorse to Skagway involves driving though about 20 miles of BC.

We have definitely started our long trip south now. We spent two nights in the relative civilisation of Dawson City. We used the full day in between to do the walking tour of the city (that took all of 30 mins) and then we, somewhat foolishly, decided to climb up to the top of the mountain that overlooks the city - Midnight Dome. The views were absolutely spectacular - well, they were after we'd spent 20 minutes sitting on a bench desperately trying to get our breath back following the climb up the near vertical hiking trail. We kind of thought that we might be getting fitter with all the exercise and reduced alcohol in take, but apparently not!

After we left Dawson City we drove south down the North Klondike Highway. The first day of which wasn't all that exciting, but the scenery did improve as we got back towards Whitehorse. Lots of lakes, but still no sign of those elusive moose that we've been looking for. We even made a 100km side trip to the town of Mayo, just so that we could drive through the moose calving area in the hope of seeing one. Nothing. It's now getting so desperate that I'm even resorting to what's known as the "Isla Woods" technique (i.e. taking photos of postcards and/or roadside signs when you can't see the real thing... sorry Isla, I seem to have accidentally let your secret out of the bag!)

A couple of nights in Whitehorse (mainly so that we could do a "big shop" as we'll be away from any reasonably sized towns for about a week). We did a long walk around the "Hidden Lakes", created when they built the Whitehorse hydroelectric dam, thereby raising the water table, which soaked through the gravel to the surrounding valleys. And we did a somewhat shorter walk around Wolf Creek, down to a view point over the Yukon River.

We set off from Whitehorse this morning. We headed south down the South Klondike Highway to the town of Carcross, to see the Carcross Desert (not a true desert, but a set of sand-dunes created by the prevailing wind blowing sand across the road from the nearby lake) and the oldest General Store in Canada (Matthew Watson's). And then, deciding to make the most of the 90-day US visa that we got last week, we carried on over the White Pass into Alaska again.

The journey across White Pass was pretty spectacular. The weather wasn't great, so we were up in the clouds for the highest part of the trip, but that actually made some of the scenery look even better. In some ways, the high pass was a little like Iceland, but the descent into the US was a bit like the drive down into Geiranger in Norway (without the hairpin bends, but just as many cruise ships at the bottom - I'm sure Lynne will know what I mean, even if she disagrees when she sees the photos!)

The town of Skagway seems to be even more oriented towards the cruise-ship market than Prince Rupert was. All the shop-fronts have that mock-Gold Rush effect, and all seem to be selling tourist paraphernalia. But we did find ourselves strangely liking the place (Mark & Isla - yes, I know. Despite everything I said about Whistler, I do kind of like Skagway... weird!) But then again, perhaps it was the chocolate ice cream and peanut butter fudge that shaped our opinions...?

Tomorrow we're heading north again, back into Canada. And then we're going to say one last farewell to the Yukon and start our long trip towards the Rockies. Our current estimate puts us there about the end of the second week of July.

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Photos

Moose Creek
No moose though

Comments

[Isla]

The Backside of a Moose
Omg- the secret is out..... And I never did see a mounty! I am a tad worried your readers look at the photos and associated me with the hind of a moose- thanx a bundle for that ;-0. Keep havin fun and posting gr8 photos- even the cheats!! Tfm xxx