The Yukon - 2014

GOLD is constantly in the history of the Yukon, and whilst we knew about the Klondike gold rush simply didn’t appreciate the influence of gold on the rest of the Yukon.

Last post, we had just reached Skagway and we’re now in Dawson City as the route map shows and covers for ease of clarity, just the Yukon and parts of Alaska.

So Skagway turned out to be quite an enthralling little town and wow... what a 105 km drive from Carcross down the Klondike Highway into it.  Initially the highway twists and turns between steep snow capped mountains following a large lake.  With the weather fine and not a breath of wind meant reflections of those impressive mountains on the lake.  They were in an area closer to the summit described as being ‘lunar landscape like’ accompanied by lakes, snow and ice.

Then there is the steep section winding its way down through White Pass, one of the famous trails the gold seekers followed when heading north  and many died trying. From an elevation of about 1,000 m at the summit, the elevation declines to sea level over 30 kms including having to pass through USA Customs along the way.

Skagway was established due to the gold rush, which started with a bang in 1898 with over 5,000 prospectors arriving in one of the early months.  The town has an old historic feel to it, with the original timber boardwalks complimenting the historic fronted shops along the main street. If you want to buy jewellery, this street has a lot of shops selling it which leads me to another unusual sight seen in this town.

Cruise liners ‘parked’ at the end of the main street!  One of the first sights greeting us walking down the main street was a large ship looking straight back at us.  There were 3 ships on their Inside Passage trips visiting Skagway whist on the first day we were here, and another arrived the second day.  This means the usual population of 900 swelling considerably, albeit briefly, almost as if the gold rush was still on… to shops instead.

Two trails were used by the prospectors trying to head over the mountains in search of their fortunes,  the White Pass and the Chilkoot trails, more on Chilkoot later.  Due to the sheer volume of people heading to the gold fields and the money to be made keeping them supplied, a railway was rapidly conceived to somehow follow the White pass route and building it commenced also in 1898.  

In July of 1899, the White Pass & Yukon Railway reached Bennet Lake, 68 kms away at 850m of elevation, an amazing feat of engineering, recognised worldwide due to the terrain and environment that had to be conquered.

As luck would have it, the first steam train trip of the season was running during our stay and the 1947 built No. 73 engine did a great job for most of the journey.  When I say most of the way, we did have to back up quite a distance round the side of a mountain and back through a tunnel to get a run up at one of the steeper sections.

Another small town called Dyea, only 15 ks from Skagway, grew briefly with the gold rush because this was where the Chilkoot Trail started, but Dyea didn’t last long because of the railway and the length of the gold rush itself.  We visited the historic ruins of Dyea but there is very little to see. 

Not far from the ruins is a place called Dyea Flats where we saw our first bald eagle for the trip, magnificent to watch through the binos but too far away for the cameras.  We camped in the Dyea park campground overnight, watched seals feeding or playing in the river, before heading back up White Pass.  By the way, the main gold rush was all but over after a mere 12-18 months.

In a few hours we reached Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon and a population of around 27,000 leaving only 9,000 people living throughout the rest of the Yukon!  

Rob on way back to Homer at Whitehorse Walmart

It was time to try a new location for camping friends had told us about – Walmart!  Walmarts in the USA and Canada are like a combined Woolworths/Big W and you can free ‘camp’ in their car parks within designated areas, so that’s what we did.  After re-stocking with food and other essentials we enjoyed a peaceful yet very different camping experience amongst a small community of other RVs.

Whitehorse for us was a 24 hr destination and we managed to see what we wanted during the afternoon we arrived and the following morning before continuing along the Alcan towards Kluane National Park.  This park contains one of the largest glacial icefields outside of the polar regions and a massive lake of the same name.  We weren’t quite ready for the accompanying Kluane Mountain Range… spectacular… albeit shrouded by a lot of smoke haze.

We love camping in amongst nature so as we made our way along and around the lake, over 4 nights we stayed in different park campgrounds.  At Pine Lake we watched various birds including one trying to do headstands in the water. 

Kluane Lake was where Homer was surrounded by scenery, the lake out of the rear bed window and mountains either side.  This campground was also closed to tenting because of the presence of grizzlies. In Skagway we had bought bear spray (capsicum spray) which provided some peace of mind whilst walking the interpretive trail to where the grizzlies are known to feed.

 
Alas, we only saw a ground squirrel known locally as gophers.  Squirrels weren’t the only things we photographed as can be seen below and via the link at the end of this post.

Ground squirrel or 'gopher'

Lake Creek was a more intimate location and where we saw our first big male moose striding briefly down the opposite side of the creek before spotting us and heading into the scrub, no photos of it though but the location was serene.

very nice place to camp

Frost heave!!  Heard about this before because we sure hadn’t.  For about 250 kms of the drive up to the turn off to Dawson City involved dealing with ‘frost heaves’ causing the road to undulate a LOT.  Movement in the permafrost below the road surface either pushing the ground up, or causing it to sink when it thaws is the cause and was at times like being on a ship in rough seas.  The country we travelled through however is called the ‘Land Of A thousand Ponds’ because of the number of lakes it has.

We wanted to visit Dawson City, the place most gold prospectors in the early days headed to, travelling on the Yukon River. In fact 88% of gold in the Yukon came from this area.  For us it meant leaving the Alcan and travelling along the Taylor Highway, crossing the border back into the Yukon and then driving the ‘Top Of The World Highway’ into Dawson City. Will share more on Dawson City in the next post as this is waaay too long already.

Some of you have asked for a few pictures from the inside of Homer so a few are attached along with an indicative floor plan.

For more photos just click on the link below:

CLICK HERE for more photos - Its About The Gold Yukon 2014