On the road again!

The weather has not been cooperating with us much on this trip. It starts raining, and then stops. It’s windy, then not. So pictures have not been very easy to come by. But I’ll try to fill you in on what has happened in the last couple of days:

September 11, 12 – Haines, AK:
I’ve already written about bear viewing and eagle watching. The drive from Haines to Whitehorse was much better than the trip down. It wasn’t raining and it wasn’t as cold. And because it wasn’t raining, we were actually able to see what we drove through on the way down. The scenery was fantastic. The most spectacular fall colors I’ve seen in a long time. From Haines to the Chilkat Pass Summit is mostly rain forest. Tall, green evergreens with moss hanging from them. From there, the colors turned mostly gold and brown. With white on the top. (Termination dust!) As we went further toward Whitehorse, the colors were reds, oranges, golds, and yellows. Mostly yellow. It was really beautiful.

September 12-13 – Whitehorse, YT (Yukon Territory): We arrived here in the early afternoon and parked the RV in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Unlike the Wal-Mart in Anchorage, this one actually welcomed RVers. But the weather in Whitehorse was great. It was warm (around 60, maybe a little more), sunny, and breezy. A PERFECT fall day. Whitehorse is not very big, around 24,000 people. (The whole territory only has about 35,000.) It’s located along the Yukon River (yes, THAT Yukon River). The Main St. of town is very much a tourist destination. And out where we were staying was most definitely the shopping district. When we were here 17 years ago, we stayed at a campground on the Alaska Highway. We passed it when we got here. It must have been closed a long time ago. Too bad. It was pretty nice. Back to what I was saying…Whitehorse is the capital of the territory, so it has a lot of government buildings and all, but not much else. The one really cool thing it has is a walking path along the river. It starts at a very well maintained park and goes along the river to the fish ladders. (Didn’t get that far.) And of course, we hit the Yukon Brewing Co. Whitehorse is not really someplace you GO to. It’s more of some place you stop at while you’re traveling. But overall, not a bad little town.

September 13-15 – Skagway, AK: Got here earlier today, right around lunch time. It’s only about 100 miles from Whitehorse, so it wasn’t a bad trip, if you consider not being able to see a THING most of the way, not bad. Foggy, foggy, foggy. Somewhere out there was a landscape that looked like a “moonscape” and when you did get glimpses of it through the fog, it was actually eerie. The last 12 miles or so into Skagway is a downhill that clings to the side of one mountain while the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad clings to the other. Never actually saw the summit of the White Pass. We’re hoping when we leave on Monday it will be clearer and visible. Did some shopping today in the shops downtown. Many of them are having end of season sales. Tomorrow I want to check out more of the history of Skagway, and Bill wants to check out the Skagway Brewing Co. (I can’t wait until I get to my first winery; I’m getting tired of beer all the time!)There is a cruise ship in town today, and there is supposed to be one tomorrow. The girl in one of the shops said Tuesday and Wednesday there should be 5 of them! I don’t know where they put them, there are only 3 docks.

Sunday: Today we went to the old town of Dyea. It used to be a big bustling town of almost 10,000 people heading into the Yukon to find gold. Today it has the ruins of a warehouse and a row boat. There is nothing about the place to even make you think there were people once living here! It’s all covered over with spruce trees. Amazing. From there we saw an old cemetery where a lot of “stampeders” were buried. They were caught in an avalanche on Palm Sunday April 3, 1989. (Hmmm…Palm Sunday, avalanche; Good Friday, earthquake. Easter is not really a good time for Alaska.) About 70 people were killed. And we saw the start of the Chilkoot Trail. Not sure if it is the actual one the miner’s took, but it is the one you can hike over the Pass on.

So, that’s where we stand. Just want to let you know that while we are in Canada, we do not have cell phone service. But we can be reached via email as we do have some access to wifi while we travel. After Skagway, our next stop is Watson Lake back in the Yukon Territory. From there, who knows? :o)