There were some amazing sights on the ride to Whitehorse. This is Emerald Lake and the photo doesn't do it justice.
My hotel is behind the street clock with the red facia and row of lights. Notice the time of night.
What do salmon do when man builds a dam in the way of his reproduction instincts?
They use the lock system designed to lift them over the dam.
Hard to believe there were about 250 of these on the Yukon during the Gold Rush years. It took 36 hours to reach Dawson City, with the current, and four to five days to return, against the current. A cord of wood per hour to supply the steam.I filled up in Skagway this morning before leaving for Whitehorse; $3.64. The temp was mid-fifties. So far I have been lucky to miss the rain. Looking at the clouds ahead, I thought my luck had run out. It turns out that the temperature dropped into the forties and the clouds dropped down on the highway, but the rain stayed put. Miraculously, the clouds dissipated almost immediately after crossing White Pass (3300 ft.) and the temperature climbed into the sixties.
Whitehorse was/is a gemstone in the crown of the Yukon. I was very impressed. It is clean, well laid out, modern tastefully integrated with rustic, and the people were very friendly. I checked into the hotel (two floor walkup) and headed for the fish ladder. The fish ladder is the world’s longest and its purpose is to move salmon upstream past a dam. I never thought about how salmon would get back to their spawning grounds if someone erected a dam. Apparently, the fish lobby got the attention of the river engineers and they built a series of locks that lift the fish in stages. It is not highly technical, but it is very functional.
My next stop was at the Klondike for a tour of a sternwheeler that supplied the growth and prosperity of Dawson City during the gold rush of 1898 to the early 1900s. The Klondike continued to make the run to Dawson City until 1955, the last paddle wheeler to steam the Yukon River.
After a tour of the visitor’s center and a film about the Yukon, I returned to the hotel for a much needed rest before attending some local entertainment, The Frantic Follies. It was a hoot, with music, comedy, skits, dancing, and all around good fun. They acted out some of the poems of Robert Service the poet laureate of Alaska in his time, circa 1900-1930. They did “The Cremation of Sam McGrew,” and “The Ballad of the Ice Worm Cocktail.” Hilarious.
On my way out of town I stopped at the Beringia Interpretive Center to get a little more understanding of what life was like in the Yukon 30,000 years ago. Fascinating…more at
http://www.beringia.com/01/01maina.html
Whitehorse was/is a gemstone in the crown of the Yukon. I was very impressed. It is clean, well laid out, modern tastefully integrated with rustic, and the people were very friendly. I checked into the hotel (two floor walkup) and headed for the fish ladder. The fish ladder is the world’s longest and its purpose is to move salmon upstream past a dam. I never thought about how salmon would get back to their spawning grounds if someone erected a dam. Apparently, the fish lobby got the attention of the river engineers and they built a series of locks that lift the fish in stages. It is not highly technical, but it is very functional.
My next stop was at the Klondike for a tour of a sternwheeler that supplied the growth and prosperity of Dawson City during the gold rush of 1898 to the early 1900s. The Klondike continued to make the run to Dawson City until 1955, the last paddle wheeler to steam the Yukon River.
After a tour of the visitor’s center and a film about the Yukon, I returned to the hotel for a much needed rest before attending some local entertainment, The Frantic Follies. It was a hoot, with music, comedy, skits, dancing, and all around good fun. They acted out some of the poems of Robert Service the poet laureate of Alaska in his time, circa 1900-1930. They did “The Cremation of Sam McGrew,” and “The Ballad of the Ice Worm Cocktail.” Hilarious.
On my way out of town I stopped at the Beringia Interpretive Center to get a little more understanding of what life was like in the Yukon 30,000 years ago. Fascinating…more at
http://www.beringia.com/01/01maina.html
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