6-22-2013 Up the White Pass!!!!

June 22, 2013 

 

Up the White Pass!!  We are leaving Skagway and headed up north to Whitehorse and then west, hoping to be in Fairbanks by Sunday   This is the first “repeat road” we have been on, from Skagway to Carcross and then again new frontier. 

 

 

 

The gals drove the cars up the pass because it is so steep and we hated to tax the motorhome engines by making them pull the cars as well.  The William Moore Bridge is unique in its own right, looking like only half of a suspension bridge.  It spans 110 ft wide gorge which is 180 feet below.   Now that we’ve been over this a couple of times, you think, “How could those prospectors pack over this pass with a year’s worth of supplies?  Hoping to strike it rich panning for gold??”  Amazing!

 

 

 

 

When we were in Carcross last week, the visitors’ center gal told us the desert was along the lake.  Well, let us tell you, we found the Carcross dessert and it was north of town on the “new” part of the road to us.  It’s the world’s smallest dessert left behind by a large glacial lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But then we got to Emerald Lake, also known as Rainbow Lake, and WOW!!  It’s beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

We did a slow and low pass in Whitehorse, because we’ll be back here later.  But, we couldn’t pass up checking out the world’s largest wind directional indicator.   Check it out!!  A DC-3 mounted on a pivoting, revolving pole.  It actually moved while we were there, but, of course, I didn’t catch it on film!!

 

 

 

Haines Junction has a new Da Ku Cultural Centre, housed with the Visitor information, and Kluane National Park & Reserve Visitor Centre.  This was an exceptional center which we really enjoyed.  I could just go on and on, but there is just so much to see and tell you about!   The Kluane icefield range is huge, the world’s largest non-polar alpine ice filed.  The peaks of the mountains and glaciers were visible for a lot of our travel today (and tomorrow also)

 

There was another area in which the spruce beetles had really done so much destruction to the forest.  We had seen the same damage when we were on our Amtrac train journey last year traveling through Colorado.  

 

 

That evening we stayed at the Congdon provincial campground.  The Kluane  Lake is 154,000 sq miles and there is no body on it.  But then when you think that there are only 34,000 people in the whole of the Yukon and 27,000 of those live in Whitehorse!!  People down in Dallas on all our crowded lakes would give their eye teeth to have a wide open lake like this. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharon was the only one who stayed awake to welcome, witness, or salute the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.  Sun-up was scheduled for about 4:27 am and sunset was at about 12:37 pm!!!  And just because the sun “goes down” doesn’t mean there isn’t a whole lot of twilight afterwards!!