The Yukon: Whitehorse (8.15.24)

Dave and I have been close friends with Bernie and Eleanor Engelhard ever since 1972, when Dave joined the Air Force and we moved to Tucson, Arizona.  Dave replaced Bernie as the social worker at Davis Monthan Air Force Base.  On August 15, 2024, we met Bernie and Eleanor in Whitehorse, Canada, for a ten-day loop drive through the Yukon and  bits of Alaska.  The Yukon was opened to the outside world through travel along the Yukon River and on the railroad.

We started our trip in Whitehorse.  We spent a day traveling by bus and train over White Pass to Skagway and back to Whitehorse, along the steep route taken by miners during the 1898 gold rush.  We then drove up the Yukon River to Dawson City, center of the gold rush.  The next day we drove over the "Top of World Highway" into Alaska. We spent two days in Haines Junction to see Kluane National Park, on the border of Canada and Alaska.  We then returned to Whitehorse.

One constant during our trip was good food--three meals per day of it.  We started each morning with breakfast at a local bakery.

The Baked bakery in Whitehorse offered mango Danish and Danish with chocolate and raspberries.  Yum!

High on the essential Whitehorse experience list is a visit to the Nordic hot springs.  We lounged for an hour in rock-lined pools heated to different temperatures.

If we came in the winter, the ice would have created fantastical hairdos!

We next visited the MacBride Museum to learn about Yukon history and culture.

I love First Nations crafts, and the museum showcased elegant versions of moccasins and bags, as well as art prints.

We learned about the Yukon's large mammals through viewing stuffed versions.  The closest to real-life big mammals that we got in the wild was watching a black bear scamper down the shoulder of a highway as we drove past.

My favorite visit of the day was to the First Nations cultural center.  First Nations craftsmen demonstrated their art in one section of the center.

After admiring this artist's wood tools, I commented that I was surprised he had blue eyes.  The artist told me that his grandfather was from Scotland and had been one of the Canadian Mounted Police who made the gold seekers of 1898 pay Canadian customs tax after they climbed to the top of the Chilkoot Pass.  His grandfather married a First Nations woman and was fired from the Police for that act.  When the artist's grandfather died in 1956, the Police refused to let him be buried in the cemetery with other Canadian Mounted Police.  He was buried outside the fence.  That discrimination against intermarriage finally ended in 1974.  The artist and I talked about where in Scotland our ancestors came from.

I loved the signs at the Cultural Center, such as this one advertising a porcupine quill bracelet workshop.

Evidence of the gold rush was all about us, such as the Yukon license plate with its picture of a miner panning gold.

This old sternwheeler hauled miners up and down the Yukon River.

We absorbed Yukon culture as soon as we arrived at the Whitehorse airport.  There was a diorama of stuffed elk fighting on top of the baggage claim machine!

The welcome sign at the airport was in four languages.  The one on top was the local First Nations language.  The second tier was English and French, both national languages of Canada.  For some reason, the fourth language was German.

Dave and I arrived at 10:30 P.M., but it was just sunset this far north.

All that summer light produces gorgeous flowers.  I thought of my petunias at home and winced with envy,