Hello again!
Although we haven't posted in a while, we are writing to you from the exact same spot as last time - Teslin, YT. After making our way around all of the Yukon, we return here on our last night before heading to Edmonton through BC.
In Teslin, the only thing worth seeing is the natural history exhibit containing dioramas of species found in the Yukon. Fortunately, it was right in our campground. Then we set off for Carcross, short for its original name, Cariboo Crossing. This was a midpoint on the railroad bringing gold prospectors from Skawgay to Whitehorse. Its breathtaking lakeshore was also the spot where prospectors sailed out toward Dawson City before the railroad.
Right outside the city, we visited the Carcross Desert, the world's smallest. It was odd to see sand dunes surrounded by snow-capped mountains. From there, we went on to Carcross trading post where we attempted a hike which proved too steep. Instead, we made friends with Crazy, the dog who tried to lead us up the mountain while playing fetch with tree branches (or shall we say small trees).
On our way up to our destination of Mayo, we passed by the five finger rapids, one of the most difficult to traverse. It too was part of the boat passage to Dawson. When we reached Mayo, we got in touch with Matt, who luckily became our local tour guide for the remainder of our stay in Yukon (thanks Rafi!).
Wildlife count for that day was only one bear.
The next day, June 21st, also known as the summer solstice, we set out for Dawson City on a mission to see the midnight sun. On our way, we visited Keno, a small silver mining town. We toured their mining museum as well as saw a house insulated with glass bottles (interesting concept...). We also drive to the top of Keno hill (or shall we say mountain) to see a signpost that indicated the distance to various international cities (including Haifa!).
Just to give our readers a sense of the size of these mining "towns," on a walk along the lakeside in Mayo, a group of locals after hearing we were visiting from Montreal asked in a surprised tone why we had come there.
Dawson City proved to be slightly larger. Our first night there all we really did was drive up to the Dome to watch the midnight sun. Despite the light rain, it was still really cool to see the sun not set.
Wildlife count for that day was a golden eagle in Keno, a red fox and porcupine on the road.
The next day we toured Dawson and visited the city museum. In the afternoon we set out on the Dempster highway. Heading North, we saw lots of tundra (which is springy to step on), crossed into the Arctic Circle, and said "hello" to the Northwest Territories. We camped that night on the Dempster. We were so far north that the sun didn't even bother trying to set. When we went to sleep at 2AM, it was as bright as 2PM. Needless to say, our internal clocks are very confused. Wildlife count for the day was a bald eagle, a black bear, and a rabbit.
On the 23rd, we took the Dempster back into Dawson. On the way, we stopped in Tombstone Territorial Park. Unfortunately, it was too rainy for a hike, but we learned all about the animals in the tundra environment. An Valerie learned to tell the difference between a white spruce and a black spruce. She uses this knowledge daily. On the road we saw our first marmot!
Back in Dawson City, we had dinner and a show in Canada's oldest casino, Diamond Tooth Gertie's. We also witnessed a timeless Dawson City tradition, the Sourtoe Cocktail. Apparently, it seems that for some people the logical thing to do upon finding a pickled toe is to put it in a whisky glass and take a shot (not swallowing the toe but merely touching it to your lips). Don't worry, we weren't daring enough to try it ourselves.
The next day, we drove to Whitehorse. Before leaving, we took a short scenic drive on the top of the world highway which goes into Alaska. The road was built along the ridge of a tall mountain. We saw amazing views of mountains from above. We also stopped in Braeburn for the largest cinnamon bun you have ever seen. It also made a good breakfast the next day.
Finally arriving in Whitehorse that evening, we were excited to finally be back in a real town. It had two Tim Horton's! (the only two in all of Yukon). We celebrated in a "busy" bar called Tippler's. Wildlife viewings for the day were a black bear, a ground squirrel, and a coyote.
After sleeping in the next day due to sun-lag, we spent lots of time in the Beringia Centre where we learned about animals of the ice age including Mammoths, and Scimitar Cats. We also learned how people got to North America by following them across the Bering Strait.
From there, we went to the train museum for a ride in an old mine train. This also happened to be the starting point for a 24 hour mountain bike marathon.
We enjoyed an appetizing meal at Timmy's and then went on a hike along the water. We saw Canada's largest fish ladder as well as an abandoned town.
On June 26th, we went on a day trip to Kluane National Park. The park was larger than we imagined, and so required more driving and less hiking than we had hoped, but we still managed to fit in 2 nice hikes (well, one and a half...). The first was on an old sheep trail and had gorgeous views of the river and surrounding snow-capped mountains. The second gave us a view of rock glacier, a rock face shaped by a melting glacier (as you may have been able to deduce by the name). Definitely worth all the driving (especially since it was sunny and beautiful). That night we stayed back in Whitehorse with a friend of Matt that we had met the day before at the bike marathon.
Today, we finally got a chance to be typical tourists in Whitehorse. We spent the morning souvenir shopping. We also toured the S.S. Klondike, the largest sternwheeler to have crossed from Whitehorse to Dawson City in the 1930s. It was able to sail in less than 2 meters of water even when fully loaded with ore from the mines.
In the afternoon, we set off for Skagway, Alaska, our first (and hopefully last) time crossing the US border. The drive over was spectacular, definitely the best scenery we have seen so far. The view of the clear glacial lakes in front of snow-capped mountains was phenomenal. In the city, we toured the Dyea village, a town built up and torn down in the span of a century. Now, there is hardly a trace of anything at all. The only remaining structure, a false front of a real estate office, only remains because it is being heavily supported by beams. The town grew quickly because of the gold rush. It was the start of the Chilcoot trail which took prospectors over a nearly vertical incline to Bennett Lake, YT. The boom of the town lasted only three years because of competition with neighbouring Skagway. They won the railroad, so Dyea fell. It was incredible to hear about how much the town grew in such a short amount of time, only to fall even faster.
We could not end our short trip to Alaska without visiting the Sarah Palin store. The funniest part about it was the Obama store next door which was not open for business. We also sampled some local spruce-tip beer which was excellent! (and has a day's supply of vitamin C - the beer was originally brewed to help prevent scurvy among the travelers.
Wildlife count for the day was one bald eagle and one fuzzy porcupine!
Now we have circled back to Teslin and will be making our way down to Edmonton. This brings to a close our Yukon chapter of the trip
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Monday, 20 June 2011
Beautiful British Columbia
So I hate to disappoint you all but since Valerie's cold refuses to go away, we have called off the trip...
...just kidding! Here's what we've been up to for the past three days.
We started off by dipping our toes in the Pacific Ocean along the sea to sky highway in West Vancouver. We then set off to visit Bridal Falls, the sixth largest waterfall in Canada. Needless to say, it was spectacular. Next, we visited Historic Hat Creek Ranch, a roadhouse built from the gold rush era. Since the roadhouse was built before the road, either the owner had ESP, or we have a few things to learn from him about getting his way. These roadhouses were constructed about every 12 to 14 miles along the Cariboo Gold Rush Trail so that the horses could have a break. After taking a short ride in a stagecoach, we think the people probably needed a break too. The road was so bumpy that dishes needed to be packed in molasses just to get there in one piece.
On the Gold Rush Trail, we also witnessed our first of many wildlife sightings! This one was a doe that crossed right in front of the car ahead of us. Don't worry, moms, we stopped with plenty of time...
After getting a little lost in Quesnel, we finally set up camp at 10 mile lake provincial park.
We woke up day two to find our shoes soaked outside the tent from the rain that had started early in the morning. After quickly packing up in our raingear, we headed to Prince George. After an attempt to buy produce at the 'farmers' market (which turned out to be a little disappointing at a dollar a tomato), we set off toward Houston.
Along the way, we drove through Vanderhoof, the geographical center of BC. And that's about the best thing that town had going for it ( no offense to any Vanderhoovians that might be reading this). In Houston, we had lunch in the shadow of the world's largest fly fishing pole.
On our way out, we passed though Smithers, the hometown of Dan Hamhuis. The locals are very proud (and the abundance of Go Cancuks Go signs made us slightly concerned that news takes a while to get there. More surprisingly, Prince George had no mention of it being the hometown of Zdeno Chara. Hmmmm...
Moricetown was the next stop. There, we walked down to the water in hopes of seeing some salmon fighting their way upstream (we thought it would be cool to see a fish climb a ladder haha). But alas, we got there too soon and it seems that tours only start later in the summer.
We drove to Nisga'a Memorial Lava Bed Provincial Park through Terrace. It was by far the highlight of the trip so far. Years ago, a volcano erupted over the area covering it completely with lava covering hundreds of square kilometers. We went on two hikes through the park appreciating the rocky terrain which apparently resembles the surface of the moon. Our GPS discovered a short cut to the 37 highway which heads up to the Yukon. Unfortunately, the 60km road took us an hour and a half to drive since it is an unpaved logging route. Although our map warned us of this, we decided to go on an adventure. And it was worth it because we saw two black bears and a grouse!
Earlier that day, we also had our first encounter with a moose that was smart enough to look both ways before crossing the road. We also witnesses a little duck family crossing the road single file.
Since there really isn't anything but spectacular scenery to see between Meziadin Lake, where we had camped for the night, and the Yukon Territory, day 3 didn't have much besides driving. We stopped at Dease Lake to fill up gas and have lunch. As we exited the city, Valerie saw a fox by the side of the road and pulled over to get a better view. Turns out the fox wanted to do the same. As soon as it saw us slow down, it started following our car wondering what species this big red thing belonged to. We saw two more black bears as well along the way.
We then reached the Yukon border! Of course we had to stop and take a picture. Another group was doing the same thing. Coincidentally, they too are trying to reach Dawson City for the 21st.
Being in our first territory is really exciting. We camped at Teslin the first night, our first sight with toilets and showers!! There's lots to see in The Yukon, so expect there to be more activities in our next blog.
More to come!
Tal and Val
...just kidding! Here's what we've been up to for the past three days.
We started off by dipping our toes in the Pacific Ocean along the sea to sky highway in West Vancouver. We then set off to visit Bridal Falls, the sixth largest waterfall in Canada. Needless to say, it was spectacular. Next, we visited Historic Hat Creek Ranch, a roadhouse built from the gold rush era. Since the roadhouse was built before the road, either the owner had ESP, or we have a few things to learn from him about getting his way. These roadhouses were constructed about every 12 to 14 miles along the Cariboo Gold Rush Trail so that the horses could have a break. After taking a short ride in a stagecoach, we think the people probably needed a break too. The road was so bumpy that dishes needed to be packed in molasses just to get there in one piece.
On the Gold Rush Trail, we also witnessed our first of many wildlife sightings! This one was a doe that crossed right in front of the car ahead of us. Don't worry, moms, we stopped with plenty of time...
After getting a little lost in Quesnel, we finally set up camp at 10 mile lake provincial park.
We woke up day two to find our shoes soaked outside the tent from the rain that had started early in the morning. After quickly packing up in our raingear, we headed to Prince George. After an attempt to buy produce at the 'farmers' market (which turned out to be a little disappointing at a dollar a tomato), we set off toward Houston.
Along the way, we drove through Vanderhoof, the geographical center of BC. And that's about the best thing that town had going for it ( no offense to any Vanderhoovians that might be reading this). In Houston, we had lunch in the shadow of the world's largest fly fishing pole.
On our way out, we passed though Smithers, the hometown of Dan Hamhuis. The locals are very proud (and the abundance of Go Cancuks Go signs made us slightly concerned that news takes a while to get there. More surprisingly, Prince George had no mention of it being the hometown of Zdeno Chara. Hmmmm...
Moricetown was the next stop. There, we walked down to the water in hopes of seeing some salmon fighting their way upstream (we thought it would be cool to see a fish climb a ladder haha). But alas, we got there too soon and it seems that tours only start later in the summer.
We drove to Nisga'a Memorial Lava Bed Provincial Park through Terrace. It was by far the highlight of the trip so far. Years ago, a volcano erupted over the area covering it completely with lava covering hundreds of square kilometers. We went on two hikes through the park appreciating the rocky terrain which apparently resembles the surface of the moon. Our GPS discovered a short cut to the 37 highway which heads up to the Yukon. Unfortunately, the 60km road took us an hour and a half to drive since it is an unpaved logging route. Although our map warned us of this, we decided to go on an adventure. And it was worth it because we saw two black bears and a grouse!
Earlier that day, we also had our first encounter with a moose that was smart enough to look both ways before crossing the road. We also witnesses a little duck family crossing the road single file.
Since there really isn't anything but spectacular scenery to see between Meziadin Lake, where we had camped for the night, and the Yukon Territory, day 3 didn't have much besides driving. We stopped at Dease Lake to fill up gas and have lunch. As we exited the city, Valerie saw a fox by the side of the road and pulled over to get a better view. Turns out the fox wanted to do the same. As soon as it saw us slow down, it started following our car wondering what species this big red thing belonged to. We saw two more black bears as well along the way.
We then reached the Yukon border! Of course we had to stop and take a picture. Another group was doing the same thing. Coincidentally, they too are trying to reach Dawson City for the 21st.
Being in our first territory is really exciting. We camped at Teslin the first night, our first sight with toilets and showers!! There's lots to see in The Yukon, so expect there to be more activities in our next blog.
More to come!
Tal and Val
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