The Dempster Highway

Here we are, at the southern end of the Dempster Highway, getting ready to start the next phase of our adventure. 

In addition to the motel, restaurant, and lounge, the Klondike River Lodge has a small RV park (and a coin-operated car wash, which comes in handy after nearly 500 miles of dust from the Dempster Highway). 

I was really hoping that I wouldn't need to stop here on my way back! 

Klondike River Lodge

The Klondike River Lodge is strategically placed at the southern end of the Dempster Highway. 

Pelly Crossing

This is a portion of the community of Pelly Crossing, taken from the North Klondike Highway.

Pelly Crossing is an interesting place to visit, because it offers some insight into how people live in the central Yukon. 

North Klondike Highway bridge over the Pelly River

 

Where's the beach?

The roadside lookout is in the far background, on the left.

The trail doesn't seem as long as it looks in this photograph (or in person, for that matter). The trail is well maintained, and you're spending a fair amount of time watching for wildlife, so the hike goes by quickly. 

Five Fingers Rapids (up close)

Here are the rocks that form Five Finger Rapids. Some man-made changes were made to slightly widen the channel to ease riverboat travel, but this is essentially what riverboat captains faced on their way up and down the river.

The wooden lookout platform sits on one of the winch points used to pull boats up the river. 

Five Fingers Rapids

Five Fingers Rapids was another treacherous stretch of the Yukon River that travelers must negotiate. Steam powered sternwheelers "ran" the rapids going downstream, and were winched up one of the channels on the upstream trip.

There's a roadside lookout on the North Klondike Highway, from which this photograph was taken. There's a trail that leads from the lookout to a viewing platform that overlooks the rapids. 

Fox Lake by moonlight

After an afternoon and evening of geocaching, and a great Mexican dinner at Sam 'n' Andy's in Whitehorse, we headed up the North Klondike Highway to find a place to bed down for the night. We stopped to find the geocache at Fox Lake (near where this photograph was taken), then headed to the Fox Lake Campground. 

Yukon River (looking upstream)

This photograph is taken from the roadside lookout / viewing area that I mentioned earlier. The footbridge is visible near the center of the picture. 

Sarah and Joe crossing the Yukon River

 

Yukon River (looking upstream)

Here's a shot from the same bridge, looking upstream. Note the striking green water and the sheer cliffs. This was a considerable obstacle before the hydroelectric dam that created Schwatka Lake tamed the rapids. 

Yukon River (looking downstream)

There's a footbridge that crosses the Yukon River at Miles Canyon; this photograph is taken on the footbridge, looking downstream.

There's a roadside lookout at the top of the hill just to the right of center. We did a little hiking on that hill, as well, while searching for a geocache. 

On the trail to Canyon City

We packed up from our camp at Wolf Creek Campground, and headed to Miles Canyon to do a little hiking (and geocaching). That's the Yukon River to the right; we're hiking upstream to the ghost town of Canyon City. 

Yukon Territory

It was great to be back in Yukon Territory for Lorraine and me; this was Sarah's and Joe's first visit. 

Black bear

Pay no attention to this bear's color: it's really a black bear (and yes, it's very close). Nice looking specimen, eh? 

Black bear

This was our first black bear sighting of the trip. We didn't need binoculars for this one. 

Skagway

This is virtually all of Skagway. Some people do live on the hill on which this photograph was taken, and a few live up the Skagway River valley (to the left in this photograph), but there really isn't any other flat (or reasonably flat) land available. 

The Sound of Money

The tourists have arrived!

With four cruise ships in port, we had plenty of company on Skagway streets. The weather was pretty good, so "cruisers" had an opportunity to leave the ship for planned activities, or just a day wandering through the shops of Skagway. 

Dyea townsite, looking up the Taiya River

This is a small roadside viewpoint area on the one-and-a-half lane road between Dyea and Skagway. In the center of the photograph is the area once occupied by the Dyea townsite. 

Chilkoot Trail

The Chilkoot Trail is on our Hikes We'd Like To Do list. It's a one-way hike, and it has what I'll characterize as unusual logistics requirements. It sounds like a wonderful hike, though, and well worth the arrangements that must be made to complete it. 

Slide cemetery: Dyea

After our Dyea townsite hike, we took a short drive back up the road to visit the slide cemetery, final resting place for many of the individuals who died in the April 3, 1898 avalanche on the Chilkoot Trail. The exact count of victims is not known, nor is the number of people actually buried in this cemetery, as some were removed for reburial at home. 

Dyea townsite trail

Sarah and Joe, at the end of our hike around the Dyea townsite. 

Store front: Dyea

This is the last remaining store front in Dyea; everything else was either removed for reuse in other towns, or has been reclaimed by the forest. It's amazing to think that 10,000 people lived in this area for a short time, then nearly all left to chase their fortunes elsewhere.