Day 7 Whitehorse Yukon Territory

June 29

Sunrise 4:33  Sunset 11:35

Whitehorse, Yukon  population over 25,000, elevation 2,200 - 5,584, surrounded by mountains, a quaint downtown of murals and buildings built to look like the 1,800's.  We met a 9 this morning for a chartered bus tour of the area, our first stop was the S.S. Klondike, a restored National Historic Site sitting beside the Yukon River surrounded by a lovely park and walking path.  It was the largest stern wheeler on the upper Yukon River, built in Whitehorse in 1929 as an ore hauler and continued in service until 1955 when  the highways made river travel unnecessary.   It took 1.5 days  to travel downriver to Dawson City but over 7 to get back to Whitehorse, stopping  at communities along the way delivering goods, mail and people.  The average pay was $25. a month for most of the deckhands but  the person who "chucked" the wood into the firebox made $75., he had to put wood in every 30 second.  You'll see in the pictures how big the logs were!  First class passengers were treated royally but non 1st class made do, sometimes putting cots in the steerage area.   We drove through downtown to our next stop the Yukon Dam and salmon ladder, the salmon swim from the Bering Sea to past the dam, over 2,000 miles.   We drove out to Miles Canyon to an overlook, such a beautiful area.  At water level there is a park with a pedestrian bridge that you can walk over to the "islands", it would have been great to take advantage of the trails but the weather was a bit cool.  After lunch it started raining again, bummer.  Gary and I did go back to the Riverwalk with Luci and checked out the town.  

That's it for today, enjoy the pic's.

TTFN

Gary and Pam 

Lining up for the bus

S.S.Klondike

Fire box guys had to throw in a log every 30 seconds

Size of logs they had to throw in fire box

Besides Ore they carried much needed supplies and passengers

Yukon River

Kitchen

1st Class Passengers  dining

Everyone else

Yukon River Dam

Long fish ladder

Miles Canyon overlooking Yukon  River

Pedestrian bridge across to miles of trails

A DC3 put to use as a wind vane No Kidding!

Luci and I along Riverwalk

Totem Pole by the Klondike

We found this along Riverwalk - a book exchange