It’s embarrassing to admit that while Doug’s first thought when someone mentions the Yukon is the classic Jack London novel “Call of the Wild” about an adventurous dog who becomes a sled dog. Mine is the little miner named “Yukon Gold” from the cartoon, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”. LOL!
Somewhere in my late teens and early twenties, I missed reading a lot of classics and for a while after I graduated college I was trying to read on classic a year to make up for this, but I still haven’t gotten to “Call of the Wild.”
All that aside, today is the day we will both experience the Yukon first hand!
It’s another morning with light rains and grey skies waking up at Teslin Lake. Rolling down the AlCan Highway, by noon we were seeing signs of blue sky and by Marsh Lake, we were enjoying puffy white clouds and plenty of sunshine.
Whitehorse is the next major town. It has a visitor center, several museums and the SS Klondike National Historic Site. The SS Klondike is a large sternwheeler, the largest to travel the Canadian portion of the Yukon River. It moved tourists, locals, brought mail and supplies. It carried gold, silver-lead ore, and during WWII, road building and military equipment. It was the last riverboat to make a regular run from Whitehorse to Dawson.
River boats were essential to the economy and a common site in the Yukon waterways until the late 1940s. The original SS Klondike was wrecked in Whitehorse in 1936. Passengers and crew made camp on shore, tapped into the telegraph line, and alerted the steamer “Whitehorse” to come and rescue them. Parts of the wreck were salvaged to build the S.S. Klondike II.
Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for the ship, the S.S. Klondike is currently undergoing structural restoration to remove lead. This restoration is expected to continue through 2028 so no tours are happening.
On our way to Wolf Creek Campground nearby, we took a scenic backroad to see Miles Canyon. We’ve seen a lot of shades of turquoise water in the glacial rivers and lakes of Canada, but we’ve never seen a river that’s emerald green! It was so captivating that we did a quick walk down to it and later, from the campground, Doug ventured out, despite the rain, to ride his bike in the area.
We didn’t see any sled dogs or any gold, but this unexpected side trip to Miles Canyon with its jade green river was a nice introduction to the Yukon.
