(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
In the summer of 2003, we visited a friend from Hinton, Alberta, who had recently moved to Whitehorse, Yukon. It was my first, and so far only, visit to this northern Canadian territory.
The strongest impression I had from the Yukon was the space. It wasn’t completely isolated (the Alaska Highway passes through Whitehorse), but I never had the feeling of being crowded either. The streets were wide and everything just seemed…big. Despite not being on a sea, ocean, or even a lake, even the boats were big (see the SS Klondike photo at the top of this post).
The most “touristy” part of our trip (and thus the most photographed) was our journey on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad to Skagway, Alaska. This railway originally ran from Whitehorse to Skagway, and it was the main route to the Yukon interior during the Klondike Gold Rush. The railway closed in 1982, but then reopened again in 1988 as a summer heritage railway.
During our visit, the first part of our trip was by bus: only the portion from Bennett (B.C.) to Skagway was operational. It now runs from Carcross (Yukon) to Skagway, and there are plans to have it once again run the entire length from Whitehorse to Skagway. There were some anxious moments en route…this is not easy terrain! But we made it to Skagway safe and sound. In fact, the line ends right on the docks where cruise ships stop in Skagway.
Skagway is a small town, with only about 1,200 residents. You’re never far from nature, so it is easy to find appropriate hiking trails close to town. As we didn’t have a lot of specialized equipment, we limited ourselves to the Dewey Lakes area.
Even though this was close to town, we really felt like we were “off the beaten track”. In some ways, the terrain (and tricky footing) was similar to our hiking adventure on Vancouver Island in 2023.
Back in town, the local tourist industry really plays up the gold rush days. And with good reason: those were Skagway’s glory days, when the population was around 12,000! We found an old-fashioned saloon, and many other buildings that haven’t really changed in more than a century.
Given the small population, and the popularity of summer cruises along the Alaska coastline, Skagway is really transformed when a ship arrives. The inlet that ends at Skagway is quite narrow, but we still saw some fairly large ships sailing into port.
After a couple of nights in Skagway, we returned to Whitehorse. However, our “return” tickets on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad were actually for a bus on the return leg of our journey. I presume that this is to maximize the benefits from the short summer tourist season.
I think our two nights in Skagway were just right for us at the time. One full day of hiking and exploring the town felt appropriate. Since few of the cruise passengers actually stay overnight here, the evenings were very quite and peaceful.
Coming up – another international adventure!