Month: August 2018

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Yukon Transportation Museum with Colorado Traveling Ducks

A short walk and here we are at the Yukon Transportation Museum.

Yukon Transportation Museum in Whitehorse

After paying our admission fee, we wandered through the gift shop.   Soon you will see what we bought.   Focusing on transportation here, we immediately were attracted to this canoe.

A canoe. Introducing Yukon Duck

Yes, there are now 4 Colorado Traveling Ducks.   Our newest addition is an engineer for the train, but we call him Yukon Duck.  During the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898, the train connected Whitehorse on the Yukon River with Skagway, Alaska.

Train between Whitehorse, YT and Skagway, Alaska

Skagway is a little over 100 miles away and is a seaport.   Miners needed to get supplies and gold was often shipped out of Alaska.   Here is an early car for the Yukon Territory.

Early car

Most of the year it is winter here, so travel was done by sled.

Sled for traveling

Conditions were not safe for travel if the temperature was -40 (the same temperature for F and C).   How to know if it was too cold?  A bottle of Perry Davis Pain Killer was placed outside by the window.   If the bottle became frozen, it was “too damn cold for man or beast.”  We ducks don’t want to be out when it is -40.   There is more than one famous dog sled race in the area.   This sled is from the Yukon Quest.

Sled for Yukon Quest

The race is between Whitehorse, YT and Fairbanks, Alaska.  The starting point alternates between Whitehorse and Fairbanks each year.   Spectators can see the beginning one year and the finish the next.   This exhibit was something new to us.

Lost in the Yukon

Lost in the Yukon was about a plane crash in 1963 and a great survival story of two people.  These two, Ralph Flores and Helen Klaben survive for 49 days.   They endured painful injuries, starvation, weeks of -40 or colder, and the long dark Yukon winter.  In March, Ralph stomped SOS on a frozen snow covered swamp.   The SOS was seen and they were rescued March 26, 1963.   In 1975 Helen wrote a book about the survival titled, “Hey, I’m Alive”  A movie was also made in 1975.   Maybe we will watch it this winter??  In the airplane hanger, we admired many airplanes.

Planes in Yukon Transportation Museum

Flying is often the only way to travel in the far north.   We liked this helicopter, also.

Helicopter. Yukon Transportation Museum

The Yukon Transportation Museum is next to Whitehorse International Airport.

Whitehorse International Airport

We we impressed by the Plane Vane.

Plane weather vane

This sign explains it best.   A real plane with a long history and now a weather vane.   We want to show you that it really does move.   It was not very windy the day we visited, but you can see from these 2 photos that the plane did move.

Side view of plane

 

Wind moved plane

According to http://www.RoadsideAmerica.com   this is the world’s largest weather vane.  We are getting hungry.   After a great day in Whitehorse, it is time for dinner.   Klondike Rib and Salmon restaurant is next to our hotel.

Klondike Rib and Salmon

The reviews were great and the food was fantastic.   The humans ordered salmon and also halibut.   Both were very fresh and cooked to perfection.  Humans and ducks loved it.   The restaurant is housed in the 2 oldest operating buildings in the Yukon Capital.   The menu had a history of the building.  The dining room was originally opened as a tent frame bakery called, MacMillian’s Bakery around 1900.   The main building was Klondike Airways, a mail and flight business.   In the 1930’s the building was used as a carpentry shop and coffins were constructed for a mortuary in downtown Whitehorse.   Today we have this Quaint Little “Northern Klondike Theme Restaurant.”  With winters of -40, this little wall tent buttons up in the fall and goes into hibernation each year until Mother’s Day.  We ducks like menus that tell us about the restaurant, so this is a favorite with us.

Klondike Rib and Salmon tent area

There really is a tent area of this restaurant.   Great in the summer, but too cold in the winter.  This was a great day in Whitehorse, and we welcome Yukon Duck to our duck family.

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Whitehorse Museums with Colorado Traveling Ducks

We are still in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.   We love it here.   This morning we wandered around town, found a grocery store and purchased snacks for our room.   Yep…Humans and ducks love to snack.  Now we are heading to Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center.

Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center

This is a great cultural and historical place.   We didn’t go inside, we just looked at and admired the vast outdoor exhibits.   Never enough time to do everything.  Meet Woolly Mammoth.

Woolly Mammoth

He used to live here.   Doesn’t he remind you of a shaggy elephant with smaller ears?   I think so.   Oh look.

Young Woolly Mammoth

This Woolly Mammoth is closer to our size.     Can we go for a short ride little Woolly Mammoth?   Apparently not.   The sign says carcasses of Woolly Mammoth have been discovered here.  Carcasses, complete with hair, skin and internal organs have been preserved in the Beringia permafrost.   These giant animals lived here tens of thousands of years ago.   They survived periods both hotter and colder than today’s temperatures.   This is the biggest beaver we have ever seen.

Giant Beaver

These giant beavers lived in the Yukon’s Old Crow basin region.  They were 8 feet (2.5 meters) tall and weighed 480 pounds (218 kilos).   These giant beavers roamed this area 130,000 to 60,000 years ago.   Now what is this?

Pay phone

A pay phone?   Once very popular and common in the United States, it is rare to find a pay phone at home.   Now most people carry a cell phone.   We like to see phone booths.   Here is an Eskimo in his canoe, or kayak.

Eskimo

The common way to travel the Yukon River and other bodies of water during the summer when the water is not frozen.   OK, what other animals formerly called this Beringia area home?

Statues of former residents

We recognize this musk ox.  We ducks are in front of him.  He resembles Africa’s Cape Buffalo.   Notice that these animals all need heavy skin and thick coats to survive the brutal Yukon winters.   We like seeing animals.   There are many signs here explaining the permafrost.   The ground never thaws a short distance from the surface.   One result is surface water cannot penetrate the permafrost, so the soil above permafrost is quite wet.   If the permafrost does melt, due to natural weather or human actions, the melting permafrost causes the ground to be unstable.   This place makes us think about so many new things.   Also, signs show how to read the story of climate change in riverbank layers.

Riverbed layers of earth

We can see several layers in this riverbank.   These are natural layers, not things cemented together.   So much to learn.   So little time.   We are now headed to the Yukon Transportation Museum.   We will show you what we find next time.

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Whitehorse, Canada with Zeb, Soapy and Eider Duck

Canada’s Yukon Territory is huge, beautiful, and certainly not crowded.   We love it!   We are entering Whitehorse, the capital of Canada’s Yukon Territory.   Look at this welcome horse, the Whitehorse Horse.

The Whitehorse Horse

What is this made from?   What is the story behind this horse?

About that horse…

Now you know.   A contest winner and we have a great horse.   This is near the Pubic Safety Building in Whitehorse.   We like the fireman.

Fireman

Safety is important.  We found a hotel right downtown, so we could walk to the Yukon River.

By the Yukon River in downtown Whitehorse

Near our bench, we marveled at this giant totem pole.

Tall totem pole

Walking a few blocks, we smiled at this taller than life Canadian Mounty.

Canadian Mounty. Larger than life

Could be a surprise if you stayed in a room on the third floor, looked out your window in the morning, and saw this Mounty’s head by your room.  But we liked him.   Carving wood must be popular here.   This owl is wonderful.

Watchful owl

Don’t you just love it?  We heard this was a highly rated restaurant, so we tried Dirty Northern Public House.

Dirty Northern Public House. Great dinner here

The decor was so northern woods, the service great, people were friendly and delicious food.  We were so happy we ate here.   Maybe you will try it also when you’re in Whitehorse.  Walking back to our hotel, we could not miss this slab of native copper.   This weighs 2,590 pounds, or 1,175 kilos.

Slab of Native Copper. 2,590 pounds!

Discovered in 1905 in the upper White River, 250 miles NW of Whitehorse, this is the Yukon’s largest copper nugget.   The sign says it is possibly a Canadian record for the largest copper nugget.  We, ducks and moms, liked Whitehorse and we all agreed that we wanted an extra day here to explore more.   Guess we better tell our hotel we want to stay another night.   Yes!  We like Whitehorse.

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Enjoying the Alaska Highway in the Canadian Yukon

On the road again.   We are on vacation, so there are no alarm clocks and no early morning rush to leave.   Shortly after leaving Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory, we saw one of the stars of our trip.

Bear along the road

This bear was walking along the side of our road.   Our moms said he is a rock star.   He knew we were there, of course, but he did not look at us.   We stopped the Jeep and watched him walk at a steady pace, completely ignoring us.   He would get pretty far ahead of us, we would drive to him, and never an acknowledgement.   We just loved him.   Later, this rest area caught our attention.   This is Kluane River View point.

So pretty

Stop to admire the river was so necessary.   Also at this stop, there was a sign about caribou.   Caribou are similar to reindeer, but these were some facts we did not know.   Be sure to read the last sentence.

Sign says it better than mom

Moving tendons make that much noise???  Amazing.   Lake Kluane also made us stop.

Kluane Lake

This road trip is about seeing unspoiled nature, with very few other humans around.   So we stopped often.   Later, a small building with a nearby huge Canadian flag waving in the breeze.

Canadian flag

Of course entering the building was another must do for us.

Tachal Dhal Visitor’s Center

This is Tachal Dhal, or Sheep Mountain.   Again, the sign says it best.

Sheep Mountain

We love to watch Dall Sheep, but it was not to happen today.   The lady at the center, said it was getting warm enough (but still need jackets for humans) that the sheep moved to the other, higher, mountains.   We looked.

Sheep Mountain

Nice mountain, but no sheep here today.   Did you notice that the sign is written in English and in French.   That was the normal for most signs we saw in Canada.   Driving through unspoiled scenery with very few other cars is peaceful and beautiful.   But, you can guess, this was one of the most welcome sights along the road.

Always a welcome sight

And all were very clean and well maintained.   Thanks Yukon Territory!