Carcross: the smallest desert in the world & White Pass in the fog

12.09.2014

It is nearly 3 o'clock when we leave the spot above Whitehorse, freezing but happy. The Northern Lights have also disappeared (Someone says: The Aurora is silent!) and we are glad to be in the hotel. After almost 2 hours in the cold, I am frozen to the bones and once again enthusiastic about my fleece blanket that I brought from home, which I can place on my icy legs under the duvet. I download the pictures and it's after 4 o'clock in the morning when I finally close my eyes.

Graciously, the alarm clock in Whitehorse lets us sleep until 8:30 am... Just across from the hotel is a Tim Hortons, where we have a brilliant and cheap breakfast. Today our journey continues southward. Soon Emerald Lake is by our side and even on a cloudy day, there are some beautiful color impressions.

How amazing must it be when the sun shines! The slopes of the mountains are getting more yellow every day from the aspens, and soon the leaves will surely fall from the trees - then the views will be much more bleak. You can now watch daily how autumn slowly comes to an end.

The clouds hang low and soon we see the first drops on the windshield. We stop briefly at the Carcross Desert, the "smallest desert in the world". It looks more like a dune landscape.

Only a few square kilometers in size, it originally formed from the sandy sediments of an ice age lake. The strong wind from Lake Bennett prevents vegetation from spreading here. We shiver in the wind, take some photos of grasses and berries, lupines and pinecone-laden trees that defy the cold and wind here, and quickly continue in the warm car.

The thermometer in the car shows an outside temperature of 47°F (around 8°C), but the wind is freezing cold. Yesterday we walked around Whitehorse without a jacket in the sun at 51°F. But only 4°F less, plus the wind and no sun - and you freeze your butt off.

Shortly after, we reach the village of Carcross. Originally named after a caribou crossing, it was eventually shortened to Carcross by a missionary because there were too many places with the same name in the vicinity and his mail was always delivered to the wrong place. Today it is a small village with about 150 inhabitants and a station of the Whitepass-Yukon Railway.

Carcross

Carcross - old train station

A beautiful old train station, across from it an old General Store with nice things, a good visitor center, and a small café.

The General Store in Carcross has everything!

At the Visitor Center in Carcross

We meet a German couple who tell us about their car accident in Tok and the problems they had getting a replacement car. It took 2 days. But they are traveling with a regular car and have also driven the Top of The World Highway. However, since the man is a press guy and works for a car race called Fulda-Challenge, he probably won't have any problems with rental car companies if his cars get damaged when driving on gravel roads.

Carcross

One kilometer past Carcross, we turn left off the road to an old cemetery. Mostly for the First Nations, but also with graves from the time of the gold miners. Here lie the three people who triggered the Klondike Gold Rush. However, I only find the grave of a Tagish and I'm not sure if that's the grave of Skookum Jim Mason, who was actually named Tagish and who, together with his sister and her husband, found the first gold nuggets in the river in Dawson City.

We pass more hills and mountain slopes that look like they're carpeted with yellow velvet. We drive along the almost endless Tagish Lakes, see Bove Island, and continue, crossing the "border" to British Columbia with more lakes on the South Klondike Highway, which we are still on.

All the lakes are whipped by strong winds rushing down from the mountains. The gold prospectors had to pass through here and often failed due to the winds on the water, capsizing and drowning.

We pass a suspension bridge over the Yukon, which you can cross for a fee of $18. The river is deep down in a gorge here and rushes through the narrow opening. Surprisingly, a very new and very large restaurant is open. We are the only guests, and the owner, a young woman from Montreal, happily makes us a coffee and we chat for a few minutes. The room is several meters high, unheated, and not very cozy. Tourist groups from Skagway - often from the cruise ships - often take breaks here. But the cruise season is coming to an end, and this week only 2-3 ships and groups are expected, then it will be winter break here too.

At Fraser, the Canadian Customs awaits us. But no one comes out and we continue slowly. The entry into the USA is only 27km from here. Who does the land in between belong to? We are now driving through thick fog banks, about 700m high and the road will still climb to an altitude of about 1,000m. The fog is sometimes so thick that you can only see 20m ahead.

We almost didn't see Alaska - because of the fog :-)

But mostly it is 50-80m, so that you can still drive quite well. Unfortunately, we don't have anyone in front of us whose lights we can orient ourselves to until a mad truck driver overtakes us, only to become an obstacle at the next climb. The border crossing is harmless. No questions about food or alcohol, just where we are going, where we are coming from, and where we will be flying back home from. The lady accidentally doesn't give me back my ESTA application that I always have printed out in my passport. Oh well. We continue in total fog, we pass the sign saying "Welcome to Alaska" and roll downhill through the white wall at 30mph. Even in Skagway, it is not much better.

We check into the Westmark Inn and find out that the hotel will be closed completely until next year. It is now 3:00 pm and we stroll along Broadway, which has changed quite a bit since our last visit 5 years ago. Now, it's not just souvenir shops, but every other shop is a jewelry store. It looks like ports in the Caribbean with cruise ships - only with different temperatures.

Skagway

Skagway

End of the day in Skagway

The good movie about the Gold Rush is still playing in the tourist info, so we watch it again. Now we have visited many more places related to this event than 5 years ago.

We are quite tired and waddle through the street. We have dinner at the Skagway Brewery and are back outside by half past six. Skagway is now deserted as the cruise ship has departed, leaving only a few tourists who don't belong and the locals behind. Consequently, all the shops are closed, and we decide to have a beer at the hotel. Unfortunately, it's impossible because the White Pass & Yukon Railway staff are celebrating their season finale here. No one can enter the bar except them, so we retreat to the cozy room that we can't access in the usual way due to the party.

Good thing we don't have any suitcases... I am so tired that I eventually fall asleep before 9 o'clock in the wide, beautiful bed.

Distance covered: approx. 190 km