Day 21: Around Whitehorse: Husky Puppies, Emerald Lake & the smallest desert in the world

2.8.24

We need to refill water first today because our fresh water tank is almost empty.

We head to the water station behind the Marsh Lake CG and find that we are missing the right adapter for the hose. Crisis!

And now??? If we fill up 1-liter bottles like yesterday, it will probably take us 2 days to fill the tank with bottles....

The husband asks the son to push the hose as firmly as possible into the connection while he holds the other end of the hose into the RV. I press the 'Go' button and, as fate would have it:

The son is soaking wet after the first 10 seconds as the water sprays out with high pressure everywhere.

While the son complains and curses, the husband tries. Somewhat successful, but shortly afterwards also with a wet jacket - and the gauge still reads 'empty'.

But salvation arrives in the form of a friendly Canadian employee from the water station. He brings us a hose from the building, which we just have to hold in the tank, and then the water flows where it belongs. After a few minutes, the tank is full. Saved!

We have run out of burgers and buns, so we make a detour to Walmart in Whitehorse. It's only a 19 km detour, as we wanted to drive to Miles Canyon anyway.

We stop at Miles Canyon and walk to the Suspension Bridge. Unfortunately, it is completely cloudy today and quite chilly at 13 degrees this morning. We actually wanted to spend more time here, but the weather is not cooperating.

Off to Walmart. We drive along the Miles Canyon Road beside the river, past parked floatplanes to the dam, then back onto the Alaska Hwy towards Whitehorse.

At Walmart, we make good use of the free Wi-Fi (my eSim unfortunately doesn't work at all), but we can't find any veggie burgers. Otherwise, Walmart in Yukon is quite different from those in BC.

There is no fresh fruit or vegetables at all. Reminds me of Walmart in Hawaii. Disappointed, we leave the store and see a Save-on-Foods across the street. There we find veggie burgers for the last week. Check. Let's move on.

The weather forecast says max 17 degrees with clouds for today. Too bad. No more sun... Starting tomorrow, it should be significantly warmer. - but that doesn't help us today.

We fill up the gas (1.88$/liter), despite driving extremely economically our RV consumes an average of 21 liters per 100 km. That's quite expensive....💸💸💸

For lunch, we stop at Kookatsoon Lake in the Recreation Site. Nice little lake with a lovely use area, tables and benches partly right by the lake, partly in the woods, fire pits, and free firewood. Unfortunately, it's freezing cold. It’s windy by the lake, but we still sit down at a table by the water and eat sandwiches, pasta salad, and snacks.

After we have warmed up in the RV, we continue to the next stop: Emerald Lake.

We are now likely on one of the main tourist routes because at the viewpoint/parking lot at Emerald Lake we are greeted by 2 large tour buses full of Asians and several cars. Followed by minivans - all from Alaska, I suspect they are the day tourists from the cruise ship from Skagway.

We are disappointed by Emerald Lake - sun or not. From the huge tourist parking lot, the lake is not well visible, power poles in front... pure tourist gimmick.

Moreover, the sun is not shining, so the lake looks (almost) like any other lake. We have seen prettier lakes in the last weeks...

But hey, we had Boya Lake 😍

The next stop is the Caribou Crossing Trading Post. Two buses with tourists are just leaving (according to the signage, cruise tourists from Skagway/Alaska). Oh no, just what the husband dislikes the most: tourist trap....?!

The husband is skeptical at first, having to pay 15 CAD per person for 'some tourist event' again, but when the lady at the counter tells about all the things available - and then reaches the point of

'We have young Husky puppies', he and I are sold. We MUST see the puppies!!!

Funny too: here, at the peak of tourist offerings, the same charms and earrings made of jade are hanging everywhere as in Jade City (different packaging, but visually identical). While they were available in Jade City for 80 CAD to 200 CAD or more, here you can get earrings and charms starting at 25 CAD. Can't be true!!!

We are welcomed by a small informative museum about the gold rush, the Mountain Police, and in the back hall many stuffed animals, very impressive the huge bears, bison and the realization that there used to be lions here.

Although I prefer 'live' animals, it is definitely interesting to see the various animals up close. Some of them are pretty big!!!

In the outdoor area, we are then greeted by the 'living' animals: in addition to alpacas, donkeys, and horses, of course, Huskies.

Since there are currently no tour buses around, we are almost alone. Very nice!

Some Huskies are allowed to pull tourists in a motorized vehicle (we find this a little off, but hey...tourist event after all).

We experienced that Huskies love to run this year in Lapland. I was allowed to drive my own sled with 5 Huskies and even uphill had to constantly be on the 'brake', as it was nearly impossible to slow them down...

As in Lapland, we also see here exclusively 'Alaskan Huskies', not the type of Husky that you might have in mind with that name. So if you're looking for the wolf-like fluffy Husky with blue eyes (Siberian Husky or Alaskan Malamute), you won't find it here.

The highlight is of course the Husky puppies 😍

There are 2 enclosures with puppies, one litter is 5 weeks old, the other a bit older, outside 3 more puppies are playing between the visitor's legs, which are already 4 months old. My son and I are enchanted: they are so cute!!!

We pet the little ones and watch them tumble and play. Very cute. Everything here is very touristy, but just the Husky puppies are worth it 😍

We can hardly tear ourselves away, but when the sun suddenly comes out and it gets warm all of a sudden, we decide to drive the 9 km back to Emerald Lake to see it in the sun.

The husband notices that it is already 'late' and we still need to find a campground. However, I am not willing to miss the chance to see Emerald Lake in the sun.

'We will find something, Marsh Lake wasn't full', I throw in. I also had noted down 1-2 boondocking options.

And suddenly the afternoon is totally stressful because we don't know if and where we will sleep tonight...

Emerald Lake is more beautiful in the sun than in the shade earlier, but it doesn't compare to Boya Lake. Too bad that we didn't have much sun at Boya Lake, that would have made the lake even more stunning. Nevertheless, we agree that Boya Lake has been the most beautiful lake of our trip so far.

We drive the route back, past the Trading Post to the next stop: Carcross Desert!

We explore the 'smallest desert in the world', my 'boys' climb the highest dune and then run down while I prefer to watch the spectacle from below. Very funny 😂

In Carcross, we make a short stop, use the free WiFi at the Visitor Center and look at the colorful painted houses. Here, souvenirs, ice cream, and more are sold.

Quick stop at the S.S. Tutshi Memorial and detour onto the street opposite, where the oldest store from the gold rush days, the Matthew Watson General Store, is located and the original Caribou Hotel from gold rush times, which was burned down in the early 1900s but has been rebuilt and is still in operation. Stylishly with a classic car out front.

It is already 5 PM and we have to start thinking about where we might find a free campsite. Since the sun is shining and the weather is now so nice, we want to try our luck at the Conrad Campground. It is already on the route to Skagway, which we will be visiting tomorrow.

I personally find it extremely stressful not knowing where I will sleep tonight. It makes the whole day unrelaxed. Since we also do not want to drive unnecessary kilometers, my other options that I had researched are out. We would have had to drive more than 60 km detour for some of them. No way!

The route to Conrad Campground gives a preview of the route tomorrow: sensational mountain scenery awaits us!

Next we continue south on Klondike Hwy.

Upon arriving at the Conrad Campground, we drive the loop twice and come to the bitter realization: no free site!

Darn! And now? We make a third loop and discover a second free 'handicapped site' in the upper part, which is not as nice as the site directly at the lake. We can stay here starting at 7 PM if no one claims the site first.

We park at 'Handicapped Site No. 28' and wait. Actually a back-in, but it shouldn't look like we are moving in here against the rules. We wait for 1.5 hours, hoping with every RV & car with a trailer that drives along the loop looking for a site that none of them has the right to the handicapped site...

And there are quite a few vacationers coming after us who also find no site 😱

At 7 PM, I fill out the site reservation, drop 20 CAD in an envelope in the box at the campground info board, and slowly relax. We made it, we have a site.

My son starts chopping wood and we grill our burgers over the fire.

We would have liked to explore the lake or hike part of the trail, but since we had to stay with the camper for 1.5 hours until 7 PM, that was not possible.

Another point AGAINST first-come, first-served. Simply pointless...at least for us...

This morning a bear was sighted at the campground. Oh wow, now we are actually quite glad to be 'in the midst of it' across from the playground and buildings.

We won’t see a bear tonight, but sitting by the warming fire gives us the long-awaited Canadian feeling 😍

For the statistics:

Campground: Conrad Lake Campground (first-come, first-served)

(20 CAD ~14 €); Site 28 (unserviced, Handicapped Site)

Distance driven: 163 km

Distance walked: 7 km

Photos: 518

Weather: Many clouds, later sunny, max 17 degrees