We left Skagway this morning in rain and very low visibility. The climb up through White Pass was very interesting. We couldn’t believe it but some guy in a mini bus wanted to pass us and then suddenly turned off into a pull off - very weird. We had planned to stop at the summit but didn’t as the visibility was about 40 feet. Luckily, it started to clear and by time we crossed the Canadian check point the sun had begun to shine. The scenery was a beautiful driving away from Skagway as it was driving there. Just past the town of Carcross we stopped at the Carcross Desert. This is the world’s smallest desert and an International Biophysical Programmed site for ecological studies. All that said, it was neat. The desert was a flat area and half of a hill. We walked up the hill and when you looked down there was lots of vegetation. When you turned and looked back towards the road you saw the desert, the road, lush green vegetation (trees etc), a lake and then mountains in the background. The view was worth the climb. Zaph of course had a riot running in the sand. The next stop was Emerald (or Rainbow) Lake. The lake was a rainbow of green / blue colors. The Milepost book indicated that the view improved if you climbed the steep hill across the road from the lake — we did and it did. The last stop of the day was Whitehorse. It was time for groceries and other errands. While we were in the grocery store a thunderstorm hit. The drainage in the parking lot wasn’t very good — when we came out we had to wade through ankle deep water to get to the trucks! We decided to spend the night at the Walmart parking lot and then head to a campground in the morning. We expected to find some trailers in the parking lot and were astounded to find over 50 rigs! I think the RV’s filled about 1/3 of the parking lot. It’s a good thing Rvers also like to shop at Walmart.
The White Pass and Yukon Route train going through Canada Customs at Fraiser BC
sign at Carcross Desert
The brave dog sets out on his trek into the desert
sand sand everywhere
Colin and Zaphod looking at (see next photo)
The view of Emeral lake from the top of the bank, looking down on our rigs
By day this is a normal Walmart, by night it become Wally Land RV park, there are more than 50 rigs here tonight, shot taken about 11PM, and it is still daylight!
# posted by The Agnew Family : 9:39 PM