A beautiful day in and around Whitehorse, Yukon!

We were sitting having breakfast yesterday morning where we had overnighted at the Yukon College beside the Yukon Arts Centre. There was not a cloud in the sky, and we were thinking of heading down to Miles Canyon to do some hiking. Ruth was reading some of the local guide literature we had picked up at the Whitehorse Visitors Centre, when she said "hey, there's a hiking trail right here"!

So right after breakfast we went for a 2 km (1.3 mile) hike through the forest.

The trail wasn't marked very well, although the path itself was well worn. Problem was, many other paths intertwined with the one we wanted to follow!

A beautiful day in Whitehorse!

Isn't that the neatest beaver dam ever?

The trail ended by the Yukon Arts Centre, with a beautiful view of the city...

View of Whitehorse, Yukon.

Not the greatest hike but it was a good half hour warm up for our Miles Canyon hike after lunch!

Then we went and found the Whitehorse Recycling Centre to get rid of our empty beer bottles and wine box. They have a similar system here in the Yukon as they do in Saskatchewan. To keep all beverage containers out of the ditches they have a refundable deposit on them... including milk containers. Great system.

Then, we drove over to Miles Canyon. It's a really scenic area, and a very popular spot. There's not a huge parking area and on a gorgeous day like it was yesterday, it was understandably busy. But, we managed to get Sherman parked out of the way and we sat and had an early lunch before taking off on a hike. By the time we set off, it had quieted down a fair bit.

View of the Yukon River from the parking area.

There's a fairly new suspension bridge crossing the canyon.

Looking north from the bridge.

And south from the bridge.

Once you cross the bridge from the parking area, there are a lot of different hiking trails on the east side. Like I said yesterday you could hike for a month all around Whitehorse and never be on the same trail twice!

We love this type of scenery.

Me on the trail!

Ruth.

Just after I took that shot, these two girls came paddling down the river. The water is moving right along, and to be honest you don't need to be doing a lot of paddling if you're heading north!

Great scenery.

You can actually book self guided canoe trips on the Yukon River that go all the way from Whitehorse to Dawson City, a distance of 736 kms (460 miles) on the water. It's actually a 16 day trip!

And, the Yukon River is a Class 1 river and anybody with basic canoe skills can do the trip.

I thought it was a great idea, until Ruth said "What about the bugs?"

Well so far, the bugs haven't been an issue. We haven't seen any mosquitoes to speak of since we left Grande Prairie. 

Anyhow, I think that would be a fantastic future trip.

More scenery.

We finished up the hike and we had done 4.7 kms (2.9 miles). 

We had an appointment with Yukon Tourism at 3:00pm to go over some of the things we want to do on our route over the next two months or so. 

We got there a little early, so we went for another short stroll around the area.

The Log Skyscraper.

There are two of these types of buildings, one is only a two story. These two buildings are actually on Canada's National Historic Buildings list because they are the only two in existence in the country. They were built in 1947 as private rental accommodation, and are still used as such today.

The Yukon Tourism Building.

They have lots of parking for RVs.

And, they're open from 8:00am to 8:00pm every single day for the summer. They have tons of information, as well as internet access and telephones for your use. They're one of the best tourist info places we've ever been in.

We sat with two of their reps and went over some of the stuff we want to do. It gave us a much clearer picture of what's ahead on our route, and how much time we need to do the things we want to spread out over the time we have here.

And that means that we may not make it to the Arctic Circle for Summer Solstice, but also that it's not that important. Once we make it north of the Arctic Circle, even if we're a few days late it's going to be 24 hour daylight anyhow at this time of year. 

Our route over the next two months.

We've learned how much there is to see in and around Whitehorse, and we're not done here yet. And it turns out there's just as much in Dawson City, although we'll be there twice. Once before heading up to "Tuk" as Tuktoyaktuk is called, and once again on the way back down.

And, we want to stop and do some hiking at Tombstone Territorial Park on the way up the Dempster Highway towards Inuvik.

Very helpful people at the Yukon Tourist Centre, and we are now looking forward to the next two months even more!

When we were done, we headed back outside to enjoy more of the beautiful day...

Yikes... these kids were swimming!

Sure, the sun was warm... but it was still only about 18C (64F) out... and the water was like ice. Kids don't seem to mind these things!

Scenery along the way.

We had visited the SS Klondike sternwheeler riverboat yesterday, but we got called away to have Sherman's repairs done before we got a chance to see the interior. So we returned there to finish our tour...

They have the interior all done up like it's in the middle of a journey up the Yukon River.

Good thing they remembered the important stuff!

Ruth, on the "sun deck".

The galley.

You can see the dining area through the galley photo above. Unfortunately, the old boat has some structural issues and the dining room is closed to visitors.

The engine room!

Whitehorse has a lot of murals, and the Visitors Centre will give you a list of them so that you can do a mural walking tour around town. We went and looked at some of them, but this one in the Yukon Government Building was the best...

It's a series of 24 "stained glass" style panels. Really neat stuff.

Downtown Whitehorse.

Downtow Whitehorse.

The Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre.

The Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre is free. It's done by the local First Nations group and a worthwhile stop just to say hi. Friendly people. They had an interesting display about trapping in the Yukon and how some continue to make a living that way. Rough work living out in the bush like that, but the people who do it, love it.

One of the ladies taught us how to say "thank you" in the local language... gunalchish.

We drove back to Jean and Art's place and parked up in their driveway again. 

We've got more to see around Whitehorse today, and then we'll get back on the road and head out of town north tomorrow.

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