A Journal, with Pictures

July 5 and 6

We get up early, and drive to Anchor­age from Tal­keetna, get­ting a weather update and file our flight plan as we drive. The weather looks O.K., and we are hope­ful that we will get to see the Alaskan Range on our way to White­horse in the Yukon. We are not dis­ap­pointed as we have spec­tac­u­lar views of moun­tains, tun­dra, glac­i­ers, rivers and lakes as far as you can see.

We land in White­horse and rent a car. The next day we expe­ri­ence one of the high­lights of our trip when we visit the Yukon Game Pre­serve. This pre­serve pro­vides tours guided by expert nat­u­ral­ist that per­mit you to see most of the wild ani­mals of the Yukon. We see and pho­to­graph elk, cari­bou, wood bison, moun­tain goats, moun­tain sheep, lynx, musk ox, moose, arc­tic fox. It’s a great expe­ri­ence and we learn a lot to boot.

After lunch, we visit the S.S. Klondike, a shal­low bot­tom stern wheel boat that was raised, restored and sits on the bank of the Yukon river. This gives us a glimpse into the excit­ing time when White­horse was the trans­porta­tion hub for the gold fields cen­tered up river in Daw­son. We then visit the McBride Yukon His­tory museum and call it a day. We enjoy White­horse, par­tic­u­larly the bet­ter weather and start plan­ning for our flight through Smithers on to Golden tomor­row.