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| Every night in Whitehorse the Frantic Follies sings and dances for two hours of absolute fun. Note the old guy on Bob's right. He's holding the programs between his knees so he can hug the girls. | Bob gets his share of attention, too. |
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| The Klondike, in her glory days, carried freight and passengers between Whitehorse and Dawson City on the fabled Yukon River. Now she's being restored as a national park museum. We walked the revered decks, peered into the cabins, and stood on the bridge. | The Gold Rush crowd sailed up the inside passage to Skagway. From Skagway, they climbed the White or Chilkoot passes to cross the mountains, then built rafts and drifted down the Yukon (runs north) to Dawson City. It was a trip of hundreds of miles and many months.
We climbed aboard the Schwatka to take a look at the Yukon River for ourselves. |
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| It was a beautiful day and a pleasant ride on the historic path, much more pleasant for us than the Gold Rushers who had to pole rafts and small boats loaded with thousands of pounds of goods downriver. | The water speeds up through these narrows. They were one part of the river the Gold Rush stampeders dreaded. |
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| We even got free coffee to sip as we enjoyed the scenery. There was soda, too, but you had to buy it. | This is the White Pass and Yukon Route train station in Whitehorse, looking much like it did in the Gold Rush days. But no train leaves the station now. We bought our tickets there to ride the train over White Pass into Skagway, but took a bus from Whitehorse up to Fraser station. The White Pass and Yukon Route only hauls tourists these days, and only runs from Fraser to Skagway. |
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| Carcross on Bennett Lake was where most of the Gold Rushers came down from the mountain passes. They built their rafts here, then floated north through several lakes and into the Yukon River. These buildings date from Gold Rush days. | Bob holds out an offering of Indian fried bread and some hot chocolate. He found more than history in Carcross. |
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| Fraser station, where we changed from bus to train, is remote and picturesque. | Here it comes!
That's the customs building at the Alaskan border on the right. But we were in Canada, and not allowed to cross the tracks into the U.S. We went through customs on the train. |
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| Bob waits for our train car assignment. | These are restored and reconstructed original cars, including a wood stove in the back of each car that is fired up in cold weather. |
