Canada - days 39 to 43 - Calgary and Banff

After our early morning flight from Whitehorse to Calgary we were reunited with Richelle from our Sri Lanka and Maldives trip from two years ago. There's a lot of catching up to be done!

As usual when setting the alarm for an early start, sleep evades you anyway. We were early for our 04.30 taxi, and so was he. He dropped us off at the airport at about 04.31! Check in, only coffee shop is before security, and doesn't open till 05.00, so we waited!

Flight was all on time and we arrived in Calgary at 09.50 having lost an hour. Luggage seemed to take a long time and then we had to get the hire car which always takes a long time. We got charged for an extra day as we had been due to arrive at 16.00 until they cancelled that flight and put us on the early one. Then the little SUV had no parcel shelf. Brian was not happy with that, and he's right, we are going to be parking up at trailheads with the luggage in the back. We eventually left with a sedan which I'm sure will be fine. It's much easier to drive apparently than the monster truck anyway.

Sunset over the lake at the end of her garden. The dock and kayaks are hers, but we haven't tried them yet

Half an hour to Richelle's, just south of Calgary and what a welcome. Big dog Morgan and little dog Bailey, and of course Richelle who we met a couple of years ago on our Sri Lanka and Maldives trip. She lives in a beautiful house, that she designed herself , twenty something years ago for her and her husband, 4 kids and the nanny. It's just her and the dogs at the moment, so there is plenty of space for us. There was piles of stuff for lunch and the smell of the pulled beef coming from the slow cooker for dinner was tantalising.

Enjoying drinks on her lower deck

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the house and the company, oh, and laundry! I sat on the dock dangling my feet in the water with Morgan, until mad dog jumped into the water which is almost an hourly occurrence, though she hasn't worked out this means she isn't allowed into the house! It was a beautiful day, but apparently not the norm. It should be, but spring has been very late on coming so we were very lucky. The lower deck, in the shade was the perfect place for wine and chatting!

The storm came in, large hailstones rained down and the temperature dropped by 6 or 7 degrees C

Day 40 Saturday Calgary 

It felt really late when we woke up, it was before 8.00 but we'd lost the hour. We did some planning for the time we are with Richelle and reduced the booking Brian had only made the previous day for Revelstoke. There's just so much to do everywhere.

We eventually made it to the supermarket and the liquor store. Brian wanted to take the dogs for a walk, but Richelle was recommending kayaking on the lake (as long as we didn't fall in as it really isn't as warm as it should be). As we sat and ate lunch though we watched the storm come in across the lake. All hands on deck to get cushions and the jet washer in before the rain and hail arrived! Glad we weren't out on the water, or out walking the dogs!

I did anti thunder dog therapy for both dogs, cleaning the cooler for us to take away with us, in the mud room with little Bailey, before popping downstairs to our room to find Morgan on the bed hiding away. Good excuse to lie down and do a sudoku anyway! A bit of prep for the evening. It was book club, only six other ladies and no book as it was end of season. We were both invited, but if Brian wanted to sit in the snug and watch a world cup match that was fine!

I missed the coyote but managed to get the deer standing motionless hoping we hadn't seen her

It cleared up and jobs were done so we could take the girls out for a walk which was really nice, though still very windy. Interesting to see a coyote just trot across our path, we really weren't out in the wilds. 

Due to the wind the evening had to take place indoors, rather than outside on either deck which was a bit sad, but possibly made it easier as flatbread pizzas were the thing for the evening. Everyone was to make their own, but each was to be introduced and shared amongst us all. It was a lovely evening, they are a great bunch of ladies and I had a fab time. I fed Brian both pizza and dessert and apparently it was a good football match.

Next day the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur museum. It was considered local and east of Calgary so completely flat land. It's amazing how the Rocky Mountains rise abruptly just west, but the land to the east is totally flat for about 1000km. Anyway, local was over two hours drive away, straight roads and empty, but by our standards a long way!

All bar one had left at 23.30, so we were chatting, Richelle was washing up, when her youngest son, Spencer, turned up with his girlfriend to collect 'grandma's' car that had been sitting on the drive for a while. It was good to meet him, though he was really only around for long enough to change the battery and the number plate before vanishing off again. This made our night quite late, getting on for 01.00 and we were aiming to meet at 08.00 to go hiking!

It really is quite an amazing place as so many dinosaur bones have been found in the locality. It's arranged as a walk through in time, starting with the earliest plants, through the earliest animals, taking you though the various eras, eventually right up to the present day. Very well laid out, fabulous exhibits and almost too.much to see in one day. I kept tearing myself away to keep up with Jackie and Richelle so they couldn't complain!

Day 41 Sunday Drumheller

I think Richelle and I were both feeling the effects of the late night, and maybe a few glasses of wine. The weather forecast where we wanted to hike was really not very good, so we put it on hold till we are back and decided to go to the dinosaur museum at Drumheller instead. This also had been on the list and seemed far more sensible. Not least because we wouldn't be able to take Morgan the Wonder dog, so Brian could drive in our car! It was 2 hours each way and I didn't think either of us closed our eyes, though Richelle did own up to missing a bit of conversation on the way back!

A typical death pose with the head bent right back. They suspect it was caused by ligaments drying out and shrinking. Many, many skeletons where in the same pose.

The Royal Tyrrell museum is an amazing dinosaur museum, as confirmed by my niece Caroline who is very into dinosaurs and had heard of it. There have been so many bones and fossils discovered in Alberta, we guess for the same reason that they have lots of oil too.

This photo was taken at the hoodoos a little further down the road, but the landscape is the same. See how the land is formed of many different layers of mud. The theory is that in the dinosaurs eras, this area was low lying and subject to regular flooding which buried any dinosaurs, preserving them in layers corresponding to the era. Sections where they have found jumbles of bones they think is where carnivorous dinosaurs feasted on the remains of those killed by the last flood, trampling their bones underfoot - gruesome!

We stopped at some hoodoo's on the way back, but we weren't out for long looking at them as it was so cold and windy. Probably the worst weather we've had in Canada. Still a lovely day though.

Home for left overs on both the pizza and the alcohol front from last night and despite all being very tired we were still up talking much later than planned!

The hoodoos. A bit weird aren't they. They came about as the flat rocks on top were part of a layer of harder rocks laid down on top of many layers of mud. As it's all worn away, bits of hard rock have remained, protecting the softer mud underneath

Richelle took some photos of us there. Note we've got duvet jackets on - it was quite cold!

Day 42 Monday Banff

We left Richelle to head out for the last leg of our trip, starting with two nights in Banff. I had fairly low expectations, I expected it to be like an overpriced french ski resort, but have been very pleasantly surprised. The scenery is beautiful, and yes, we are paying a lot for our accommodation but that's due to leaving it till the last night, but food, and drinks all seem very reasonable.

On our walk up Johnstone Canyon. A very, very scenic walk along a walkway improbably strung along the walls of the canyon

The drive was most odd, Calgary is in a huge, completely flat area. It was flat most of the way to Drumheller in the NE, and flat for 2/3 of the drive in the NW, and then you see the Rockies! Huge and amazing. We did actually drive past it to go to Johnstone canyon as a recommended beautiful and relatively easy hike. We arrived about lunchtime and finally managed to squeeze into a carparking space. It was busy, horribly busy. The path was all tarmac, and steadily up hill so as my ankle was feeling absolutely fine we got a move on, weaving in and out of hoards of people!

Down there is the queue of people on the bridge, waiting their turn to go into the cave to get their photo with the waterfall in the background. We didn't wait, we carried on past 

We got to the lower falls and there was actually a queue of people to get to the lookout and the cave photo opportunity. We carried on! There was a similar queue at the upper falls, so we carried on! You can see both sets from just a little bit further without having to queue for a photo!

The upper falls without the queue. I'm sure they had a better view, but is an hour's wait to see them worth it? We've now learnt that to see anything round here, early is your friend. If you can get to these places at 8:00am or earlier, you'll probably have them almost to yourself. We'll try and do that!

We were down in good time too, so headed back to Banff. The sat nav brought us in not knowing about a road closure so we ended up going down the main street which was fairly horrendous. Thank goodness we only have a normal car! We arrived at the BnB early for check in, but they had said that would be ok as we were unsure about the weather, they had actually had a snow flurry that morning! Now it was beautiful though.

Bow Falls in Banff 

We just wanted to dump the bags and park the car, so this we did before heading off to the Visitor information. It's a really walkable town so we went for a walk up to a view point on the river. Right at the end of the walk there was a set of car keys hanging on a twig. Can you imagine losing your hire car keys? Someone had. I spent a really long time on hold to both Avis and Budget as Google said the keys could belong to either one, but I got no replies or promised call back. By this time we'd been talking to a couple we met for about an hour, the police station and Visitor centre were shut so we left them where they were in the hope that whoever lost them would retrace their steps and find them.

The lost car keys at the Banff Falls viewpoint. Someone's not going to be happy!

We had been planning a beer and a curry, but had spent so long talking that decided just to go for the curry. Thank goodness we did, they were busy when we arrived and we had to wait for a table for two. By the time we left they were queuing out of the door and down the stairs from the first floor! It's not even the only Indian in town, there are at least three. It was great to see so many Indians inside though and we had a fabulous meal.

The stunning Fairmont Banff Springs hotel above Bow Falls. It's a 4 star hotel and cost about £1000 a night

Day 43 Tuesday Banff

We set an alarm, and got up really early to try and miss some of the crowds. We'd both been awake in the night though so it was a very rude awakening. We had both heard a group of what we assume we're coyote in the early hours too. They sounded really happy!

Our first stop was Lake Minnewanka as recommended by my ex colleague Andy, but least for its name! It was beautiful, and we certainly beat the crowds. Hurrah.

Stunning Lake Minnewanka at 8:00am, almost to ourselves. With huge mountains all around us it is fabulous scenery

We followed this up with the Cascades which was even prettier, Johnson Lake which we both probably preferred and Two Jack Lake by which time it was getting on for midday and we were competing with the crowds. Last stop was the viewpoint over the town from Mount Norquay. Everywhere really is very scenic.

This Bighorn Sheep stood proudly for his photo

We followed the signs to cave and basin national park, not really knowing what it was all about. It turns out Banff has some thermal springs that started the popularity of the place and set up the third national park in the whole of North America. You can no longer bathe in them, even if the smell of sulphur didn't put you off, as they are the main place of residence of a specific breed of snail! It was very interesting, though we probably wouldn't have gone last week. This week however is the start of all the National Parks in Canada being free till the end of the first week in September. Did we ever time it right!

Cascade ponds, the second lake on our loop round from Minnewanka. We did a 2km or so walk round this one. It's utterly amazing scenery, I couldn't stop taking photos, it's so photogenic 

Dropped the car off, popped into the visitor centre again to ask about Lake Louise. We had decided to not bother going. Shuttle bus tickets have all sold out, and therefore it will be really busy, so it almost seems better not to see it. Yesterday the ranger said that there had been space in the carpark till after 09.30, although it would cost $42 to park! So we thought perhaps we should get up early again and as we are driving that way anyway see how we get on. We went in today just to check where the carpark actually was only to discover that the carpark was full by 07.00 this morning! We still think we'll give it a go, but have a good fallback plan if we can't get in. 

We can't get into our accommodation till 17.00 so we need to have a plan. We have two nights in a cabin, with a shared kitchen, no electricity, no cell connectivity , no showers, just enough water for cooking and drinking..... Fingers crossed it's not as horrendous as it sounds!

The wildlife were out. This is a female Common Goldeneye duck swimming with her very cute chicks

Walked round the formal gardens, bought some supplies for the next couple of nights, had an early dinner and are now back to blog and have an early night.

This Mule deer was quietly eating the grass around the lake before the crowds came out

There were lots of ground squirrels out running about too as there were no crowds

And this little ground squirrel was enjoying a wild mushroom he'd picked 

Johnson Lake. Yes, it may look similar to the view around Cascade pools, but it's different and a little further round. I'm a sucker for mountains reflected in lakes and this was another idyllic location. We walked right round this one, about 3km or so, with fantastic scenery all the way

Halfway round another view comes in. I'm speechless!

A Common Loon floats on the water

Just playing around with reflections now

Round the other side for another view

Nearly back to the start for another view

Our fourth lake of the day, Two Jacks and I took this arty photo

We got talking to some people who'd used the rock to pose for photos that I took and they did the same for us

We drove up to the viewpoint on the way to the Torquay ski resort, up some tight hairpin bends to get this view of Banff down there with mountains all around

On the way up and down we were held up by a herd of Bighorn Sheep who insisted on blocking the road

Literally blocking the road. They take precedence over everything else, so we just have to wait until they decide to leave

In the Cave and Basin. Now a museum, it's a cave with a sulphurous hot lake at about 30C. You can't go in the water anymore as a rare snail that only exists here lives in the waters. It was originally found in 1883 by the McCardell brothers who were prospecting here and found the opening at the top where the light is coming in

They gingerly climbed down, as depicted in this mural. It was opened as a spa some years later with adverts to say it cures almost all illnesses.

But these rare, endangered snails live here so no bathing is allowed

Up some steps and this is a replica of the first log hotel built over the vent hole through which they climbed down into the underground pool

And right upon the top of the hill is where the sulphurous stream first appears from deep within the mountain

Captured a photo of this little chap on the way up to the spring. It's a Dark Eyed Junco. Also called a Snowbird as they seem to appear in many areas just as winter arrives

Another fabulous view from the sulphurous spring. Down there is the replica hotel and the green square is the opening to the sulphurous pool below and which the McCardells climbed down through

Last visit of the day to this beautiful mock Tudor house in Banff that I thought must have been built by some landed gentry. But no, it was built in 1935-6 by the Federal Government as the headquarters for the National Parks administration

The grounds are pretty amazing too

And all free to roam through

The view from the steps of the building straight down the main boulevard through Banff to Cascade Mountain beyond

Canada - days 34 to 38 - Carmacks, Whitehorse and Skagway

Five finger rapids. You can see a little island in the river, there are actually three others, dividing the Yukon river into 5 making it a particular hazard for paddle steamers during the gold rush days. To get to it we go down those steps, about 220 of them, followed by steep terrain

Day 34 - Carmacks

We knew there wasn't going to be much to see, and we knew that we were going to have a rubbish drive. We've met so many people complaining about this bit of road, and it started as soon as we left the campsite.

At the rapids. The flow is something approaching 10km/hr and only this nearside channel is deep enough for the steamers to pass through

I think we were relatively lucky though, Sunday, less people, no rain but enough guide cars to keep everything moving. It wasn't fun, but it wasn't as bad as lots of people make out on the Facebook groups.

We stopped at 5 finger rapids and did the lots of steps down and up again before continuing on to Carmacks.

One of the information boards had this photo of a steamer passing through

It felt like quite a long day by the time we arrived and we wanted to shower and for Brian to post some blog. Despite this I made him go for a little amble along the river and we hit the visitor centre with a lovely guy in it. He gave us some hikes so we set off to do one. We did the ascent and got a view, but it looked a bit like rain, and my ankle felt a bit sore, so we went down again.

Carmacks, on the Klondike Highway by where it passes over the Yukon River

We showered in the van, for the first time, neither of us really liked the look of the old showers at the site and we haven't even finished one of the two bottles of gas the van came with. It was ok and we both felt a lot better.

Our walk from our campsite in Carmacks up to a viewpoint

Blog then, why not do it in the bar with a pint? So that's what we did. He'd done some of it off line yesterday, but had no faith it wouldn't vanish so we were very pleased when it didn't. Good beer, good food and a good day 

Day 35 - Whitehorse

More stops on the Klondike Highway towards Whitehorse. This is an old roadhouse, the Montague on an old overland trail. The trail, Whitehorse to Dawson City, was constructed in 1902 to offer an alternative to the Yukon river. Roadhouses were built every 30-40km and had barns, corrals and stables, the journey taking five to seven days. Air travel and construction of the Klondike Highway closed the trail in the 1940's and only a few remnants remain. The roof was taken to Carmacks where it is still in use on their roadhouse

And we've gone full circle. We are back at the campsite we stayed at before we set off. They had a good book exchange then, but it all seems to have gone German in the last fortnight, so that's no good 

We left Carmacks, stopped for a short hike and viewpoint before heading to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. We got a discount from Fraserway and were hoping to see all the animals we might have missed while driving. It was 5km round the park, but felt like a lot longer walk than that, but I think it does when you go slowly.

A leaning log cabin by the Montague roadhouse, another relic of the old overland route

Anyway, we did see moose, elk mountain goats and caribou (which are the same as reindeer), not particularly close to as they have such big fields to roam in which is lovely. The only things we didn't see were the lynx and foxes but this isn't such a surprise, though slightly disappointing. 

Bison at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve

I suppose it's wrong to say that the things that made us smile the most though were the ground squirrels or gophers. Bounding about, chasing each other, into holes, standing and shouting at us. Very funny.

Stopped at the supermarket to get an easy dinner for tonight and some stuff for our train trip on Wednesday. Had to drink the whole bottle of wine we had left, which is a lot for us at the moment, and had a very chilled evening 

Ground squirrels or Gophers. Cute little things with so much energy they can run very fast

Look at this Elk, obviously the dominant male and so proud of it. Who would challenge him!

As we walked round two of these birds landed in trees near to us and made such a noise. They clearly weren't happy with us being there. We liked the name too, they are Lesser Yellow Legs 

Another visitor to the park, he's a male Mountain Bluebird, very eye catching. This photo is all my own work and unmodified, it's exactly as taken. I think it's really good!

Day 36 - Whitehorse

We woke up and leapt into action far too early really. We had to pack and sort out what food was left in the van. Empty the grey and black waters and fill with fuel. He set the limit at $200 and it took all that and only seemed a little under half! It's a big beast!

What nobody's told us was we were meant to bring it back vaguely clean so they could see if there was any damage. Nobody had told us that and the little overnight rain had done nothing but turn the dust into mud. It was filthy. She let us off though!

We visited a First Nations wood carvery workshop in Whitehorse. They have carved canoes from a solid tree trunk, totem poles as well as a miriad of wooden tools, spoons and decorative art

Our hotel is not really a hotel, but was all that was available at a sensible price. The place we stayed at before we did our drive was now very expensive. It's actually quite nice, a room in a house with a shared kitchen, not that I intend to cook here, though I have made sandwiches and being able to do breakfast is always good. There is no reception, but I had managed to get hold of the owner so when. Fraserway brought us round we could drop off our stuff, so giving us freedom.

He was currently carving a head of some sort

Our first stop was the train station as we are doing a coach and train journey through the mountains to Skagway in Alaska tomorrow. The lady in the ticket office knew who we were. We are the only ones going tomorrow it turns out! 20 or so today, and the day after, but we will have a whole coach to ourselves apart from a lady who is just using it as a bus service. It'll be very odd! 

Really pleased to see this little train operating on the old narrow guage railway through the town. I thought is was completely disused, but they operate it for tourists during the short summer months

Second stop visitor information, just to say thank you for all the help they gave us. The place was absolutely heaving. It turns out that at 09.00 tomorrow a race starts on the river to Dawson City. 444 miles (715 km) .They have three days, have to stop for a 10 break at Carmacks but apart from that it's up to them. There are canoes, kayaks, single and multiple and even stand up paddle boarders which in a river going 8-11 km/HR sounds crazy! It's a shame we will be on the train so can't see them set off, but perhaps that's why it's only us one the train!

This is the start of the next day (day 37) on our way by coach to Fraser to catch our train. Apparently this is one of the most photographed points on this stretch, albeit a bit cloudy. It's (unsurprisingly) Emerald Lake and I suspect the peak behind is Mount Gilliam at about 2000m

The whole town feels so different from when we were here at the very end of May, it's certainly warmer, though is also wetter, but there are so many more people and vehicles, it's a whole new place!

A bit of lunch and a bit of a walk before coming back to check in. Fortunately we were first in what has seemed like a steady stream of people, and even more weird he has brought us all 500m from where we expected to stay to a little terrace of houses, which are his 'upgrades' . I do quite like it but there is something slightly unnerving about being driven round the corner to somewhere else though it is possibly more central.

Dinner was at a place we tried to go to last time only to find it shut. The spicy noodles were fab though, glad we tried again. Curry tomorrow!

We stopped at Carcross and these two buildings are the oldest businesses in town, the pink one being a general store serving people back in the gold rush days 

Day 37 - Whitehorse to Skagway and back

Despite yesterday starting wet, it warmed up quite considerably. There were children in bathing costumes splashing in the water fountains. Today was cold and wet. We were back to fleece layers and left to go to the station wearing our waterproofs and carrying our down jackets. 

This is the remains of The Tutshi Sternwheeler that was burned. The framework gives the old outline

We arrived at the station, to meet the lady just getting the bus to Skagway, and the bus driver Jim. We did then have to go via the campsite we left yesterday to pick up 5 more people doing the trip, so 8 of us on a full size coach.

Laid out inside were the old engines that drove the paddle wheel. A steam driven piston drives a rod in and out. The rod extends through the back to drive a crank on the paddle wheel creating  the circular movement to drive the ship through water

First thing to be pointed out was a cliff with some mountain goats on. Before we saw them though there was a mountain bear. As usual Brian and I were the only ones to see it and I don't think anyone else believed us.

Waiting to get onto our train on the White Pass line, built in 1900 to provide a better way of getting prospectors and equipment up the desolate landscape from the seaport at Skagway. It was later invaluable in getting men and equipment into the interior for construction of the Alcan Highway. It's a 3ft narrow guage track and is now designated an international historic civil engineering landmark in the same class as the Panama Canal, passing through some amazing scenery on its descent to the port 

Our first stop was Carcross which we had been tempted to try and get to in the van until we booked this trip. Lovely little town, though not all the shops were open when we stopped. It was mainly a wee stop but there was lots to see.

It rattles along in an old fashioned chug-chug fashion and you can only be wowed at the engineering achievement of it's construction of the time

We arrived at Fraser in good time, but I guess the train wasn't going to wait for us. We were first onto our allocated carriage and walked down nearly to the far  end. Nobody else could really be bothered it seemed so we got the seats on both sides of the train that we could bounce back and forth on. We could also go and stand outside at the front and the back, though it was too cold to stay out there for long.

Amazingly the train is just coming to a stop to pick up hikers. It's a marked station but no platforms seem to exist, hikers were waiting at the trackside just by the red waggon you can just see beyond the bridge. They were helped up and off we went again

The scenery was stunning, an amazing two hour train journey passed in a flash. Finding a moment to eat our sandwiches was really tricky! His pictures will hopefully show some of this.

Passing the official USA/Canada border

We weren't allowed off the train, once we'd arrived in Skagway until the US border guard had walked through as we all held our passports up to our faces. She didn't check our ESTA or our I94, which we already had, but perhaps the ticket office had done that. We got back on the bus to be taken the very short distance into Skagway. They used to make people walk this, but apparently it was too confusing for people to then be picked up in town, so poor Jim had to take us to show us where he would collect us from!

The wooden cross on the bolder down there marks the resting place of two railway construction workers who were crushed beneath it when it fell. It's estimated to weigh 500 tonnes so couldn't be moved, the mens remains are still where they were crushed

We were slightly late, so our 2 hours had been reduced a little, but that was fine. Skagway, a town of 1100 people was overrun by the 4 cruise ships that were in! We'd encountered some of them on the train, either making the journey up and getting on a bus, or getting off a bus and getting on the train. The rest of them all seemed to be in town, hideous! We managed to entertain ourselves in the museums though before heading back to Jim. 

On the right you can just make out a path. That is the Chilkoot Trail and was the original route traversed by tens of thousands of men who climbed these desolate hills in search of gold. The railway was completed a couple of years later to make it easier but, today the Chilkoot trail is a recognised hike that many people still do

Fill out customs forms for Canada, and off we went. He took us out trying not to run over any of the people who just seemed to amble across the road infront of him, past the two housing sites set up by the two bus companies required to home the 80-100 bus drivers required in the summer months! We had to stop at Fraser again, partly as this was where Canadian Customs was but also we had one more passenger to pick up. Having not been scanned or stamped into the US this time, our passports were scanned back into Canada. Hopefully this will remove any confusion we may have caused at our last border crossing.

The port city of Skagway. It's kept its frontier charm but is a massively popular cruise port with a capacity of up to seven huge cruise liners. Today there were four big ships in and the place was heaving. That's quite typical during the summer months

The last passenger was Ryan, who has just finished his 9 years of study and is now 1 week into a 9 month trip taking him from Anchorage, through Canada and the US, into Central America and all the way to Ushuaia at the Southern tip of Argentina. We talked to him, about travel and South America all the way back. He's going to have a great time.

We spent time in museums as the bars and restaurants were full

Apart from a few lay-bys and to be told that the mountain goats we'd seen on the way out were still in exactly the same place as they had been on the way out as actually they are stuffed (though I couldn't see the bear). The only place we stopped was the Carcross Desert. The worlds smallest. This was at our request, and I'm not sure the 5 together were impressed, but we enjoyed it. Turns out it's not a real desert but we liked it 

The Red Onion Saloon, the place to visit apparently. It used to be a brothel upstairs and for US$20 you could do a tour up there. You can see the queue outside so we didn't bother

Back to Whitehorse, Jim almost managed to drop us off at the door, but that would have been bad in a big bus, and we went straight out to the Indian we ate at last time we were on town. Yummy again, and the waitress remembered us, what we ate, what we drank and that I don't like cilantro! That's impressive 

On the coach ride back we had several stops at viewpoints. This one had to be done!

Day 38 Whitehorse

A relaxed start, well we won't have one tomorrow.

Out to get some breakfast, then back to do a little planning, what else do you do when it's raining?

Looking at the map, there is a set of stairs almost opposite our house, which go up to the airport, so once the rain stopped we thought we'd go and explore. The stairs seem to be the fitness centre of Whitehorse, there were people running up and down like nutters. We didn't!

The Carcross Desert, dubbed the worlds smallest desert, except its not a true desert, more the result of glacial action and settlement at the bottom of a dried lake

Got to the top and there was the airport, and a sign saying caution, active runway, and caution, jet blast. So I messaged John in the UK to see if there were any planes expected. We had about 5 minutes till one came in, over our heads from Dawson City, but the earth didn't move for me.

Another must stop. Photos taken by Ryan, our fellow coach passenger just starting his 9 month trip 

We carried on around the airport to the world's biggest weather vane. A DC3 that swings so its nose always points into the wind. Not sure the regular chimney stack could take it! This was outside the transport museum, so in we went. As ever Brian can spend forever in a museum and I had to drag him out, but it really was very good.

Today,  walk up the 200 odd steps to the plateau on which the airport is. We were hoping for a fabulous view over Whitehorse, but the trees have grown! Instead we waited for a plane to land by the 'Caution Jet Blast' sign

We had a Thursday market to get to twenty minutes in the opposite direction from the house. We popped in and met the third mining geologist to have stayed here in three nights. This one was from Gloucester though, so we did have a bit of a chat.

A little walk further round and we came to the main airport entrance and its showpiece, the world's largest weathervane, a DC3 mounted on a swivel so the nose always points to the wind. How cool is that!

The market was bigger than it looked, though we didn't buy anything, except dinner from a couple of the food trucks which was absolutely brilliant. Fish and chips for him and BBQ brisket and Mac and cheese for me.

Just got to repack, blog and shower before our 04.30 pick up for the airport tomorrow!

And some mammoth statues!

And lots of other old stuff. That led us to the Transport Museum, which was really interesting. It didn't look very big so we thought we'd be in and out but, oh no, it was bigger than it looked and full of stuff

Old aircraft, cars, trucks, dog sleds, anything to do with transport. A good two hours of anyone's time (and could have been longer, except she told me we've got to go!)

The dedication of the people who have restored these machines is astounding. This helicopter (the oldest in the Yukon) was left abandoned in a remote area after it crashed in 1952. The tail was found 160km away! It has been painstakingly restored

This beautifully restored Fairchild plane looked similar to the photo below and restored to its former glory

How some of the stuff arrived here before restoration. How on earth do they do it?

A section taken from a balcony. I could have spent a lot longer there. Not least was an exhibit containing a section of a crashed plane  along with the amazing story of pilot Ralph Flores and his passenger Helen Klaben who survived 49 days in temperatures of -40C with little food. Their plane crashed in dense jungle in February 1963 and no rescuers could see them from the air. The rescue was called off and eventually Ralph walked 2 miles to a clearing to erect a giant SOS with an arrow pointing to where they were. It was randomly spotted by an airman flying supplies to a remote settlement and they were rescued. Amazing story, we had to read the whole thing. Their families have now retrieved the remains from the jungle and plan to rebuild the plane and hope to complete the journey they started when they crashed!

A silly picture to finish. Who wants to challenge me with these?