We find a hotel, not so easy given how long it's been since we've showered, and the daughter was absolutely devoured by the Black Flies in Burns Lake, so we're both covered in scabs and dirt. We end up in a small hotel across from the Macbride Museum, an absolutely perfect local museum of Whitehorse History that's stuffed with Native Artifacts, Taxidermy Animals and Tools from the old gold rush, the original Sam McGee's Cabin.
After exploring the museum we head on down to find the Visitor's Information Center - another World Class facility, with information on pretty much everything you could possibly want to do in the Yukon, displays of Animals and the Precious Gems and Minerals of the area - geodes filled with powery blue crystals, giant smokey quart crystals, emeralds and other finds. And, ever helpful the attendant photocopies us a guidebook to the rocks and minerals of the area, tomorrows plans are already made....
There are pictures of the Dempster Highway, which runs past the Arctic Circle to Inuvik. We're so close, and for another 10, 12 hours drive we could be there....but time on this vacation is limited, and already we've spent far too much time in the car. Next Year.
We walk around the main streets, brightly painted storefronts, it reminds one somewhat of Banff, only a Banff that's infinitely more remote than Banff is, far less "commercial" and much more - well, authentic. It's attracted it's share of tourists, to be sure, but they're the more hardened adventure tourists and wilderness lovers, those here hoping for bigger adventures and off the trail ruggedness that Banff doesn't offer.
I like it.
After dinner we curl up in the hotel room and watch TV. This is a treat I get only every other year, never having it hooked up at home.
London is burning, there are the riots and rioters tearing apart the neighborhoods, Anchors and commentators wondering "Why" when they really should be asking "What's taken them so long?". There's "Billy the Exterminator" - a surreal "reality" show that centers upon an illiterate family of exterminators in Americas South East, the staged wrestling of alligators and snakes, squashing of wasps, absolutely ridiculous. There are other shows, like "Canadian Pickers" and the standard forensic documentaries, YTV, rubbish, and finally it's time for sleep.
***
The next day we head off to go rockhounding. The guidebook copied for us suggests a few locations to go looking for rocks, we settle on the Geodes about Carmacks region and head off. The digging is good and we turn up a few rocks, the drive is absolutely stunning and the road beacons you on and on but we have to turn back, we camp that night beside Fox Lake, a beautiful specimen of Azurite left by an earlier traveler on the picnic table. And no sooner do we begin setting up the tent then it begins to blow and rain.
And rain.
Cooking dinner the pots fill with the rain, we crawl into the tent but the wind blows the fly back and the rain gets inside, all night it pours.
The next morning, still pouring, cold, windy, we pack up and head back to Whitehorse.
***
We explore more. The MacBride Museum is fabulous, and they have a map inlaid with plaster gold nuggets that show the amount of gold that was taken from each claim on the local gold bearing creeks. We take the trolley through town past the homeless encampment on the city hall's front lawn to the SS Klondike, a perfectly preserved steamboat from the day. We look at the bust of Jack London on the main street, grab a coffee at the Starbucks - and here I must note that the new gold rush is in both the Starbucks and Tim Hortons, which duel it out across the street from one another - every time you enter or pass, at any time of day, there's a line up of patrons waiting for their coffee. You can't print money that fast.
We check out a couple of the local art galleries, they're fine, then have dinner at one of the more "local" places.
The town is busy. Small, but they've done a good job of keeping the local character. There's the character bars, the "99", there are enough distractions to keep us busy for the day.
It's a great town, and I have a feeling that it will boom - the wilderness that surrounds it is indeed wilderness, there are countless unexplored mountains and creeks, and if I had the money for real estate I would spend it here, buy up properties downtown and restore them, there will be soon another boom in precious and rare earth metals and prices will skyrocket.
And that's Whitehorse.