Today’s trip has it all: grand scenery, great history, fascinating characters and a rollicking good train ride! The Klondike Gold Rush of 1898 led miners to travel via the feared Chilkoot Trail up from the coast at Skagway and through the coastal mountains to a series of lakes leading to the Yukon River and thence to Dawson City. This railway was built in 1898 to 1900 by 35,000 men through ravines and mountains to carry the gold of the Klondike and those who sought it.
Today it’s one of the great rail journeys of the world ( see my Top Ten list at: http://www.chrisrobinsontravelshow.ca ) I boarded in Carcross, a tiny Yukon community, and the old carriages were soon rattling and rolling along the shores of Bennett Lake with snowcapped peaks rising above. The borders of the Yukon, British Columbia and Alaska all converge in this area. We stopped for lunch in the ghost town of Bennett, BC at the other end of the lake, where the Brakeman turned his hand to playing piano ballads.
There was time in Bennett for me to hike a little of the northern end of the old Chilkoot Trail: a few minutes up the trail I was in glorious wilderness, a jumble of rock, tree, sky and racing river. Back on the train again, we continued to Fraser where I interviewed David Dobbs, the Conductor on the train, before returning to Whitehorse on the South Klondike ‘Highway’. A memorable day.
1 comment:
Hi Chris: My wife and I visited Alaska for 18 days in May & June this year. We took a seven days Holland America cruise from Vancouver to Seward. We travelled to Anchorage and flew to Fairbanks. Then we travelled to Denali and back to Fairbanks. Although we did not get to the Yukon, the scenery and animals in Alaska were outstanding. When we return again we will definately include Yukon.
Post a Comment