August 21 and 22

Yesterday was still cloudy but the rain let up so we took a walk along Miles Canyon. This is the narrows above Whitehorse that gave the city its name for the “white horses” of the rapids. There is a dam below it now so it is calmer, but the waters of the Yukon still rush through it. We crossed the footbridge, which was not Gypsy’s favorite part of the hike. She splayed her legs apart as wide as she could and waddled over the bridge as quickly as Gerry would let her go. Once on the other side there was a mile or more of path and she checked out every inch of it.


This is the Yukon looking upstream from Canyon City.






The path led to Canyon City that the gold rush stampeders founded above the rapids as a staging area for supplies. The hopeful gold miners could either pay a guide to get their boats through the rapids or pay for a tram to take their goods. Now the only things left of Canyon City are some of the rotting tram cars.

It was a lovely day for a walk in the woods. The only sounds we could hear were an occasionally splash of water and the tsks and twitters of juncos, warblers and chickadees. Two grey jays kept us company for a time, hoping we had something tasty to share, and the red squirrels taunted Gypsy. “Ha, ha, can’t catch me! You’re just a dog, you can’t climb a tree.”


Miles Canyon where it gets narrow and the wide river has to squeeze through. The color is amazing and the water is so clear you can see the rocks below the surface.

As we drove back to the RV park we passed the lake just above the dam and saw two loons swimming. We stopped and they obligingly swam over close to the edge of the lake so I could take their picture.

After dinner we drove up to Takhini Hot Springs west of town. The springs are not sulfur like Liard and China Hot Springs, but they are rich in calcium and iron, leaving everything dyed a light orange, including the white parts of the design on my bathing suit. We moved back and forth between the hot and hotter pools, and had some interesting discussions with some of the locals who were there for a soak. As we drove back to Cleo, the rains started again, and it was sure good sleeping last night between the relaxed muscles and patter of rain on the awning outside the bedroom window.

Today we hoped to drive up to the top of the mountain overlooking Whitehorse but it has rained steadily and the top of the mountain is in the clouds. So I took Gypsy over to a wash-your-dog place and tortured the poor baby. This is, of course, the same dog that was delighted to be wet up to her chin wading in the icy cold river yesterday, but spraying her with warm water is just a terrible thing to do a poor dog. But now she’s clean and we left a LOT of hair there.