White Pass & Yukon Route

On Sunday, 20 July, we got up early to catch our ride on the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad train for a round trip excursion from Skagway to White Pass and back. The train departed Skagway at 8:15 AM with us on board for this historical and scenic tour to White Pass. The WP&YR was built to carry gold rushers over the pass, first to Bennett Lake and later all the way to White Horse. After the gold rush the railroad made its money hauling ore and tourists until 1942 when the US Government and Canada decided to build the Alaska-Canada (ALCAN) Highway. Then the WP&YR was put into service hauling equipment, people and supplies from Skagway to Whitehorse to build the highway. Since then the WP&YR has remained successful hauling 3 to 6000 tourists a day during the May through September season over the hill and back.

Entering a Tunnel


Some Scenery on the Route


Looking Back at Skagway from the Train

The WP&YR at the Summit of White Pass

We were back in Skagway at 11:15 AM and by 12:30 PM we were on our way to Tagish. This time we drove over the pass in our Winnebago. The grade heading to the summit reached 11% which made the Winnebago huff and pant a bit. We saw one brown black bear and one black black bear between Skagway and Carcross. The scenery all the way across was stunning with a lot of views overlooking the lakes along the route.

Lake Tutshi

Tagish Lake

At Carcross we turned right on the Tagish Road to our home for the night. In the spring of 1898 thousands of gold rushers in 7000 home made boats came through Carcross (Originally Caribou Crossing) on their way from Bennett Lake, where they had wintered, on their way to the Yukon River and Dawson City in search of their fortunes in gold. To get to Bennett Lake the gold rushers had to carry their mandatory one year's supply of food and goods (The mounties wouldn't let them into Canada without this 2000 pounds of stuff) over either Chilkoot Pass or White Pass. Doesn't that sound like fun.

Passage between Bennett Lake and Tagish Lake at Carcross

Our chosen home for the next two nights it the Yukon Provincial Campground in Tagish near the narrows between Tagis Lake and Marsh Lake, also the route of the gold rushers. We chose a nice wooded campsite with free firewood and an adequate supply of mosquitoes. We were the only people in the campground the first night and one of two campers on the second night. Peaceful is the operative word here.