Down To Carcross and Across

Evening all!  I hope this post finds you well.

We spent a good portion of today on the road, making a trip south to Carcross.  The drive from Whitehorse is about an hour if you go straight through, and it's well worth doing, especially if you don't go straight through.  If you find yourself in Whitehorse and you have access to a vehicle you should definitely take a day and head down to Carcross, but make sure you leave time for a few stops along the way.  The first part of this actually mirrored a trip that Euphy and I did four years ago after leaving the Boreal Mountain Biking Lodge.  We headed south and made our first stop at Emerald Lake.

The aptly named Emerald Lake.

As you can see from the photo above, the weather wasn't terrific as we set out, but the weather report was calling for the clouds to clear up by midday so we soldiered on.  A bit of sunlight would have improved the view, but it was still worth making the stop.

From there it's just a few minutes drive further down the road until you hit the Carcross Desert.  Apparently it's not a true desert but actually a series of dunes... I didn't re-read all the details as I'd already looked at them before, and I think I might have posted about it previously.  I encourage you all to go through the archives and find out.

Finn, knowing that these are dunes of beach sand and not a desert, came prepared with appropriate toys.

The view from close to the road.  Euphy and I didn't go deep into the desert last time we were here, but this time I was determined to climb the tallest dune.

Walking up sand isn't easy, but the view was worth the effort.

Looking back the way I came.  That's Bennet Lake in the background, with Carcross somewhere along the shore.

The three survey markers shown above were all placed on low concrete slabs, all three of which can be seen in this photo.  Apparently this was used to triangulate... something.

After we'd had our fill of sand we drove the rest of the way in to Carcross.  It's a very small town, most notable as being one end of the White Pass train line that runs down to Skagway, Alaska.  Apparently it's a beautiful ride, but a trip to Alaska wasn't on the agenda.

We did take a moment to allow Finn to commandeer one of the original train engines.

There's some very nice shopping to be done in Carcross, but this view is the real reason to come down.

We walked around Carcross for awhile and admired the views.  The waters of Bennet Lake are stunningly clear and there's a gorgeous beach there.  I'm not sure, but I strongly suspect that it would be a brilliant place to swim in the summer.  As it was the predicted break in the clouds (and associate rise in temperatures) hadn't materialised, so I had to restrain my natural desire to jump in the lake.

We found a picnic table in town and stopped for a lunch we'd brought with us.  This proved to be good timing as it kept us in town long enough to see the White Pass train arrive.  Those of you who have met my son recently will understand that this arrival elicited a fair amount of excitement.

Finn was somewhat amused by the presence of this train.

The last time I was here we just took the highway back up north, straight to Whitehorse.  This time we decided to take a less direct path home.  Just driving along the highways up here is a glorious experience, with stunning views around every bend.  Taking the long road home is always advisable.

Instead of taking highway 2 up to highway 1 (not a lot of numbers are necessary up this way) we took the 8 eastward.  This route takes you through Tagish (a very small town that straddles a river of the same name) and ends at Jakes Corner (an intersection with a name.)  At this point you can take highway 1 back up north and eventually end up in Whitehorse.  If you've already gone down the 2 to get to Carcross this adds some new scenery to the trip, and is well worth doing.

Along the way we stopped at a recreational area on the shores of Marsh Lake.  There was a nice playground for Finn and we could take it some enjoy the views.

Marsh lake.

After that we made our way back to Whitehorse and have spent the evening relaxing at the house.  I'm sure tomorrow will bring many more adventures, so for now it's off to bed.  I hope you're all having a lovely day, and I'll check in again soon.