Who Feels Like a Nice, Relaxing Drive Up a Mountain?

Good evening esteemed peers!  How are you all doing today?  I hope this finds you well, as always.  My day started off early; I'm very nearly over this cold, but I just had a brief coughing spell around 5:00 this morning that was enough to wake me up.  Since it was still fully dark I decided to go outside to see if the aurora were active.  There wasn't much going on in the northern sky, but as I waited to see if I'd get a show I started to hear the howling of wolves, which is a magnificent thing to hear.  Happy I took the time to stand outside.

We didn't really have a game-plan for today, but I've had my eyes set on Grey Mountain for some time now.  It was actually on my to-do list the last time we were in Whitehorse but I didn't have the chance to get up there.  It was appealing because it's immediately to the southeast of Whitehorse, so it's accessible from here and offers good views.  Also you can drive a considerable distance up the mountain, so it's not a strenuous hike once you set out on foot.  The last time we were here we just didn't find the time, but I was hoping to fit it in on this trip, and so I suggested it this morning.

We set out after breakfast and headed for the mountain.  I'd heard that the road can be a bit rough, so I was prepared for that.  It's about 11 km from the start of the road until the parking lot at a communication tower on the mountain.  Two kilometres in the road turns to gravel, and I was skipping along nicely, wondering what all the fuss was about.  It was the point where we were 5 km from the parking lot that things started to get dicey.  The potholes and rocky protrusions started to become more frequent and treacherous looking, and I was spending a lot of time working the angles to ensure the smoothest ride possible.  With just a few kilometres left I was crawling.  There were points where I caught up to hikers and took easily one hundred metres just to get past them as the road was too narrow to safely pass, and I wasn't really going that much faster than they were.  With only five hundred metres to go we approached a bend, just wide enough for the car and with a sheer drop on the one side.  I was keen to make it to the parking lot, but given that we had an easy spot to pull over just behind me, my driving companions informed me that they had no wish to die in order to satisfy my need for completion.  So we parked the car and did the last stretch on foot.

Once you (bravely) get to the comm towers there's a clearly marked trail leading to the first of three peaks that make up the mountain.  Our aim was just to get to the first one as it's a decent hike to get there, and working your way along the entire ridge line was more than any of us was willing to sign up for.  From the trail head it's actually fairly easy hiking, except for one spot that had some decidedly unstable looking rocks next to a nasty looking drop off.  Euphy wasn't feeling up to that and decided to make her way back, so Dad relieved me of my Finn-laden backpack while Mom and I finished the accent.  It was a great hike and we had terrific weather for it today.

Close to the parking lot.  This photo was taken from just enough roadway for a single car.  The results of a misstep should be fairly obvious.

A view from the starting point, looking towards the first peak.

The view that I climbed up there for.

Mom proudly making it to the summit.

A view of one of Yukon's many stunning lakes below us.

You could clearly see some weather forming behind us as we finished the hike.

I got back just in time to stop Finn from driving off without me.

So, the long and short of it is that if you're looking for a good hike around Whitehorse you'll find one at Grey Mountain, but you should make sure you've got a larger vehicle.  I wouldn't have made it nearly as far as I did if I didn't have the kind of ground clearance that I was working with.

On the way back through Whitehorse we stopped off at The Deli.  Up, that's in capitals because that's the name of it.  I guess when you set up shop in a town the size of Whitehorse you can get away with just calling yourself The Deli without fear of that becoming ambiguous.  If you find yourself in Whitehorse and in need of a sandwich I'd highly recommend a stop there, you'll be well served.

After lunch we headed out to the Yukon Transportation Museum that we'd missed previously.  We had a lot of fun there, particularly Finn who was greatly enamoured with all the huge vehicles on display.  Trains, planes, and automobiles in abundance!

The museum is just outside the airport, and you can clearly see the mounted plane from the highway.

Cool old car is old and cool.

My own ceiling decor seems lacklustre in comparison.

A fair number of the exhibits are hands-off, but they scatter some interactive bits in there for the kids.  This is just the cockpit from a small plane that Finn is attempting to fly.

I loved this helicopter, mostly because it was clearly jury-rigged for a water landing.

Tons of cool old military vehicles around.

Old Mounty car!

And then there's this behemoth.  I have no idea what it is, no plaque was present to explain it, but it's gigantic and labelled as US Army vehicle.

This selfie is presented not for vanity (clearly) but as my only convenient way of demonstrating the size of the wheels on this beast.

Lastly there's this thing, which I have to assume is standard equipment for the day-to-day fighting of zombies.

There were some great stories spread throughout the museum, and a ton of cool vehicles.  Lots of military stuff from around WWII, as I think that the war and consequent building of the Alaska Highway really shaped Whitehorse.

After all that I was cooked.  I was still pretty pumped up after a nice hike on the mountain, but a little bit of lunch and calm walk around the museum helped me realise that I'd had a long day.  I've spent the rest of the day just chilling out at the house.  On that note actually, I think it's time for me to call it a night.  Have a good one, and I'll talk to you all soon.