June 13, 2026 bus to Whitehorse

Today’s sunrise was at 3:44 a.m., the blackout curtains in our room worked very well. The temperature was 10°C at 6 a.m. under a sunny sky with hardly any wind. Our luggage had to be in the hall by 6:30 a.m. The planned meeting time was 7:15 a.m., so yesterday we bought some yogurt and raspberries for breakfast in our room.

We were on our way by 7:20 a.m. for the nine hour trip [533 kilometre (331-mile) route] from Dawson City to Whitehorse on Highway 2, the Klondike Highway. The New Zealand couple and a Nova Scotia woman doing the reverse tour to us, all said that there would be road construction delays. As we boarded the motor coach, Mavis had placed a 475 ml metal bottle of water at each seat and a Yukon road map for each pair of seats.

Today’s route follows the Klondike River to just past Glenboyle (44 km), at the Dempster Highway cutoff ,which terminates at Inuvik, Northwest Territories.

The Dempster Highway is a two-lane, gravel surfaced, all-weather road that follows a route traditionally used by Indigenous people for thousands of years. It passes through the territories of the Hän, Gwichin, and Inuvialuit peoples.

Construction of the Dempster Highway began in 1959 as a part of the Roads to Resources program, but wasn’t completed until 20 years later, in 1979. This is the only road in Canada which crosses the Arctic Circle.

Although the Klondike Highway is mostly paved, there were intervals of gravel road in construction areas. There were two lengthy construction projects requiring pilot vehicle. We had to wait to be escorted through the construction zone before lunch. The speed limit was reduced to 50 km/hr. Road construction lasts three years. The basic road bed is protecting the permafrost from melting from the heat of vehicle traffic on the finished road. This base layer needs to rest for two years before the final layer of tar and gravel is applied.

The first photo stop was at Tintina Trench, where two tectonic plates, creating a fault line, pass each other going in opposite directions. This movement has caused the two plates to separate over thousands of years, creating a wide valley. The next scheduled stop was three hours away.

At Stewart Crossing, (179 km) we saw the turnoff road to Mayo and the mines beyond it. Highway 2 continued across the bridge spanning the Stewart River.

The lunch stop, about the halfway point (283 km), was located on the Yukon River. There were panoramic views of the Yukon River we enjoyed during the one hour lunch break. About 400 people live here in the Selkirk First Nation Category A settlement land. The bountiful buffet included two soups - beef barley and cream of broccoli; chicken skewers and rice pilaf; a platter of cold cuts and Swiss cheese slices; coleslaw and tossed salad with a choice of dressings. Dessert was Nanaimo Slice. Soft drinks, tea and coffee were also available.

Near the dining hall was a gathering circle with an iron fire pit featuring a cutouts on the metal border saluting the salmon. A copper and gold mine was once worked nearby called Minto. The mine opened in 2007 and closed in 2019 when Capstone Mining Corporation sold it. The Klondike Highway (Highway 2) originated in 1902 as the Whitehorse-Dawson Overland Road which was used in the winter as a way for the White Pass and Yukon Route Company to haul mail and additionally freight and passengers. In summer, the sternwheelers were used as the main transport. In 1930 the route was abandoned with the advent of air mail. In 1955, an all season road was opened, which ended the era of the sternwheeler. In some places along the route the old wagon trail is still visible.

Leaving Selkirk to join the highway we had to wait for the pilot vehicle to come before resuming travel. Mavis played a 20 minute video about the sternwheeler riverboats during the 1930s,

At Five Finger Rapids there was another photo stop. At the rapids, the Whitehorse bound sternwheeler riverboat crews had to winch the boats through the rapids over the 30 to 60 centimetre drop in the navigable channel, using land based cables After many years the underwater obstacles were blasted away. Our final stop was at a small shopping centre at Carmacks, Yukon, where some passengers bought snacks including Ketchup chips, which are unique to Canada.

About an hour before arriving in Whitehorse, some grey clouds gathered, but they disappeared a few hours later. Tomorrow the forecast is for rain.

We reached the outskirts of Whitehorse at 4:17 p.m. A few minutes later the motor coach made a left turn onto the Alaska Highway to take us into downtown Whitehorse arriving at the hotel just after 4:30 p.m. Whitehorse is located at Historic Mile 918 of the Alaska Highway.

As we got off the motor coach, Zelzen distributed the room cards and instructions for tomorrow’s departure to Skagway. About half the group waited an extra few minutes in the lobby for their rooms to be prepared due to a staff shortage.

Whitehorse’s latitude is 60.43° North which is similar to the latitude of Qaqortoq, at the southern tip of Greenland, which we visited in 2023. Whitehorse’s latitude is just

a bit south of Anchorage, Alaska’s latitude. Whitehorse has been the capital of the Yukon territory since 1953 due to its hub location on the Alaska Highway.

During the Klondike Gold Rush because of the Miles Canyon and Whitehorse Rapids obstacles, many prospectors were washed up at Whitehorse. This prompted the Canadian Government to require that every prospective gold miner had to haul along a year’s supply of goods to enter Canada. The recommended list included 10 pounds of coffee, 150 pounds of bacon and 400 pounds of flour—part of a total 1,095 pounds of grub. Including equipment such as picks, ropes and a dozen heavy wool socks for the hash winters. The load could weigh up to a ton. It took many trips up the steep mountain trail to accumulate the required gear.

While waiting for our luggage to be delivered we completed yesterday’s blog post. Out our window we could the sign for Klondike Rib & Salmon which on the list of suggested restaurants from Zelzen. When we arrived there were four couples from our group finishing their dinner. We ordered battered halibut and fries plus hot chocolate and Yukon Gold English Pale Ale.

After dinner we walked to Robert Service Way, passing the Yukon Legislature, near the river at the end of 2nd Avenue where the sternwheeler S S Klondike is moored, then strolled along the river walk to Ogilvie Street then back to hotel also on 2nd Avenue at Wood Street. It was a 3.5 km walk.

Total steps 7,956