Whitehorse is rather a small city. It has definitely seen better times; during the Klondike Gold Rush. Nevertheless, it’s definitely one of the places to be, if one chooses to spend some time away from everyone and everything in untouched natural surroundings.
After being up most of the previous night, viewing the aurorae, and sleeping for ~5 hours, a city tour guide was waiting for us in the hotel’s lobby. This time the guide was a German-Canadian who visited, with his wife, the Yukon some time ago, and just fell in love with the place, and decided to move to Whitehorse. He then started his own tourist oriented business from guiding tours, to canoeing, to taking groups to remote lakes & parks, and such.
Our first stop was the Yukon Visitor Information Center. There they have the typical historical info about the city, how it came to be and all the wildlife that exists there, with a large map showing all the major cities & towns, and the routes between them, and how some of these routes are only open starting late Spring, due to the heavy snow. We also watched a short video in the amphitheater about the Yukon, which was quite warm and makes you want to just drop everything in your life and just move to the Yukon!
After that, we headed to the national historical site of the SS Klondike II. Ships have come a long way since then I suppose.
And to conclude the city tour, our guide took us to see the log skyscraper. Which is a four-storey (maximum allowed by the city building code) wood frame building.
At this point, the group separated for a lunch break, to reconvene after lunch at the hotel’s lobby; for the Yukon Wildlife Preserve & Takhini Hot Springs tour.
