Yukon Have it!

This summer I made my semi-annual trip to Alaska.  Last year, we rode the White Pass railway, which took the path the sourdoughs followed when making the trek into the gold fields of the Yukon.  The ride ended at the border to Canada, stopping short of the wonders of the Yukon.  This year, we took a trek into the Yukon to experience the granduer of Canada's least-populated province.
The tour bus picked us up promptly at 0800 AM at the Skagway shipyards.  Once aboard the bus took a trip through town, then joined up with the Klondike Highway to start the trip to the Yukon.   This road winded through the mountains that once challenged then fortitude of the goldseekers (and my stomach), and the fog made driving difficult.   But once we reached the top and began the trip into Canada, the fog cleared and the weather cooperated for the rest of the trip.



Driving along the Klondike Highway.  Nary a Stuckey's to be found.

Welcome to the Yukon!   I immediately took on the nickname of "Yukon Joe" and insisted that everyone on the bus address me by that name.  For some reason, after that no one would tell me when it was time to get on the bus.   I assume they wanted me to have the most time to enjoy the scenery.

This is Bove Island, located in Taglish Lake.   I wish I was a better photographer, because this really was a beautiful site. 

Our lunch stop was at Spirit Lake Wilderness Resort, where we were treated to a lunch of soup, sandwiches and what was billed as the best pie in the Yukon.   All I can say is, someone could make a fortune opening a Marie Callendar's up here.

 After making a brief stop at what was billed as "The Worst Restroom in Canada" we eventually made it to Carcross.  Carcross, originally known as Caribou Crossing, was a popular stopping point for prospectors heading towards Dawson City or Whitehorse, and continues to be to this day.   Tourism is the #1 economy for this population of about 200.  It's conveniently located at the intersection of the Klondike Highway and Tagish Road, between Lake Bennet and Nares Lake.  It's also a stop on the White Pass Railway.

 

Here's the train station at Carcross.  Train service resumed in 2007. 

The Matthew Watson General Store is the oldest operating store in the Yukon.  They don't take supermarket coupons, as I soon found out.

Inside the General Store, catering to all your moose-related needs.



Another view of the train station.   To the left is one of the original locomotives.  I asked someone where I could find an old caboose.  I didn't like his answer.

Beautiful downtown Carcross.  There was a bakery on the right that served some great rolls. 

This was the Carcross visitor's center.  Next to it was a small assemblage of shops catering to the tourist.   They DID take coupons, all of which could be found in the travel guides in the visitor's center.   A very symbiotic relationship.

The Shoppes of Carcross.  Not exactly Westside Pavilion, but the fish and chips were excellent.

Now this is a sad story.   The S.S. Tutshi was the largest excursion boats built at the time, and catered to first class-passengers with such novelties as room service.  Built in 1917, she took pleasure-seeking tourists to Ben-My-Chree (a interesting story in itself that you should seek out later) and up the river until she was retired in 1956.  She sat unused until the people of Carcross decided to buy her and restore her to her formal glory as a tourist draw.   Work began in 1972.  Painting was completed in 1977 and the restoration work began in earnest in 1984.   By 1990 work was almost completed when an early morning fire destroyed most of the ship, except for a small part of the bow.  It now sits just as you see it, a testament to early tourism in the area.

Lake Bennet.   You can almost imagine the sourdoughs piloting their boats towards Whitehorse.

Who said there are no beaches in the Yukon?  Probably no one.   But, in case you are curious, here's the beach at Carcross.

There was an annoying photographer on our bus that was constantly taking pictures of everything.  However, annoying as he was, he really could take a good picture, even with my cheap camera.

Outside of Carcross was Emerald Lake.  It was the color of an emerald.   Hey, maybe that's where the name came from...

Another view of Emerald Lake.  Yukon Joe like!

This is everyone getting on the Tourbus.   As usual, no one told me they were leaving.  

Carcross Dessert is really not a desert at all, but a small area of sand dunes leftover from a dried-up lake.  However, the populace bills it as the "World's Smallest Desert."  It's popular for sandboarding and off-roading.

This is Yukon Joe, making his perilous trip across the Carcross Desert.  The desert consists on one square mile of rugged, unrelenting hardships.   Will he make it?   Or will the elements get the best of him??

Yeah, the bus tried to leave me here as well.

Heading back into Alaska, we  crossed back over the mountains and beyond the timber line, where tress can't grow.  The landscape looks like something out of a Hobbit movie.

At this point, we re-entered Alaska and made our way back to Skagway. I was going to take pictures of the customs area, but our driver warned us that our cameras would be confiscated by Homeland Security if we did.  Seriously.

Just another thing for my "Bucket List"...   One day I may drive up here.   It seems like a beautiful way to see this area without getting seasick.

Alaskan Cruise, Part XIII: A Tale of Two Trees

I'm hoping to wrap up last summer's trip before the end of this summer.   In this installment, we're focusing on the Tale Of Two Trees...  to be more specific, the tale of two drive-through trees.  We visited two of them in our journey and give you the details here.  Leaf your cares behind and join me, as we get to the root of today's topic!   BLOGGER NOTE:   All subsequent tree puns will be removed by the blogging service.

Drive-through trees have always captured the public's imagination.   The most famous drive through tree, the Wawona tree, was located in Yosemite National Park and was the second tunnel tree created.   This is the tree pictured on countless postcards, brochures, and other promotional materials.   It was carved out in 1881 as a  tourist attraction and a promotional stunt.  Pictures of cars and buses driving through the tree were distributed throughout the world to help promote tourism in Yosemite and to show the vast size of the trees.  This tree stood until 1969, when a large snowfall caused the already-fragile tree to fall to the ground.   It has since been replaced by the Fallen Tree Tunnel when the forest service cut another tunnel through the trunk of a fallen tree.  The horizontal drive-through tree was not replaced, as the National Park Service no longer goes for gimmicky trees.   And we are a poorer people for it.

A tour bus poses next to the Wawona tree in Yosemite.

The Fallen Tree Tunnel, a mighty poor replacement for the Wawona tree.

People still ask about the famous Wawona tree...  So many, in fact, that a few entrepreneurial folks decide to get into the drive through tree business.   Sure, only God can make a tree, but only man can carve a big hole in one.  Three drive-through trees still exist, all privately owned and operating as a sort of "branch" office (BLOGGER NOTE: Okay, we'll let one more get through.   But that's it.).  I have visited two of them, and will visit the third one this summer.   Below is a comparison of the two I visited, the Chandelier Tree and the Klamath Tour Through Tree.  The Shrine Tree will be reviewed later.

We'll start with the Klamath Tour-Through Tree.  This tree is located in beautiful Klamath county, famous for just about nothing.   It's a pretty boring area.   The tree is located on a bluff over the Klamath river, a river that seems in just as much of a hurry to get out of town as you are.  In fact, the river flows in two directions, both of them leaving town.   The tree is $5 and takes about 10 minutes...   you drive up the hill to a small clearing, drive through the tree, then turn around and drive out.   When we went, there was a couple of senior citizens that were motorcycling their way across country and two girls from Sweden who were amazed that you could actually drive through a tree.   I've heard stories about Sweden, and I assumed living there would be more exciting than THIS.   We took the obligatory photos, helped our fellow travelers with their photos, and were back down the hill in 20 minutes.   We stopped at the gift shop - very small, and no great shakes.   I ended up buying nothing, and if you've ever seen me in a gift shop, you can assume there was very little to recommend. 

Me and the Klamath Tour-through Tree.

 This would be a good time to talk about how you drive through a tree.    The answer is similar to the old joke, "How do porcupines mate?"   The answer:   VERY carefully.  No matter how much room you actually have, it never seems to be quite enough.   Before going through the tree, I inhale and held my breath, as if that gave us extra room to scrooch through.   It's helpful to have a partner watching the car on the passenger side, and not the kind with a weird sense of humor.   Making scraping noises in the middle of a tree is NOT funny.   Once you get through, get out, count your side mirrors, and exhale a sigh of relief.   You have driven through a tree!   My uncle tried driving through a tree once and failed...  of course, he was drunk at the time, and this particular tree didn't have a tunnel carved into it.

The Chandelier Tree is located in Leggett.   If you thought Klamath was boring, wait until you see downtown Leggett.   When the biggest business in town is a drive-through tree, well, you have a real economic slowdown on your hands.  The tree is located at the edge of town.   The Chandelier Tree was carved in the 1930's and is probably the most famous of the three current drive-through trees.   The tree was featured in the opening credits of National Lampoon's Vacation, so you're dealing with a real celebrity here.  This tree is actually located in a nice grove-like area, with picnic areas, a small lake, and a good -sized gift store ready to meet all your tree-related needs.  I bought a nice tree-t-shirt and considered buying the Thirsty Bird, but better sense prevailed. 

The Chandalier tree.   The tunnel is no bigger than it looks.

We made it through the tree!   Please note both rear-view windows clearly attached.

So, let's compare the two experiences, and choose a winner...

• Admission:   Comparable.  
• Celebrity Status:  The Chandelier tree wins out here.
• Gift Shop:  Again, the Chandelier tree was the clear winner.   Not only was the gift shop better, but it sold ice cream.
• Surrounding area:  Klamath was a nicer area than Leggett , with several Indian casinos close by.  So I give this one to the Tour-through tree.
• Extra amenities:  The Chandelier tree had picnic areas, a lake, and most important, a bathroom.  Clearly the edge here goes to the Chandelier tree. 

So there you have it.   Chandelier is the winner.  This year we will visit the third tree, the Shrine tree and complete our analysis of the drive through tree business.   Look for chapter "tree" in the near future!   (If you read this far, it's you own fault.   Personally we stopped reading after the "branch office" comment.)

Alaskan Trip, Part X

Here it is, at long last:   Chapter ten in the tale of our Alaskan cruise.

We find our heroes in a small, cheap hotel room in Florence, Oregon, waking up to what they assume will be an uneventful day.   Little do they dream that today they will find themselves face-to-face with tigers, bears, irate hoteliers, a big scary bridge, and monsters from the depths of the Mesozoic era, the mighty dinosaurs!   But I'm getting ahead of the story.   Let's go back to the Big Scary Bridge.

The Siuslaw River bridge opened in 1936 and is the gateway into Florence.   It's tall, it's thin, and at night it looks like a bridge into the abyss.  I was able to get over it by keeping my eyes closed.   Unfortunately I was driving.   Thank goodness for guard rails.

When we left the hotel, I had grabbed a bunch of travel brochures, looking for interesting sights to stop along the coast.   My travel partner began to start flipping through them as we drove.   At about the fifteenth brochure. she stops...   one phrase among all the brochures has caught her utmost attention.  The brochure was for the West Coast Game Park, and the phrase was:  Pet a Leopard.   My partner was immediately hooked, and WCGP became our first stop on this leg of the trip.










Me, posing as Frank Buck, ready to take on any dangers that the safari might entail.   I would encounter the first one moments later, when I discovered the admission fee.  The animals might roam free, but i sure didn't.

This tourist trap advertises itself as "America's largest walk-through safari."   It was opened in 1968 as a deer park, then rapidly expanded into the attraction it is today.  It's a family run attraction, still owned by the family that started it.  It is basically a small zoo and petting farm.  Its two most distinguishing characteristics are the large number of cats housed here, and the chance to pet a leopard.   They had almost every kind of cat you could think of:  lions, tigers, bobcats, cheetahs, pole, copy, and various varieties of each, including the rare white tiger.   They also had an assortment of other animals, including goats, geese, gibbons and gorillas.  Porcupines, peacocks, prairie dogs and parrots.  Bears, badgers, bison, boars, birds, bunnies, beavers, burros...  Well, you get the idea.  My partner most enjoyed the show area, where just as advertised you could pet a leopard...

 

Along with various other animals, like a bear, or a tiger.

They also had an animal nursery, where you could handle some smaller, friendlier type critters.   The day we were there they had a ferret, a raccoon, and a possum available for flea-sharing...

I, of course, with my skills as an animal handler, had no problems here...

Here I am teasing a small cheetah.  You can tell this is at the beginning of my time with the cheetah because I still have all my fingers.

Later, i spent some time with the bear.   I am petting him bare-handed.   No one thought that was funny, including the bear.  I guess I made a little Boo-Boo.   There's a joke there if you're not too particular.

Petting the farm animals was a big attraction here.   In this picture, I'm not sure which one of us is most thrilled with this prospect. 

 

Here I look like I'm trying to engage the llama with a magic trick. Unfortunately he won't take his eyes of my left hand.   He got really annoyed when I tried to pull a handkerchief out of his ear

Me with the leopard.   It looks like I have my hand in my pocket but in reality I have lost all my fingers.

I'm trying to remember what separated me from this lion.   I don't remember.

After this exciting encounter with exotic wildlife, you would think that no other attraction could meet the same level of adrenaline.  Well, if you thought that, you were wrong.   This was just a precursor to the main event - our encounter with prehistoric beasts.   And where else could that be but in Port Orford, Oregon?   Because that is the home of PREHISTORIC GARDENS.

Prehistoric Gardens was founded in 1955 by EV Nelson.  Born in Minnesota, he was fascinated by dinosaurs as a child.   At the age of 50, he moved to the Oregon coast in search of the perfect place to build a prehistoric playground.   Eventually he settled here and spent the rest of his life building life-size dinosaur models.   His family now runs the attraction.
The great thing about Prehistoric Gardens is that it is an actual rain forest.  This makes a perfect setting for the monsters you will encounter here.  A well-marked path takes you far into the forest, among the giant redwoods, ferns and moss.  As you turn each corner, you come face to face with the sculptures, towering above you as if to say, "I may be chicken wire and plaster, but I could still kill you if I happened to fall over."  Naturally, I had a field day here and did what any neanderthal man would've done in a similar situation:  posed for pictures.

Entering Prehistoric Gardens.  I figured the dinosaurs would be nice to me since I'm getting close to their age.  

I soon learned they were a great bunch - of herbivores.   I felt the best idea was to blend in.   here I am posing with a stegosaurus.

Here I am again, still blending in.   It's hard to tell where the large, ugly creature ends and I begin.

Here I blended in so well you can't see me.

I have fooled this ancient creature into thinking I can fly.  Boy, he sure looks stupid.

I may be biting off more than I can chew here.   I'm not sure he's buying my tyrannosaurus act.

He's not.

"Start the car!"

 In our next thrilling episode, we actually make it back into California, visit a mystery spot, and eat one of the best meals I have ever had the pleasure of gorging myself with.   You won't want to miss it!