Day 09: Takhini Hot Springs and Whitehorse, YT

Trip Log for 3 Jun 2012

• Miles Driven: 54.5
• Sunrise: 04:34 PDT / Sunset: 23:21 PDT

Today was nicely uneventful and mostly relaxing. We managed to "sleep in" until 08:15, meaning we got a full night's sleep! I found that my warm hat makes a great sleep mask if I just pull it down over my eyes. The campground was quiet and the trees helped to keep it a bit darker. Since we showered last night after the hot springs, we got up and drove right into Whitehorse where I introduced Wes to some Canadian things starting with breakfast at Tim Horton's (too bad neither of us drinks coffee). We both had a breakfast sandwich and shared some Timbits, a.k.a. donut holes.

Next we made a stop at the visitors center, looked at some of the local exhibits then used their phone book to find a laundromat. All of the clothes we were wearing the last two days were just filthy from the dusty roads and changing tires so it was really nice to get all that cleaned up. While the clothes were in the washer, we went into the Canada Super Store right behind it and picked up a few groceries. Then while the clothes were in the dryer, we went into Canadian Tire (something like a Walmart equivalent, though now Whitehorse also has a Walmart right next to it) and looked around for kitschy things but mostly found out where all the hockey merchandise in North America is being sold.

We had lunch at another unsatisfying place (some days you just wish you had made some PB&J) then headed back towards the campground. A little before the hot springs is a cool place called the Yukon Wildlife Preserve where you can either walk around to see the animals or ride a shuttle. We chose to walk and had just enough time to see everything. Most of today's photos are of the preserve animals and it was neat to get to see them so close. We've seen quite a few animals in the wild this trip but missed out on some like caribou which we were able to see here. I highly recommend stopping by here if you plan to visit the hot springs.

After that, we went for another swim, ate dinner, then swam again. We found out the hot springs here are chlorinated because it is a public pool with low flow but they are planning to redo them over the next couple of years with a higher flow that won't require chlorination. The water comes into the pool at 110° F but gets diluted with cold water so that it's a comfortable temperature for a long period of time, and then pool is further divided up in to a warm pool and a hotter pool. When we got back to camp, we went to find a geocache that is hidden back in the trails here and took about a mile hike, fighting off the mosquitoes the whole time. They are really vicious here! Now we've got the fire going and are enjoying our last night in the Yukon before heading back to Alaska.