WORLD'S LARGEST WEATHERVANE AND WORLD'S LONGEST WOODEN FISH LADDER

Whitehorse to Carmacks - Yukon Territory

Before leaving Whitehorse we wanted to go to the Whitehorse Rapids Fishway to see the world's longest wooden fish ladder.  The fish ladder was built in 1959 to provide access to chinook (king) salmon and other species above the Yukon Energy Corporation hydroelectric dam.

For a small donation they pack in a lot of information

The stages from eggs to little fish "fry" ready to be released - they  tag every fish they release

This is a cute idea someone started and it caught on - no pun intended

Gives you an idea of the size of the ladder

From there, we drove a few miles to the Transportation Museum on the Alaska Highway to see the world's largest weathervane, a Douglas DC-3.  This vintage plane was originally a C-47 that was built in 1942 and flew transport missions in Asia during the war.  Later it was converted to civilian life and flew for several airlines from 1946 until 1970.  The restored plane was mounted on a rotating pedestal in 1981 and points its nose into the wind.

We didn't go into the museum - we just can't afford to pay admission for all the museums we  pass

Pointing into the wind

This morning while catching up on some computer work at McDonald's I got talking to a young couple with two young children who were relocating from Alaska to Idaho.  The young mom didn't seem very excited about the idea and her son was quick to mention that they were moving back to Alaska in four years.  They just came down the Alaska Highway from Tok and said the roads were awful.  They drove 30 mph because of the frost heaves.

With this in mind, we decided to go back to our original plan of taking the Klondike Loop to Tok via Dawson City and Chicken.  We'll still have to come back down that way but why should we torture ourselves both ways?  So a few miles down the road we branched off to Highway 2, the Klondike Highway and begin our 498-mile drive along the scenic Klondike Loop.

We drove about 120 miles from Whitehorse to Carmacks for an overnight stay.

This is one of the prettiest welcome signs we've seen - done in mosiac tiles

Got my information and ready to tour

The Hotel Carmacks campground wanted $30 plus extra for internet and since we didn't need full hookups we decided to look around for someplace else.  Right next to the Hotel was Sunrise Gas Services and we asked them if we could stay in their parking lot.  They not only said we could stay but we could tap into their internet connection at no charge.

That's all folks!  Thanks for stopping in.