S.S. Klondike, Whitehorse, Yukon

On my way to Alaska, I stopped in Whitehorse, Yukon via the Alaska Highway and again coming back from Dawson City via the Klondike Highway. During the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 19th century, most prospectors, or stampeders as they were called, landed at Skagway and Dyea on the coast and traveled the difficult White or Chikoot Pass Trails to Whitehorse, where they built rafts and boats to take them the more than 500 miles down the Yukon River to gold fields around Dawson Creek. The S.S. Klondike wasn’t launched until 1937. It took about 1½ days to get to Dawson City and 4 to 5 days to return to Whitehorse. Before traveling to Alaska, I had no idea the Yukon River at Whitehorse is less than 100 miles from the Pacific Ocean, but empties into the Bering Sea in Western Alaska after running for nearly 2,000 miles.