Carmacks, Yukon Territory - June 18th to 19th, 2022
Traveling at a slow pace gives us a chance to relax and stop at places we would not plan as a destination. Carmacks was conveniently located between Whitehorse and Dawson City along the Klondike Highway. It gave us a chance to learn a little bit about the local area and more about life in Canada. We also had some time to catch up on some van maintenance.
Saturday was a short driving day, less than two hours according to Google Maps, from Whitehorse to Carmacks. From Whitehorse, we headed north on the Klondike Highway. The scenery was not as spectacular as the Haines Highway a couple of days earlier, but it wasn’t ugly either. Wildflowers lined both sides of the highway, leading the way down the road. No need for painted lines on the edge of the highway, nature already painted the lines for us.
To start off our morning, we stopped at Braeburn Lodge for a cinnamon bun, or rather half of one. Their buns are literally bigger than your head. We split half a bun and saved the other half for dessert after dinner. They warmed it up for us, so the icy was nice and gooey. Braeburn’s buns have raisins in them. They bake them ahead of time and wrap them in plastic to keep them fresh. However, our vote for the best cinnamon buns so far is still Tetsa River Lodge. You just can’t beat fresh yeast dough hot out of the oven. Something happens to it when it sits around for an hour or longer, even when wrapped in plastic.
We made two other short stops along the way. First was Conglomerate Mountain, where the stone consists of small rocks naturally cemented together. The skeeters were swarming there, so we read the sign, snapped a couple of pictures, and got back on the road.
The second stop was Montague Roadhouse Historic Site. Here we viewed the remains of an old log roadhouse. There used to be a roadhouse about every thirty miles on the road from Whitehorse to Dawson City. These were used in the winter when the Yukon River was frozen and the paddle boats were not running. The roadhouses were used to change horses and to offer travelers a hot meal and a bed.
We reached our campground, behind Hotel Carmacks, by lunch time. After lunch we drove across the bridge to check out the Tagé Cho Hudän Interpretative Center. There was a sign on the door that said they were closed today because some of their staff was exposed to COVID. However, there was no date on the sign. The hours posted indicated that they were closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Of course, Saturday and Sunday were the two days we were in Carmacks. So we’re not sure if it is always closed on Saturdays and Sundays, or just because the staff is isolating. Either way, we were not going to see inside the center.
The Visitor Information Centre in Carmacks was also closed, but for different reasons. The visitor center is in a historical telegraph station. Unfortunately, we could not reach the building. The road over to the center was flooded. The Yukon River was flowing at record highs. Spring came a couple of weeks later than normal and there were areas in some of the mountains which received higher than normal snowfall last winter. The recent warm temperatures were melting the snow so much of that water was flowing all at once. We had heard reports that Teslin, where we were about a week earlier was having issues with flooding. The water level was almost to the road deck of the bridge there. The Teslin River flows into the Yukon River, just before it reaches Carmacks. So Carmacks is also having flooding problems.
After parking back at the campground, we went for a walk alongside the Yukon River. There is a boardwalk along the river, but much of it was closed due to flooding as parts of it were under water. Further down River Drive, a crew was busy piling up sand bags along the side of the road. From the forecasts we could find, it looks like we’ll be OK while we’re in Carmacks. However, there are also reports of high water in Dawson City. Our plan is to cross the Yukon River by ferry in a few days so we can take the Top of the World Highway over to Chicken in Alaska. If the ferry shuts down, then it will be a multi-day detour to get back to our itinerary in Alaska. That’s not something we would like to do, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed.
Since we had some time on our hands, Keith worked on the passenger seat. It was getting hard to swivel again. It sounds like it is grinding metal on metal. He unbolted the seat from the swivel platform and tilted the seat off the platform to get a better look. It was then obvious where the metal was rubbing together. There are two metal posts that come down from the seat in the front that are rubbing on the flat metal plate of the swivel. What was not obvious, was how to fix it. The metal plate looks like it is bowed in front, like the two bolts in front are tightened down too far and/or the holes for the bolts are just slightly too far apart, so the metal plate bows up in the middle. File down the metal posts was one idea, but we did not have a metal file with us. The option we chose was to add washers under the plate where the bolts screw in, in hopes that the metal plate would sit flatter, with less of a bow. Then we lubed the four seat rollers with T-9 (paid link) and put everything back together. The seat now swivels easier. Time will tell if this will last or not.
Sunday we went for a short hike. Our original plan was to walk the full boardwalk, then pick up the Carmacks Ridge Trail to complete the loop. Since the boardwalk was closed due to flooding, we walked the River Drive over to the old Carmacks Roadhouse and picked up the Ridge Trail from there.
The crews were still working on the sandbags along River Drive. We briefly chatted with a couple of the workers. They said the river has not reached its peak yet. We expressed our wishes for the river to start receding soon, but the one worker said he hopes it does not happen soon, because he gets paid good money to do this work. Fair enough!
There are a few historical buildings along River Drive that we went by. The first was Orloff King Cabin. The 1920’s log cabin was his “town house”, as he had another cabin about 95 kilometers west of town. The Carmacks Roadhouse is another log structure with a sod roof. It opened as a roadhouse in 1903. The third building we saw was another log cabin, the Hazel Brown Cabin, which is believed to have been built around 1912.
The trailhead for the Ridge Trail was not obvious. If Ann didn’t have the location of the trail on AllTrails, we probably would not have found it. The unmarked trail starts behind the Carmacks Roadhouse, at the corner of the woods.
The trail starts out along the Nordenskiold River, then quickly climbs to a ridge overlooking the river. It then follows the ridge for about a mile, before turning and descending down to the Klondike Highway back in town. There are wonderful views from the ridge out to the southwest, in the opposite direction from the town and the Yukon River. The steep banks sloping down from the trail were covered with wildflowers. It wasn’t a particularly long or hard trail, but it was still enjoyable. The mosquitos were swarming at the start of the trail, so we pulled out the bug spray. However, we don’t know if it was the bug spray working or the fact that we got away from the river and out in the open with a slight breeze that kept the pests away.
Our total hike for the day was 3.8 miles with an elevation gain of 102 feet in about an hour and a half. It is hike number 20 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022.
In the afternoon, we walked over to the general store, which is also run by Hotel Carmacks. After picking up a couple of items, we decided to have some ice cream. However, we could not agree on a flavor of ice cream to share and neither one of us felt like eating a whole pint by ourselves. Instead, we each bought a F’Real milkshake. We had these once before on the Blue Ridge Parkway the year before. It’s a frozen treat that you put in a machine to churn into a milkshake. You can choose thin, regular, or thick which controls how long the shake is mixed. It is not as good as hard ice cream, but it does satisfy that ice cream craving.
While we were in the store, we noticed a sign indicating you must be 18 years old to buy a Red Bull. That was the first time we noticed that, since we do not purchase energy drinks ourselves. A little research revealed that there is a Canadian law restricting the buyers of energy drinks to be 18 or older.
As we were hanging out at our camp site, the Hotel Carmacks started pumping water out of the hotel. The water was being drained not far from the campground. The hotel’s basement was starting to flood. It made us a little nervous that the water might start flowing into the campground. However, after a short while, they found some longer hoses and started pumping the water further out towards the river. OK, that’s better.
If we didn’t have reservations in Carmacks, we might have tried to drive all the way to Dawson City from Whitehorse due to our concerns about the Yukon River flooding. We are glad we stopped in Carmacks. A long drive would have left us feeling worn out and tired. The relaxed pace left us refreshed and looking forward to our next destination.
Check out our related video: Carmacks, Yukon Territory
(Ann)