Canadian Adventure- Part 4: Whitehorse & Takhini Hot Springs

After seeing Atlin, we headed north to spend the night in Whitehorse, BC.

Sometimes, when Juneau is especially soggy outside, I like to look for hot springs we could potentially go to and some of the nearest are in Whitehorse. We were so close I just couldn't pass it up, so we decided to make the two-hour drive north. Plus, Whitehorse is right on the Alaska Highway, the superhighway of Alaska road-trippers, and we were curious enough to see a town we'd heard mentioned often.

The Alaska Highway, from where it intersects with Tagish Road to Whitehorse, wasn't quite as scenic as the other roads we'd been on (lets just say there were lots of trees). We reached Whitehorse around dinnertime. Our target destination, Takhini Hot Springs and Resort, was about a 20-minute drive past town, so we stayed on the highway, following directions in the Milepost.

Usually, we would have called to make reservations at that point, but since we entered Canada our cell phones had switched over to some strange roaming and Scotty received a text that we would be charged around $20 for using it ("Per minute?", we wondered), so we had turned our phones off completely.

There were a few turns onto smaller gravel roads before we reached the Takhini Hot Springs Campground. It was a pretty spot, with abundant deciduous trees, including my favorite, birches (they remind me of Minnesota, my home state). Though the campsite felt far from crowded, it was obviously a popular place and we got one of about four tent sites left. We thought it was a very nice site, though a bit sloped so we made sure our heads were facing "uphill" in the tent.

We got there around 7 p.m., starving, of course. So we grabbed out swimwear, camp towels, and a change of clothes, and drove over to the hot springs building, which has a connected restaurant. We surveyed the menu and ordered chicken wraps- I wish I had taken a picture because it was seriously the best wrap I've ever had in a restaurant. Instead of the usual chicken breast, it was dark meat chicken, crisply fried with cheddar cheese and spinach in a multigrain wrap. Yum. In the spirit of our trip, we each had a Molson's Canadian beer.

Then it was time to go for a soak.

In theory, I should have loved this part, but the pool was too crowded for comfort. There are two sections to the pool as this is a developed hot spring, with one side hotter than the other. The evening air had cooled down again, probably to the low 40s or high 30s and going from the pre-soak shower, outside to the pool took some shivering. Entering the pool was a relief, but we didn't stay long. There were just too many people for me to be able to relax and Scotty felt the same way.

From now on, I think we'll stick to undeveloped hot springs far from civilization or maybe only go to this type of place in the very off-season months. Takhini is open year round and maybe it is  less crowded in January. Just maybe.


Besides the crowded pool, we encountered another "surprise": the type of showers in the locker rooms. In both the men's and women's rooms there were only two, side by side in the open. So either you had to be comfortable baring all to an open room of people or continue to wear your swimsuit. Even then, the showers could only be turned on by pulling hard on a rope that hung from the ceiling. I had to practically hang from the rope to get it to go on, and then shampoo with ONE hand. Needless to say, after two days of camping and hoping to finally take a nice shower, it wasn't what I had envisioned.

We went back to the campground, tired, but glad to be (sort of) clean, then made another campfire and talked until the flames turned to glowing embers. We went to bed around 10:30, earlier than usual in order to get up early and be back in Skagway by 11 a.m. for a train ride out to the Laughton Glacier Cabin where we would be spending our last night of the trip.

On the way back to Skagway, we drove through Whitehorse. It's a mid-sized town of around 23,000 people, and seemed sort of deserted though it was very early, around 7 a.m. on Labor Day Monday. We only drove through as nothing was open yet.

Whitehorse sort of reminded us of Anchorage in that the town itself is pretty flat with only a few hills surrounding it and mountains far into the distance and the buildings were an assortment of two-stories and a few new-looking office buildings or hotels "downtown".  

Whitehorse, Yukon (Photo found here)

Before leaving town, we stopped for coffee and gas. On the drive we listened to the only radio station we could find, which turned out to be mostly classic country/ classic rock. Together, we cruised down that highway, no other cars in sight; it was a great way to start the day.

The drive back to Skagway took about two and a half hours. This was where we saw some of the most beautiful scenery yet. The lighting/ time of day and the time of year certainly added to the spectacular beauty of the land.

 

Carcross Desert, Yukon

I'll be back later this week with the final installment of our "Canadian adventure"- a ride on the White Pass Railroad and a stay at a really cozy cabin in the woods.