Outdoors with Don Q: The White Pass and Yukon Route train ride

This is the second in a series of four articles on a recent sightseeing and fishing trip that Elaine and I took to the Yukon in June. This one is about an unforgettable train ride over White Pass Summit.
We arrived in Whitehorse late on June 18 and the next morning, we left, bright and early, for an all-day combination tour bus and train ride from Whitehorse, Yukon to Carcross, Yukon; to Fraser, British Columbia; to Skagway, Alaska; and then the return to Whitehorse.
We rode in a tour bus to Fraser, where we boarded one of many passenger cars on a White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&YR) train.

White Pass and Yukon Route:
Each of the WP&YR passenger cars is named for a lake or river in Alaska, the cars are on the average 43 years old, and your specific car is assigned by whichever tour bus that you arrive on in Fraser.
The WP&YR railroad fleet consists of 20 diesel-electric locomotives, 2 steam locomotives and a total of 82 restored and replica passenger cars.
The train route was built in two years, two months and two days.
It consists of 110 miles of track, travels from an altitude of almost 3,000 feet at the top of the summit to sea level at Skagway in just 20 miles, and includes two tunnels, numerous bridges and trestles.
The $10 million (way back then) project was the product of British financing, American engineering and Canadian contracting.
The White Pass and Yukon Route was designated as an International Civil Engineering Landmark in 1994.

Our trip:
We bought our tickets for the “Whitehorse to Skagway One Day Combo” (departing Whitehorse at 8:30 a.m. and arriving back in Whitehorse at 5:15 p.m.) and they were not cheap: We paid $270 for two tickets, plus our passports were required for traveling from one country to another.

The bus:
On our June 19 trip, we were lucky enough to get two seats at the very front of the Holland America tour bus, which gave us a great location for taking photographs all the way from Whitehorse to Fraser in the morning, and then from Skagway back to Whitehorse later that afternoon.
Our bus had a delightful driver, “D J,” who gave an informative, running narrative while she was doing a great job of careful driving.
Most interesting, Elaine and I were the only passengers on that fully-loaded bus, who tipped “D J” at the end of the day. Sad, but true!

The train:
Once we boarded the train in Fraser, we got two seats on the right hand side, which provided us with great views of the countryside, mountains, snowfields, lakes (some still frozen from winter), creeks, ponds, streams, deep gullies and steep canyons as the train traveled up and over the White Pass Summit and then down into Skagway, our final destination.
The scenery was spectacular for the entire train ride.
On our bus-train-bus combo trip, we saw moose, black bear and Dall sheep.

Skagway:
Skagway was an absolute zoo of people, people and more people.
There were passengers from three cruise ships in the harbor, passengers from several trains, passengers from many tour buses and other folks in their own vehicles: cars, trucks, camper pickups, motorhomes, fifth wheelers, etc.
We arrived at about noon and every restaurant, café, coffee shop, coffee kiosk, etc, was jam packed with folks eating lunch or waiting to do so.
After a long wait, we finally got a table at the Sweet Tooth Café, gave the waitress our order of one French dip sandwich and one halibut and chips, and then waited 25 minutes for that order to finally be served.
Their kitchen was totally overwhelmed with non-stop lunch orders.
At that same café, we saw on their menu that a milk shake was $6.75.
No, we did not buy any shakes in Skagway!

Having fun in Skagway:
While in a gift store in Skagway, I spotted a life-sized replica of Sarah Palin, and I asked Elaine to take a picture of me, standing next to that photo.
As she was doing so, a lady walked up and was staring at the two of us.
When Elaine finished taking the photograph, I stepped away from the replica of Palin, and the lady screamed!
She had thought that the two of us were together as a display, and did not realize that I was real.
When she got over her shock, she told her husband to take the same pose that I had taken and she photographed him standing with Palin!

Finally:
That bus-train-bus combo is a “must do” if you are ever in Whitehorse and you will never regret taking the time and money to do so.
It is a fun way to travel and to visit the Yukon and British Columbia in Canada and Alaska in the U.S.A., all in one short day.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now and www.SouthTahoeNow.com. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com