Page 356 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Canada

EXPERIENCE Yukon

A mountain bike rider
tackling a trail in the
region around Carcross

EXPERIENCE MORE

2 with the arrival of the White The town has a post office,
restaurants, several shops,
Pass and Yukon railroad.
Carcross “Caribou Crossing” was abbre­ and a few motels. Trips into
viated officially to Carcross to the park for rafting, canoeing,
£ @ n (867) 821 4431; avoid duplication of names in and hiking excursions can be
mid-May–Sep daily
Alaska, British Colombia, and a organ ized from the town, at
Carcross is a small village that town in the Klondike. Carcross the park’s adminis trative head ­
lies at the picturesque con­ has a strong Aboriginal quarters. For rafting, book
fluence of Bennett and Tagish tradition, and was once an well ahead. Haines Junction
lakes, an hour’s drive south of important caribou hunting was once a base camp for the
the Yukon’s regional capital, ground for the Tagish tribe. US Army engineers, who in
Whitehorse. Early miners Tagish guides worked for US
crossing the arduous Chilkoot Army surveyors during the
Pass on their journey to the building of the Alaska Highway
bounty of the gold mines in in 1942. Just 1 mile (2 km)
the north named the site north is the “smallest desert
“Caribou Crossing” after herds in the world,” Carcross Desert.
of caribou stormed their way Blasted by strong winds that
through the pass between allow little vegetation to grow,
Bennett and Nares lakes on the sandy plain is barren, but
their biannual migration. The mem orable nevertheless.
town was estab lished in 1899
in the height of the gold rush
3
“Caribou Crossing” Haines Junction
was abbreviated @ n Kluane National Park
offi cially to Carcross and Reserve Visitor Centre,
to avoid duplication 280 Alaska Hwy; www.
of names in Alaska, hainesjunctionyukon.com
British Columbia, Haines Junction is a handy
and a town in the stop for visitors on the way
to the impressive Kluane
Klondike. National Park and Reserve.
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