Watson Lake to a nice afternoon in Whitehorse

 The morning  drive to Whitehorse was pleasant even though it was cool and rainy.  On our way out of town we stopped at the  local park that had signs from around the world. The area is a lot more populated than northern BC but still the season shows.  Along Hwy 1, many businesses along the way were either closed  for good or shut down for the season. Away from town centers it gets desolate real fast. Nothing but bare necessities and subsistence living if any population at all. As a matter of fact, the first place we stopped for gas at the Jct of 37 & 1 where  we met Dollie at a resort where the gas pumps were out of order and she only had "sleeping rooms" with bathrooms down the hall. She was a sweet lady whose husband refused to even face us-shades of the Bates Motel.  We did pick up a local paper and saw a number of ads for denture clinics-it's a good thing that we had our dental work done in Vanderhoof.
   The  Capital  of the Yukon Territory is Whitehorse. A nice, well planned city that is a bit more visitor oriented.  Many of the territory government offices are located here along with a large visitor center. It has a number of walking trails along the river and even a town train for tourists. The city is well landscaped with diversity of plantings, good design and it represents overall, very good urban planning. Since it is the capitol of the Yukon about 75% of the town works for the government-as our hotel clerk Tyler said"My dad says that Whitehorse is recession proof with all the government jobs". It has some new housing projects, nice shopping areas and commercial buildings.

  After a nice lunch (Sockeye salmon) we toured the fish ladder at their small hydro-electric plant and dam. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Takhini geothermal hot springs pool.  It was refreshing as heck for us road weary travelers. We had the pleasure to speak with quite a few interesting people of which some were locals, Swiss and even a couple from Alaska. The trees are starting to show fall colors mostly yellow and gold. The afternoon became warmer, comfortable and sunny. It is Saturday nite and we are tired but refreshed.