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Your money's better spent taking one of the river tours that shoot the Miles Canyon 9km south of the town, otherwise reached off the Alaska Hwy, or from the South Access Road, which hugs the river edge beyond the SS Klondike . Whitehorse Transit buses ($1.25) run along the South Access Road from town every hour daily except Sunday. The building of a hydroelectric dam has tamed the rapids' violence and replaced them with Schwatka Lake , but the two-hour narrated trip on the MV Schwatka (June-Sept daily 2pm & 7pm; $20; tel 668-4716) gives a better view of the river's potential ferocity and the canyon's sheer walls than the viewpoints off the road. Board at the dock above the dam about 3km down Canyon Road. A Taste of '98 Yukon River Tours (tel 633-4767) runs similar three-hour sightseeing tours, as well as extended four- to 21-day guided or fully equipped tours to Dawson City and elsewhere. Other boat trips include a gentle two-hour raft trip with Miles Canyon Scenic Raft Float (tel 633-4386) or a variety of trips with Canadian Yukon Riverboat (tel 633-4414): daily trips in summer with breakfast cost $65 (departs 9am), with lunch $70 (1pm), and with dinner $75 (5pm); the basic trip without meals is $55. If you fancy a walk , stroll from the main canyon car park some of the 11km to Canyon City, the all-but-vanished site of the initial stage of the stampeders' tramway at the southern end of the old rapids. You could also walk all the way round Schwatka Lake from Whitehorse, beginning from the bridge by the SS Klondike . Pick up details of this and other self-guiding trail booklets from the visitor reception centre . If you don't fancy embarking on walks on your own, join the downtown walk offered by the Whitehorse Heritage Buildings Walking Tours, which departs four times daily in high summer at 9am, 11am, 1pm and 3pm from Donnenworth House, 3126 3rd Ave (tel 667-4704; $2). Or try the variety of free summer strolls organized by the Yukon Conservation Society, 302 Hawkins St (July & Aug daily; tel 668-5678), two- to six-hour walks that delve into local and natural history, and the Yukon's geology, flora and fauna. There is another trio of attractions just outside the downtown area, two of the most tempting up on the bluff above the town on the Alaska Hwy close to the airport. One is the excellent Yukon Transportation Museum (mid-May to mid-Sept daily 10am-6pm; $4; tel 668-4792), one of the region's best museums. Devoted to the area's transportation history, its displays, murals, superb historical videos, memorabilia and vehicles embrace everything from dog-sledding, early aviation and the construction of the Alaska Hwy to the Canol pipeline, the gold rush and the White Pass and Yukon Railway. Among the things on show are old army jeeps, bicycles, bulldozers, a stagecoach and - suspended from the ceiling - the Queen of the Yukon , the territory's first commercial plane. Right next door is the dynamic Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre (mid-May to mid-Sept daily 8.30am-7pm; $6; tel 667-5340, www.beringia.com ), Beringia being the vast subcontinent that existed some 24,000 years ago when the Yukon and Alaska were joined by a land bridge across the Bering Sea to Arctic Russia. The centre's interactive exhibits, film shows and other displays explore the aboriginal history of the time, the people who crossed this land bridge having ultimately colonized the most distant reaches of present-day North and South America. It also looks at the flora, fauna and geology of the time with the help of paleontological and archeological exhibits, among which the skeletal remains of a 12,000-year-old mammoth figure large. On a totally different tack, if you fancy total relaxation make for the topnotch Takhini Hot Springs (June to early Sept 10am-10pm; rest of the year usually Fri-Sun only - call for precise hours; $4; tel 633-2706), located 31km from Whitehorse off the Klondike Highway to Dawson. The water in the large pool is a piping-hot 36°C, there's no sulphurous aftersmell and the pool is emptied daily. You can camp here ($7) and if you resent paying for the privilege of a hot soak the locals have built a public pool at the outflow point in the stream below.
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