My goodness – can you believe that the morning we left Whitehorse it was raining and snowing and 38 degrees? It was nasty!! But once again our luck held and after an hour on the road the worst was over and the temperature started climbing. We stopped for coffee about an hour down the road. The fellow at the desk was on the phone and said to us, ‘There’s snow on the ground in Whitehorse now’. So we kept rolling north on the Klondike Highway toward Dawson City and the ‘top of the world’ highway. We saw many lakes and several areas that had seen serious fires – 1998, 1995, 1987 – there were markers along the road.
We spent that night (after traveling 211 miles) in Whispering Willows campground in Stewart Crossing – truly a one horse town. The next day we traveled on to Dawson City. While traveling we saw two white swans fly overhead. And we saw the backsides of a mother bear and her cub run into the forest. Road crews were working on the highway and much patching had been done. And there were occasional pot holes – the drivers had to keep their eyes on the road. When we arrived in Dawson City the thermometer registered 84 degrees; quite a change from just two days earlier. We stayed at Bonanza Gold RV Park just a mile plus from downtown.
Dawson City was the center of the Klondike Gold Rush from about 1896-2000. The town is being restored to reflect that era, down to the dirt streets and boardwalks. It has a great Visitor’s Center and lots of interesting activities and sights. We went on a walk-about city tour and learned about the days of the gold rush and were able to visit the old bank and old bar – both restored to original detail and furnishings. We went to Diamond Tooth Gertie's Saloon, an early 1900’s gambling hall, where we watched a fun burlesque show.
We went on a tour of Dredge #4 – a huge piece of equipment that dredges placer gold (flakes or small chunks of gold rather than gold within rock formations) from deep under the river bed, rinses it free of rocks and sand, and allows collection of the gold. All around Dawson were piles and piles of rock tailings left behind by the dredges.
One of our favorite sights was from the top of Midnight Dome Hill where we could see the clear Klondike River join the muddy Yukon River, and see the city of Dawson from high above. It was a beautiful sight.
And then we took that trip over the Top of the World highway. We were delighted to awake to a sunny day, as we were warned that if it’s raining, DON’T DRIVE THAT ROAD. So the first step was taking a small ferry across the Yukon River – just 2-3 RVs and a couple of cars could fit on the ferry. But the trip across the Yukon River only took 5 minutes and we were on our way. We were on one ferry and Diann and Rich were on the next trip which was fun because we could take pictures of each other’s rigs entering and exiting the ferry.
Yes, the road is slow and has some frost heaves and pot holes and gravel breaks. But if you take your time, it is a beautiful drive. The highway is well named – as you drive along you see expansive vistas to the right and left – really beautiful. And it was rather exciting to cross the Canada-US border – had to take a picture at the Welcome to Alaska sign and breathe a sigh that we no longer had to deal with Loonies and Toonies and Centigrade and Kilometers and Liters for a few weeks. And of course, we HAD to visit the town of Chicken (the place that the founders wanted to call Ptarmigan, but couldn’t spell it; so they decided on Chicken). There are three gift shops, a couple of cafes, a bar, an RV park, a gas station, and even a small post office – takes a short time to see the whole place. But it was a fun stop along a stressful road. And about 10 miles out of Chicken we found decent road again that took us to Tok. The trip from Dawson City to Tok, with about an hour stop in Chicken, was 6 hours – driving distance was 180 miles.
Tok was a crossroads – roads from Whitehorse, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Top of the World highway all meet here. It is a small crossroads and more info will be in the next installment of our blog.
Note: How strange it is to have daylight 24 hours a day. Saturday is the Summer Soltice and the sun will only set for about 3 hours - never gets dark!
Happy travels to you all. Ellen & Gordon
