Day 10 Whitehorse to Dawson

Up bright and early and off to the next adventure. Today we mostly follow the Yukon River up from Whitehorse to Dawson City - both are port cities and were important in the gold rush. We followed the Alaska Hwy out of Whitehorse but only for a few miles before turning north on Hwy 2 to head up to the "Top of the World Highway". To get up there, we need to go up the Klondike Hwy and spend the night in Dawson City.

We stopped after about 2 hours of driving in a little town called Carmacks. The Visitor Centre which we usually stop at first in any new town was way back down a long lane with a sign that said the bears were active in the area. We decided to take a chance with the bears and walked the mile and a half boardwalk trail along the river to get some exercise. It was lovely with lots to see while we huffed and puffed along.

Back on the road, we hadn't gone far when a trailer passing in the other direction kicked up a big rock that put a hole in our  front window just below Craig's line of vision. It's not bad enough to require immediate attention but depending on which way it decides to crack, it could make us deal with it sooner rather than later. It's not the first ding we've gotten on this trip but it's the worst!

The rest of the day we just rolled along the road. It was a long day with lots of miles to travel and cloudy skies and sometimes pouring rain but we enjoyed the scenery and the time passed quickly. However when we got to Dawson City, we were pretty road weary and just needed to get out and stretch a bit. Craig put the wheels on the bikes and we toured around town a little. Dirt roads and gravel paths in this town including a very bumpy riverfront trail. Ouch - my butt hurt and I got a terrible cramp in my foot but it wasn't raining so we enjoyed being out of the rv seats for a while.

About 5 pm we started looking for an rv park in town. There was one only a few blocks from where we had parked so we walked over to find out if they had room for the night. It didn't look like anything special and the price was pretty steep so we walked back to the visitor center to ask them if it was ok for us to just park on the street for the night. The concierge there gave us some double speak about what the law says (no overnight parking) and what the people do (park wherever they please for as long as they want with no problem). But he also suggested that if we were to go take in the show at Diamond-Tooth Gerties Saloon, we could park overnight in her lot and no one would bother us at all.

Sounded like a good deal to us so that's what we did. The show was okay. I guess if you are staying in Dawson City, you should take in a show with can-can girls and a singer and have a couple of drinks while you are at it. We made our dinner in the rv, walked across the street to the show, walked back to the rv and spent the night with no problem at all.

Life is good!

This is how Craig and I take a walk together. I walk faster than he does most of the time. Every once in a while he puts on a burst of speed and catches up with me.

Craig was interested in the fishing nets that were tethered to the banks of the river. No one was tending them but they looked like they were being used actively.

The beavers made matchsticks of these trees but then didn't take the trees away. We didn't see any beaver dams in this area.

Giant mosquito wood sculpture

Lots of views of the rivers. Some in the rain and some in the sun. This was actually from today's drive. Somehow the pictures got out of order and I don't know how to move them. :-)

We noticed that the highway became smaller and more challenging once we left the Alaska Hwy and headed up onto the Klondike Hwy. We had considered a side trip to some silver mines but decided at this intersection to stay the course as we could see there was major construction just ahead and we still had a lot of miles to go.

 

Entering Dawson City. The main street has been nicely restored to look like a gold mining town. If you go a block off main street however, you can see that the town is run down in the sections that aren't restored. Interesting fact, the structures are all built with underskirts that put them about 3 ft above ground. The reason for this is that they are built on permafrost and it is vital to the town that the temperature of the ground stay frozen year round. Therefore the houses are built with insulation space under them to keep the heat from seeping into the ground. This picture should actually be at the end of the day.

Diamond-Tooth Gertie and her Can-can girls.

There is a famous poet named Robert Service who is quoted often by tour guides. Here is one of his poems that was painted on the side of a building in Dawson City.