Aug 29, 2012 - gold fever

If Dawson City wasn’t 165 miles from the Arctic Circle, it could be a nice place to live. It is located in a picturesque spot on the Yukon River, surrounded be rolling hills and mountains. It was put on the map by the gold rush which happened here 1896 when the first nuggets were discovered. Within a few years Dawson was a city with 20,000 inhabitants, mostly men. At the beginning it was a Wild West town filled with saloons and women of easy virtue. Then gold was discovered in Nome and 8,000 people left within the week. Those that stayed...

Aug 28, 2012 - at the top of the world

Although people have lots of ominous things to say about driving in Alaska, we knew from past experience that the Top of the World, the road that takes us from Chicken, Alaska to Dawson City, Yukon Territory deserves its challenging reputation. The road is aptly named, climbing to 4,300 feet and winding from one mountain past to the next. At times the road is on the spine of the mountain range, buffeted by winds. And most importantly the road is dirt/gravel and very narrow. The locals in Chicken told us that every summer 4 - 14 RV’s take a...

Aug 27, 2012 - Dawson City

The weather got really rainy and socked in so we decided to use the time to do some chores. Laundry, clean-up, etc. Our plan had been to take a highway called Top Of the World with spectacular views. All dirt and gravel and probably not a great idea to do on a rainy , socked in day when the driving conditions were bad and the views non existent. So we postponed and stayed in Dawson City another night. We checked out some neat stuff while we were there. Our favorite of all was the Dredge No. 4 National Historic sight. We toured the old gold...

Aug 26, 2012 - Dawson City, Yukon Territory

We're in Dawson City, Yukon tonight. The Klondike. We've passed the 64th parallel, and going on 3000 miles so far. It's been a long day of driving - about 450 miles, but we wanted to get here today because that means we'll be in Alaska TOMORROW! We followed the Alaska Highway as far as Whitehorse, then turned north on the Klondike Highway to Dawson City. The road was paved, but full of frost heaves. These are dips in the pavement that really make you bounce up and down - causing everything in the camper to fly around. We've manged to get...

Aug 13, 2012 - Busy day in Dawson City!

Monday, August 13 After a cold breakfast in the car, we got to the Dawson City Information Center by 9 am, to buy our Parks Canada Pass for 3 activities today. We looked at the exhibits before the first activity at 9:30--a tour of the town featuring "strange stories." Our costumed tour guide was very good and funny. We saw a number of restored buildings--a bank, post office, a saloon. Parks Canada owns 32 buildings in town, not all of which have been restored. But the town has kept its main street and nearby streets with original store...

Aug 12, 2012 - Dawson City!

Sunday, August 12 This morning we met a couple from Manitoba in the campsite, and got a road report for the Taylor and Top of the World Highways. We got gas in Tok and were on the road about 10:30. We spent all day driving about 190 miles on these two highways between Tok and Dawson City. There is some spectacular scenery along this route. It would have been even more spectacular with some sun. We had mostly clouds today. Also, the roads are very slow. Much of it is gravel, which is good, because the paved parts are broken up and full of...

Aug 5, 2012 - Bonanza Gold RV Park

Stayed at Bonanza Gold RV Park in Dawson City, YT for three nights in a FHU site. Once again, we especially enjoyed the free Wi-Fi while we have no cell phone or satellite TV service while in Canada. This is a recommended RV park. Note 1: During this leg of the trip from Tok, AK, USA, to Dawson City, YT, Canada, we traveled over the legendary Top Of The World Highway. This 79 mile long highway opened in 1955. The highway begins at the junction with the Taylor Highway near Jack Wade, Alaska traveling east to its terminus at the ferry...

Jul 31, 2012 - #4 Across Canada 7-21 thru 7-28

#4 Across Canada, 7-21 thru 7-28 …from Marvin's journal: Sat 7-21 - Glacier NP, MT to Pincher Crk, AB (Alberta), Canada Since no WiFi was available in Glacier NP, we stopped at the adjoining Canadian Park, Waterton Lakes. Canadian Customs was no problem. They checked our passports, vehicle registration, and Cappy's rabies vaccination certification, and passed us through without a vehicle search, and didn't ask about our fresh fruit. At Waterton Township, we located Pearl's Cafe, which had free WiFi for customers. Ann bought a cup of coffee...

Jul 21, 2012 - Dawson City, Yukon Territory

Wow, Dawson City. This is where the Klondike Gold rush started. The town has many of the original buildings. It still has dirt streets and board sidewalks. Many of the pictures are of the buildings made into to stores etc. The old leaning buildings are a result of building on the perma frost without sinking piling to support your building. The Dredge #4 and its machinery actually dredged for gold until 1966. By the way gold is still being taken from the area. We saw people in streams panning for gold. We drove down Bonanza Creek to see the...

Jul 20, 2012 - Dawson City, Yukon Territory

Six hours to go 107 miles. Dirt road, no guard rails, 2 to 3 thousand foot drops over the edge. The road not wide enough to pass oncoming vehicles most of the time. Then it Rains. Talk about white knuckles. Oh yeah, we crossed from the U.S. back into Canada. Then when we get there, we still have to cross the great Yukon river, in flood stage on a little ferry. More about Dawson City tomorrow.

Jul 9, 2012 - Dawson City, YT - Pop 1881

July 9 -12 Dawson City, YT - Population 1881 I drove the rig 68.2 miles from Whitehorse to Braburn Lodge, where we stopped for cinnamon rolls larger than a dinner plate! There’s a different working ethic here in the north, the folks in our caravan and a Holland American Tour bus parked outside crowded into his lodge, wallets out and money in hand and yet the proprietor (and baker) didn’t come to the counter for at least 7 minutes. The folks in this area are never in a hurry, he had around 70 customers yet he worked the register at a...

Jul 3, 2012 - Top of World Highway

Well we hated to leave Chicken, but were on the road again. The road to Dawson City from Chicken was terrible. It was a narrow road and had deep drop-offs. Whenever you passed someone on the road one of you had to stop to let the other one by. It was a gravel road with constant turns and steady uphill climbs. I’m just glad we were south bound as the ones going the other direction had the outside ledge. At least we had a nice day with plenty of sunshine and no rain. The border crossing was nice. There were two nice young men working there...