Dawson City

May 29: Goldrush Campground & RV Park, YT

The first order of the day was to hike some of the trails at the Klondike River Campground. It was here that we came upon yet another beaver pond.

Beaver Pond at Klondike River Campground

Dawson City is where the Klondike and Yukon Rivers come together and continue to flow north and west as the Yukon. Crossing through Alaska, the Yukon River empties into the Bering Sea.

Confluence of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers

One of the most prominent feature of Dawson City other than the Yukon River is the landslide just north of town.

Dawson City landslide

Thanks to Parcs Canada, Dawson City is a well preserved Gold Rush town. Many of the buildings have been restored and some have been rebuilt.

Dawson City General Store

Historic Cabin along Front Street

The Sternwheelers started their journeys up the Yukon in Whitehorse. For most, their destination was Dawson City. The SS Keno is preserved on the banks of the Yukon. A Parcs Canada guide explained the operation of the Keno in much more detail than was provided in Whitehorse.

Parc Canada Guide on SS Keno

We also toured the Palace Grand Theatre. Originally built in 1899 by American showman Arizona Charlie Meadows and restored by Parcs Canada in 1962. With its bar, shows, dancing and percentage girls, they collected the gold from the pockets of the miners that collected it from the ground.

Palace Grand Theatre

Palace Grand Theatre Seating

Palace Grand Theatre Stage

A sharp eye will reveal that our guide for the SS Keno was the same gentlemen as at the Place Grand. Luckily for us, it was an exclusive tour on both occasions.

Kathleen Rockwell, (a.k.a. Klondike Kate) gained her fame as a dancer and vaudeville star during the Gold Rush. She gained reputation for being flirtatious and her ability to keep hard-working miners happy, if not inebriated, and spending that hard earned gold. We lunched at a restaurant named after her.

Klondike Kate’s Restaraunt

Gertie Lovejoy (a.k.a. Diamond Tooth Gertie was another Yukon dance-hall queen, named for the sparkling diamond she wedged between her two front teeth. Gertie made a fortune relieving miners of their gold nuggets. She once commented, “The poor ginks have just gotta spend it, they’re that scared they’ll die before they have it all out of the ground.” Today, Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Casino Hall entertains visitors to Dawson City.

Diamond Tooth Gertie’s

Frost Heave is a major issue in the north from roads to construction. When building were built on the permafrost, they heated the ground and caused the frost to melt. Frost Heave was the result.

Result of Frost Heave

It took awhile to realize that they needed to build their buildings with open space between the floor and the ground and their roads raised up on mounds of stone; even though, that is not a perfect solution as evidenced by the roads.

Below are a couple of pictures to show the local flavor is Dawson City today.

Livin’ on the Yukon

Enjoying Life along the Yukon

A closing thought in the words of Robert W. Service, British-Canadian poet:

The Spell of the Yukon

Next on our itinerary is the Top of the World Highway into Alaska.

May 28: Klondike River Yukon Campground, YT

From Whitehorse, we headed north on the Klondike Highway on another detour from the Alaskan Highway. This was the trip of The Road Less Taken. If the Minnie Winnie crowd was going one way, we were going another. On this leg of the trip, we spotted Black-billed Magpie, an Artic Ground Squirrel, Surf Scoter and a Red-breasted Merganser.

Black-billed Magpie

Black-billed Magpie and Artic Ground Squirrel

Artic Ground Squirrel

Surf Scoter

Female Red-breasted Merganser

As testament to the fact that the Northwest is still cold in the spring, Fox Lake still had ice on it. And as a testament to true rustic camping, here is an RV camped at Fox Lake complete with its satellite dish since missing TV while in the great outdoors seems to be unacceptable. Just for the record, we do not know if the TV in our RV worked or not. We were never tempted to turn it on even in RV sites with cable hookup.

Fox Lake, YT

Rustic Camping at Fox Lake

Miles Canyon outside of Whitehorse provided one challenge to prospectors heading north. Five Finger Rapids provided another. Only the eastern-most channel of the five narrow channels is was deep enough for the sternwheelers. A cable was attached to the rocks so sternwheelers could winch themselves up stream. It took 15 – 20 minutes and nearly a cord of wood to pull the sternwheeler through the channel.

Five Finger Rapids

Businesses popped up along the Klondike Route to serve those traveling north to seek their fortune. The remains of the Montague Roadhouse have been preserved.