Still a Frontier Town
When we first pulled in to Dawson City on Tuesday, June 22nd, we
drove past an airport with scheduled air service and a helicopter
sightseeing operation. Well, we figured, there goes the last of the
frontier.
A quick drive down the main drag of Dawson relieved our fears,
however. The town still looked pretty much like we remembered it from the
early 1980's. Thanks to the tourism folks, the dirt streets and boardwalks
were still there. The gas station where we fueled up before we took the
ferry across the Yukon was still there. But television, cell phones, the
internet and satellite TV have all elbowed their way into the community.
Speaking of tourism, when we were here before, we considered
driving up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik, north of the Arctic Circle. We
were discouraged from making the trip by the locals, who said the road, which
had just been completed a couple of years earlier, was in poor condition and
that the Inuvik locals were not real friendly. Now there is a Dempster
Highway information center in Dawson, complete with photo murals and videos, and
staffed by Inuvik natives inviting us to "come on up."
We re-visited the gold fields and the old mining dredge which is
up on Bonanza Creek. When we were here previously, the dredge had sunk
with limited access to the interior. In the early 1990's the dredge was
re-floated, moved about a quarter mile, restored and opened for tours. It is
operated by Parks Canada and is now a national landmark.
The ferry across the Yukon has changed a bit since we were here
before, but not much. The old ferry was just a barge with a diesel engine
on it. The new one is a bit fancier, but not much bigger. It will
hold two RV's or one semi. Given the width of the river and the rapid
current, the ferry makes kind of an "S" manuever as it crosses the river, fighting the
current and working to line up to "dock" on the opposite shore.
We'll be heading across the river on Friday morning, IF the
wildfires haven't blocked the highway. As of Thursday afternoon, there
were a number of fires burning around Alaska and in the Yukon, several of which
could interfere with our schedule. We've been getting a lot of smoke in
Dawson, actually beginning with our drive out of Whitehorse.
We'll try to keep our posts updated as our travel plans become
more clear.
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Gravel Road |
The road between Whitehorse and Dawson was mostly paved, with about 30 miles of gravel in a construction area. |
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Dawson From Above |
Roughly the same viewpoint we visited 23 years ago. |
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Klondike River |
Klondike River water is clear, while the Yukon is quite muddy. |
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Downtown Dawson |
Same boardwalks and dirt streets as 23 years ago. |
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Dawson Campground |
Another "compact" campsite. |
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Panning for Gold |
Sue brushes up on her technique. |
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Gold Dredge Number Four |
When we were here before the dredge was buried up to the rust line in mud. |
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How It Worked |
Guided dredge tours explained how this four-story monster separated gold from gravel. |
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Ferry to Alaska |
Our "ride" across the Yukon to the "Top of the World" highway. The haze is from numerous wildfires in Alaska and the Yukon. |
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Edge of the Tundra |
On Thursday, we took a side trip about 50 miles north up the Dempster highway to the beginning of the tundra. |
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Tombstone Mountain |
Sue checks out an area of glacier-like ice in a river valley along the Dempster. |
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Fireweed |
The territorial flower of the Yukon, although the spikes are not in their full glory yet. |
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