Klondike Highway Dawson City

Sunrise 3:48am Sunset 12:47am

June 14 Thursday Eleven miles north of Whitehorse we turn off the Alaskan Highway and pick up the Klondike Loop and head to Dawson City. The ride was fairly uneventful, rainy off and on with long spots of sunshine. We were traveling along at a pretty good pace until we met a double trailer dump truck carrying gravel coming from the opposite direction. We passed each other right on a corner of a rough, muddy spot in the road. Dirty water and stones flew at us and when all was said and done, we had another chip in our windshield and a fairly significant crack on the bottom right of the passenger windshield which left a small hole right through the dual panes spitting little slivers of glass on the dash. How many times am I going to say “Thank goodness we have full glass coverage”? 

Sorry, no moose picture, but here is the Moose Creek Lodge!

We stopped for lunch at Moose Creek Lodge. Leaving the lodge we were surprised by a bull moose running down the side of the road. Of course, I didn't have my camera at the ready and by the time I got situated to take a picture, I had missed it! 

Tailings on the sides of the road to Dawson City

As we headed into Dawson City we passed about 8 miles of tailings 20ft high on each said of the highway. Tailings are piles of very coarse rock and gravel that is left as an aftermath of a dredge digging through the land to extract gold. Believe me we know a lot more about tailings and dredges after our visit to Dawson City. More later on this subject. 

View of Dawson City & the Yukon Rive

What a great town Dawson City is...we felt like we had stepped back in time to 1896, the year that began the great gold rush there. They still have dirt streets and wooden sidewalks! The town has been very proactive about preserving the historical significance of this era. There are still some original buildings in town, and those that have been restored have specific guidelines to follow to maintain the original style of architecture. After a stop at the Visitor Center we walked around the town, had dinner at Sourdough Joe's (fish & chips which seem to have become a staple of ours in the Yukon), and drove up Dome Road which affords a beautiful view of downtown Dawson City and the Yukon River.

Beautiful shot of the Yukon River from the top of Dome Rd.

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We took in another show of entertainment  typical of the Yukon gold rush days at Diamond Tooth Gerties. This was held in a saloon/casino that was built in 1900.