June 13 Klondike Hwy, Dawson City, Yukon

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Good night and nice crisp morning, 45 degrees.  We drove north to a viewpoint to try a panoramic picture, then back south to the Visitor’s Center which had just opened.  Nice center with displays on history, flora, faunae, etc. of the Tombstone area and the Dempster Highway.  Nice views all around.

The ride back down to the Klondike Highway was uneventful, and then we headed toward Dawson City.  Took the Bonanza Road before the city which went to Dredge #4 and Claim #6.  The dredge is a huge contraption that was used to look for gold.  It literally ate up the ground, sifted through the rocks, sluiced out the gold and spit out the non-gold material, called talus.  

There are piles of the talus rock all over the land around Bonanza and other creeks.  One inventive minor who hates mosquitos builds bird houses  for swallows in the winter and gives them away .  We saw lots all along Bonanza Creek Road, and they were being used.  Not many mosquitos, either!

Continued to site #6 which had some displays explaining how the gold was first discovered and the history of the first three prospectors, two of whom were First Nation men.  All became quite wealthy, but sold out to companies who brought in these huge dredges and found lots of gold for a few years.  Thousands of prospectors headed this way and many didn’t make it through the harsh environment.  Of those that made it, few became wealthy, and many died pursuing their dream.  Met a nice woman from Vancouver who was exploring in her Roadtrek with her dog.

Just before town, we took the Dome Road which climbs and climbs to an overlook over town. 

Dawson City and the Yukon from the Dome

The bench there had been “Yarn Bombed”,  and a couple we ran into explained that various objects (an airplane, a wooly mammoth, etc.) had been “bombed” previously.  Great views for miles and there was a sign saying you had to belong to some organization in order to use the sight for hang gliding.

Finally made it into town, only to have to visitor’s center people tell us to go back a few miles if we wanted “cheap” gas.  The station was totally mobile and must have fit on the back of a flat-bed truck.  Two tanks, two pumps and a small area for credit card processing.

Back to town.  In its hayday there were 30,000 people here, but now there are about 2,000 and half of them are involved in trying to sell things to tourists! The streets are still dirt, with wooden sidewalks, and all the buildings are wooden, with a few tin roofs.  A man on a grader was redoing one of the streets.

We went to the library , which was attached to the school, and used their wi-fi for ½ hour – that was their limit -   then walked all around town, visited the grocery store ($2 for a can of tuna!) and several shops.  The librarian and a woman outside the library both recommended a restaurant called Klondike Kate’s, so we walked some more and then had dinner – chicken and bbq pork sandwiches. We sat by a group of motorcyclists (we've seen quite a few) from Ohio and Michigan who were discussing a drink called the Sourtoe at a local bar called the Sourdough Saloon, which features a garnish of a real human toe. Old timer miners were called Sour Dough, so this was someone's grand idea.  We passed, but read where something like 24,000 people have imbibed.  Yuck.  And they re-use the toes!

We headed out of town then, which meant taking the 6-vehicle capacity ferry across the Yukon River, a pretty quick trip.

  We decided to stay at another Provincial Campground, just on the other side and set up camp.  Again, lots of free firewood, so we had a nice fire.  We discovered a  trail the began beside our campsite through the woods and along the river to the site of several ship wrecks.  One was a paddlewheeler, as we could still see the 100 year old wheels.

 

A few young folks showed up with musical instruments and headed off in the direction of the wrecks and a girl arrived on a bike and asked if she could leave it at our camp site as she was meeting some people at the shipwreck.  Apparently it is the place to party?  No problems, as it is far enough away that I doubt we’ll hear anything.