TOURING DAWSON CITY, YUKON

I'm a few days behind on my blog because the internet service has been almost non-existent.

Two night's ago we went to Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall.  The floor show starring Diamond Tooth Gertie and her cancan girls was fun and entertaining.  We were sitting at a black jack table to watch the show and I was amazed to see a young man sit at the table, plop down $800 and start playing.  If I was a gambler, that would be the game of my choice.

Yesterday was a full day of touring the city.  We have been debating whether or not to buy an annual Parks Canada Discovery Pass which gives us free access to more than 100 national parks, marine conservation areas and historic sites across Canada.  We learned that they would credit us for the parks we’ve already visited and paid for if we had the receipts. We paid a total of $82 for the pass after a credit of $60.  It turned out to be a good deal because our entrance fees would have been $23 and we’ll be traveling back through Canada and into Quebec before the year pass expires.

I hope you enjoy the brief synopsis and photos of the historic sites we visited today as much as we enjoyed them.  We visiting the Old Post Office,  drove to the top of Midnight Dome to see a great viewpoint of the town, surrounding landscape and gold mining areas.  We went to the farmer’s market along the waterfront and purchased the largest head of green lettuce I’ve ever seen, some tomatoes, cucumbers and beet greens.

The S.S. Keno was the last steamer to run the Yukon River when she sailed from Whitehorse in 1960 to her present berth on the riverbank.  The S.S. Keno is a 130-foot riverboat built in Whitehorse in 1922 by the British Navigation Company.  She represents the fleet of sternwheelers that plied the Yukon waterways for over half a century.

The Robert Service cabin is a historic site and we enjoyed a 60-minute narrative about how he immortalized the gold rush and brought Canadian literature to a worldwide audience.  A costumed guide recited some of Service’s most meorable poems, including “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” and “The Cremation of Sam McGee”.

The Palace Grand Theater is another historic site and is a exact replica of the original theater built by Arizona Charlie Meadows and opened in 1899.  The original theater’s foundation was not built to survive the harsh winters and permafrost.

We experienced the elegance of the Commissioner’s Residence, Yukon’s government representative.  The house is really a mansion with three floors.  The first floor has been renovated after surviving both fire and flood.  The second and third floors have not been renovated but you can still see them.  After a fire at St. Mary’s Hospital, the house was occupied by the nuns for a while.

Our last stop was Dredge No. 4 national historic site.  Dredge No. 4 is two-thirds the size of a football field and eight stories high.  The dredge moved along on a pond of its own making, digging gold bearing gravel in front, recovering the gold through the revolving screen washing plant, then depositing the gravel out the stacker at the rear.  The dredges were a very efficient means of mining for gold.

Love this photo - saw him on the road to Dredge No. 4

This morning we attended mass at St. Mary's Church in Dawson City and then got in line for the free ferry across the Yukon River.  The wait was less than a half hour.  If you've never driven a 38 foot motor home with a vehicle in tow onto a ferry, you just haven't lived.  And we weren't the only ones on this tiny ferry boat, we had two cars and a pickup truck for company.  But the 7 minute ride across was uneventful.

Interior of St. Mary's - this is the second parish we've been to with a Nigeria priest

Now the adventure has begun.  Everyone has been telling us how awful the roads were going to be and we were prepared for the worse.  The drive along the Top of the World Highway was in pretty good condition.   We crossed the border into the United States and got on the Taylor Highway.  Now we know what everyone was talking about.  The roads are awful ... unpaved, gravel, dirt, mud, potholes, narrow, no guardrails, steep cliffs, etc.  Two hours of hell for 50 miles but at least we weren't that poor lady standing by the side of her 5th wheeler waiting for her husband to return.  We arrived safe and sound in Chicken with very muddy vehicles.   Downtown Chicken lets you park for free and even offers free internet.  The Chicken Gold Camp across the street wanted $14 for a back-in site without hookups.  So we used the $14 we saved for a BBQ chicken dinner and piece of apple pie.

That’s all folks!  Thanks for stopping in.  I promise the pictures are coming soon!

CARMACKS TO DAWSON CITY, YUKON

Yesterday we walked the boardwalk along the Yukon River and checked out the historical buildings in Carmacks.  Carmacks is located in the traditional territory of the Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation.  Over the years, the First Nation people settled permanently on the north bank of the Yukon River while the business section of Carmacks developed on the south bank.  Carmacks is named after George Carmack who built a trading post and started to mine coal from the hill behind the post just before the Klondike Gold Rush.

The visitors centre was built in 1903 at Big Salmon as a telegraph line station.  It was rafted to Carmacks in 1915 and located by the High Cache.  In 1991 it was moved to its present location and completely renovated as the visitors centre.

The Minto RCMP Barracks was constructed in 1949 as a residence for two officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at Minto Landing.  The Barracks was moved to Carmacks in 1954 and now houses the post office, a cute little coffee/pastry shop and an archive of old photos.  If you're in the area, be sure to stop into the Barracks and stay overnight at the Sunrise Service Center.  No hookups and no charge, the people are friendly, the Barracks is next door and you'll have internet for free.

After our self-guided tour we headed out towards Dawson City and drove about 90 miles to Tintina Trench rest area to spend the night.  The Tintina Trench, which extends hundreds of miles across Yukon and Alaska, is the largest fault in North America.   It is bright outside all night and we've had to put cardboard in our bedroom windows to darken the room in order to get a good night's sleep.

This morning we drove 30 miles to Dawson City looking for a campground.  We settled in at Bonanza Gold RV Park which is a Good Sam Park.  Even with our discount, the price of $81 for two nights is much more than we're used to paying.  We needed the internet, RV/car wash and full hookups to catch up on all those mundane things that need to be done and Dawson City looks like a place we want to tour for a couple of days.

We just learned that this park has 80 megs of bandwidth for the entire park and they limit us to 20 a day.  What that means to you is I can't send any photos with my post until we move to another area, sorry, we have some great shots to share with you.

That's all folks!  Thanks for stopping in.

WORLD'S LARGEST WEATHERVANE AND WORLD'S LONGEST WOODEN FISH LADDER

Whitehorse to Carmacks - Yukon Territory

Before leaving Whitehorse we wanted to go to the Whitehorse Rapids Fishway to see the world's longest wooden fish ladder.  The fish ladder was built in 1959 to provide access to chinook (king) salmon and other species above the Yukon Energy Corporation hydroelectric dam.

For a small donation they pack in a lot of information

The stages from eggs to little fish "fry" ready to be released - they  tag every fish they release

This is a cute idea someone started and it caught on - no pun intended

Gives you an idea of the size of the ladder

From there, we drove a few miles to the Transportation Museum on the Alaska Highway to see the world's largest weathervane, a Douglas DC-3.  This vintage plane was originally a C-47 that was built in 1942 and flew transport missions in Asia during the war.  Later it was converted to civilian life and flew for several airlines from 1946 until 1970.  The restored plane was mounted on a rotating pedestal in 1981 and points its nose into the wind.

We didn't go into the museum - we just can't afford to pay admission for all the museums we  pass

Pointing into the wind

This morning while catching up on some computer work at McDonald's I got talking to a young couple with two young children who were relocating from Alaska to Idaho.  The young mom didn't seem very excited about the idea and her son was quick to mention that they were moving back to Alaska in four years.  They just came down the Alaska Highway from Tok and said the roads were awful.  They drove 30 mph because of the frost heaves.

With this in mind, we decided to go back to our original plan of taking the Klondike Loop to Tok via Dawson City and Chicken.  We'll still have to come back down that way but why should we torture ourselves both ways?  So a few miles down the road we branched off to Highway 2, the Klondike Highway and begin our 498-mile drive along the scenic Klondike Loop.

We drove about 120 miles from Whitehorse to Carmacks for an overnight stay.

This is one of the prettiest welcome signs we've seen - done in mosiac tiles

Got my information and ready to tour

The Hotel Carmacks campground wanted $30 plus extra for internet and since we didn't need full hookups we decided to look around for someplace else.  Right next to the Hotel was Sunrise Gas Services and we asked them if we could stay in their parking lot.  They not only said we could stay but we could tap into their internet connection at no charge.

That's all folks!  Thanks for stopping in.

TRAVEL DAY

Grande Prairie, Alberta - Sunny skies and very pleasant

We said our goodbyes to the VanStratens this morning as they headed home to Devon.  We drove about 250 miles to a RV friendly Walmart in Grande Prairie.   On the way out of Jasper Park we saw a large bull elk with a full rack and got some great pictures.

Isn't he beautiful?

Mama bear and her cub

Nice horns on this bighorn sheep

Denis bought an oil and filter at Walmart and complained that he spent at least $14 more than he would have in the states.  Anyways, he did an oil change and grease job in the parking lot while I did some shopping for a few staples.

Walmart has a McDonald's with free wi-fi and that gave us a chance to answer emails and clean out the junk.  I ordered a mango-orange smoothie with fries and found a nice quiet corner to spend some time with my computer.  Ahhh, the simple pleasures of life!

My brother Ken and Kathleen are in Hawaii for ten days of rest and relaxation. They are having a wonderful time paddle boarding, snorkeling, eating and drinking.  I think he'll be happy to hear that dad has agreed to rent the house to my Aunt Donna and they are very excited about the move.  Dad is doing well at the Soldier's Home and I'm hoping I don't get any "crisis" calls while Ken is away.

That's all folks!  Thanks for stopping in.

LAST DAY AT JASPER

Jasper, Alberta - Sunny and pleasant

Last night we drove into the quaint town of Jasper with Tony and Meike.  We stopped at a pub for some grub and suds.  Then we did some window shopping until we came to a Coldstone Creamery and indulged in some ice cream.  There's no problem walking the streets especially when it doesn't begin to get dark until after 10PM.

Photo with Jasper the Bear

This morning we found ourselves caught up in putting out a fires in the business but once that was accomplished we had time for a few stretches before lunch.  Tony and Meike patiently waited for us and by 1:00 we were heading to Maligne Canyon.  It is a beautiful, deep and narrow canyon with gushing waters.  The last time the VanStraten's were there was in the winter and they walked the bottom of the canyon on the ice.  What a difference a season makes.  We walked for about four hours peering down into the sheer canyon walls.

Denis showing his fear

The walls are sheer, narrow and deep

Don't they look like trouble?

This was a wide falls cascading over stone tiers

I read about taking afternoon tea served Canadian Rockies Style at Maligne Lake and thought that might be fun.  We didn't find where they served the tea but the view of the glacier-fed Maligne Lake was beautiful.  Maligne in French means evil - can't figure out why they call something so beautiful evil.

Lot of roots to trip over along the way

Dogwood maybe?

Thistle

Tiger Lily

We had soup, chili and sandwiches at the restaurant on the lake before heading home.  It was a pleasant day with good friends.

That's all folks!  Thanks for stopping in.

ENJOYING JASPER NATIONAL PARK

Wapiti Campground in Jasper, Alberta - Mostly sunny skies

Yesterday we spent the day at the campground.  From our site we found a very nice trail along the river and enjoyed a leisurely strolled.  I'm still amazed at how long the days are and when I looked out our front window at 10:30 p.m. I could see a herd of elk grazing on the grass in front of our rig.

Today we drove a few minutes down the road to Valley of Five Lakes and hiked the loop.  I thought it was a short hike but it wound up being six miles.  The glacier-fed lakes were a beautiful turquoise and the trail was varied.  We didn't see any of the beaver that claim to inhabit the area but we did spot some colorful flowers.

View from the campground

Some people love the flooded waters

We could hear this couple laughing before we saw them

Originally, we had planned on visiting Tony and Mieke in Devon but because we re-routed our trip due to flooding that wasn't going to work out.  So we invited them to visit us in Jasper.  When we got back from our hike they were all set up at the spot next to us.  They're here for two nights and we're looking forward to seeing some of the sights with them.

In the woods

Near the water

One of the five lakes

The flying Commanders

That's all folks - thanks for stopping in.