Dawson City, dirt, Chicken "Noodle", more dirt, Tok and smoke.

 

Hello from our "little friend" we saw along the way to Dawson City. He (or she) was the highlight of the dirty, muddy roads we had to go on to get here! I'm not sure the prospectors were much dirtier than us when they got here but at least our campground, Bonanza Gold had a car wash so we could spray off a bit before hitting the town.

We went to the Sourdough Saloon for dinner, recommended by the visitor's center. What was also recommended was the "Sourtoe cocktail" which the saloon is famous for. What's the Sourtoe cocktail you ask? It is whisky with a DEAD TOE in it! See below for the rules and a picture of the toe...We passed on the cocktail.😝

The next day was a hiking one and we did the crocus bluff trail...or at least we thought we did. The trail was only supposed to be about 3.2 miles long but it wasn't clearly marked and we may have ended up doing a few different trails. I told Dave not to worry that we'd still be home before dark (which wasn't much comfort since the sun doesn't set til almost 1am!). It was a great hike and we saw Dawson City from a terrific view point.

 

We ended up doing about 4.5miles total but it was a great day. Beautiful blue skies and lots of pretty flowers along the way.

The next day we took a guided walking tour of the town which we highly recommend. It would appear that Parks Canada (like our US National Parks) owns much of the town. Several of the buildings are no longer open to the public unless you take the tour.

We saw the first bank in Dawson (it didn't make it but Parks Canada restored it for the tour) and a saloon also just used for people to see what a saloon looked like back in the day. 

Another architecturally beautiful building was the post office. Designed by Thomas Fuller, the son of the famous architect who did the Parliament building in Ottawa, Fuller showcased brass and glass letter boxes and classic wood moldings. While his design did stand the test of time with the permafrost and even fires, it's vast size and grandeur were the death of it as the building was too expensive to operate as a post office. Once again, step in Parks Canada to maintain it and show it off on the tour. 

 

Today the stores are much more consolidated...as you can see here to the left. You can go to the department of motor vehicles and get your driver's license, a fishing license and a fifth of whisky all at the same time!😄

You may have noticed that all the streets except one are still dirt. That is because of the permafrost (50 - 90% of the ground is always frozen) so way too expensive to pave and they say to keep it looking historical. Here's one building that the permafrost took it's toll on to the right. Maybe if you had enough Sourtoe cocktails it wouldn't look so crooked! 😆 Below, a tribute to the Woolly Mammoth, whose remains were preserved by the permafrost and found by miners.

It really is a cool, little, dusty town filled with Gold Rush history. This building seemed to tell a tale of it's own with the sign that reads "Don't laugh at me, I'm 125 years old. I'm rusty and crude looking but during the time of the gold rush builders didn't have a world of choices for building materials so they used flattened oil barrels for siding and here I am! The wall". What an interesting time it must have been. Few struck it rich and most of who did blew it in the saloons and gambling halls. And speaking of gambling halls...our time in Dawson City wouldn't be complete without visiting Diamond Tooth Gerties...Dave seemed to enjoy the show. 😄

Another unique thing to Dawson City is that to cross the Yukon River they have a free ferry. Seems like a bridge would cost less but apparently Parks Canada hasn't stepped in here yet. 😉 It is a small ferry and basically can hold about 1 RV of our size. Unfortunately staying at Bonanza Gold with us was about 44 other rigs who were headed the same direction as us in the morning... 

Good thing there is so much daylight and the ferry runs 24 hours! After we got home from Diamond Tooth Gerties we packed up and crossed over to beat the rush in the morning. We figured each trip there and back was about 20 minutes so it literally would have been hours waiting for all the rigs to cross in the morning.

Little did we know that we would need all of those hours to make the next leg of the trip across the Top of the World Highway.  Only 189 miles would normally take us about 3 1/2 to 4 hours  but the Top of the World Highway is like no other freeway we've ever been on...7 1/2 hours later we finally made it to to Tok. But, I'm getting ahead of myself...

 

The views were amazing and you can easily see how the road was named. It seemed you could see forever...from both sides!

With close to 90% of the road that day being gravel/dirt we drove mostly between 25 and 30 miles per hour. Believe it or not, in the middle of what seemed like nowhere there was a border crossing finally coming back into the USA. Since our last crossing back in was were the guy took our apples I was fully prepared this time with no fruits or vegetables. This crossing they never even came inside. They were pretty laid back and had a sign in the window that said "yes, we live here and yes, we like it"!

Just across the border we got a respite from the dirt road but only for a few miles. Just enough to have a roadside stop with the welcome to Alaska sign. 

 

Back to the switchbacks and narrow dirt road we went until finally we got to...Chicken! Even Noodle needed a break from the bumpy roads so I took him out to meet the Chickens; he really wasn't too sure about those big metal things!

A place not many people can say they have visited but now we can say "we've been to Chicken". 

We also got our first look at Phoebe and the truck from the outside...OH THE DIRT!

Back on the road again for just 3 more hours to Tok...at least the view was pretty. Once we finally got there after 7 1/2 hours of driving we got fuel and the station had a free car wash with fill up (imagine that!). We were so happy to rinse her off not knowing what awaited us once we got set up and saw the inside of the rig. OH THE DIRT!!! You could write your name on any surface the dust was so deep. 

So, if any of you know me, you know I didn't go to sleep with my "home" in that condition. 3 hours later, 4 sheets of swiffer wet wipes, a half a roll of paper towel and about a bottle of Mrs. Meyer's cleaner and it was at least clean enough to sleep in. Good thing we had 2 nights in Tok because I think I cleaned for 8 more hours the next day. Thanks to Fast Eddies I at least didn't have to cook!

Back on the road and thankful it is actually paved, we are on our way to Fairbanks. Unfortunately, there are several forest fires up here and the smoke leaving Tok was pretty bad. Good thing we had the air purifier and we could set it up right up front and circulate the inside air...oh yeah, the air still filled with dust from the dirt roads. Stay tuned to find out if I ever get the rig fully cleaned! 😩😜