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! 😩😜 

Skagway, a special visitor, and Whitehorse.

 

Hello from Alaska!! We made it through another border crossing but did get our apples confiscated. We laughed because our neighbors got their pork chops taken and we figured they wanted apple sauce to go with them!  No complaints though as the view on the road to Skagway was amazing! We even saw an eagle fly right in front of us.

Our campsite there was nice and we were able to rinse off some of the road grime and bugs. We were right at the harbor and our view out back was pretty cool watching the cruise ships come in.

Even cooler was that one of the ships brought in my college roommate and Emma's Godmother, Teesha and her husband, Brian. They were celebrating their 35th anniversary with a cruise to Alaska and happened to stop at Skagway the same time we were there! It was awesome to connect even for just a few hours and we laughed that it took them coming all the way to Alaska to see us. 😎

Skagway is a cool little town and is known for being the port that brought all the people in for the Klondike gold rush. It has several unique buildings like this one to the left, the Arctic Brotherhood Hall. The whole face of the building is made from over 8000 pieces of driftwood. It is also the start of the White Pass & Yukon Route train. We didn't take the train ride as we were fortunate to get to drive in on the similar route but would highly suggest it if coming into town on a cruise.

My favorite souvenir from downtown was this beautiful wool scarf with a local artist's picture of the glacier with spring flowers.  I loved the colors but also loved supporting a local artist with a product made in Alaska.  Emma gave me a gift card for my birthday for some streaming time but I caved in and used the money towards the scarf (sorry Emma, but I thought you'd appreciate supporting the artist.😉)

We did a lot of walking around the town which was a huge advantage of camping where we did, as we could just walk right from the campsite. We also hiked to the Gold Rush cemetery and the Lower Reid Falls. 

The cemetery was quite sad seeing so many young people that died in pursuit of the gold.

The location was lovely however, with the falls just a short distance behind the graves.  

It was a cool little town but odd to see a cruise ship and not be getting on it!

Again, no complaints as our journey continued up the road back into the Yukon and breathtaking scenery. The snow capped mountains, the lush trees and water everywhere made for a beautiful drive. The lake below is called Spirit Lake and the colors were just amazing.

Next stop was Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon. It was nice to be in a "bigger city" and get stocked back up again at a Wal-Mart. 😁 We stayed at Pioneer RV park which had lovely views from the "upper section" of the park (below). Too bad we were in the lower section which was right by the road and basically a parking lot. 😩Note for any readers who might take this trip, ask for the upper section.  

The downtown area was nice. I got some Christmas shopping in as well as my picture taken with the Moose mounty standing guard (shout out to my Canadian friends!). Be careful of downtown parking as the meters there will only let you stay in the same spot for 1 hour. We were OK but when we got to our spot both cars on either side had tickets! Not the friendliest memory for those tourists I would guess. 

What was very friendly was the visitor center and the trail system that followed along the river's edge next to it. We walked for miles and it was great to see so many people out enjoying it as well.

Dave enjoyed wandering off the trail and doing some rock hunting out in the river on a high spot. See him way out there!😃 

Now he's a little closer and back on the trail. It was such a lovely day and gorgeous views. 

Our next stop was just outside of Whitehorse at Eclipse Nordic Hot Springs. They have a campground right next door as well as many cabins so you can stay right by the Springs. They also have lots of hiking trails which we fully enjoyed. No cell service so my All-trails app wasn't working and the trails weren't clearly marked but we did eventually find our way back to the campground. We saw lots of pretty flowers along the way...

It started to rain a little on us and I loved how the droplets of water rested in the leaves of this plant. Maybe I was just getting "zen" and preparing for our next day at the springs and spa...not exactly the Persian Garden but I'll take it!

After that wonderful day of lounging on the heated beds, steam showers and soaking in the hot springs it was time to get back on the road again. The day started with more scenic views with purple flowers lining the roadway and then...no flowers and NO ROAD! It was just the beginning of our adventure towards Dawson City and the Top of the World Highway.  Stay tuned for the next post with more dirty details!