Klondike Highway to Historic Dawson City, YT

On July 11th, we left Takhini Hot Springs and drove 320 miles to Dawson City, YT. The Klondike Highway had several bad gravel construction patches and we managed to get several more chips in the windshield of our tow vehicle. Dawson was definitely worth the trip. The Klondike Gold Rush comes alive here. Virtually the entire city is on the National Register of Historic Places. You can tour gold mines, pan for gold, gamble and take in a can can show at Diamond Tooth Gerties, visit cabins of Robert Service and Jack London, enjoy a performance at the downtown Palace Theater, take a riverboat up the Yukon to Eagle, Alaska and enjoy a meal or several at the numerous downtown restaurants. Pic #1 shows Lynette enjoying the view of the Yukon, Dawson City and the distant mountains from a giant log bench on the hill known as the "Dome". Pic 2 is an enchanting group of young performers known as "The Fiddleheads". We had just been enthralled by their virtuosity and charm in their Palace theater performance of an original play about children who died during the gold rush and came back as ghosts to play their fiddles. Pic 3 is a performance at Diamond Tooth Gertie's. Pic 4 is a gold dredge that was once used to extract gold from Bonanza Creek and # 5 is Steve at the site of the Discovery Gold Claim on Bonanza Creek. This was the site of the 1896 gold discovery by George Carmack and his partners, Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie which started the Klondike Gold Rush. When we pulled into our assigned RV site at Bonanza Gold RV Park in Dawson Creek, we were delighted to discover that John and Jenny, whom we now had accidentally run into for the fourth time on our trek toward Alaska, were parked in the site next door. When it was time to leave Dawson Creek for the long anticipated and sometimes dreaded journey over "Top of the World Highway" toward Chicken, AK, the four of us decided to "caravan it".

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Klondike Highway: Yukon Territory

On July 9th we took the Alaska Highway to where it joins the Klondike Highway just West of Whitehorse then headed North. We traveled only 21 miles so that we could stay at Takhini Hot Springs to try out some more "therapeutic soaking" and to give us the opportunity to see Lake Laberge, made famous by Robert Service in his poem, "The Cremation of Sam McGee". Steve is famous among friends and relatives for his recitations of this chilling work and we both wanted to see the lake for ourselves. It turned out to be a clear, rugged and gorgeous 40 mile long lake (pics 2 and 3), not nearly so forbidding as portrayed in the poem (Of course it was frozen in the poem).

At our campsite in Takhini, Steve began his new avocation of creating Inukshuks (pic 1). They have been used for centuries by Alaskan Native peoples, notably the Inuit, as a message of friendship, sign of presence, to provide direction, etc. Pic 4 shows a sky above our campsite which appears to be set afire by the sunset (around 1 a.m.). It was in the Yukon where we began to appreciate the wonderful, very long daylight hours of the North. Pic 5 is Five Finger Rapids, visable on the Yukon River from the Klondike highway. River steamships used to "shoot" the rapids, carrying miners and their gold from the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush.

Alaska Highway: Yukon Territory

On July 5, we drove 197 miles on the Alaska Highway (#97) to reach our first stop in Yukon Territory, Watson Lake. This very small town's claim to fame is that it is the first stop in the Yukon enroute to Alaska and this is evidenced by it's "Signpost Forest", literally a forest of signs left by folks from all over the world on their trek to or from Alaska (pic 2). In Watson's "Downtown RV Park", another big gravel parking lot with hook-ups, we met some fellow Alaska RVers for the second time, of special note were Jenny and John from California and a couple from Georgia who gave us their secret recipe for delicious grilled Salmon (marinate then baste while cooking with sauce of equal parts lemon or lime, brown sugar and butter). Enroute to Watson Lake that day, we saw black bear, bison, moose, stone sheep and a wolf. We stopped briefly for a foot soak at Liard Hot Springs, a very popular "renewal soak" stop for Alaska-bound travelers (pic 1).

On July 6, we drove 243 miles from Watson Lake to Whitehorse, YT. Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon Territory and another "must stop" along the Alaska Highway and near it's intersection with the Klondike Highway. Pic #5 is of the Yukon River and a historic riverboat docked in downtown Whitehorse. Enroute to Whitehorse, we stopped at Mukluk Annie's (pic 3) a popular stop that offers free dry camping (aka no hook-ups) and houseboat ride on Teslin Lake if you purchase a salmon dinner. We enjoyed a fresh and delicious grilled salmon feast there, but it was at lunchtime and we were eager to get to Whitehorse, so did not take advantage of the free offers, but many people do. Just after Annie's, we encountered the bridgwork at Johnson's Crossing (pic 4). The width of the track between barriers was just 110 inches, while our rig is 102 inches wide. Thankfully, Steve is an excellent driver, but did admit afterwards that it was a little scary looking straight down into the water from his driver's side.

High Country RV park overlooking Whitehorse was quite nice, but "cozy". We ran into John and Jenny again and talked with an interesting fellow, Peter, from New Zealand, who was spending 11 months exploring North America by RV with a couple of his "mates". At a popular downtown restaurant, Steve enjoyed musk ox stroganoff while I played it safe with halibut. There is a Walmart in Whitehorse and apparently, 50-100 RVs often park there for free overnight. This is a very sore point with the RV parks, to the point where I heard one park employee refusing to give a registered guest directions there so he could buy groceries and supplies. Personally, we much prefer the security and comfort of RV parks and never really save money with Walmart's free parking because we inevitably spend much more on "stuff" than we would have on camping.

The Alaska Highway: British Columbia

Northern Lights RV Park in Dawson Creek, BC, was a somewhat crowded, gravel parking lot with a great view overlooking the town. At the official beginning of the Alaska Highway, it's RVing residents radiated an excitement and comradery of folks sharing a great adventure. Some folks were returning from Alaska, while most were just heading in. It was great fun to share stories and plans. One man and his 91 year old father were just returning from their first great Alaska quest. We stayed for two nights, enjoying the excitement and wondering if we would continue to run into some of our new friends along the way.

On Day 11, July 1st, we drove 156 miles on the Alaska highway to Sikanni Chief, BC. Sikanni River Campground was muddy after lots of rain and the electrical hookup made our microwave clock run slow (It was our first of many experiences with a campground that generated it's own electricity on-site), but the river was pretty.

Day 12, July 2nd, took us another 122 miles, to Fort Nelson, BC, where we had our first "chip" in the RV windshield checked by glass experts. They felt the chip was self contained and that the typical filler fix might only make it worse. Our neighbors in the Bluebell Hotel and RV Park (another muddy parking lot, but with no beautiful river this time) also had a worse crack in their window. Little did we know that we would run into Jenny and John from California again and again along the way.

Day 13, July 3rd, and 121 more miles brought us to Toad River, BC and, "The Poplars", finally, a charming, rustic, quiet campground surrounded by beautiful mountains and trees. Oh, and did I mention it's little cafe with home made cinnamon pecan rolls "to die for"? It all felt so good, we decided to stay two nights, after all, it's not just the destination, it's the fling!