26 – 28 August 2017
Yukon River Provincial Park
Dawson City is a small frontier town that had its heyday during the Klondike gold rush of 1898 when the town went from a moose pasture to a bustling metropolis supporting a population of up to 40,000 people. It was referred to as “Paris of the North”. Even though some gold is still mined in the area, tourism is King.
The area along Front Street hosts the restored riverboat SS Keno, which was used to transport ore from the mining area around Mayo to the confluence of the Yukon, where it was then transferred to larger riverboats for transport to Whitehorse.
There are numerous historic buildings along the dirt roads within the town. Many have been spruced up with brightly painted facades.
Saturday is the local farmers market and we were able to stock up on some beautiful fresh vegetables.
We drove to up to the Midnight Dome twice. The first time was in the morning and it is reached by a wide paved road and at an elevation of 2,900 feet. Unfortunately we got a 360-degree view of clouds. So we saw what we could and decided to come back in the afternoon if the clouds cleared and they did.
Late afternoon the clouds broke and we again drove up and we were greeted with the sights of the Yukon River stretching out in both directions, the town of Dawson, the Bonanza Creek, the wavy dredge tailings, mining gear, and the Top of the World Highway as it winds away to Alaska. The draw to Midnight Dome is to be there to watch the sun barely dip behind the horizon on the summer solstice. We are little late for that but the views were spectacular anyway.
While in Dawson City we toured the shops, had a great lunch at the Aurora Hotel. They had a really good Melon Margarita too. Visited the local museum and our grand finale was a show at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Gambling Hall. The ladies put on a really good show that was typical of the early 1900’s. George did not mind having his picture taken at all with the lovely ladies!
This was a good recoup stop to rest and ready ourselves for the next part of our journey.