Dawson City, Yukon Territory

June 29 to July 1 – Dawson City, Yukon Territory

Dawson City, Yukon Territory is the last town before we leave Canada but this little town had a lot to see and we ended up spending the better part of three days. The little town with a population of 1,800 or so and is small enough to walk from one end to the other in 15 or 20 minutes. This was taken from a small mountain just west of Dawson City called the Dome. The dark/light colors in the river is the confluence of the larger Yukon River and the smaller Klondike River.

It was a fun combination of tourist shops yet "real" people live there so the town has to supply their needs with grocery, hardware and other staples that we all desire in our regular lives. The streets are dirt and not very busy. It's easy to walk in the street instead of on the boardwalk.  

Many of the old buildings still stand. Most were abandoned because the whole town is built on permafrost and the owners failed to keep them level. A resident told us there is a man in town who's full time job was leveling buildings. Here home was built in the mid 1990's and has already been relabeled a couple times. It all gives this little town it's personality. 

Gold mining put Dawson City on the map and gold mining is still big business with many claims being actively worked throughout the area. Heading to Dawson City, we saw a sign directing us to Dredge No. 4, a Klondike Historic Site so we headed 5 miles up a dirt road to a HUGE contraption that was used to pull gold from the ground. Dredge No. 4 was built and operated from 1913 to 1959. There were 66 buckets powered by electric motors; each one scooped ½ cubic yard and good days would haul in 800 ounces of Klondike gold.

Bonanza Gold Campground just outside of town so we checked in, rearranged the camper and had dinner are Klondike Kate’s (the celebrate Carolyn’s birthday) before we heading up Dome Road to a place where early residents of Dawson Creek decided to celebrate the summer solstice. Some time during the 1890’s, three preachers were invited to give inspirational talks on June 21^st, the longest day of the year but the crowd was sparse. The few who were there decided to go ahead with the celebration anyway and the tradition continues today. We missed the summer solstice by just a few days but wanted to photograph the midnight sun so we headed up the five miles to the Dome. The view from the top is quite spectacular. There are mountains all around and all of Dawson City can be seen from the crest of the hill. Sunset was at 12:36am and were weren’t disappointed. Besides an amazing sunset, there was light rain on the opposite horizon that produced a colorful rainbow.

While waiting for the sun to set at the Dome, we talked to others who suggested several places in town for us to visit before we head to our next stop. We visited the museum - checked displays, attended various educational presentations and watched an early movie the early days of Dawson Creek. We ended up spending several hours there before heading back up to Dome Mountain for a replay of the night before but there were too many clouds for a good sunset. We ended up talking to other Rvers until it was bed time and ended up just jumping in the Roadtrek and spending the night on Dome Mountain.

We had a great night sleep on Dome Mountain but we were in a cloud when we woke. No problem, just wait a while and the cloud will lift so we made breakfast and patiently waited an hour or so until the sun poked through.

 Today, was July 1^st, Canada Day (Canada’s version of our 4^th of July) so we stayed a little longer in Dawson City the enjoy Canada’s birthday. Yes, there was a parade, a great one even if it only lasted six minutes. 

Then, everyone went to the museum where the flag was raised and O Canada was sung (the lady had a great voice, BTW) followed by a picnic lunch of smokey brat, watermelon and cake. 

It was a wonderful and fun community event shared with strangers like Carolyn and I.  Thank you Dawson City!!!