A Day Trip Exploring the Dempster Highway

We packed our lunch and got off to an early start as we planned to be on the road most of the day exploring the Dempster Highway.  This sign is at the start of the highway at the junction with the Yukon Highway.

 

There were a lot of mountains to see along the road.

 

This ptarmigan patiently waited for it’s photo to be taken.

And a couple more scenery photos.

 

 

This memorial on a rock beside the highway was something we saw as we headed back down the road.  Joe Henry took part in the planning and construction of the Dempster Highway.  His wife is also memorialized on the plaque.

 

More scenery…the snow topped mountains are beautiful up this highway.

This is an outfitter’s cabins along the side of the highway.

We saw this moose on the way back and the following photo shows her year old calf that was behind her.

 

We saw caribou on our way up the highway, but these caribou with antlers and the young caribou were closer to the road as we headed back to the motorhome.

There was a porcupine sighting.

And I had to get the Welcome to Dawson City sign that I didn’t get a photo of when we arrived the other day.

It was a very long (for us) day today.  We left around 9 in the morning and didn’t get back until about 6pm.  We drove 290 miles and we had numerous wildlife sightings:

1 snowshoe rabbit, 15 dall sheep, 6 ptarmigan, 11 caribou, 2 bald eagle (in their nest), 2 moose (cow and yearling), and 3 porcupines.

We just might deserve some rest tomorrow!

 

A Slow Day in Dawson City

Our planned trip on Sunday up the Dempster Highway is going to be a long day, so we decided to just hang out at the RV today.  We did some catch up work in the RV and some relaxing.  After watching the NASCAR race, we decided to go for a drive into town and up to Midnight Dome.  In town, we found the “drydock” location for the Klondike Spirit which is a paddle wheeler style that cruises the Yukon River during the tourist season.

We drove by the cabins of world famous writers.  The first one was the home of Robert Service.

 

And next was the cabin of Jack London.

This high cache for food storage is also on the property of Jack London’s cabin.

Tourists and locals in the area drive to the top of Midnight Dome to celebrate the midnight sun and a fantastic view of the Klondike.

Here’s a view of our campground from the Dome.  Our motorhome is just a small white speck to the right of a power pole and backed up to the highway above the lower large blue building.

This bench sits at the highest point on the dome.

This is just a small portion of Dawson City as seen from the top.

And here is a spectacular view of the Yukon River.

 

And that’s the end of another great day of our Alaska adventure.

Dawson City, YT–Checking on the Ferry

 

Today was a kind of quiet day for us.  We just hung out at the RV all morning and then this afternoon we drove into Dawson City to check out the visitor’s center and find out when the Top of the World Highway might be opened for traffic.  The visitor’s center had 3 short (15 minute) films that we watched:  “Dawson During the Gold Rush”, “Frozen Gold of the Klondike”, and “Days of the Riverboats”.  Here are a couple of photos from the downtown area.  The streets are all dirt and the town has an old mining town appearance.

 

 

Here’s the ferry we will be taking to cross the Yukon River.  Workers are busy getting it ready for the season, and they are hoping to have it in the river on Monday.  It will take equipment across the river to clear the road, and then the customs people are expected to cross a couple of days later.  The visitor’s center had a tentative opening date for the ferry of May 22nd.  It could be earlier than that, and we are hoping that will be the case.

 

 

This is where the ferry will actually land on the Dawson City side.

Heavy equipment is continually busy when the ferry is running, keeping the landing area built up.

 

Looking across the river is the landing on the opposite shore.  The entrance to the provincial campground can be seen there also.

 

After the short visit to town, we returned to our campground backed up to the highway.  It’s actually pretty quiet and we don’t hear much traffic noise.

 

It’s looking like Sunday will have nicer weather, so we’re tentatively planning on a long day touring the Dempster Highway.  That will probably make Saturday another lazy day.

Late breaking information…a bear has been sighted on the hillside across the highway from the campground.

The Silver Trail and on to Dawson City, YT

 

Our plan for today was to pack our lunch and continue the remaining distance of the Silver Trail.  We started on the trail when we turned off the Klondike Highway at Stewart Crossing yesterday afternoon and stopping in Mayo for the night.  It was below freezing overnight and windy this morning, but we got a fairly early start and started driving northeast toward Elsa and Keno City.

 

One of the prominent sights along the road was Mount Haldane, elevation 6,023 feet.

 

Elsa is on the route to Keno City.  It is now an active mining and reclamation site with no visitor access.

 

 

When we arrived at the town of Keno City, it was still below freezing and we weren’t up to a walking tour of the town.  Here are a couple of photos of historic buildings in town.  This one is the All Saints Anglican Church which is now used as a library. 

 

I found this building to be the most unique in Keno City.  It is called the Beer Bottle House.  This house was moved by Geordie Dobson from Calumet, an abandoned mining town nearby in the late 1960s.  He had bought the Keno City Hotel prior to refunds for glass bottles.  He felt that there was some insulation value in the glass since many of the oldtimers used stacked bottles instead of window panes.  So, he began to layer the bottles around his house.  His project began in 1966 and it took him 4 years and 32,000 “stubby” beer bottles to finish his job.  The house is very warm which is probably helped by 60cm (2 feet) of mortar.

 

Once again, we found that we here to early and the museum and other places of interest were not open yet.  There seems to be a magic date of May 15th before things open in the north, and they’re sticking to that date.  We were back to the motorhome by noon, ate our picnic lunch, packed up and were on the road north.  We were headed for the junction of the Dempster Highway to spend a couple of nights and to be able to explore that road.

 

Once again, our plans changed and we headed for Dawson City figuring that we would just add the extra mileage from there to explore the Dempster Highway.  When we were in Dawson City in 2009, we stayed at Bonanza Gold RV Park and decided that would be a good stop this time.  When we checked in, we asked about when the Top of the World Highway might open and they thought it would be the 17th or possibly the 19th.  Usually it is open by May 15th (that magical date).  We’ll plan on going into town tomorrow and see what we can find out at the visitor center.  We traveled a little over 141 miles today from Mayo to Dawson City in the RV and from Mayo to Keno City and back in the truck was about 65 miles.  We did see some wildlife today, but they were quicker than my camera:  1 moose, 1 bear, and 1 porcupine.