Cruising Along the Yukon in Whitehorse
Imagining the "Cremation of Sam McGee" at Lake LeBerge
View from the Dome in Dawson City
On top of The Dome
We made a right turn north from the
Alaska Hwy heading out of
Whitehorse & headed to
Dawson City, a trek of about 350 miles. That was a long haul for us in one day. I have since learned that the purpose of taking that Loop is mainly to have the “opportunity” to drive the Top of the
World Hwy from
Dawson City,
Yukon to
Alaska,
USA. Well, that’s a story for later on…. We had a long day. The scenery was not nearly as picturesque to which we had become accustomed but we motored on & enjoyed the beautiful spring wildflowers growing along the highway, the warmer temperatures at our lower elevation, & we imagined the life of the gold prospectors in this part of the world during the late 19
th century. The stories we heard & the visualizations of that time were incredible, but those prospectors had the will to succeed & they truly believed the motherlode was near! Sadly, that was rarely the case, but there are some good stories still in existence. We found another “parking lot” campsite outside of
Dawson City, secured our site & headed to town to get the lay of the land. It was truly an old mining town & somewhat restored for the summer tourists who are in town for the only reason to drive to
or from Alaska. The town tries to maintain the atmosphere of an old mining town which was a little too tough & rugged for our tastes. There were lots of bars & a gambling hall but none held much interest for us. All the streets were dirt (no pavement) & the sidewalks were board walks. Easy to understand that there was plenty of wood available for making walkways & also easy to understand that not paving streets in any way was & still is easier to maintain because of all the ice & snow in the winter. We enjoyed some nice salmon & fish & chips meals in Dawson City. We viewed the valley from the top of a mountain called the Dome where people gather on June 21 to view the summer solstice. A spectacular view! We also drove down a 8 mile dirt road so that Steve could “enjoy” viewing the largest wooden mine dredger in North America! Wow! Sorry, I don’t have a picture of the dredger! Not my thing, I guess. During the day we visited the cabins of Robert Service & Jack London. Both of those were lots of fun to learn about the men & to see how they lived in the “wild” during the Gold Rush period. Steve so loves the epic poetry of Robert Service that we have purchased a couple of Service’s books, a cd with readings of his poetry, & we have made a special detour from the road to view Lake LeBerge where the mining buddy in the poem cremated Sam McGee (from the poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee.”) We also have books written by Jack London & a cd by Johnny Horton of “North to Alaska” fame. Guess we’re really in the game now! We did stop by the Dawson City Visitors’ Center on the 4th of July & enjoyed a piece of red white & blue cake that they were offering the Americans. Very kind & thoughtful of them! Other than that & our flying the American flag on the BF there was little other notice of the special day. No fireworks, of course! No darkness! We did miss our USA that day but we looked forward to July 5th when we would be back “Home!”
