Dawson City, Yukon and finally...Alaska

From the Dempster Hwy we made our way up the short distance to Dawson City. Nice little town, not too touristy and a lot of goldrush history.

This is a picture of the Yukon River and Dawson  from the "Dome," a mountain rising on the edge of Dawson City with a road all the way to the top.

The goldrush began with the discovery of gold on Bonanza Creek, This is the gold dredge Number 8 out on Bonanza Creek. It is unbelieveable how these behemoths dug their way up a creek floating on a pond that they kept moving forward by taking in the streambed at one end and depositing it out the other end. Minus the gold, of course.

We finally crossed over into Alaska on the "Top of the World Hwy" and I had to stop and get a picture of this cabin near a small roadside business. Our first place to visit would be Eagle at the end of the Taylor Hwy on the Yukon River.

Eagle is a long way from anywhere in Alaska, but it sits on the Yukon River just inside of the US. The Yukon was the main thoroughfare back in the goldrush days and the feds wanted to look after US interests so Ft Egbert (US Army) was established in 1899. In 1901 the Federal Courthouse pictured above was built to handle legal/criminal matters until the court was moved to Fairbanks two years later.

                                   
Eagle has a population of several hundred. Here is a map of the town with some info on the place. After we left Eagle headed for Fairbanks, we stopped in a little wide spot in the road called Chicken. The name was chosen after the inhabitants could not agree on how to spell Ptarmigan. What happens in Chicken, stays in Chicken.

Here is the Milepost 1422 marker which is the end of the Alcan Hwy. The Alcan ends at Delta Junction when it meets the Richardson Hwy running from Valdez to Fairbanks.

Unfortunately while we were in Delta Junction Al was cornered by a pair of the Alaskan state birds, fortunately he had used his Deet 10,000% earlier that day.

A few miles past Delta Junction we came to Rika's Roadhouse, one of many that were spaced along the Valdez to Fairbanks Trail, later called the Richardson Hwy. Rika's has been preserved by the state and is a great historical stop on the way to Fairbanks. 

Roadhouses were spaced every 15-20 miles and offered hot meals and a place to sleep for weary travelers. Another shot of Rika's, from the back.
Next stops would be Fairbanks, Circle on the Steese Hwy, Manley Hot Springs on the Elliot Hwy and a short run up the Dalton Hwy to the Yukon River.

Skagway to Inuvik

As I mentioned earlier, we were ahead of schedule to meet Amy in Fairbanks, and we had reports that the Dempster Hwy was a mess from continual rains, so we decided to head south from the Campbell Hwy to Atlin and Skagway to give the Dempster some time to dry out. We stopped in Whitehorse for a couple of hours at the Yukon Transportation Museum and the Beringia Museum (about the land bridge over the Bering Sea) and continued to Atlin, BC. We would be stopping again in Whitehorse on the way back to the Dempster Hwy and Inuvik. Pix of Atlin and Skagway were in prior post. Both were very scenic, but Skagway came across as a sort of goldrush disneyland owned by the cruiselines (sorry Skagway, my opinion). While in Skagway, Al and I took the ferry to Juneau for the day, a very worthwhile trip. We saw lots of eagles, whales, seals, waterfalls and glaciers.

Al and I on the Juneau Express Ferry, good sightseeing trip.

 A shot of me at the AK/CN border on our way back to Whitehorse.

Picture in the same area. As I said before the last 20 miles or so to Skagway are pretty spectacular. 

Here is Al headed for the tour of the SS Klondike II in Whitehorse. We both enjoyed this tour very much. The ship is all loaded with cargo, and the passenger and crew areas are filled with items that make the spaces appear to be occupied. A must see in Whitehorse.  After Whitehorse, we continued up the Klondike Hwy to the Dempster Hwy with a stop at the old goldrush town of Keno. There are many active, large goldmining operations going on today, so I guess you could say the new goldrush town of Keno too!

Here is Al at the famous Keno signpost about seven miles above the town. Great views in every direction and the signpost has distances to very far away places, many in Germany. It was on this steep and rough road that I became aware that my left rear airbag was not holding air. This would be a problem down the road with the bump stop being hit repeatedly. No replacement airbag for this Carli setup would be available until I got home. Have to take it easy from here on out.

This picture of the truck at the Arctic Circle on the Dempster shows you that the rain had not let up and the road was not particularly dry.

There are two ferry crossings on the Dempster, this is the one across the Mackenzie River, Inuvik another 130 km.

The "Igloo Church" as it is locally known in Inuvik. Inuvik was about 3,500 population, mostly Inuit peoples. This would be the farthest north that we would get on our trip. It is the farthestnorth you can drive in Canada.

Al and I camping at a rock quarry on the Dempster Hwy. From here we would make our wy to Dawson City and then over into Alaska to the town of Eagle, home of Ft Egbert (1899). 

More Pictures

More pictures from here and there. Some will get more words in a new post. Click pix to enlarge them.

This is the requisite picture taken at Milepost 1 of the Alcan in Dawson Creek.

Finally some wildlfe to take pix of near Muncho Lake, BC.

This is the spot on the marge of Lake Leberge where Robert Service cremated Sam McGee, outside Whitehorse, YT.

Display at Yukon Transportation Museum, Whitehorse, YT.

The SS Tarahne at Atlin, a very cool town with few tourists south of Whitehorse, YT. It's actually in BC, but considered Yukon by just about everyone in Whitehorse.

This info board explains how people and cargo got from Skagway and Lake Bennett to Lake Atlin then the town of Atlin by a 2 mile railroad.

More info on Atlin and the SS Tarahne.

Near CN/US border on road to Skagway. It was very rainy, cloudy so pix were not so good. Coming back out the weather was much better, pix of that later.

Downtown Skagway, USA.

Some Pictures

Angel Lake outside of Wells, NV, about 12 miles, nice place.

Our friends Diana and Allen who were such great hosts in Idaho.

Al at the waterfall wall in Glacier. Very overcast and rainy day.

Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton Lakes, beautiful park.

Spray Lake in the Kananaskis area south of Canmore outside Banff.

Al posing at Moraine Lake, Banff (near Lke Louise).

More pictures to follow.

After Banff

We continued north from Banff to Jasper with stops at Peyto Lake and the Athabaska Glacier.  Peyto Lake has that beautiful blue color that comes from the sunlight reflected by the suspended dust particles created by the glacial grinding of rocks.  Athabaska Glacier appears to have receded an additional 1/8 to 1/4 mile from from where it was when I visited there ten years ago.  Jasper town seemed the same as before, a lot less touristy than Banff.  We camped near the aerial tramway and rode a gondola up to the top the next morning for breakfast overlooking Jasper down below.  It was a clear day and we could see all the mountain tops named for the winners of the Victoria Cross, England's highest honor to military heroes of the commonwealth.

 From Jasper we made our way to Grand Prairie for our last chance to visit a Costco and a Walmart before Anchorage.  Travelling west we were finally at the beginning of the famous Alcan Hwy at Dawson Creek.  Saw very few tourists in Dawson Creek, and none at mile "0" of the Alcan.  We got our requisite photos of mile "0" with our trucks in the background and headed off for Alaska. 
Over the next two days we drove up to Watson Lake.  In Ft Nelson there is a museum across the highway from the tourist center that no traveler on the Alcan should miss.  The Ft Nelson Heritage Museum has a great collection of vehicles, machines, 20th century technology, buildings, and much more.  It is pretty hard to describe all the "stuff" that has been collected there.  It's a great history of the area and about civilization in the last 100 years.

 North of Ft Nelson we were finally able to see some wildlife, a black bear, a couple of caribou, and about 40 buffalo, all along side of the road.  There wasn't a lot in Watson Lake, but the signpost forest was very cool, and worth the stop.  People have brought signs from everywhere in the world to hang on the posts. Some are so big you would think it was a special trip, or they had to leave a lot of things behind to get the their signs to Watson Lake.

From Watson Lake we took the Campbell Hwy to the Klondike Hwy.  This was a very remote area and more to our liking, but it did pass by a couple of interesting places along the way.  Ross River was a small First Nation village on the Canol Road, a WWII project to bring oil down from Norman Well to Whitehorse was the reason for the road. The project was abandoned with the war's end and the northern half of the road has gone back to nature. The next small town along the Campbell was Faro.  It was a well maintained town that had survived when the mine, the major employer, had closed down in 1997.  It was more oriented to tourism, hunting and fishing, and seemed like a great place for retirement too. We camped near Ross River on the Lapie gorge which was pretty spectacular white water and falls.

Discussing our schedule to meet Amy at Fairbanks airport on the 18th of August, we decided we had come farther and quicker than anticipated so a change in the itenerary was needed.  We decided to go down the Klondike to Atlin and Skagway rather than north to Inuvik, then come back up to Inuvik 4 or 5 days later. Time in this campground is up and we need to leave will continue in next post. 

Verizon sucks, blog suffers

Well we are in Grande Prairie, Alberta, and I'm finally going to get to post to blog. First I want to say what I think of Verizon (not much) after they sold me on using my smartphone as a mobile hotspot ($20 per month). Sales rep told me I would have internet just about anywhere I had phone service so maintaining a blog would be the proverbial "piece of cake." What a joke, it worked in Las Vegas and Missoula, MT, but nowhere since. Hell, nothing works on the phone except phone calls once in a while (for an add'l $20 per month roaming Canada), no apps, no nada. Currently in a campground paying $10 to use internet. OK, screw Verizon!!!
Not sure how, but I will try to catch this blog up to date. Will work on posts in MS Word on the road, then upload when an internet connection is available. Adding pix later, hopefully at the next internet hookup.


Al and I met up in Kingman and then drove up through Las Vegas following Hwy 93 north. Our plan to get to Hoover Dam get pictures of the new bridge didn't pan out because the southern access road to the dam was closed.. We camped south of Ely, NV at Adams-McGill resorvoir (a wildlife preserve) and visited the Ward charcoal ovens  which were very well preserved.

Ward Charcoal ovens near Ely, NV

We drove to Wells, NV the next day and camped at Angel Lake about 12 miles from town. It is a very cool alpine lake in a granite bowl carved by a glacier. It  is some 3,000 feet higher than Wells up a steep winding road in the East Humboldt Mtns.
From Wells we worked our way up to Shoshone, ID on a backroad through Jarbidge, NV, (in the middle of nowhere) to spend a couple of days with our friends Diana and Allen. They were magnificent hosts and we really appreciate the great conversations we had. Allen had some Alaskan travel tips for us and they were greatly appreciated. Diana sent us on our way with some excellent green chile stew which we enjoyed in Waterton Nat'l Park. Thanks you two for a really nice visit.
From Shoshone we drove up to checkout Redfish Lake near Stanley, ID, and then on to Custer ghost town, a well preserved 19th century gold rush town up the Yankee Fork Creek, east of Stanley.

old schoolhouse Custer ghost town

There is also a landlocked gold dredge that worked the creek back in the `30’s and `40’s. We camped near there and it rained all night, it rained frequently for the next three days/nights as we made our way up to Glacier and Waterton Parks. In Glacier Park, between rain and clouds, visibility was poor as was picture taking. We did get a few pix though and I'll post some next time. Waterton was a beautiful park, but seemed much less visited than Glacier (ok with us), more lakes and hiking trails. There was even one at Lake Cameron where you could hike down and illegally enter the U.S. However the trail ended there and you had to backtrack to Canada.
Weather improved as we drove north from Waterton up the Kananaskis Valley to Banff.
We spent a night at a campground on Lake Kananaskis in Peter Lougheed Prov.Park and then took a backroad from the park along Spray Lake to Canmore, before driving into Banff. There were so many people in Banff we could not wait to leave. We hit the tourist office for info, the ATM for money, toured the Banff Park Museum, ate and left town for the Lake Louise area all within about 2 hours.  Of course not being fond of people, or crowds, Lake Louise was not much of an improvement for us as the place was overrun with people and traffic. We did the requisite visit, photo op and headed up the Icefield Parkway to Mosquito Campground for the night. The name should say it all. 

Lake Louise, Banff Park

Tomorrow we go...

Well, it is sunday afternoon, July 8th, and tomorrow morning is the departure time for this big adventure. Have been overamping on stuff I want to take with me, and I find I have too much stuff and not enough truck. When I regain my senses (if) somewhere down the road, I can UPS a bunch of stuff back home. Talked with Al a few minutes ago and we are going to meet in Kingman about 11am tomorrow and head up to Hoover Dam to check out the new bridge. We would like to get above Las Vegas a couple of hundred miles to gain some elevation and get some decent overnight temps for camping tomorrow night.