Got an early start from Whitehorse.
Goal: Dawson City
We made great time, and were feeling smug, right until the last 100 miles. There was road construction going on, involving more gravel washboard roads. It took two hours to go 60 miles! We made it at last, just a bit later than expected…
Dawson City was created by the Klondike Gold Rush. Within a couple of years of the discovery of gold in 1896, this barren stretch of riverfront at the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike Rivers became the North’s largest city. In its heyday it was called the “Paris of the North” and the “largest city north of San Francisco.”
In 1897 more than 100,000 people decided to pack up and go north. Maybe 40,000 actually made it. And a tiny fraction of those made it rich. But the romantic notion remained.
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Dawson was falling down a couple decades ago, when there was a drive to save the historic buildings. Today, Dawson has carved a niche out of time. All new buildings are required to have a historic façade, and the real historic are restored and modernized. Dawson sees 60,000 visitors in the summer, including us!
It’s so touristy, but you gotta visit…
We walked around the “downtown” and saw the kitsch storefronts and an old sod-roofed cabin. While looking at an old paddle-wheeler we chatted with some folks from Idaho – they knew Cascade Raft!
My personal favorite was right by the RV park. I had heard bells ringing, and while walking Milo I headed that direction. This was on the corner:
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