Day 66

Hi Everyone,


The new banner photo above is of Dawson City with the Yukon River in the foreground. The Yukon is the muddy water and the clearer water is from Bear Creek that runs along the Klondike Highway.

After leaving Valdez, we drove to a small town called Chitina to spend the night. The road from there to McCarthy/Kennecott is unimproved dirt/gravel/mud for 60 miles. We were going to unhitch the car and drive it to McCarthy the next day but the weather failed to improve (rain & low clouds). We wanted to take a flight seeing tour out of McCarthy to see the Wrangel National Park and all of the Glaciers, Ice Fields and high Mountain Peaks but the forecast for the next few days was for continuing rain and low clouds. After two days near Chitina, we decided to drive up to Dawson City and check it out.


The drive to Dawson City was very scenic but 110 miles of the road was dirt/gravel and narrow. It took us about 4 hours to go the 110 miles. At the end, dust, dirt and rocks was in every crevasse of the motorhome, car, dug and ourselves. But the ride was well worth it.


Arriving in Dawson City, we had to cross the Yukon River on a ferry. This ferry runs 24/7 and at times, the wait can be as long as 3 hours. Lucky for us we got right on.


Gotta go for now but stay tuned for more photos in the next few days as we head south to Whitehorse Yukon.


Thanks for taking a gander,
Vern, Sue & Dug

This is the Gambling Hall at Diamond Tooth Gerties, can you find me spending Dug's hard earned money?

This is Diamond Tooth Gerties Dancing Girls. Sorry for the blurry photo but we took the photo without the flash. It was an awesome show. Very comical and entertaining.

Here is an someone's old shack floating on the Yukon River. Cheap rent I guess.

This is an old warehouse that was built in 1898. It is still in very good shape for it's age.

Here are a few 1800's buildings tilting in every direction. This was caused by the buildings being built on permafrost ground that thawed after the building was occupied and heated from inside which melted the permafrost into a muddy muck that the buildings sunk into.

Dug is seen here licking the windshield as we drive onto the ferry. This was a fun ride as the river is running fast at about 8mph. Dug didn't mind though.

We stopped and camped on the side of the road about 25 miles from Dawson City. This is a photo Sue took of the sunrise at about 3:30am. We wonder what it's going to be like to have total darkness at night when we get home.

Here is Dug licking his chops as we approach the Canadian Border. Thank goodness they didn't ask about Dugs (make believe) papers, we may have had to leave him behind. These Canadian Border Guards are all business, no personalities at all. Not even a smile...geeezzz

Here is a photo of the Top of the World Highway in all it's glory. If your vehicle can make it across this road, it can probably go anywhere. If there was anything on your vehicle that wasn't torqued, tightened, strapped, chained or bolted down, it would be gone at the end. We saw several car parts (springs, bolts, chains, mufflers, stuffed mascots, etc.) on the road along the way.

Just outside of Valdez there are numerous waterfalls along the Keystone Canyon. These are fed from the Lowe River (any relation to Jerry & Kathy?) This waterfall is called Bridal Veil Falls. It is about 120' high.

This one is called Horsetail Falls.

While in Valdez, we decided to attend the 4th of July festivities on main street. It was fun to see a small town celebration with a parade, games, BBQ's (all food was free-even to out-of-towners), vendor booths and fireworks. We also had the great fortune to meet two of the crew members from the Deadliest Catch TV Series that work on the Fishing Vessel Northwestern. That is Edgar Hanson on the left and Matt Bradley on the right. I also got a Northwestern T-Shirt signed by both...yeeehaaww

Coming back from the Columbia Glacier tour, we saw the Northwestern Fishing Vessel from the TV series Deadliest Catch unloading a catch of Silver Salmon. I guess they fish for more than just crabs.