Yukon Territory

2019 September 11

by Greg & Lyn

Even though we opted not to take the Top of the World Highway, we did decide to take a side trip up to Dawson City. We’re really glad we did. The ride up and back and Dawson City itself were all well worth the extra miles.

We love their slogan – and agree with it.

Names of places are usually pretty descriptive. And most come from the old gold rush days. In fact, the gold rush seems to have influenced just about everything in the Yukon.

Congdon Creek was a neat campground, but had a feature that we had never seen before. Apparently there is a lot of bear activity (that’s a bad thing by the way) in the campground – all the time. So the tent camping area is surrounded by an electric fence.

Here’s the electric fence. The tent pads are on the inside. The picnic tables and food storage lockers (bear-proof, of course) are on the outside. The goal is to keep the tent areas safe and free from any bear attractants, except humans… Not sure how we feel about camping inside an electric fence…

When we arrived at the campground, it was cloudy and rainy. A walk on the beach – all rocks – was still beautiful. But the weather change was pretty dramatic during our time there.

More wildflowers along the beach. Stuff grows prolifically.

Later the same day the clouds started clearing and it became beautiful and sunny.

Next morning it was 32 degrees – August 17. Still in the 90’s back home.

The next morning there was snow on the top of mountain. Ominous! We had been told that western Canada would be more of a challenge on the trip home than Alaska. At this point, we were starting to understand the why!

The Canyon Creek bridge was an engineering marvel. It was built in just 18 days back in 1942 and is still standing today. Some of the boards look a little worse for wear and the weight limit is probably down a bit, but it’s still there and people still drive across it! There has been restoration work through the years, but note the warning “This bridge does not meet current highway codes.”

The Takhini river was also the site of the next hot spring we visited. It felt amazing, even though it wasn’t quite as scenic. The hot spring was fed into an old concrete swimming pool. So one end of the pool was very hot, the other pretty hot. And every night they drained the pool and let it refill. But the Takhini river itself gets high marks for beautiful scenery.

The picnic shelters have built in wood stoves. Not a normal feature in the lower 48!

We found a small campground with a decent view to the north, hoping to see the northern lights.

The “you are here” dots are all the more amazing when considering the scale of the Yukon Territory.

Not as grand as we would have liked, but definitely a glimpse of the northern lights, the aurora borealis!

The Braeburn Lodge has 2 main claims to fame. First, it’s a checkpoint on the Yukon Quest. Secondly, and more immediate, they have excellent and very large cinnamon buns!

The maker of the buns and the proprietor of the Lodge.

The historical Montague Roadhouse. Another major stop for the gold rushers heading through this way. Some of the buildings have been restored, including the main roadhouse. Some are still standing but are pretty rough. Together, they illustrate what life must have been like traveling along the route.

Carmack, named after George Carmack, the person credited with discovering the first gold nugget that sparked the Klondike gold rush. Although the stories get pretty murky. Pierre Burton’s book Klondike tells all sides of the story, and details how Lyin’ George Carmack got his nickname…

Our first coyote sighting! He ran across the road and then stood on the shoulder posing for a bit. Western Coyotes are apparently pretty shy and aren’t often seen.