Kayla and I have wanted to visit Dawson City for quite some time, but it’s not timed out well until now. Originally hoping to visit Discovery Day weekend, we wound up waiting too late to book hotels. Instead of taking Monday off, we swapped it for the Friday and made the journey out. We left Whitehorse at about 7:45 AM.
The first portion of the drive was super foggy. We stopped for a bathroom break at Five Finger Rapids, but the entire river was socked in with fog. After a quick bathroom stop we were on our way. After three hours and two stretches of construction, we stopped at the Tintina Trench viewpoint. The Tintina Trench is a long fault stretching essentially across the entire Yukon, and it’s seen hundreds of kilometres of displacement. While it’s been quite quiet, recent research suggests it may have a stress buildup – so go read Finlet et al’s paper! Below is a photo from the viewpoint, with the Tombstone Range in the distance.
After arriving in Dawson around 2:30 PM and headed for fish and chips at Sourdough Joe’s. The serving size was generous for the one-piece and we left some fries behind. After lunch, we checked into our hotel, the Dawson Lodge. It was quite a great place, though I don’t have any pictures from inside. The rooms were well equipped, quiet, comfortable, and clean. The location is also awesome – halfway between the main streets and Gertie’s.
We wandered around Dawson after checking in. Up first is a picture of the Moosehide Slide. It’s one of Dawson City’s most famous landmarks, and is still moving to this day (albeit generally pretty slowly). Some of my colleagues have supported the Yukon Geological Survey with assessment and monitoring in the past.
Up next, we have the view up at the Palace Grand. Stunning. Dawson City has maintained, preserved, and rebuilt their town to keep its character.
Something impressive in Dawson City is the feel of the town. We knew from hotel bookings that most of the town was at capacity, yet it never felt full or swarmed. We saw lots of tourists enjoying the place, but there was always space on the road and a char at the bar (even if only one!).
Below are the “kissing buildings” appropriately named after their proximity. Most of Dawson City’s downtown is underlain by permafrost, and many sections of it are ice-rich. When the ice-rich permafrost thaws, the volume taken up by the ice is now gone, resulting in settlement. As a permafrost-focused Engineer, this was a must-see.
We did a bit of a bar crawl, stopping at Bombay Peggy’s, and of course, the Downtown Hotel for a Sourtoe Cocktail. I’ll spare the pictures, but will say that Kayla and I are now members of the “club” after our lips touched the mummified toe. Afterwards, perhaps questioning our sanity, we took a wander by the river and took in the views. We also stopped for a slide of pizza and an energy drink.
To finish the night, we wound up at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s, where we caught the 10:00 and midnight shows. To get into Gertie’s you buy a $20 season’s pass, and after that, can come and go as you please all year. The shows are three times a night all summer, and the gambling, of course, is on when it’s open. Here I am unsuccessfully playing slots with the show on in the background.
We stayed up almost to 1AM before crashing in the hotel room. We then slept in until 10AM; a well earned rest. In the morning, we got a quick breakfast and headed out to the goldfields. Our first stop was at Dredge No. 4, a National Historic Site. The dredge operated for decades starting in the early 1900s, before sinking in its current location. We mistimed it and were not able to catch a tour, but oh well, something for next time!
Our next stop was the discovery claim, where an interpretive trail describes the discovery of the gold and some mining methods used over the years. Below is an example of dredge tailings.
We then headed back into town to take a tour of the Palace Grand. The tour was led by a Parks Canada staff member who was very knowledgeable, and dressed in era-relevant clothing. The Palace Grand was re-built in the 1960s, meticulously measured and re-created from the original.
The inside was crafted to match exactly, except where modern building codes require improvements (such as fire suppression, HVAC, and better lighting). Being on stage felt grand – I can only imagine what it was like when there were miners watching the show in 1898. We toured the booths up top too, which have a great view of the stage.
Events are still held in the theatre, and at some point, I really want to attend a show there. Add that to the bucket list!
After the tour, we went across the river on the ferry to take a peek at the Paddlewheel graveyard. On the ferry, we were positioned behind a West Dawson resident and their dog. After a drive through the campground and a short walk, we were at the wreckage of the paddlewheelers. The paddlewheelers were dropped off here as they came out of service due to damage and the advent of road travel to Dawson. What a wild place, we wandered around the edges but were certainly not going to get into the wreckage.
We then went on a drive up to a viewpoint over Dawson City just off the Top of the World highway. You can see the entirety of the downtown from there. You can also see the mixing zone where the clearer Klondike River enters the silty Yukon River. While we were up top, we could see two canoes paddle into town, renewing our desire to make that trip someday.
We had good Greek food for supper before meeting a family friend of Kayla’s for drinks. She seemed to know every local who walked into the bar! Dawson City seems like a great place and a great community.
Our final morning, we took advantage of a break in the clouds and went up to the Midnight Dome to enjoy the view. What a view! We could spend hours up there looking over the scenery, and would love to do so next time we visit.
It was much cloudier to the North, but equally stunning.
Of course, we took a picture of ourselves.
We stopped by a viewpoint over the Pelly River on our way home, which was stunning in the sun.
Hopefully it won’t be long until we’re up in Dawson again!
