The Yukon was the top priority for me to see on the trip. I think it was just making it to the Canadian northwest and the beauty of it. Dawson is such an interesting city, just like stepping back into history and imagining what it would have been like during the gold rush. Wooden boardwalks line the dirt streets of town in front of shops that have kept their presence of that time of the Klondike rush. We found more than enough activities including museums, points of interest, hikes and restaurants that would have kept us busy for a week. Sadly, we were only here for two nights along with more repairs to the rig left us with limited time to explore the City.
Where we stayed
We stayed at the Dawson City RV Park and Campground located just outside of Dawson City. This was an error on my part, I was supposed to book us into the campground that was right downtown but picked this one by mistake…whoops! It worked out in our favor due to the rig repairs that we needed to do and after looking at the campground downtown later that evening, I think that our 43-foot rig would have been a nightmare to get in. Our campground had good WiFi by the washrooms/laundromat that Annalise was quite happy about along with full hook-ups and tires. Yup this place sold tires…how lucky is that?
What we did
Treated ourselves to lunch out today after all the worries of repairs and replacing the tires. Ate at Triple J and had an excellent lunch. They had a fantastic selection of ciders for me to choose from!
Decided to go to the Dawson City Museum full of interesting facts and some great places to explore for only $18 for the family. The fact that we loved the most was a mailman delivering the mail for 35 years by foot three times a month on a 210-mile loop. He did this until he was 72, all we could say was WOW! The museum also has what they refer to as the visible library. Where you can look at their cased in artifacts that they decided not to use in the displays downstairs, neat and something that we had never seen before. They do however have waxed mannequins that scared Annalise….she ended up not finishing viewing the rest of the museum because of it.
The highlight for me was our evening walk in town down the Millennium Trail. Being pet friendly, we took Kenya and explored where the Klondike and Yukon river meets. Beautiful views of the river and then looping back through town make this a fantastic walk.
What we missed
I think there are too many things to list here but I will give the top 3, Dredge No.4 tour, The Dome overlook and partaking in the Sour Toe cocktail (yup there is actually a toe in there, but you can’t drink it or you will get fined).
Other Events
The only way to go from Dawson City to the Alaskan border at the Top of the Highway is to take the George Black Ferry across. It was nerve wrecking to say the least taking our 43-foot rig on the ferry across, but we did it! This can be a busy ferry crossing and during peak times you could wait up to 3 hours to cross as they will take vehicles that they choose to fit, not necessarily in waiting order. We went just after the peak time at 11am and got on right away.
Repairs
We got a flat tire on the RV just before Dawson City that was leaking fast. We were prepared for these situations and luckily, we were right near our campsite before it got worse. The RV park sold tires, so we purchased two of them. When Jason replaced the tire that got punctured, he noticed that the steel belt was starting to show. This was also the case on the tire opposite. We decided to replace both as a precaution and keep our spare for the Top of the World Highway which we have been told is the worst highway on the journey to Alaska.
Another issue with the rig that came very apparent setting up in Dawson City was our main slide-outs, the kitchen and living room were not coming in or going out well. At one point we couldn’t even get the kitchen slide to go out at all. It was great to have good WiFi at the campground as it gave us time to research some repair shops in Anchorage and got booked in next week to get them looked at. Hopefully nothing to serious or expensive!!!
Great post