Alaska RV Camping Journal- Day 26

Alaska Recreational Vehicle Camping Journal

The Campers

Mileposts

You will notice that we often refer to the Mileposts book throughout the journal entries. We feel that if you drive to Alaska, you MUST have this book! Alaska, and Canada's British Columbia and Yukon are rich in History. Jack London wrote popular novels such as White Fang, and Call of the Wild, and the contemporary poet Robert Service helped make knowledge of life in the north country wilderness well known. The Mileposts book will help you learn about the history as you go, with descriptions of what happened in the past, as well as what to expect on the road ahead.

We recommend that you only use the most current issue of Mileposts as it contains the most up-to-date road and service availability information.

Gold!

Today we leave Alaska for Canada. What starts out as a sunny day quickly deteriorates into what we've come to expect each day…..RAIN!

We pulled into the “town” of Chicken, via the Chicken Loop. This road takes you to a small café/gift store, and past a large gold mining dredge. We stop to check out “Pedro's Dredge” which was last used for gold mining in 1967. An interesting part of Alaska's gold mining history!

When we arrived at customs, the border guard was female, very professional and asked if she could come inside our rig. Probably because the wind was kicking at the top of the world! She was very courteous as she asked us questions about how long we would be in Canada and if we would be leaving anything there. She also asked about alcohol and tobacco products and sent us on our way.

The road on the Canadian side is paved all the way to Dawson City with just a couple exceptions. We stopped within sight of the border crossing for lunch with a spectacular view in all directions.

When the clouds finally break, we are at the Yukon river and have to take a ferry across! This is a scary proposition considering everything we own is in our motor home! The ferry is free and takes vehicles from one side to the other as fast as they can load. We arrive and are the 1st vehicle in line, as it turns out most of the traffic is going east to west. The water looks very intimidating as it's high, fast, and dirty from spring runoff. Only takes about 10 minutes to load, cross, and disembark. We drive past 15 motor homes waiting on the east side, I bet it takes them a couple hours in line!

As soon as the ferry lands you are in Dawson City! We have a map given to us by one of the ferry operators, and head over to the Robert Service and Jack London cabins to see where these famous writers lived and wrote. We then headed downtown to walk around the old boardwalks and buildings! The Canadian Government has done a fantastic job of restoration and preservation of the old town to look like it did in it's Hay Day! There are historical plaques on various places to let you know what they used to be.

Several gift shops and café's in town, and many have signs saying “We Support the Placer Mining Industry”. Placer mines don't dig mine shafts, rather they use sluice boxes to separate the gold from the dirt using water primarily.

After wandering around town for a couple hours we head towards Bonanza Creek, site of the famous Discovery Claim and home to Historic Dredge # 4. We see many placer mines, both past and presently used. There must be a LOT of gold still to be found. Dredge # 4 is the largest gold mining dredge in North America and when you see it you'll be amazed--it's Huge! It is also open to the public for tours as a Canadian historic site, but we're too late for the tour.

The Discovery Claim is the spot where the Canadian Gold Rush started! This is the site of the first gold mining claim to be made, and is held by the Canadian Government as a historical place and offers visitors the opportunity to pan for gold and keep what ever they find!