June 14th we filled up with diesel and headed north on the Klondike Highway on our way to Dawson City, where the Yukon Gold Rush was. Soon there was little traffic and the scenery was good. We started collecting wildflower pictures and will have a collection linked at the end of this web page. We learned that at least at this time of year you do not see much wildlife other than Ravens on this highway.
We stopped at the rest area at Montague House and took pictures.
We made another stop at Five Finger Rapids.
After 182 miles we stopped at the free campground at Pelly Crossing, which had nice large sites. We picked a site with good views from the back and a good spot to set up the satellite dish. While we were setting up a helicopter landed across the river, we were hoping it wasn't going to do so during the night. About the time we were finishing set up our friends came in and we ended up visiting before dinner.
Here is our very nice campsite. There was no water, sewer, or electricity but we can handle that. It was hot, at least 85F, so we ran the generator and both air conditioners before going to bed and got the inside down to 72 from 90.
In the morning Bill talked to our friends before they left and we all agreed to go to Bonanza Gold RV Park from a recommendation they had from "Mom" at Moms Bakery north of Whitehorse.
The weather turned more cloudy and we actually had some rain sprinkles heading north. We stopped at Gravel Lake for lunch since in the spring and fall it is full of birds, but not today:
Just north of Gravel Lake was 22km of construction zone, we knew the motorhome and car were getting dirty on it.
We made a point of stopping at the Tintina Trench Rest Area for pictures.
Here are pictures of the motorhome and car after the construction zone, they were more dirty than we expected:
After 153 miles we camped at Bonanza Gold RV Park in Dawson City, YT. First thing was to run the motorhome through the RV wash, which cost us $6C for the pressure washer at 2.5 minutes per $1. There was a long line at the RV Wash. In front of us was Charlie cleaning up his Dutch Star motorhome he had ran off the road by Skagway, he was glad to be alive and able to use duct tape and aluminum to temporarily repair the motorhome.
After setup and Evita's walk Diane washed the car for another $3C of pressure washing. Neither the motorhome nor car was completely clean, but most of the dirt was off. The dirt was like cement when it dried. Here is our 50AMP full hookup campsite, our first 50AMP site in weeks. The 5th wheel was a couple from Kalispell, MT, who used to live in Bellevue, WA. The Mountain Aire motorhome was from a couple out of Florida we met in Dawson Creek, BC on the way up.
The campground had free Wi-Fi so we initially didn't set up the satellite dish. Then we found they were blocking outgoing mail, so we did set the dish up. We had to put the dish high to clear most of the trees, but in a wind the signal would jump around as tree branches would get in the way.
We visited with our friend's, who were parked next to Charlie's banged up 2001 Dutch Star. Here is a picture of how Charlie temporarily fixed the passenger rear of his motorhome.
Not a pretty sight.
By later in the evening the thunderstorms came, it was a very wet night.
In the morning (the 16th) Charlie came over to talk motorhomes, he might be trading in his Dutch Star once it gets repaired and wanted to know the options we had and how we liked out engine. The rain had eased, but everything was wet.
We decided to head into Dawson City and see the sights.
In the afternoon we drove up Dome Road to get pictures of the area.
After dinner we went into town again.
The next morning we took the ferry and drove the Top of the World Highway, Part 1, Part 2.
We visited Bill and Barb in their motorhome after dinner since we were not sure when we would see them again. They intended to take the Top of the World Highway the 23rd and stay the night at a viewpoint inside the Yukon. The 24th was when Ham radio operators were going to be calling all day and they wanted to call from the Yukon.
We were leaving in the morning to head back to Whitehorse.
We left for Whitehorse in the morning of the 18th and dreaded the construction zone to the south. It was Sunday so they were not working and the construction zone was in good shape. That meant the motorhome and car did not get dirty this time. In fact we made good time heading south. Here is the Stewart River from a viewpoint we missed on the northern trip:
Since we were doing well we pushed on past Pelly Crossing, where we camped on the way north, and camped at Hotel Carmacks in Carmacks after 220 miles. Here is our campsite:
The view from the road:
The view of the Yukon River and the Carmacks bridge from our campsite:
A nice flowering bush in our campsite that might be the same as one we had in our yard:
A view of the Carmacks bridge close to our campsite, the only bridge over the Yukon River on the Klondike Highway:
A sampling of wildflower pictures in the Klondike.
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