Dawson City, Yukon Territory

This picture was taken from the top of Dome Mountain looking North where the Yukon River is flowing out to the Bering Sea.  The island that you see is one of the places the locals kept their "barking dogs" during the summer months.  When the weather turned cold and the river froze, they'd get their dogs back to use their sleds to get around in the winter.

We have been gold panning (we didn't strike it rich), did a walking tour of downtown Dawson City (where the streets are packed dirt and the sidewalks are boardwalks), saw the restored Dredge #4 and learned how they operated during the gold rush era, and rested. 

We brought the cool weather with us.  It was 85 the day we arrived, but hasn't been above 60 since then and mostly overcast and rainy. 

We will be staying in Dawson another night because part of the Top of the World Highway washed away in the previous two days of rain.  This happens a lot up here according to the locals, and you just wait around until it gets fixed.  We are fortunate enough to be stuck in a campground -- the people who are up on the mountain now trying to go to Chicken, Alaska, or come to Dawson City, are stuck up on the road.  Our tour guide, Spike, said we'll just lose a day in Fairbanks; we were supposed to be there four nights. 

So we will remain fluid and see what transpires.  We've been averaging $5.00/gallon for diesel in Canada, and anxiously await returning to Alaska where it should be closer to $4.25/gallon!

This is the rear of the Dredge we toured.  It was misting the whole time we were touring and the inside was rather chilly! 

On our return from gold panning, we spotted a yearling moose standing in a pond eating leaves.  We were unable to get a picture, because the camera was buried in the back seat under all the gold panning paraphernalia.   Wayne promised we would see more moose along the trip -- I'll try to have the camera at the ready!