June 16 – 22: The Yukon: Whitehorse to Dawson City
June 16-17: Drove the remains of Highway 37 north to the Alcan, leaving BC behind, and heading into the Yukon. Could have made it to Whitehorse, but decided to stop at Marsh Lake Park, a Yukon Territorial park. Beautiful large sites with huge picnic tables, in the midst of lightly treed forest. Lakeside sites were all taken (no surprise) but many of the rest of the sites were open so we took a big pull-through. No services, but a great welcome to the Yukon. Just $20!
June 17-20: Hi-Country RV Park, Whitehorse, for 3 nights. (Sites 98 for 2, 104 for 1). Very convenient to central Whitehorse, easy in and out. Great laundry – you’d be surprised how important laundry facilities become! Sites a bit slim, with little privacy, but for a city park, it was great. We really enjoyed Whitehorse, finding it a beautiful, complete city. Population of around 32,000. Lots of shopping, with, most importantly, a Superstore, as well as the usual Walmart, Save-on-Foods, Marks Wearhouse and Canadian Tire. We sampled them all, but also got some walking time in, just admiring the city. They had an excellent RV washing station, which was very welcome.
June 20-21: Drove North Klondike Highway, through Carmacks, Pelly Crossing and eventually stopped in Stewart Crossing at Moose Creek Campground. (Site 33) Very quiet, clean, campground. WAY too many mosquitoes and horseflies to do much walking.
Best part of the drive was our stop halfway through the day. We had read about the little store in Braeburn having “the best cinnamon buns” in the Yukon. “Huge, but expensive – $10 each!” Well, being cinnamon bun fans, we decided to treat ourselves. So we went in to this little café, and there were indeed cinnamon buns. Yes, large. But wrapped in plastic wrap, looking as if they had been there for a day or so. And the price list was posted. The $10 had been crossed out (not erased or replaced), with $20 overwritten! I asked the young woman if that was correct, attempting to bring my jaw off the floor. She said yes. Well, I said no. (We did finally buy two butter tarts at $4 each, not wanting to seem TOO cheap. They turned out to be average. Sigh.)
June 21-23: Bonanza Gold RV Park, Dawson City. Drove rest of the North Klondike, stayed 2 nights in Dawson. Was our most northerly stop, and it was the longest day of the year. Sunset was at 10 minutes before 1 in the morning, with sunrise at 3:45 in the morning. A 3-hour night! Twilight, really; it never got dark. Our blackout blinds got good use, as did our sleeping masks.
Washed the Klondike dust off the Benz – goat rodeo! The wash site was very muddy, making sure we got some dirt back on the van right after cleaning. Best was us trying to fill a bucket with a high-pressure hose. Managed to get water over both of us, along with soap and muddy splatter. Fortunately we just kept laughing!
The town has lots of history, and we spent a gorgeous, warm day walking around. Very colorful buildings, bought a trinket or two, and had our first beer of the trip.
The morning of our final day there, we took the ferry across the Yukon, to start our trip north on the Top of The World Highway.
