Dave and Brenda graciously said if we wanted to take the Top of the World Hwy to Dawson City, they would wait for us in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. I have an interest in gold mining and gold mining equipment so I was excited to see the Klondike. H and I had heard the stories of narrow dangerous roads, broken leaf springs, flat tires and 1000 foot drop offs. In addition, the road information service was warning of wildfire activity on the road from Stewart Crossing to Pelly Crossing. We assumed the hype was overdone. We talked to a fish and game employee that said there was a herd of 80,000 caribou heading toward the Taylor Hwy. We were hopeful we would see the vanguard of the herd.
We left Dave & Brenda in TOK, AK and headed up the Taylor Hwy toward the gold mining town of Chicken. The roads were as bad as advertised. There were frost heaves and rolling waves going with the road and sideways. We were slowed to about 30 mph. One particularly bad spot was a sharp dip caused by the melting permafrost with a 4” shear drop that was hidden on the back side of the dip. It got my nerves going for sure. Sadly, no caribou.
The symbol of Chicken is the large statue in the feature photo. It was made by high school kids from old school lockers. In Chicken, we stayed at a gold camp RV park with an old dredge parked on the land. The camp owns a gold claim and offers gold mining equipment for rent and allows people to work the claim for a fee. We met a few of the people that were staying there and mining for gold. Fun stuff. We chatted with one father & son team who were cleaning up their gold concentrate after 7 hours of hard labor, digging and sluicing for gold by hand. They had about $60 worth of gold at the end of the cleanup. This is less than their cost. However, they were happy and looking forward to going back out the next day.
The Top of the World Highway is from Chicken, AK to Dawson City, YT. The next section, to the Canadian border, was a narrow gravel mountain road. We were nervous for muddy, slippery conditions because it rained most of the afternoon and night in Chicken. However, it turned out to be perfect conditions, no mud and no dust. The road was uneventful. We only met a few vehicles coming toward us. There were switchbacks and a couple 1000’ drop offs but we never felt it was dangerous. It was just a typical rural dirt road in the mountains. The views into the river valleys around every corner were amazing.
At the Canadian border crossing we had a friendly chat with a very isolated border guard. He gave us information on things to do and upcoming road hazards. It was our easiest and most pleasant border crossing ever. On the Canadian side, the dirt road was wide and smooth. It wound around the mountain tops above the tree line with vast vistas on both sides. There was no dust to speak of here either
To get to Dawson City you need to cross the mighty Yukon River by a small ferry. The Yukon is the 3rd largest river in North America. It is impressive! We had to wait about 1.5 hours because of the line of 6 RVs in front of us. Smaller vehicles got priority.
Dawson was all we expected. It is a preserved historic frontier gold mining town that is still a frontier gold mining town. It has dirt streets, wooden sidewalks, saloons, and a dance hall. In addition, there are businesses supporting the mining industry. On our first night there I had a shot of whisky with a human toe in it. Yep, a human toe! It was traditionally a hazing for new miners and continues as that and a tourist attraction.
We toured Dredge #4. It is being preserved as an important piece of history. Dredges in the early 1900s dredged almost every river valley in the Klondike, leaving behind their distinctive z shaped tailing piles. The tailings are still visible everywhere you look. A dredge has a line of buckets that circle a bar like a giant chain saw. These buckets scoop up gravel with gold and then dump it into a spinning drum that has holes in it. The gravel is sprayed with water to wash off the gold. The gold and fine gravels and sand fall through the holes. These are then run through sluices to separate out the heavier gold. The tailings go out a conveyer in the rear that moves back and forth making the z shaped piles as the dredge moves forward.
Dredge 4 is a massive machine. Each bucket weighs 2.5 tons empty. Its bucket line has 71 buckets! 177 tons just in the buckets. The whole dredge weights 2700 tons and is 6 stories tall. On its best days it caught 2 million dollars of gold a day at today’s prices. The main gear driving the bucket line is 14’ in diameter. Sorry for geeking out, I could go on. If interested I recommend more reading. Building, transporting, assembling, supplying power and water to and using these machines was one of man’s largest and most complex accomplishments of the time.
After some hiking, going to an outdoor concert with some fun music and spending time watching an active mine site, we left for Pelly Crossing. This meant traveling through the forest fire area. After having very good roads from Dawson City to near Stewart crossing, we ran into a 20-mile construction zone with very rough gravel before the fire section. We then passed through freshly burned areas that smelled strongly of fire. However, there was no smoke or hotspots near the road. As with the Top of the World Hwy, we lucked out and had no issues.
That night we stopped at a free campsite on the Pelly River run by the local First Nations people. It was very nice with a view of the river, free fire wood and clean camp sites. Unfortunately, it rained all afternoon limiting our activities.
Our last day was a 3.5 hour run to Whitehorse. We met back up with Dave and Beda who had had their own much more harrowing adventures.
I wish I was a gold minor. – Greg
I love the Yukon River. – Helen
Glad those crazy humans don’t want sloth toes! – Slinky
You two are the ultimate adventure seekers! All the memories you’ll have! I hope Slinky is adjusting to his new life style. Quite a departure from his previous life. 🙂
Sourtoe, no, just no.
Great shot of the top of the world and capturing the fox and his dinner, so cool! You guys did a fabulous job with those views.
I applaud your nerves of steel as you traversed (with a trailer!) those amazingly challenging roadways. Congrats to you guys. Simply amazing.
Hey… 30 mph is faster than a speeding trawler 😉
I can smell the fresh air from here! Thank you for sharing your adventures with us!