Exploring Dawson City

Dawson City, while not a large community, has much to admire. The city, of course, abounds in history and the preservation of many of the original buildings only serves to heighten the appeal. Dawson City has done, and continues to do, a great job of exploiting its rough-hewn image as the heart of the Klondike gold strike.

My time in Dawson has been spent, as best possible, in exploring the community and some sites of interest. It is unfortunate that many (almost all) of the sites of interest are closed during the winter months; and so, now a summertime motorcycle ride back to Dawson City is added to my ever growing - must do list.

Despite the sites being officially closed I was, nonetheless, able to fill the day by visiting Mining Dredge #4 (the largest wooden hull, bucket line dredge in North America) and the mining compound were the miners lived and mined.

Mining Dredge #4 was for this Michigan native, more closely resembled a wooden barge than the earth sucking monster it was.

Although the gate to the mining compound officially barred entry, I was able to pass through (remembering, of course, to obey the traveler's creed - "take only pictures and leave only footprints".)

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving, too and fro, from north to south and then from east to west throughout the city's streets; stopping on occasion to read the numerous historical markers and see the residence's of Robert Service, Jack London and Pierre Berton.

Hoping to see the "dancing" of the Northern Light's, I awoke at 2:30 AM and drove outside of Dawson City in order to escape the glare of the city's lights. After an hour, with no success, I began my return to the comfort of the Downtown Hotel; unwilling to continue my quest without, so much as, a fleeting glimpse of the amazing aurora.

Fortunately, the night was not a total lost; on my return a fox crossed in front of my vehicle and stopped at the roadside. For ten minutes or so, we "toyed" with each other before I succeeded in getting a couple of close-ups from a distance of about fifteen feet.