After driving the Top of the World road we ended up at the Yukon River with no way to cross unless we take a the ferry across to Dawson City. The George Black ferry transports everything from fuel trucks and RVs to motorcycles and pedestrians. It is a drive-on/drive-off single deck ferry. We had read up on the process of boarding and the visual hand commands that are used so when it was our turn the crew personnel hand signaled so we understood to go in the middle lane. Once boarded, the ferry makes a U-turn in the middle of the river so it is angled correctly for disembarking the same direction as you drove on. It was quite a wild ride.
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| Dawson City from viewpoint before we took the ferry ride across the Yukon River. |
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| Ferry crossing the swift Yukon River |
Now let's take a step back in time. Dawson City is like walking through a museum with very little modern thrown in. The majority of the public streets are dirt and some are lined with wooden boardwalks. The colorful frontier buildings and the barely standing buildings reflect the once thriving gold town of the Klondike Gold Rush during 1896-1899.
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| What happen here you might ask. Permafrost! This is what happens when heated buildings are placed on frozen ground; the frost melts, mixing water with the soil to form a very fluid muck which settles the building footings. |
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| Palace Grand Theatre built in 1899 by the 'infamous' Arizona Charlie, which was the go to place when miners had gold burning a hole in their pockets. The Palace offered vaudeville and comedy acts during the day and dance hall girls, gambling and drinking at night. Now you can take a tour of this refurbished grand building. |
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| The once Post Office building is a prominent landmark with its three-story octagonal corner entrance tower. It was built in 1900 and used as a post office until 1923. It has gone through many owners but the Federal Government owns the property with Environmental agencies preserving the building and is now recognized as a heritage building. |
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| Diamond Tooth Gertie's opened in 1971 as Canada's first legal gambling hall. |
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| The CanCan show cast |
Just outside of Dawson City the Klondike Gold Rush began in 1896 when gold was discovered near Bonanza Creek, leading to a massive influx of prospectors. As we drive along Bonanza Creek we can still see the relics of the past and also current day gold miners hard at work trying to find the 'mother lode'.
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| Relic of gold rush history. Gold Dredge No. 4. This floating bucket-line dredge symbolizes the important of Yukon's gold dredging operations in Canada from 1899 to 1966. |
We really enjoyed the days we spend in Dawson City. We learned that it is one of the few Gold Rush towns on earth where almost nothing has been torn down or modernized. While there is still a gold mining presents in the area, today the town thrives on tourists. Glad we could contribute to the cause.
We now have our sights back on the Alaska coast once again, but first we drove through a section of the Yukon that boasts it has the smallest desert in the World. As we approach the Carcross Desert we see the rolling sand dune hills of what looks like to be a desert. However, once we read the information board we find out that this 'desert', 1 mile square in size, is in an humid area and is actually the remains of an ancient lake from a result of a glacial process and not a desert at all. Either way, it was a fun pitstop as we make our way to Skagway, Alaska.
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Skagway, AK - To get to Skagway we travelled the historic Klondike Highway. It pretty much parallels the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway and the Chilkoot trail that prospectors used during the Klondike Gold Rush (1896 -1899). The road is lined with rocky tundra, lakes, waterfalls and snowy mountains. All offering an eye-catching perspective.
As we arrive into Skagway we notice that the town is surrounded by mountains and at the end of the main street your eye is drawn to the snow capped mountains across the port and harbor. The setting is very impressive.
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| View mountains from main street across port and harbor |
Skagway is a town with less than 1,000 yearly residents and primarily thrives on the cruise ship tourism industry which includes four cruise ships daily with 9,000 to 15,000 new cruise visitors every day. Can you believe that nearly one million visitors arrive in Skagway each year ( that's May to Sept.). The main street is lined with souvenir shops, jewelry shops, eateries and art galleries, all trying to get the tourist dollar. With it being almost a 'tourist trap' one has to search out the historic buildings and stories that are tucked in between the shops or off the beaten path.
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| One of the most iconic (and photographed) buildings in Alaska is the Arctic Brotherhood Hall built in 1899. The facade consists of close to 9,000 pieces of driftwood collected from the local tidal flats. |
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| Another downtown landmark is the Red Onion Saloon. During the Gold Rush, it was Skagway's most exclusive brothel. Now it serves as a restaurant/bar and offers daily museum tours. |
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| Downtown Skagway |
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| Just outside of town we hiked to Reid Falls |
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| Docks of small boats and large cruise ships |
Once we have walked every street, visited numerous historic buildings and driven the outskirts of town it is time to figure out how to get to Haines, Alaska from here. Option 1 is to back track over the Klondike Highway to Whitehorse and then back along the AlCan Highway for 100 miles, then down to Haines with the total distance of 380 miles and 2 days of travel or Option 2 pay to take a ferry for one hour crossing of the bay. Option 2 it is - we booked our departure for the next day and took the one hour ferry to Haines operated by Alaska Marine Highway. This ferry is much larger than the Dawson City ferry and navigates the Lynn Canal out to Juneau which is a 90 mile long fjord that is the deepest in North America at 2,000 feet deep. We just crossed the bay from Skagway to Haines at 15 miles. The vessels that are used can haul anywhere from 35 to 50 vehicles, 250-300 passengers and has ample seating and facilities. We had very comfortable seating and could be quickly outside on the deck when wildlife or waterfalls were spotted.
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| Our ferry accommodations from Skagway to Haines, AK |
Yep, we made the right choice.
Welcome to Haines, AK, a small town surrounded by stunning glacier-craved landscape and known as Deishu (Beginning/End of the Trail). Haines has a long history of indigenous stewardship, and was the site of Alaska's first permanent Army base and the jumping off point for the Klondike Gold Rush.
We departed the ferry at the terminal just north of town and are greeted with the breathtaking beauty Haines is known for. Our first couple of nights are in an RV park located north of town so we decide to to turn right and go toward our campsite and the Chilkoot State Park. As we travel along the road we could see Ferebee Glacier, towering mountains, fishermen and bald eagles. That night we settle into our site and dream about seeing bears tomorrow (we hope).
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| Docking at the Port of Haines - look at that view. |
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| The blue water in the Lutak Inlet |
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| Salmon Fishing on the Chilkoot River |
The second day we returned to the State Park and hung out along the river to have a relaxing day and also in hopes of seeing bears. As we were walking along the road watching the people fish for salmon there was a yell from the water 'BEAR' and as we turned around there was a mommy grizzly with her 4 cubs walking in the road toward us. Slowly we maneuvered out of her way as she made her way to the fishermen looking for a free meal from their caught fish. She wasn't interested in us at all. Thank goodness.
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| Mommy grizzly and cubs |
After that we decided to make our way back to where the truck/camper was parked near the bridge, and as luck would have it, we were just in time to use the bridge as a viewing area above the bears fishing in the river and seeing what the fishermen left them to eat... We stayed on the bridge with others and peered over to watch the mommy bear and cubs ransack a few fishing boxes and chase some fish in the river rapids around in the water just below us. Just then, mommy bear went under the bridge we lost sight of her and waited for her to come out again but all of us looked up and she was on the bridge with us and with her cubs. Oh boy! Remain calm! Everyone slowly moved to one side of the bridge and she passed by along with all her cubs. We will not forget that experience for some time.
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| Mommy grizzly with her 4 cubs |
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| Bear cub under bridge |
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| Bear alert 15 feet away - Look at those claws!! |
After a couple of days of experiencing the wildlife side of Haines we make our way into town. The small town gives us a feeling of friendly, welcoming place without a lot of hustle and bustle, the opposite of Skagway, which is very appealing to us. We settle in for a couple more days to tour the town and surrounding areas of Chilkat State Park and Historic Fort Seward.
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Fort Seward completed in 1904, is an historic site which played a significant role during the Gold Rush era, serving as a military post to support the influx of settlers and miners. Now it is a mixture of private homes, restaurants and hotels. |
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| Letnikof Cove Cannery near the Chitkat park |
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| Rainbow Glacier and ice melt waterfalls |
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| Rainbow Glacier |
Hyder, AK - We have been all over Alaska and this was our last stop in AK as we head back to the lower 48 and it is true Alaska. Hyder, Alaska is a unique and picturesque town known as the friendliest ghost town. The only way to travel to Hyder is to drive through Canada or fly directly to Hyder by float plane. Hyder is the south easternmost community in Alaska and originally a mining town so its rich in history including its role during the Prohibition era when there was a speakeasy and little law enforcement. Another intriguing aspect of life in Hyder is its adopted time zone. Despite being officially part of Alaska, the town observes the Pacific Time Zone, aligning with it's Canadian neighboring town of Stewart, BC. They also rely on Stewart, BC grocery stores and shops to survive everyday life.
There are a couple of area attractions that we must see while we visit Hyder. One - Fish Creek Observation site and two - Salmon Glacier.
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| There were many eagles flying around the rivers feeding on salmon |
Fish Creek Observation site is a Forest Service maintained boardwalk where you can safely view the bears as they feed on salmon in the creeks below. Truthfully, we visited this site twice and saw one black bear and one brown bear but they were close. On the way to the observation we also followed a brown bear walking on the road that was determined to have us follow him a mile or so - slowly.
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| Grizzly bear |
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| Black bear |
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| Black bear |
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| Grizzly bear |
Further down the road we begin our trek toward the famous Salmon Glacier with hopes to camping next to the glacier, if possible. The road inclines relatively quickly and fades from asphalt to dirt even faster. The scenery is spectacular. The active gold mining in the area is evident as we were stopped by flagmen for a couple of minutes to let big loaders and trucks to pass. Unofficially, we crossed between the Alaska and Canadian border a handful of times (no custom agents) as Salmon Glacier is in Canada but the road to get there is through Hyder US. And then there it is - Salmon Glacier. Words cannot describe how magnificent this glacier looks. Just take a look!
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| First sight of the South branch tail of Salmon Glacier |
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| The 5th largest glacier in Canada |
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| Salmon Glacier is a remnant of the Fraser Glaciation period, which peaked around 14,000 years ago, covering much of British Columbia and Alaska |
After taking in the views of Salmon Glacier at the public viewing area we continued on the dirt road past the viewing area where 90% of the visitors do not venture. We were searching for an overnight camping spot so after turning off the main mining road we explored a backroad until we could not go any further and we made that home for the night. And what a spot it was! We must say that camping by Salmon Glacier was probably the most epic campsite ever.
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| Camping with an amazing view of Salmon Glacier - No one else around! Sitting in our camp chairs only 100 feet above the cracking ice! |
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| Another amazing view of a waterfall and more snow from our campsite |
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| The only Northern Lights we saw the entire trip was at Salmon Glacier |
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| Happy Campers |
After a slight detour through Oregon to visit family we have made it back to Arizona. Our adventure totals are:
97 days and 12,700 miles
Canada wildlife: eagles, beavers, foxes, coyotes, white swans, loons, Canadian geese, porcupines, big horn sheep, moose, bison, stone sheep, mountain goats, black bears and elk.
Alaska wildlife: moose, bald eagles, white swans, humpback whales, orca whales, puffins, sea lions, sandhill cranes, porcupines, black bears, grizzly bears and salmon.
Closing thoughts: We are so blessed and beyond appreciative that we were able to take this Alaska bucket list trip. It is one we will remember for years to come. Thank you for joining us. Now get out there and start your bucket list adventure.
Jack & Deb
