Forty miles later we enter Canada. This is the "Top of the World Highway" or Yukon Highway #9. This road began as a pack trail out of Dawson City shortly after the Gold Rush. It serviced Sixtymile and neighboring gold creeks, was gradually improved and came to be known as the Ridge Road. Most appropriately named as Lesley and I noted that in the 60 miles into Dawson, only once did it drop into a valley to cross a stream. Otherwise, it ran the whole 60 miles on ridges connecting one mountain chain with another.

In the 1930's the road was extended to the border and from there to Jack Wade and Chicken giving these communities access to Canada and Dawson City. In the 1940's, the Taylor highway gave these communities road access to the outside world by way of the Alaska Highway.

Crossing the mighty Yukon River at Dawson is by way of a free Government ferry. There are only three bridges that cross the Yukon - two are near the source and the third is an engineering feat in the middle of Alaska that carries the Dalton Highway and the Alaska Pipeline. Here is a shot out the front window of the Motorhome - as you can see, it's raining - not too odd on this trip!

The Yukon River is a story in itself - it's huge. Just the delta at the mouth of the river where it dumps into the Bering Sea is the size of the entire state of Louisiana - in one place, the Yukon Flats, the river is a braided river some 70 miles wide!

A view of the Yukon River and Dawson City looking south. We're on the top of Midnight Dome just behind the city.

 

 

A view north from the same point shows the Yukon River disappearing in the distance. From here the Yukon starts turning Northwest then West to empty into the Bering Sea. If you head north from this point, the next civilization you hit will be in northern Europe across the top of the world.

Downtown Dawson City. The Keno, a restored riverboat that last sailed the Yukon serving all the settlements from the mouth of the river, to Whitehorse further up-river from Dawson City. That's a distance of some two thousand miles.

The Grocery/General Store in Dawson - no A&P, Safeway or Giant here.

Main street Dawson - With the exception of Yukon Highway #9, all the other streets are unpaved.

A historic building under renovation.

 

 

One of the many boardwalks in town. If not for them, you'd pretty soon be up to your knees in mud.

Not an optical illusion. This is what happens when you build your house directly on the surface when you're over permafrost. The heat generated by you and the structure gradually melts the permafrost - mostly unevenly. The low corners are probably where the heating stoves were installed - making the warmest corner of the house sink faster.

Where the permafrost starts close to the surface, 12-24 inches in Dawson City, the foundation of new construction looks like this - the whole structure floats on piers laying on top of the ground. The resulting crawl-space insulates the permafrost from the heat you generate in a building.

Where the permafrost is further down, say 4-6 feet, a structure built like this would slowly sink to the permafrost. So in those areas, supporting piles are driven into the ground and into the permafrost - still with the structure elevated above the ground to keep the heat from traveling to the permafrost.

After a short stay, we say good-bye to Dawson City as we cross the ferry once again. On the way back, we stop in Chicken for lunch and move on to Tok for the night.

Next - What is a Gold Dredge and how does it work? More Dawson City.

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