I hadn’t planned on posting again so soon, but our wagon master says we may have a few days of extremely limited or no cell service.
We arrived in Dawson City late yesterday. We are in the Northern Lights RV park. Pretty nice with level sites, but it is what I euphemistically call “satellite friendly” – very few trees. It is fine because the weather has been mild with highs around 80 and lows in the 50s. I was going to paste our obligatory Mile 0 photo, but the guy who took them hasn’t sent it to us yet! Hard to believe the army built >1500 miles of road in the wilderness in only 8 months!
We started the day with a nice buffet breakfast and a presentation by the local visitor bureau chief. We got our certificates saying we just started the Alaska Highway, a pin, and a few other tourist goodies. This type of thing is one of the good things about traveling in a caravan; this isn’t available for regular travelers. Next to the visitor center is the only remaining old wooden grain elevator. There used to be a string of them from Alberta into British Columbia along the train tracks, but the others were torn down when better storage methods were invented. Still an impressive building, and it now has a nice art museum in it.
They also had lots of flower gardens, and you may have figured out I enjoy taking pictures of flowers.
After the breakfast, visitor center, and art museum, we visited a fabulous historic park run by the local historical society. They had a few dozen buildings either brought to the site or recreated based on historic information. It is interesting g to think that just over 100 years ago there was nothing here.
And a sign about how far north we are is that the peonies were blooming in late July!
After the fabulous pioneer village we went to another Alaska Highway historic site, the historic Kiskatinaw curved bridge. It has a wooden structure, and it was in use until 2 years ago when a landslide compromised its foundations. Some people walk across, but Kevin decided a short stroll was plenty far! The construction of this single bridge took as long as the entire rest of the highway – 8 months.
We also saw our first moose of the trip. Sadly he or she had met a vehicle and lost. It must have just happened before we drove by because the carcass was very fresh without any birds at it at all. This is an unusual sight. Most of the time a car hits a moose they both lose.
We take off tomorrow up the road to Fort Nelson, BC; Liard, BC and the hot springs there; Watson Lake, YT; and then Whitehorse, YT where we will stay a few days. I will keep taking pictures, but I don’t expect to post until we get to Whitehorse.