Dawson City, yaaaaay! Made it to this very unique looking place, one of the most anticipated destinations of my trip. It does not disappoint! After driving 4 hours from Chicken and camping by the Yukon River overnight, it was time to explore the city that looks a bit like an old school movie set! This is also a dusty city, in that while the main road (Front Street) is paved, the other streets are dirt and gravel. Combining that with the heat of the summer season kind of added to the effect and culture of the old buildings.
I found the fronts of the buildings to be fascinating and took pictures of so many of them, so much colour and character they have. Had a coffee and a sandwich at the Riverwest Bistro, and a beer and poutine at Sourdough Joe’s. Went into some of the stores which had knick knacks, souvenirs, convenience items, and crafts.
Jimmy’s Place did have ‘All Kinds of Stuff’, it was very much like a convenience store:
The ‘Store That Sells Most Everything’, I will believe it! Never went in, it may have been closed when I walked by:
The Downtown Hotel and Sourdough Saloon, home of the infamous Sourtoe Cocktail! Apparently one of the must-do things in Dawson City is to have the Sourtoe Cocktail, a shot of your choice with a mummified human toe tossed in for good measure. There’s a fine if you swallow the toe, but it must at least touch your lips. If you swallow it, you then have to replace it! I reeeeaaally didn’t feel like doing it, toes have always grossed me out! I’ll stick to beer, thanks.
I did go to the hotel though and take a picture of the sourtoe tombstone, which may have had something to do with a virtual geocache!!
I did a guided walking tour out of the Visitor Centre which was offered by Parks Canada. Got to go inside some historical buildings including the old bank. There is now a CIBC across the street. According to our guides it has the only ATM in town and there are times when it runs out of money or goes down for whatever reason… Makes buying things a little difficult!
The old saloon where everyone used to gather and tell their stories:
And the old post office (with a picture of the current one). We were told a story here where a guy (can’t remember his name, old Sourdoe Joe or someone like that!) used to travel up and down the Yukon River delivering mail from Dawson City, YT to Eagle, AK. Apparently it took him 2-3 days to complete the journey. And nowadays with how the mail system has ‘evolved’, mail can now take 7 or more days to go from Dawson City to Eagle. Presumably no commercial vehicles drive the gravel highways (or go up the river) so the mail first makes its way down to Vancouver and sometimes San Francisco before coming back to Alaska and then up to Eagle. Go figure!
There is a beautiful walking trail along the Yukon River. It goes alongside Front Street past the city. There are monuments and plaques throughout for various landmarks and what not. Took some pictures of the Moosehide Slide. This may also have had something to do with a geocache! This one was an earth cache so had to study and send answers to the cache owner:
Stayed a second night in Dawson, at the Bunkhouse Hotel. This place is so cool looking!! It is kind of like a hostel, shared bathrooms but I had my own room. Tiny room but perfect for one or two people who don’t need much. It was so cute! It was immaculate as well, everything was so clean. No TV, but who needs that when you have wifi!! Free coffee in the morning too, although the location is close to everything. Everything is close to everything in Dawson City!
