Vancouver from the Air North flight

Day 4 – Monday, July 1, 2024

Being at the airport hotel, it didn't make sense to go into town to do anything Monday morning even though our flight wasn't until almost 2:00. We had to have our checked luggage ready to be picked up at 9am and then we just hung out in the room until about 11 at which time we headed over to check in. It was a long walk through all the airlines and we didn't think we were ever going to get to Air North, but we finally did. Keith had read very good things about a restaurant in the airport so our plan was to go there for lunch, but it turns out it is in the international terminal which we couldn't access, so we settled on a pub in our terminal. There was a couple and sister from our group that we had talked to as we were checking in that were sitting at a large table and they invited us to join them. Food wasn't spectacular but sufficient.

The flight to Whitehorse in the Yukon was about 2 ½ hours. A little into the flight, I decided it was snack time and had one of my protein bars. Shortly after I finished it, they came through with complimentary sandwiches. It's been a long time since I was served more than just a little snack on a plane and especially wasn't expecting a sandwich at 3:00 in the afternoon. If I had known it was coming, I would have held off on the protein bar, but was able to eat a lot of it (especially the meat and cheese). It was followed by a warm chocolate chip cookie which I could manage only a few bites of. We were only in Whitehorse long enough to go to the bathroom and get some instruction before turning around and loading the plane for the 1-ish hour flight to Dawson City.

After we checked into our room in Dawson City, we made our way to a Jamaican restaurant that had only been open a few months. Keith likes Jamaican food more than I do, but it wasn't bad. Many of the restaurants that we might have chosen to go to were closed on Monday.

We were sad to learn that a wildfire had broken out on Sunday in Denali National Park, right across the river from the hotel where we were scheduled to stay Wednesday and Thursday nights. As part of fighting the fire, they had cut power and water to the hotel. I can't imagine what it was like for the people that were there; apparently, they were using port-a-potties and the restrooms on the bus. Not sure what they were doing for food with no electricity and no water. We were hopeful that it would reopen by Wednesday, but suspecting that it wouldn't.

Day 5 – Tuesday, July 2, 2024 – Dawson City

Dawson City is a town of less than 1,500 in the Yukon. It feels like you are stepping back in time with the buildings mostly being unchanged from the time of the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1800s. The only paved road is the main highway, the rest are dirt roads and there are boardwalks instead of sidewalks. With light rain on and off, we had to be careful to avoid the mud and water holes, especially where the boardwalks were missing. We rode the ferry across the Yukon River and at the urging of one of the workers, stepped off so we could say we were at mile marker 0 on the Top of the World Highway. We walked around checking out the town and joined our group for a tour of Klondike Mining Company Dredge No. 4, the largest wooden hulled bucket lined dredge in North America, which was in use 1912-1959.

After dinner, we joined four other members of our tour group at the popular cancan show at Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall. It was fun getting to know other members of our group better. With over 20 hours of daylight, we walked around the town a little more before heading back to the hotel.