Over Top Of The World Highway

Cloudy and showers as we start out this morning. I hope it clears or we won’t have any views today. We left the Outpost at 8:30am. The road was a little muddy from the rain last night, but it kept the dust down. Following along the ridge line on a narrow shelf we could see the South Fork of the Forty-Mile River far below us. There are ponds and marshes along the gravel road and suddenly there was a moose in the bushes to our left. We watched him and he watched us… then we moved on down the road.

We reached the Jack Wade Junction where the Taylor Highway forks and goes north to Eagle, we stayed right onto the Boundary Spur Rd. Even though it’s cloudy the area is still gorgeous and we climb up and down over the hills. As we meandered up the road (going 20 mph most of the way) we arrived in Boundary - population 2! The Boundary Roadhouse was one of the 1st in Alaska. There are two buildings in town. I walked into the roadhouse and met George. He saw our license plates and it was like old home week. George is from Dover, NH and knew our friends Don and Chattie Cheney. We had coffee and spent about ½ hour there. George had quite a history and used to drive for Jeanne Shaheen who was our Govenor for a while. George came to Alaska and prospected for a while. He had only bought the roadhouse a couple weeks before.

Saying goodbye we continued to the Yukon border and went through customs. The road was pretty much a mixture dirt and paved. Pulling off into a turnout we read about the history of the highway. Yukon Highway 9 began as a pack trail out of Dawson City shortly after the gold rush. It serviced sixty mile and neighbouring gold creeks. Gradually the road was improved and came to be known as ridge road. The road was extended to the border in the 1930's. In the late 1940's it was again extended to Jack Wade and Chicken connecting these Alaskan communities to Dawson City in Canada.

We ran up and over beautiful mountain ridges as we are now on the Top of the World Highway. This is a narrow winding road with extreme hairpin curves. The highway travels above the timber line with rolling views and no road shoulders. Unfortunately most is covered in clouds today and it was hard to see some of the road. What we did see was phenomenal.

Rolling down the last grade the Yukon River appears before us and the road ends. We pulled into the small car lane and waited for the ferry. Across the river it came and we drove onto this flat bed boat. 5 minutes later we floated into Dawson City, complete with boardwalks and mud streets. We found our lodging at Klondike Kates and were assigned cabin #8 (with indoor plumbing)!

The cabin is close to everything, so after getting settled we went exploring on foot. Old buildings dating back to 1897 & 1898 now house gift shops and restaurants. We roamed down Front St stopping to look at the native arts and crafts. Finally it was time for dinner. Klondike Kate’s had a restaurant so we moseyed in. Terrific food, Ken had spaghetti with BBQ meat sauce and I had Coho Red Salmon with Birch Syrup - it was great!

After dinner we relaxed for a while in our room. Later we walked up the road to Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall for the Klondike show. This town really lets you step back into the gold rush days. The gambling hall is named after a real dance hall queen. During the 1898 Gold Rush Gertie Lovejoy decided to distinguish herself from the other Klondike Queens. Between her two front teeth she wedged a sparkling diamond. This reaped riches. She made her fortune by mining the lonely prospectors who happily opened their gold pokes in return for her affections. The gambling hall was alive as we entered and had a huge stage in the front with heavy velvet curtains. The lights dim and Gertie, buxom and red headed, appears on stage. She greets the crowd and breaks into an old song. She was terrific and the entire cast was very talented.

After the show we walked back to our cabin and called it a day.

We hope it clears tomorrow!

Pictures: Moose on Taylor Hwy, View from Davis Dome Wayside, Boundary Spur Road, Boundary Spur Rd View, Boundary Sod House, Boundary Roadhouse, Friend George from NH, Top Of World Hwy View, Dawson City Yukon Overlook, Jeep after driving Top Of Worldk Hwy, Dawson City Yukon Ferry, Dawson City Streets, Klondike Kate, Diamond Tooth Gerties