Moose Creek to Dawson City

We got a late start after sleeping in until after 9:00! The drive up was fine although the road was a little rougher than yesterday. It also rained on and off until mid-afternoon.

As you approach Dawson City, there are lots of ridges of tailings that were left over after the area was mined using hydraulic methods from 1909 – 1930. It appears there was no requirement to restore the land. Lots of little ponds and trees have appeared and it doesn’t look all that bad. They have decided it is better to leave things as they are at this point since to try to ‘restore’ the land now would be too disruptive to the plants and animals that have adapted.

We drove into town and booked a site at the Gold Rush Camp Ground for the next four nights. We’ll probably extend for a full week. It’s right in town and has full hook-ups so that will be nice. The only drawbacks are the wi-fi to the campsites isn’t working and it’s pretty crowded.

The motorhome was due for an oil change. After getting that taken care of, we drove up Bonanza Creek Road to tour Dredge #4 National Historic Site. It is the largest wooden hull, bucket-line dredge in North America. It operated from 1913 to 1959 and produced as much as 800 ounces of gold in a single day! It’s so big (2/3 the length of a football field) that I couldn’t get it all in one picture. The tour lasted 1.5 hours and was very thorough.

Next, we drove a little further up Bonanza Creek Road to see the spot where George Carmack and his partners made the first big discovery of gold that sparked the Klondike gold rush. There is a nice walking path with sign boards. Fran (and the cairns) stand at the very spot they found their first gold nugget in the creek: