Seward
On arrival at Seward, we visited the Alaska Sea Life Centre which is somewhat similar to Sea World in Oz. Well laid out and displayed. Booked into the Seward Marathon Camping Ground overlooking the waters of Resurrection Bay and the mountains across the inlet. The weather has changed on us after the beautiful day yesterday. However, there is still a certain beauty to the mountainous background shrouded in mist and partly obscured by clouds. Sometimes the clouds lift a little and more of the peaks come into view – a constantly changing scene. We don coats, hats, umbrella and take a walk along by the water to have a nose around and possibly book a cruise out into the bay tomorrow to see the glaciers and wild life. However, because of the bad weather there is no certainty that any boats will be leaving. That turned out to be the case, we woke to another rainy day and trips were cancelled but a possibility of a trip the following day. We found a nice scenic area to park and had some relaxation time, reading, computer time waiting for the weather to ease.
When rain eased off we decided we would do the scenic walk to Exit Glacier. A very rugged walk along a track out to the glacier. But wow how beautiful when we finally reached it, huge, ridged with blue, an awesome sight.
On Good Friday 1964, a 9.2 Richter earthquake with a centre about 80 miles out to sea from Seward occurred. The harbour side and railway yard sunk 3 M below the normal sea level and a 40 foot tidal surge took care of every house and building. Extensive human death toll and it was start from square one for the Seward that we see today.
http://www.vibrationdata.com/earthquakes/alaska.htm
Tonight’s parking spot was outside the Seward Museum, happen to get a wifi connection here, so good spot to park. The next day there is no improvement in the weather but we go along to the cruise office to find out if there are any cruises happening. There is, a shorter one but just into the Resurrection Bay area and not out to the Atikiatic Glacier. We decided we’ll do this one and what a great day we had on a very nice large and powerful catamaran viewing through the cosy interior windows although on occasions we ventured out when there was something interesting to see. A great commentary along the way. We saw sea otters, whales, seals, puffins, sea eagles. A very nice salmon bake lunch was provided for us at a resort on Fox Island. A great day. On return we had a poke around the Seward Museum (how can we go anywhere without a look in a museum). Just enough time to look through before it closed. And then we drove a short distance out of Seward, found a great parking spot for the night on Exit Glacier Road beside the turbulent river.
Drove to downtown Anchorage, post office and then we did a grocery shop in Fred Meyers before getting on the road. We drove as far as a tiny little town called Sutton. There is a pub, a café and a library in town. Okay, time for a beer. Barman and other locals quite uncommunicative – strangers in town. My wine was served in what looked like a vegemite glass and tasted like ribena and not quite up to usual standards. The cardboard box back in Ronnie is a much better choice so back to the van for a half decent glass. We have parked in the local fire station tonight – so if we catch on fire, help won’t be too far away. It is quite deserted. We can’t get WiFi initially so Noel decided to get the push bike out and have a nose around to see what’s in town and where we can steal some from. It didn’t take long, library was located. Usually get connections from libraries – and we did from where we were parked!!. Checked our mails etc and ate dinner, watched some TV before turning in for the night. We noticed the café opposite advertised an all day breakfast. We’ll try it in the morning before hitting the road – no go, breakfast isn’t served till lunch time. Second time now we’ve missed breakfast at a café. Perhaps we’ll strike lucky before end of the trip.
Tok
Destination today is the Sourdough RV Camp site at Tok. We have visited Tok on our outward journey. We were recommended this camp site by somebody along the way, there is entertainment here at night by all accounts. Well, there is during the season but the season is over now and there are very few people at the site. The Husband of the couple that own the Camp died as a result of a snowmobile accident in April, so it was in decline apparently. However, we stay there, opportunity to do laundry. Noel repaired his brand new CPAT machine which he forgot to change over to the other setting; because we were running on power and it blew a fuse. We have a walk around the site, talk to a couple of folks here and the camp ground assistants who gave us some information on road conditions for our next proposed stop.
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Chicken
On road to Chicken today; so called because there used to be a lot of ptartigan there, hard to pronounce so they called it Chicken instead. Hmmm. First 80 km is paved then about 10 kay of crook gravel and then a bit more paved and the final 3 kays into the “village” is gravel/dirt road, poor Ronnie gets a dreadful bumping. It is a corrugated very rough road. Booked in to RV park. It is a nice sunny day. We go for a walk along the river for about 2 kays, lots of old mining equipment, crossed the creek a couple of times. There is an area where you can gold pan in “good” dirt; that they bring in from their claim, for $10. Noel spent a bit of time here trying to find a nugget or two. We talked to a Pommy couple, Carol and Jim, for a while. I left Noel gold panning and went back to the van and started some dinner preparations, chowder is on the menu tonight. A German family are parked next door, they were barbequing their halibut catch but could speak little English. We could see a some trucks during the evening coming along the highway. I would NOT like to drive that road in the dark.
http://explorenorth.com/alaska/chicken.html
Dawson City
After leaving Chicken we drove approximately 80 kays on a road called The Top of the World Highway and just formed dirt. Magnificent scenery. We were 4,200 feet above sea level. We stopped at a little gift shop at the end of this road, had a look around, bought some morning tea there and Noel bought a spoon for his favorite auntie. We then drive on 6 kays on more dirt/gravel road before reaching Boundary – and as it sounds, we cross into Canada so have to go through passport control at the joint American/Canadian border. Passport officer was only interested in how much booze we had, what gifts had been purchased, did we have any firearms etc. Not a mention of the fruit we had cut up and made into fruit salad earlier in the morning. We had forgotten the fruit rule on crossing borders when we’d done the recent grocery shop. We continued on the Top of the World Highway and its spectacularly desolate and magnificent vistas and finally reaching our destination of Dawson City. The only way to get there is by the free ferry which crosses the Yukon River. We watch it offload its cargo on Dawson City side of the river, it then returns and we drive Ronnie on, there were around 8 other cars as well as us. Just a short trip over the river and we arrive at Dawson City. We park outside the Info Centre and get the guides on the show yourself the old town. Not that old, only first trod on by whitefella in 1898 and first buildings; still there now, from 1901. Took a bike ride around and saw everything. Noel had his All Australian AFL Guernsey on and we were riding slowly up a street and a young female voice yells out, “are you Aussies”? Kim from Townsville and her mate from Newcastle worked in one of the local residential hotels. Had a good yarn. In mid season, maybe as many as a dozen tourist coaches overnight here before further destroying the road surface of the Top of The World Highway with their airbag suspensions!!
Parked opposite the library in a vacant lot and went to all 3 shows at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Review that night!!
We had heard that the northern lights had given a good display the night before when sky had been quite clear of cloud. So in a haze after the last show, set an alarm to drive from the town at 1200 feet up to the peak of the Dome at 2900 feet at 2.30am. Must have had a small prob with my vision at midnight as alarm had not gone off by 3.45, so hopped into driving seat from bed and headed up the hill in the dark!! The trip down in daylight showed how magnificent a piece of road it was!!! Best to do some roads in the dark!! Got up on top and blowing like crazy and a fair bit of cloud. Was not really sure which direction North was.. If I was more alert, I would have taken note of what Tom Tom could have told me if he/she was turned on!! So with the experience behind us, we went to sleep again on top of the mountain!! (But in the warm comfort of Ronnie naturally)!!!!
http://www.dawsoncity.ca/
So it was up the famous Bonanza Creek; where the famous and incredibly rich gold strikes were made 110 years ago.
We did the tour of the number 4 dredge Sue was our guide – and a very competent and informative one at that – she had had 15 years personal experience mining with her husband on a small claim; therefore she knew all there was to know about the subject and number 4 dredge in particular. The tour took us throughout the 3200 ton wooden hulled gold getter. It was powered by local hydro electricity. Not unlike the PNG dredges. It was in full operation till late 60’s when a dam upstream broke and swamped it in 20 feet of silt. A Government funded operation by the Canadian Army refloated it and cleaned it out. After the tour we went into a tent set up where there was a short video which we watched with other tour participants. We then drove on a short distance to claim number 6 which is owned by the Klondike Visitors Association and allows visitors to dig and pan. Noel amused himself looking for gold while lunch was prepared. Two tiny bits of colour!!
After lunch we decided to have a look around an historic cottage, a guided tour was on at 2 p.m. When we arrived we were asked why were we not on the free cruise with accompanying turkey lunch on the big tourist cataramaran which takes place once a year and just happened to be today. We had approximately 15 minutes to get there, park and show up. We just made it. And a very comfortable catamaran it was too – 98 foot long 100 tonne and manufactured in Fremantle!! We sat back and enjoyed some commentary, free beverages and lunch for a three hour cruise up the Yukon River and back.
On return we parked beside the river and watched a slide show of our most recent photos during a bit of relaxation time. As our tickets to the Diamond Tooth Gertie show gave us free admission for a second night, we decided we’d go for a second bash and wander through the casino watching some of the very serious poker games that were taking place.
An early departure next morning as there was a 600km trip to Whitehorse after a fuel fill up.
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