Dawson Town, a great stop for a few days

[joe_b_]

The Milepost has put together a lot of good information about this Jewel of the North, Dawson. http://dawsoncity.ca
Dawson has always been a favorite stop for us as it is like stepping back into history. A nice selection of campgrounds in and around town and lots to do just walking around. During the years we lived in rural Alaska, we enjoyed taking mini vacations over to Whitehorse and up to Dawson Town and back home. Some trips by RV but most by small aircraft, sometimes mine and other trips took my wife's. Both Whitehorse and Dawson are super fun and educational so it is easy to spend a full week or more, hitting both towns. From our home in rural Alaska it was about a 3 hour flight into Fairbanks, then 3 hours more to Northway, and then 3 more into Whitehorse or Dawson, which ever we went to first. Whitehorse had great shopping. My wife had a love affair going with the Hudson Bay store there, as they had everything.

[SideHillSoup]

Clarification of the name :

Dawson was incorporated as a city in 1902 when it met the criteria for "city" status under the municipal act of that time. It retained the incorporation even as the population plummeted. When a new municipal act was adopted in the 1980s, Dawson met the criteria of "town", and was incorporated as such although with a special provision to allow it to continue to use the word "City", partially for historical reasons and partially to distinguish it from Dawson Creek, a small city in northeastern British Columbia. Dawson Creek is also named in honour of George M. Dawson. This led the territorial government to post the following signs at the boundaries of the town: "Welcome to the Town of the City of Dawson".

Dawson City..... ( grin)

Soup

[Veebyes]

Great town. Drove up & down every street so as not to miss anything. Been up the mountain for the view more than a few times. Done a few nights in the CG across the river & explored the steamboat graveyard.

[AKsilvereagle]

I too highly second that recommendation of the ElDorado Hotel for lodging in Dawson...the only hotel I stayed in which was my very first visit to Dawson in 1992 (stayed in the annex also - the south side portion facing the main hotel).....they were pet friendly in the annex portion back in 1992, unsure of their status today on policy regarding pets.

The following seven visits after that were in my camper rig.

For a decent hot meal, the ElDorado is where I dine at most every time, great food, reasonable priced with good portions on most menu items, real nice and quiet restaurant, never too busy compared to all the other dives in town.

Decent location (that is a close "centrally" located) but still not too far of walking distance from most everything in town.


Within the central part of town itself, if no rooms are available at the ElDorado, my next recommendation would be staying at the Bunkhouse or the Triple JJJ.

The Downtown Hotel is really cool inside with it's interior and gives you the old 1898 klondike feel, however if one does not care for a potential rowdy crowd with a busy saloon that can be rather noisy to boot, it might not be the place to stay for some, but the Downtown Hotel also has an annex across the street and is the best centrally located place for lodging.

Westmark Inn tends to cater towards the bulk of tour bus passengers and is a little farther located than immediate downtown but still a little more to cover ground as far as walking on foot distance.....Aurora Inn is also right across the street from the Westmark Inn.

There are a few more places for lodging in the downtown area as well, however the iconic Midnight Sun Hotel has been closed down and boarded up since 2014.

For those who are curious about the status of the Westminster Hotel Bar, it still has their rowdy reputation as well.

I would also highly recommend Bonanza Gold Motel and RV Park (for lodging or RV stay) which is on the outskirts (1.25 mile or 2 kilometres from downtown), as this place is where I take showers at which provide real hot water with great water pressure, in comparison to the Gold Rush RV Park which is perfectly located along downtown.

The Gold Rush RV Park is a great place for full hookups and all or if you are self contained, but their shower facilities still cheap out on hot water which isn't even warm and costs three times more to take a cold shower with little water pressure in comparison.....the doors stay open which let in any cold air to contend with too, as the Bonanza Gold facility is enclosed with a heated bathroom area.

[sue_t]

rkassl wrote:
Can anyone recommend from experience a nice place to stay in Dawson City, price is no issue.

Thanks!

My workplace paid for my accommodation at the Eldorado Hotel. It was pleasant enough and the food was fine too. I stayed in the annex that is right beside the hotel. Clean, tidy, good-nuff.

[rkassl]

This will be our return trip to Alaska leaving in May. This time we will base camp in Tok for a few days. Leave the trailer there and go North to Chicken then over to Dawson City and spend the night there in a hotel. I have looked on line for a place to stay over night. Can anyone recommend from experience a nice place to stay in Dawson City, price is no issue.

Thanks!

[partsman01]

I just received my 2017 milepost, now to read up and plan.

[loggenrock]

Nice to have both joeb and suet posting!!! ST

[sue_t]

I also have a page for Dawson http://yukonsights.ca/DawsonCity.html

My first visit was in the fall of 1957, although I couldn't see anything because I was still inside my Mom :B

[joe_b_]

Thanks for the photos. One thing I have noticed in the last few visits to Dawson Town, is that more and more of the visitors are Canadian. Years ago, finding an out of Province/Territory car tag in the far north was quite rare.
My first trip to Dawson was 53 years ago, not bad for an Okie (Ozark American to be PC) ranch kid to get that far away from home.

I grew up fascinated by the writings of Robert Service, as he lived in both Whitehore and Dawson, working in the banks of both towns. He refered to the town as Dawson Town, so I figure that is good enough for me as well. LOL I have the complete works of Service on my ipad so when I am in either town I love to sit on the river banks, reading his works, letting him take me back in history. Just wish he had found time to make it to Alaska, for a visit.

"To Dawson Town came Percy Brown from London on the Thames" from the Ballad of the Ice Worm Cocktail by Robert Service.

Haven't been posting of late, as we have been trying to get more camping trips accomplished. After spewing forth verbiage for 15 years on this forum, I decided to give everyone a reprieve. LOL

[AKsilvereagle]

Nice to see you post again Joe, as I will bite on this topic and share a few photos of my continued tradition of even numbered year visits to Dawson City (1992 1998 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016)....

Called and asked to see if my usual boondocking spot was still available in town as I got the green light and would move the maintenance truck to make room for my camper rig, so I arrived at night a few days later and settled in.

Aug 2016 - Fifth Ave. at York St. across from the Gold Rush RV Park :



Within an hour or so of arriving, I just make it in time for the midnight show at Diamond Tooth Gerties :



Cashed out $44 ahead upon 25 minutes on the roulette wheel with a $200 buy in, only the second time ever finishing ahead on roulette for me there.....


Outside of Diamond Tooth Gerties and the Rec Centre to the left (beige front) on Fourth Ave. and Queen St. :



Yukon River showing high water level :


From the much rainy summer they had, someone told me Fairbanks had the third rainiest summer on record for 2016, as 2014 is the record year, surpassing the previous 2008 record year....however the 2016 interior Yukon and Alaska rainfall was nothing to what I witnessed of the storm after storm while in the central BC area as I was forewarned about it at Rancheria before heading farther south, as it was practically non stop rain and storms in central BC after their hot weather forest fires last April and May, and they weren't lying.


On the third day the weather got better upon my final day in town, as I tracked down another friend that was working on what the locals call "the arena" as I had no idea what or where the arena was located (the Art and Margaret Fry Recreation Centre) which was the first time the building had a label on it as I confirmed my 2010 and 2014 pictures recalling it had no label on the building and had no idea it was ever a rec centre at that.

During the winter months this place has a curling and hockey rink that is established however the town has been wanting a new rec centre as it is constantly maintained during the summer months when needed to realign, restrengthen, recondition, re-level the boards and the ground as this site is built over melting permafrost :





To see a comparison of building over potential melted permafrost in Dawson, here is a prime example of the green building with white trim on Third Ave. near King St. that I noticed looked different from before.

July 2010 - Third Ave. near King St. - newly painted green building unbuckled :


Aug 2016 - Same green building buckling in the middle now advertised as a $32 per night hostel :



As the link that was posted, there is a wide variety of historical sites and nice features here in Dawson City as it is filled with rich history of the 1898 gold rush and then some, as I can call it similar to Virginia City Nevada on steroids as they make sure Dawson City is historically well preserved, as I never get tired of visiting here.

Another first for me on my 8th visit is I purchased fuel for the first time ever in Dawson as I always topped off in Chicken Alaska before refilling in Carmacks.

The fuel was always expensive in Dawson (even at the out of town place in comparison to most other main places in the Yukon)....

AFD (Alaska Fuel Distributors based in Fairbanks) has been established in Dawson since 2014 that I know of which they are a card only unmanned automated station....located directly across from Bonanza Gold on the highway.

I also noticed in 2014 AFD took over the Dempster Hwy Jct. gas station there and the Totem Oil in Watson Lake is now AFD also (that I seen this year but don't know the timeframe when they took over).

After seeing everybody getting gas at AFD in Dawson while seeing some tanker truck always present refilling the supply tanks the four times I passed by there, I decided to check out gas pump prices in between my visit as North 60 and Esso was $1.359 per litre while the two AFD pumps showed only $1.209, so for giggles and grins I tried my american bank card that was not activated for Canada usage (thinking it probably wouldn't work) however the card had worked with no glitches to my surprise, as the foreign transaction fee after I got home showed only a .76c surcharge....

I did the math and would potentially use my canadian bankcard that would charge $5 a transaction fee to still be worth filling up in Dawson and reaching Whitehorse (at 1.159 per litre) in comparison and bypassed Carmacks fuel at 1.269 per litre.

I figure I would mention a heads up for those like me that are fuel spendy cautious upon saving or stretching expenses a little bit while spending that savings on other material things.

[SideHillSoup]

Dawson City.