Dawson City part 1

On the walk at Discovery Claim

Dredge #4 -look at stairs for size perspective

After visiting the Visitor Info Center on Sun afternoon, we planned our Monday activities; a drive up Bonanza Creek Road to see Dredge #4, check out Discovery Claim (the place where the Gold Rush began), and to try our hand at gold panning at KVA Free Claim #6. (I actually found a bit!) The kids had picked up Xplorer booklets from Parks Canada which encouraged them to pay attention by completing activities in the booklet. That worked - kind of. Their attention span is pretty short, and so we bypassed the hour long tour of the dredge.We did check out all the information outside though.  Funny thing, a couple hours later Morgan's interest in the dredge returned. By that point though everyone else was tired and hungry and we settled for heading back to the trailer for an early supper.
After supper we cleaned up and I got everyone interested in taking drive up to the Midnight Dome. This road takes you to the top of a mountain that overlooks the town and gives spectacular views in every direction. Wow.  There's a bench at the highest spot & Morgan sat down and started telling the people there about Bonanza Creek Road and what's up there (well, I guess he did pay attention!). Part way through he got distracted by the etching on the bench itself and asked the people, oh so politely "Excuse me. Could you get up please?" They obliged happily and even helped him decipher the writing.  (now why can't he be this polite to his parents??!!)
We enjoyed the views and scrambling around the rocks and then headed into town so the kids could

Okay, I might be just a little obsessed

collect their prizes for doing the activities in the Explorer booklets (special dog tags). They were both pretty excited and told the Parks Canada attendant all about their activities. (Yeesh! From the way they acted like wild hooligans I would have thought they retained nothing! They certainly proved me wrong and their enthusiasm in the telling showed me that they actually enjoyed the trip.) Bob took the kids to the park and I joined a walking tour describing the lives of some of the more colorful characters and events in the town's history. Quite interesting. Thanks Bob!

View from Midnight Dome (towards Dawson)

Looking north, away from Dawson

Once the tour was done, we headed home, put the kids in bed and did a bit of laundry at the campground. I got a bit of a surprise as I was folding the clothes when a fox trotted in front of the open door. I looked at him, he looked at me. I front think either of us knew quite what to do. It was a very cool encounter though.  The day done, the plan was to hitch up the next morning and go explore the town before crossing the river & staying the night at the Yukon Gov't campground. (sometimes a fully serviced site is nice and sometimes a more wooded setting and the option to make a fire is nice; it's good to mix it up a bit)

My foxy friend (he was a lot closer)