Dawson City

We are now in Anchorage, alaska, and are well behind with the blog. Just do not have the time with all there is to see and do. Anyhow, here is the latest up to Dawson City.
We took the Klondike loop to get to Dawson and this follows the Yukon River up to the hotbed of the gold rush era. An interesting city, as you enter the ouskirts of town you see the huge piles of gravel left behind by commercial mining using the huge dredges that literally scooped the earth up and gleaned its gold. The city itself is quite picturesque and very friendly. The main, if only, industry, is tourism, but there are still gold mines in them thar hills and they mine quite a few millions of dollars worth even today. We were lucky enough to meet a placer miner at a presentation at the library and he has 30 claims on the richest of the creeks, Bonanza and Eldorado. These are the ones that really struck it rich back in the gold rush days. we enjoyed a great walking tour of the city, conducted by a Parks Canada gal and she was quite a character. The towns tourism is largely run by Parks Canada but there are many independent operators also. We also hiked up to the Dome above the city, this is the view you always see on postcards etc. Then took a different way down and an old trail that goes out to an Indian village down river and then back to town via the slide that is also seen in many pictures.
We were lucky enough to be there for Canada Day and took in the festivities all day, even got cake in the park! There was a small, but energetic parade and the Yukon gold panning championships. Our placer miner was in that also.