Day 9 – Tombstone Mountain to Dawson City – 111 km (69 miles) – 3 hours
Read our “Summary of the Dempster” post for an overview of The Dempster!
We departed Tombstone Campground and continued our journey south knowing we were getting closer and closer to the end of The Dempster. We kept checking the GPS for the kilometer countdown. Our adventure was crazy, fun, eventful, and full of experiences. It felt like we had been gone for months. Pretty soon the GPS has 5 km remaining. OMG!! Pretty soon we saw the iconic blue bridge over the Yukon River. WE MADE IT!
Yes, we are back in civilization. I always thought of Dawson City as being in the north but once you have been to Tuk, it is WAAAAY in the south and it is in civilization. The sign proves we are back! Back to the Klondike Highway 2!!
We didn’t get any flat tires and got one small windshield rock chip on the last 40 km (25 miles) of the Dempster! We saw 5 flat tires along the way, one in a bumper pull, one in a Class C RV, one on a motorcycle, and two on passenger vehicles. Most of them were north of Eagle Plains where the road contains more shale.
The baffle in the wet bay fell off, the nuts holding the TV mount in the bedroom fell off, the sewer hose fell out of carrier, a large nut appeared on the floor and we still don’t know where that came from, but the most serious was the plug in the air tank that came out leaving us without ANY front suspension on the washboard from hell. Also one chassis battery shorted out so we had to remove it and ran with just one battery. We bought a new sewer hose in Dawson City and fixed the sewer hose compartment (a make shift fix) and will try and buy a new battery if we can ever get to Whitehorse.
We saw a grizzly bear, moose, lots of ptarmigan, tundra swans, long-tailed jaegers, and snow geese. I never saw my Musk Ox but supposedly two thirds of the worlds population live on Banks Island a bit to the north east of Tuk. About 10 days after we left the Arctic Ocean there was a mother polar bear and two cubs sighted along the beach where we camped. Everyone in town was out including the deputy mayor along with two guys with rifles. It was after 1:30am and the bears were still there…remember the sun never sets here in the summer!
We saw quite a number of motorcyclists, bicyclists, passenger vehicles, trucks, truck campers, a few Class B and C motorhomes, and quite a few expedition vehicles (Man, Unimog, Polonia, Earthroamer, etc.). We did not see any Class A motorhomes nor did we see any motorhomes towing a car (and for a good reason – don’t do it).
It was a fantastic adventure!
Off to Dawson City!
First thing we did…was to fill up the fuel tank across the street from the Dawson City RV Park before getting into the town of Dawson City. They seem to have the least expensive fuel around. We paid $1.96 (CAD) per litre which is $5.42 (USD) per gallon. The other gas stations were $2.08 (CAD) and $2.18 (CAD) per litre. Then on across the street to the Dawson City RV Park.
We are not staying at that RV Park but we read that they are the only place around with a pressure washer. AND we need to air up our tires after our long journey on unpaved roads.
Then we got some change (loonies) and started the long ordeal of trying to get the dirt off the motorhome.
We backed into the pressure wash area next to the RV park laundry/restrooms area and put in our loonies and went to work. It was 4 loonies ($4 – CAD) for 5 minutes. We spent $12 (CAD) and focused on just getting the big chunks off. There was someone else washing their vehicle when we arrived and there were a few other people behind us in line. As usual, we chatted away with all of them. The woman washing her jeep was from Tucson and she could not believe how dirty her vehicles got driving in the North. She didn’t sound like she wanted to come back. She was also shocked that we did not have a tow vehicle with us. The guy behind us in line had a 4WD Sprinter and he had just finished the Dempster AFTER he drove the Dalton Highway in Alaska. He thought the Dalton was much, much rougher and more difficult to drive than the Dempster but thought it was more scenic.
Off to our campground for a few nights. We returned to the Gold Rush Campground where we stayed on the way north. It is right in town. We were smart this time and reserved a pull thru site to ensure we had full hookups. Read our previous post on our way north and the problems we encountered at this RV park with our site that we could not reach the sewer hook up. Anyway, we wanted a few days to rest, do laundry, clean the inside and outside of the vehicle, fix things, resupply,etc.
Campground: Gold Rush Campground
Location: Dawson City, Yukon
Site: 68 (pull thru)
Cost: $83 (CAD)
Services: FHU
Comments: A perfect place to stop and use the laundry and have easy access to town. The sites are tight so try and get a pull thru if possible. They fill up in the summer so book ahead of time.
The hardware store is about a 5 minute walk from the RV Park so we went and looked for a sewer host and found one. YAY! One of our sewer hoses was destroyed by The Dempster. The Dempster actually ate our sewer hose!!! AND it only cost $80 CAD….choke, choke, choke…I guess we will NOT be sending our grandkids to university!!
Another fix completed so now it is time to work on all the other problems and do lots and lots of cleaning.
We noticed quite a number of vehicles arriving that afternoon/evening and the park eventually filled up. Most vehicles were filthy dirty. We thought we were bad! As we spoke with other travelers most of them had come from Chicken, Alaska over the Top of The World Highway and said it was pouring rain and they were covered with mud. Several asked why our rig was so clean and we told them about the pressure wash outside of town. They got quite excited when hearing about it.
That evening we walked into town and got a pizza from Pan of Gold Pub and Grub next to the Hardware store. It was yummy and so nice to relax after 9 days on The Dempster.
The next day we took a break and walked around Dawson City just to get some exercise. We have been here multiple times before even as recent as 10 days ago but off we went.
What a great little town and a perfect place to get some rest and clean up after The Dempster Highway Adventure!
As seen in the office of the Gold Rush Campground!
Next up….how are we going to get out of here? The Klondike Highway 2 (between Stewart Crossing and Pelly Crossing) has been closed for about 8 days and that is the only way south. Our only other option is to head west to Chicken, Alaska (Top of the World Highway) and on through Alaska and back into the Yukon which would add quite a bit of mileage and time to our drive. Stay tuned!
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