Carmacks to Whitehorse

Monday, August 16 -Today we have to remember Elvis, since this is the anniversary of his death, so I hope you all are wearing black.  We left Dawson City this morning, and it has finally sunk in that we have left Alaska. I have mixed feelings about leaving the state.  We've seen and done lots of things, and had a great time with our traveling companions, but it has been a long time since we've seen our kids and grandkids.  We are still hoping that John and Bridgette can meet us in Yellowstone (although it is looking very unlikely), but we have missed the entire summer with our grandkids.  They started school last Wednesday.

We've been able to do most of the things we had talked about doing in Alaska, and lots of things we didn't even know to do.  Certainly Prudhoe Bay was a biggie for us and Collins.  Catching some halibut was high on Mazie's list.  Collins and Marilyn got to show Marilyn's sister part of this great state, and they really enjoyed that.  Collins got to fish for salmon.  We got to drive down many of the side roads that we had to just drive past on our other two trips, and we got to spend a lot of time exploring the Kenai Peninsula.  The airshow in Anchorage was awesome, and we just lucked into that.  We saw a bear eating salmon, and a bear and cub trying to get into a tent.  And we made it to Chicken!  The gold panning was fun, even though the big nugget never showed up in our pans.  We wouldn't have wanted to miss a single day of this time in Alaska.  But we will never say that we would never come back here.  I guess our love affair with Alaska continues.

Our scenery driving through the Yukon Territory changed during the course of the day, but we still had beautiful mountains (not to climb) and rivers to cross.  Collins and Marilyn went out to tour the dredge in Dawson City this morning, and I took the opportunity to try to clean up the RV from our dusty drive across the Top of the World Highway, so it was about noon before we got on the road.  We stopped for a break at Moose Creek Lodge, but there was not much else on this road as far as civilization goes.

They do like their moose here, but we have not seen any wildlife at all today.  John and Bridgette, wouldn't all your puppie dogs like a house like this!  Think of all the chewing they could do on the moose antlers.

They had a cache that Joe thought they might have used to smoke fish.  The outside looked a lot like the one at the Jack London museum.

And you can see that you can make a moose out of about anything.

We crossed the Stewart River bridge at Stewart Crossing, barely a wide spot in the road.  The "Silver Trail" goes out of here, a 70-mile side road that goes through the silver mining country, but we didn't take it.  Maybe next time.

Then we came up on the Pelly River bridge, which was tented up for painting.  They had it down to one lane, but we did get through it.  Both of these rivers flow into the Yukon.

We found a government campground about 15 miles before Carmacks, and we pulled in there.  It doesn't have any hook-ups (these government campgrounds are like state campgrounds in the U.S.), but it was a very nice, shaded campground with firepits and picnic tables. 

 The Silver Streak is hidden in the trees to the left of the Brundiges' rig.

The last two days have been in the 80s (hot, hot), so we sat outside for a while.  Joe has found a new career since his gold panning pimp days are probably over.  He is now the Great White Hunter (small game only, he says).  He's had two kills so far, both bees, but he's still waiting on his first mosquito.  Mazie bought one of these weapons way back in Soldonta, and he's thought he needed one ever since.  We found him one in Dawson City, so he's busy now!