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Mawlers’ Big Adventure ’04:
Dawson to Border City - The Pictures

Pictures pictures pictures.

The Dawson City Bunkhouse was our preferred hotel here in Dawson, our room was on the first floor. Note the strange structure in the foreground.	In case you are ever in Dawson, this is what the place looks like in front.	Here is the structure from the foreground of the picture to the left. It is the "Dawson City Metro Station". Somebody has a really odd sense of humor and, for once, it is not us.
This the main section of the El Dorado Motel, where we stayed the first night back in Dawson.	Our room was actually off in this little annex.	When they found Jack London's cabin, they took some logs to Oakland and some here to Dawson, reconstructing a version of the cabin in both places. This is a pretty good representation of the original, based on the pictures we saw.
This is the bear cache they built to go with the Jack London cabin. These can still be found around many houses. You put things in there that attract bear, so the bear go to the cache, which they cannot access, and leave your house alone.	We drove past this neat church several times while in Dawson. The parsonage is in great shape, but the main church has problems.	You can clearly see the eaves on the bell tower are not all they could be (left side).
Lea Ann took this picture from the Yukon River ferry. It gives a hazy overview of Dawson.	The official border crossing sign for Poker Creek.	The official Poker Creek "town" sign.
Just beyond the border, there is a turnout with an overlook. Vanna gives you some idea of where we are.
Even with the smoke, the landscape is stunning. It reminds me of the moors. Of course, looking into the sun, the smoke is even worse.
An attractive blue-bell-like flower at the turnout on the Top of the World Highway.	A nice cluster of small white blossoms at the same turnout.	A slightly closer look at the last picture.
A passenger's-eye view of the road to Eagle, Alaska.	The hole that cut short our side trip. You think they can patch that?	Even with a slightly blurry picture, you can see that we had issues keeping the car on the jack.
When we stopped to look at the dredge along the Taylor Highway, we noted that it is in a really pretty area.	Again, smoke helps make this picture attractive, filtering the light the way it does.	Surprisingly, there is fireweed here, too. Though, it looks very different here.
Another view of the dredge. This one is obviously not restored like the big dredge in Dawson.	But there are still some attractive pictures of big gears.	This one showed up on the last page as well, but here you can match it up with the last picture to get a sense of scale.
We took a series on the reflection of the dredge in the creek. These really show the clarity of the water, the thickness of the hull of the dredge.
These two are wider shots, giving a better view of the remains of the digging arm. Not to mention the landscape around the dredge. The creek is running toward you in this picture.
Leaving Chicken, Alaska, we ran straight into some dense smoke.	It made for nice sun, though.	The air was very still, so the reflections of the colorful trees were almost perfect.
Just like earlier in the trip, we see fall colors here.	After a long day hanging in the sky, a tree props up the sun.	And the after-effects of the fire are dramatic.
This lone tree highlights the remarkable color contrasts that fires bring. We kept running into more smoke as we continued south.
In some areas that recently burned, you can see how quickly the vegetation comes back because the forest floor is covered in fireweed, like here. The darkness of the background is enhanced by the flash, but it really is actually black. Lea Ann was sinking in ashes to get these pictures. (Suffering for her art, you know.)
While this one appeared on the text page, it seemed to be the best way to sum up the day and much of the trip. Yes, that is a big patch of forest freely burning just a few meters from the road. Considering that no one lives up here, they let this kind of fire burn itself out.

The previous installment: Dawson City to Border City	The next installment: Border City to Haines Junction

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All materials © 2004 Lea Ann Mawler & Stuart Mawler