Things To Do in Dawson

All of Dawson City and much of the surrounding area is preserved as a National Historic Site, and it's easy to spend a day wandering the boardwalks, looking at the old buildings, shopping the boutiques, and exploring vintage watering holes. About half of the buildings in the town are historic; the rest are artful contemporary reconstructions. Dawson Historical National Historic Site Complex (tel. 867/993-7200 or 867/993-7237; www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/yt/dawson/natcul.aspx) preserves 8 blocks, and sites in and around Dawson City. The Parks Service fees are usually C$6 for each guided tour. A variety of tours are available, and combination tickets are available; tours are available June through mid-September. For current Parks Canada program information and tickets, head over to the Visitor Information Centre at Front and King streets.

Between the town and the mighty Yukon River is a dike channeling the once-devastating floodwaters. A path follows the dike and makes for a nice stroll. The SS Keno, a Yukon riverboat, is berthed along the dike (near Front and Queen sts.). Built in Whitehorse in 1922, it was one of the last riverboats to travel on the Yukon -- there were once more than 200 of them.

Tours & Excursions

From June to mid-September, the National Park Service offers C$6 daily walking tours of Dawson City; check for hours and sign up for the tours at the Visitor Information Centre, at Front and King streets (tel. 867/993-5566). Up to eight different tours are offered in high season.

The Yukon Queen II is a "fast cat" catamaran that can carry 104 passengers over the 173km (107-mile) stretch of river from Dawson City to Eagle, Alaska. Tickets include meals; mid-May to mid-September, the 1-day round-trip journeys run daily. Adults pay C$90 each way. (Travelers can also fly back.) Book the boat trip and return flights through Gray Line Yukon/Yukon Queen River Cruises (tel. 867/993-5599) on Front Street (First Ave.) near the Visitor Information Centre; tickets go quickly, so reserve well in advance in high season; at all times, you'll need to reserve 1 day in advance for U.S. immigrations preapproval. If paying in cash, only U.S. dollars are accepted, even in Dawson City. If you want to stay overnight in Eagle, you'll have to make arrangements separately.

If you just want to get out on the Yukon River without the trip to Alaska, Fishwheel Charters (tel. 867-993-6237) offers a fascinating 2-hour river journey into the traditional Hän culture that existed here long before the Klondike Gold Rush. The tour operator, himself a member of the Hän First Nation, provides background on traditional lifestyles and takes visitors past the Hän village of Moosehead, historic Fort Reliance, and a traditional fish camp. On the way back, the tour stops at Dog Island for tea and bannock. During high season, three trips daily are offered; cost is C$32 adults, C$10 children 10 and under. Inquire at the Visitor Information Centre for the location of ticket office.

"After dark" is oxymoronic in summertime Dawson -- the midnight sun brings out the partier in the residents, and you'll find plenty of late-night action. We overheard in one bar, "In summer, Dawson doesn't sleep. We have all winter for that." Dawson City is still full of honky-tonks and saloons, and most have some form of nightly live music. On warm summer evenings, all the doors are thrown open, and you can sample the music by strolling through town on the boardwalks; the music is far better than you'd expect for a town with fewer than 2,000 people. Some favorites: Both the lounge bar and the pub at the Midnight Sun (tel. 867/993-5495), at 3rd Avenue and Queen Street, have live bands nightly. The tavern at the Westminster Hotel, between Queen and Princess streets on 3rd Avenue, often features traditional Yukon fiddlers, as well as other local and touring musical acts. The pub at Bombay Peggy's (2nd Ave. and Princess St.; tel. 867/993-6969) has occasional live music and a very lively and youthful cocktail crowd -- don't be surprised when this spot gets raucous.

Diamond Tooth Gertie's (4th and Queen sts.; tel. 867/993-5575) is Dawson City's one remaining gambling hall, and it has an authentic Gold Rush decor, from the shirt-sleeved honky-tonk pianist to the wooden floorboards. The games include blackjack, roulette, and poker, as well as slot machines; the minimum stakes are low, and the ambience is friendly, rather than tense. The three nightly floor shows combine cancan dancing, throaty siren songs, and ragtime piano. May through September, Gertie's is open daily 2pm to 2am, and admission is C$6. An interesting side note: Gambling revenues from Gertie's support historic preservation in the Klondike.

It's said that "strange things are done under the midnight sun," but there's nothing much odder than the Sourtoe Cocktail at the Sourdough Saloon in the Downtown Hotel (2nd Ave. and Queen St.). You can join 65,000 members of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club by tossing down a drink into which the bartender places a preserved human toe. Yes, a real human toe. Apparently, in the 1970s, a habitué of the saloon, Dick Stevenson, discovered a severed human toe preserved in alcohol while cleaning out an old cabin (the story of this original severed toe involves a tale of frostbite and amputation during the 1920s). Remembering the poem Ballad of the Ice-Worm Cocktail by Robert Service, Stevenson came up with the idea for a very unique specialty cocktail. The toe makes the ultimate garnish for the cocktail of your choice; pick your liquor, and the bartender will slip in the digit. The toe, which is about as disturbing looking as you are currently imagining, must touch the drinker's lips during the consumption of the alcohol before he or she can claim to be a true Sourtoer. A Sourtoe Cocktail costs C$5, and after you finish the drink, you'll receive a certificate plus the right to disgust listeners for the rest of your life. For more on the Sourtoe Cocktail, see the website at www.sourtoecocktailclub.com.