They say what happens in Vegas , remain . But Vegas has a FOX affiliate , 1,000 flights a day , and streets full of multitude with good cell service . Mess up in Vegas , and the world will know before you waken up . Just ask Britney Spears . You wanna go somewhere full of gambling , unbridled partying , and inhibition - less visitant ? Do you also need the concealment of being 16 hour from the nearest city you ’ve heard of ?
You should channelise to the Yukon .
Your new class - round escape is called Dawson City . It was meanspirited townsfolk of the Klondike Gold Rush , at the junction of the Yukon and Klondike Rivers . At its height , 40,000 hoi polloi lived there , fueling rowdy , dirty street , gaming theater , brothels , and saloon galore . But 120 years later , only 1,300 soul still call it home . Yet the city ’s slogan – " Where the North Comes to Play " – recall those deprave days at the edge of creation . Every weekend it ’s full of folk who make the retentive trip from all over Canada , Europe , and the US to cut loose in the middle of nowhere .
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It ’s also a place where Canadian college students who want to say " screw the man " follow to work in the bars , cassino , and hotels for a summertime while live in a tent across the Yukon River in West Dawson . They ’re link by 20 - somethings take care for instruction , who come to get aside from it all and figure out their future tense . What result is a city is pack with uncommitted immature multitude and tourists , which is never not a formula for a company .
Dawson City ’s entreaty lie in in its aloofness , figural and real , from the rest of life sentence . The Yukon may be remarkably well - design for travel – unlike Alaska , closely all of its settlements are approachable by route – but none of its commute are short . It ’ll take you five hours hours to pass the nearest major drome in the dominion ’s capital , Whitehorse . It ’s nine hours from the cruise port wine in Skagway , Alaska . And while Fairbanks might look close , the pesky mountain range between the two cities make it a 16 - hour cause on the Top of the World Highway .
The prevention feel like the kinds of place miners would stop after two weeks panning in the bush . And in some saloons , you ’ll in reality still regain them .
But the numbing , breathtaking drives through predominate green and amber mountains will unplug you from your world . The first turn down Front St looks as it must have to a gilded miner arriving from California . Only some of the honest-to-goodness wooden buildings have been restored ; others are dilapidate . Only the town ’s master road has been paved , and when it rains , the dusty street turn to clay ( hence the township ’s wooden sidewalk ) . Despite the late - model cars on the road , you ’ve effectively arrived in 1896 .
This is how the townsfolk differentiates itself from other historical North American mining town , which usually feel update , with paved street and Starbucks . Dawson , still raspy around the edge , feel like a trip back in time . You ca n’t call it a theme township because what you ’re experiencing is actual , save peradventure for the showgirls .
Yep , showgirls . They ’re the main magnet at Diamond Tooth Gerties , Canada ’s Old gambling casino . It ’s a two - level , wood - walled structure with a balcony overlooking the gambling casino floor , which is basically gaming table palisade a theatre . Once an hour the gambler take a break from the tables and watch the dancers perform .
At some point the crowds disgorge out of the casino and moves the party to any number of quality dive saloons where it chew up on . euphony pours out of the Midnight Sun Hotel , home to a live - music venue and a dark , seedy lounge . The Westminster Hotel ’s two bar are also packed . All these joint are throwbacks . Sure , they ’re live by cleaning woman now too , and have electricity and drinks that are n’t 130 - proof whiskey . But they feel like the kinds of places miners would stop at after two weeks pan off in the bush . And in some pub , you ’ll actually still find them .
Mines still manoeuver around Dawson , so dusty , commonplace miners can be spotted drift the parallel bars and saloons . They mingle easily with tourists and summering college Kyd , even at places like the Downtown Hotel , the stuffy thing to a tourer trap as you ’ll find .
This wallpaper bar is home to the Sourtoe Cocktail , basically a shot of John Barleycorn pour over a preserve human toe . It date back to 1973 , when Captain Dick Stevenson cleaned out his cabin and found a shock hold an amputate , frostbitten toe . He brought it to the bar and harbour himself by presume multitude to take a stroke with the toe in the drink . Today , tourist delineate up near to bar to conjoin the " Sourtoe Cocktail Club . " The toe has changed over the years , but the rules are the same : " Drink it fast , or wassail it behind , but your lips have contract to touch the toe . " If your shot of choice is tequila , you may even lick the common salt off the toe .
The city ’s motto – " Where the North Comes to Play " – recalls those profane days of sometime at the edge of instauration .
That ’s typically not the last drink of the night in Dawson City . After touch the toe it ’s a short walk to Bombay Peggy ’s , a brothel - turned - boutique hotel with a bordello - theme bar . Appropriately , Peggy ’s is the township ’s death - of - the - night - bar , where gaudy crowds of young mass glare at each other through the bar ’s red lights , deciding how their evenings should end . It ’s an eerie , blurry manner to keep you in a miner ’s state of mind right up until you trip upstairs and pass out .
Dawson City is n’t entirely off the grid . Most of it has mobile phone servicing . There ’s moderately dependable net , when the character - oculus cables in Alberta that service it are n’t break out . There are phones and grocery storehouse and even a lilliputian drome with a handful of flight of steps . Dawson City ’s youth and character have attracted hipsters who knock out some rockin ' vegetarian food and gourmet coffee at Alchemy .
But a few nights in Dawson will echo with raucous frontier life . There ’s really nowhere quite like it in North America , where you could get away and indulge so far from the rest of the world . It ’s the rarefied uncontrived historic town , update enough to be fun , funky enough to feel real . Go , and you ’ll find yourself set off the foresighted thrust back back through the mountains for as long as you’re able to .
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