Yukon, big and small
An early-spring flightseeing experience reveals the nearly inaccessible ice fields, mountains and glaciers of Yukon’s Kluane National Park. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
Author Jack London came to the Klondike, seeking his fortune, in 1897; he went home broke but inspired -- and he left this cabin, now part of Dawson City’s Jack London Museum. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
Capt. Terry Lee displays the object of affection at the Downtown Hotel’s Sourdough Saloon in Dawson City, home of the infamous Sourtoe cocktail. The toe is real. So is the $500 fine for swallowing it. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
A bit of snowy wilderness -- with an advisory -- greets explorers along the road to the Midnight Dome, a round-top mountain above Dawson City. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
A statue in downtown Whitehorse honors the prospectors -- and their companions -- who braved rugged conditions to follow their dreams during the Klondike gold rush. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
Pushing the season a bit, young people in Dawson City try a little snowshoe baseball, part of the town’s annual Thaw Di Gras spring festivities each March. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
Of the Alaska Highway’s nearly 1,400 miles, 567 go through Yukon Territory. This stretch, about 200 miles from the U.S. border, is east of Haines Junction, Yukon. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
The lead dogs are ready to go while the other two await further instructions from the author during a mushing experience outside Whitehorse. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
Three 1901 buildings -- a former hotel, a photo studio and a hardware store -- remain deliberately unrestored on Third Avenue in Dawson City, giving visitors an unvarnished sense of the town’s gold rush past. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)
A nugget from the gold rush era: St. Andrew’s Church, Dawson City, built in 1901 and awaiting restoration. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune)