The Silver Rush

We spent over a week on the Dempster Highway. We needed to head back down to Whitehorse to pick up our rented canoe for our next adventure, a two week trip down the Yukon River. We had some time to kill, so, we decided to take a detour onto 'The Silver Trail' highway leading to Mayo and Keno City, Yukon.

Much has been written about various Gold Rushes in the north, but, you don't hear much about the Silver Rush that occurred in the 1920's in the same general area. Mayo, on the Stewart River, was primarily a transportation centre where the ore was loaded up and transported by river. Keno City (named after a gambling game popular in mining camps), at the end of the road, was where the mining actually took place. At its peak, Keno City had around 5,000 residents. Its population fluctuated as the mining activity did. There is still active mining in the area, but, today, there are only around twenty residents left. We didn't expect it to be so interesting, but, it's quite a little tourism hotspot. There is a really excellent community and mining museum, a small community campground, a snack bar and along with many historic buildings, the newly-built Silver Moon Bunkhouse.

Some of the old buildings have been repurposed, like this old Anglican Church.

Others have been left to rot.

 In addition to the twenty human residents, there were a lot of rabbits!

Best of all, there was a road to the top of Keno Hill, above the tree line, where hikes were possible among all the old mining relics. We drove up on an incredibly clear morning and hiked a few km along the top of the ridge.

There was still snow up above the tree line.

Relics were everywhere.

We enjoyed seeing nesting birds.

We were also interested to see our first Hoary Marmot, the largest member of the squirrel family. These are slow-moving creatures who hibernate from September to May, they are only active four months a year. Most wildlife encounters are fleeting, this one was way too long. We couldn't budge him out from underneath the van. At one point, he climbed up underneath somewhere and we could no longer even see him. Starting the engine didn't work, slamming doors didn't work. Finally, we inched forward and out he came.

The highway back to Whitehorse had incredible wildflower displays along the roadside.