After our hike up Grizzly Creek on the Dempster highway, we headed south to the junction with the Klondike Highway.  Klondike River Lodge is at the jucntion of the Dempster and the Klondike highway. There is a gas station and campground there so we took advantage of the opportunity to dump one tank at the campground, and fill the other - at the gas pumps.

Time was a concern and we wanted to put a few miles behind us before the next day's visit to Mayo, Elsa, and Keno City.  We kept on trucking past Stewart Crossing and turned north west onto the Silver Highway.  This appeared to be a very quiet road, so once again, we just parked in a pulloff on the side of the road and began supper preparations.

While standing looking over the edge of the road I saw a small movement - there was some sort of animal down there!  My camera was on my belt, where it always is, so I moved quickly to get it out in case a photo was possible.

Well, it turns out that stealth was not really a requirement with the little fox that appeared out of the ditch.
It became obvious that he was not at all afraid, and might actually have been looking for a handout!

He certianly wasn't going to get a handout from us, but he hung around for quite a while, perhaps hoping.

The cat was very interested, but decided that she would forego an evening stroll for now!

In case one was worried that the little guy was dependent on handouts for his meals, he dispelled that theory shortly by showing off a fat gopher he caught a few minutes later.

 

In the morning we continued a short way up the Silver highway to Mayo and toured the small town extensively, reading a brochure about the history of almost every house and building.

Further up the road was the abandoned (ghost?) town of Elsa.  It was a strange mixture of old and modern.

The majority of the facilities appeared to be from early in the century - and abandoned.

But there was also some modern mining activity taking place.

We drove through the old buildings and roads taking a few photos.

Maybe we came in the back way and did not see the Trespassing signs!

After Elsa, the end of the road was Keno City.









One thing I noticed on quite a number of roads in  Alaska and Yukon is what appeared to be electrical wires at culverts crossing under the road or highway.
My theory (and I think I am right) is that it is a technique to help thaw the culverts in the spring and let the flood waters get through.  There are these electrical plugs on posts that must be hooked to a mobile generator for a few minutes to melt a channel?