Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Top of the World Highway and we made it to Alaska!

 Monday June 13, 2022 - Today we wandered around Dawson City, went to lunch at the Triple J, got to see Jack London's lost cabin and went to the evening show at Diamond Tooth Gerties. 







I'm a bad influence...Aunt Gerry and Uncle Gene are getting good at taking selfies!




we are addicted to poutine




the famous Canadian poet, Robert Service's cabin




Jack London's cabin that was discovered in the woods near Dawson City.  Half of the logs from this cabin were taken to Oakland California (where he also lived) and a replica cabin was built there.




These dredge scoops are found EVERYWHERE in Dawson City.  Our campground used them for flower beds and site numbers






Fun night at Diamond Tooth Gerties





Tuesday June 14, 2022 - Today we're headed for Alaska!  To get there the drive started with a free ferry across the Yukon, to the Top of the World Highway.    This road was  pretty rough, all gravel and hard packed with lots of twists and turns and lots of spots for huge sweeping vista views.  It took us 4 hours to go 108 miles.  What an absolutely beautiful drive.  The road was pretty empty of cars/RVs, so it felt like we had the highway to ourselves.  We spent an hour in Chicken, Alaska the first "civilization" along the highway.  The story goes that the town was named Chicken, because the founders wanted to name it Ptarmigan but didn't know how to spell it, so settled on Chicken (what they often call ptarmigans).  It was a fun little quirky town.  Then we drove about a half an hour to West Fork BLM campground, which was a beautiful, quiet spot for the night.


Waiting to get loaded onto the ferry




We were the last ones on (although the ferry only fit us, two big RVs and 3 motorcycles)




View of the Yukon River from inside the RV




looking out at Dawson City and the SS Klondike (paddlewheel)




we made it to the other side




That's the line to take the ferry to Dawson City, on the other side of the river and us driving off the ferry








This part of the blog is going to get boring, because every corner had another crazy view and I'm not one to turn down a picture taking opportunity.




snow covered mountains and clouds in the background 












lunch with a view





snow next to the "highway"





Top of the World Highway info.  The highway was started as a pack trail out of Dawson City after the gold rush.  In the 30s it was extended to the border and connected Chicken and Jack Wade to Dawson City.  











wildflowers and snow




A view looking down on the Alaska border.  The buildings are right above Mirabelle’s head




wild flowers for the road





Stats for our trip:  4096 miles to Alaska, 88 hours of drive time, average speed 46 mph, 16.6 mpg and 3 weeks on the road













a heart made of stones




Alaska border.  We ate all of our chicken before our border crossing because we heard that AK asks about chicken just like Canada, but of course they didn't ask us about chicken.





Poker Creek, AK - most northerly land border port in the US




Welcome to Alaska!




Tiny got us here, and boy is she dusty/muddy





more typical road on the Top of the World



Chicken, AK



The chicken musher




chickens of all sorts




the iconic chickens of Chicken








downtown Chicken




beautiful campsite overlooking a small lake




if you look closely you can see two caribou (i didn't have my good camera with me, so it's a terrible photo)




we had the "bubble" out in case the mosquitoes were bad, but we didn't need to use it






another nice campfire 




evergreens everywhere




that's a big, tall, skinny tree


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