Tok to Chicken, Alaska & Dawson City, Yukon, Tues & Wed, June 23-24.

On the good advice of friends we had met in Fort Nelson, British Columbia, we decided to take a side trip from Tok to see the "town" of Chicken, Alaska and then go to Dawson City, Yukon to spend the night in a Bed & Breakfast. The road over to Chicken and then the "Top of the World Highway" to Dawson City is the roughest we had seen. We drove the Jeep and were very happy we had not taken the motorhome or we would have had scrambled eggs when we arrived. Jim calls it the "Top of the World Jeep Trail." Since it was about 68 miles to Chicken plus another 115 to Dawson City, we took 2 days to make the trip.This is Lynda in front of the "famous Chicken, Alaska Post Office." This post office serves miners who live way out in the hinterlands. There are many "Family mines" in the area, some as far as 50 miles off of the road. This is their post office. Chicken got it's name because they wanted to name the town after the state bird, the Ptarmigan and no one could spell it. So they settled on chicken, which looks like the Ptarmigan and is easy to spell! We did see a Ptarmigan cross the road on the way back from Dawson. (The P is silent).

Lynda is here talking with the postmistress, Robin Hammond, who coincidently has a daughter attending Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia and another daughter getting ready to go to some small college in Columbus, Ohio to study Equestrian Management or something similar. How about that! She & her husband are miners so I believe they are still taking gold out of the area! (These are private women's colleges!)

One of the few birds I saw! This, I think is a White Crowned Sparrow. Anyone agree or disagree?

This is "downtown Chicken" or as you might say, "the Chicken Mall". There is a cafe, a general store and a gas pump. All the electricity comes from a diesel generator in back.

These are the fanciest outhouses I ever sat in! They were very neat & clean with wooden regular toilet seats and linoleum on the floor, as well as sanitizing hand dispensers on the wall- just first class! Note the sign on top.

I believe this is the second largest drege in the world with the largest being in Dawson City. We had toured one before in Idaho and it was impressive! We did not go on this one nor the one in Dawson City. (You've seen one, you've seen them all! :-) ) They can go down a creekbed and pull up rocks from 20 feet down and extract the gold. When in operation, you can hear them for miles.

This is one scene of the Top of the World Highway from Chicken to Dawson City. You can see the road is all dirt (this was the best dirt section), and goes along near the top of all these mountains. It is maybe the highest longitudinally of any road in this hemisphere which travels east to west. The area is all alpine.

This is another view of the road as it approaches the Customs Station, the tiny grey area in the center near the last dome mountain.

This is another view from the Top of the World highway. I was brave enough to drive the Jeep over to Dawson but had to have Jim drive back. The road going east from Customs was particularly hairy for me.

This is the old bank in Dawson City, in obvious disrepair, in which Robert Service once worked. He wrote the poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee". Next to it is a paddleboat, similar to the ones which run along the Yukon River. They have one here which runs from Dawson City to Eagle, Alaska.

This is the downtown street in Dawson City that houses all the hotels. There is no pavement in town and the sidewalks are wood planks, as they hold up better than cement in the winter.

This is the Jack London Cabin, where he stayed while in Dawson City, prospecting for gold. He was only here less than a year and did not write any books here.

Jim is in front of the Robert Servcie Cabin which he rented while here in Dawson City. While here he worked at the bank and was there when he met Sam McGee, for whom he wrote that famous poem. Just remember that he used a lot of poetic license in it, but it did use Sam McGee's name, with his permission.

When Dawson City was the territorial head of the Yukon Government, this is where they met. It is now a museum and they still hold court on the second floor. The current territorial government city is Whitehorse.

This is a view of Dawson City, the larger Yukon River and the samller Klondike River on the left, taken from on top of the famous "Midnight Dome". They originally came up here on the longest day to hold bonfires and celebrate the longest day when there was practicall no darkness. (June 21)

We had to ride this free ferry across the Yukon River both coming and going from Dawson City via the Top of the World Highway. (They used the word highway loosely there!)

Top of the World Highway going back east toward Chicken and eventually Tok. This was great dirt road compared to the very narrow, hairpin turns, steep sections on the Alaska side.

Another view of the top of the World Highway. There were many times when you could not see beyond the road until you approached certain areas. This must have been enroute up the mountain to US Customs.

This is the cabin at Customs and reads, " Poker Creek, Alaska, elevation 4,127 feet, Pop(ulation) 2, Most Northerly Land Border Port in the USA."

This is just a "Top of the World" view of the surrounding mountains, near the Customs Spot.

This is a view of the South Fork River Valley just before going over a mountain toward Chicken from Dawson. It was very pretty. We stopped at a BLM campground and ate our lunch by the river.

This is firewood, a noxious weed which blooms in late June in the mountains. It is a billiant pink and very pretty all along the roads.

These are some alpine yellow wildflowers.

View of dirt road from Chicken back west to Tok. Note the road in the distance.

Another view of the rough road from Chicken back to Tok. It was almost all dirt and full of washboard & potholes!

Whitehorse, Yukon to Tok, Alaska, June 21-25,2009

The road from Whitehorse to Tok was very bad. It had lots of permafrost heaves & dips as well as long stretches of gravel. If you try to drive fast over the frost heaves, your front wheels could leave the ground.This is the large Kluane Icefield Range. There are many mountains here in this range with glaciers.

While driving down the road, we saw, from a long way off, dust or smoke in a large area ahead. We did not know whether it was a forest fire or not but kept going. This is what we found as we got closer to the bridge, which is in a construction area. The dust was so thick you could hardly see and the winds where very high coming down a mountain & across the bridge. The wind hit our coach so hard from the left side, it sounded like the fiberglass on the roof was rippling. After we cleared the area by about 1/4 mile, Jim got out and climbed onto the roof to see if something had been ripped loose. All was well. The road was equally as bad, limiting us to about 20 mph.

We stopped for the night at a government campground on the edge of Lake Kluane, just a few miles past the high wind area. From here you can look across to the far mountain & see it is still obliterated by the dust from the high winds. That's the area we drove through.

This is burwash Landing where they have a small museum and some artists who work with burls found in the Black Spruce trees around this area. We now wish we had stopped.

These are the icefields of the St Elias Mountain Range. They are taller than the Kluane Mountains and may be the tallest in the Alaska-Yukon Area.

We finally made it!- Alaska! We had driven over 5,000 miles at this point. Corny, eh? See our coach in the corner? By the way, 2009 is their 50th anniversary of statehood!

This is the Tanana River bridge about 15 miles south of Tok. We had to wait for a "follow me truck" since it was a single lane dirt stretch of road.

This is the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge just before Tok, Alaska.

Juneau & Boat Tour on Fjord Express, Saturday, June 20, 2009

After a day of "rest" and doing laundry, etc., we drove back across the US boarder to Skagway via Route 2 and boarded the Fjord Express, a large catamaran. Although I often get seasick, I felt good about this boat since it was a catamaran. It was fine. It was captained & maned by women!

This waterfall was immense in height, coming down to empty into the sea!

These are harbor seals in the foreground really working hard! Ha, Ha!

This is a view of the seaport of Haines, Alaska as seen from our boat as we came in to pick up more passengers. We had borded at Skagway at 9am, Alaska time - one hour earlier from Whitehorse time, (Pacific) where we left our motorhome parked.

These are Stellar Sea Lions in a "rookery", a community. They are on the endangered species list but boat captains really wonder if they are endangered. They seem to be everywhere and eat a lot of fish!

This is one of the glaciers that can be seen from the sea around the harbor of Haines.

Here is a Humpback Whale as he flukes! (You will see better photos of Humpbacks in my blog from Valdez! ) It was our first encounter on this trip and we were very excited!

Here are two Humpback Whales as they swim along near the surface. It is when they dive deep for food that you see their tail in the fluke position.

Our boat trip was a combo which included a tour of Juneau as well as a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier. Here is a photo of the Mendenhall Glacier in Juno from the road approaching it. The light blue above the trees is the ice of the foot of the glacier.

Here is Lynda at the terminus or foot or toe of the glacier where it leaves off chunks or icebergs into the lake. The real white objects in the lake are icebergs and are really very large. You can't get an idea of perspective or scale here with a photo.

This is where Sarah lives in Juneau! Actually it is the Governor's Mansion. Juneau, as you know, is the capital of Alaska and accessible only by boat or airplane. She is only here when the legislature is in session, about 5 months a year. The back yard had a trampoline set up in it, which we chuckled about!

This is a totem pole on the side of the Governor's Mansion. In Anchorage we will learn more about the various tribes of natives and I hope to learn more about the totem poles.

This is one view of the city of Juneau, where you can see they are "backed up" to huge mountains.

Here is another street scene in Juneau. As the bus driver said, "There's a T-shirt shop next to a Jewelry store next to a T-shirt shop next to a Jewelry store, etc." Many shops are owned by the cruise ship lines. This means it is a tourist trap! I did get some fudge here as well as some kettle corn, sold by a native man. (Not an original recipe I don't suppose! Ha,Ha)

This is Juneau's waterfront. We had lunch in the Hanger Restaurant where we could watch float planes land and take off. It is in the blue building to the right. This dock is where the float planes tie-up. That was neat to see the float planes.

Here is a photo of a float plane landing in the waterfront area.

On the boat ride back to Skagway from Juneau, we saw the only lighthouse I have seen on this whole trip so far so I will bore you with several photos of it. Isn't it gorgeous!

This is a closeup of the lighthouse, of which I do not know the name. I will have to search the internet when I get a chance. It sure had a unique shape. I do not think it is a functioning lighthouse.

This is a distant view showing the mountains in the background.

This is a Blue Heron, by the dock in Skagway. It is not a very pretty heron, but the only one I have seen. There are not many birds here except smaller ones.

And how do you like this photo??? He or she was in the ditch near the White Pass summit as we drove home to Whitehorse, at about 9:30 at night. It does not ever get dark here so no problem. I was thrilled to finally see a bear and so close to the car, about 8 feet away! I rolled down the window and shot & shot!

I think she liked me less than I liked her so she walked away. Note the wildflowers!

Just one last look at her! Isn't she wild & beautiful!

This is the Canadian Customs stop in Fraser, as I mentioned in the train ride blog. Since we were driving, we had to stop here. We then crossed into British Columbia for a while and then the Yukon. The whole trip to Skagway, one way, was 110 miles. We drove just the Jeep there. On the way back to Whitehorse there was a old cabin which had been part of the Chinkoot Trail for the miners in the gold rush. We stopped here but the cabin was gone.

We arrived back in Whitehorse about 11:30 PM, Pacific Time and were able to see the "almost" sunset on the way. It is "almost" because it never really "sets". I have included several photos to show that it seemed to just move across the sky!

This is the last one I took. After this is starts back up. It never really got dark!