Top of the World Highway

SPECTACULAR!!

Words and pictures can’t begin to describe the views and scenery so I won’t even try!

Looks like the road will never end!

The Yukon Hwy 9 began as a pack trail during the gold rush and has gradually been upgraded to an actual road that proved nowhere near as treacherous as all the horror stories would indicate! It was a beautiful day for an adventure and I’m so glad Roger is the adventurous type because I get to go along for ride!

The road is above the tree line so visibility is great and you can easily see oncoming traffic. We saw 13 vehicles before the US Customs office and around 30 between Canada and Chicken, Alaska – not exactly congested! There were only a couple of times where we stopped and let others pass us going the other way but, there were a  few other spots we were glad of no oncoming RV’s.

We stopped at a pull-out just before customs and hiked to the top of the hill – 4,515 feet – and ate lunch on the “Top of the World.”

Roger asked the guy at the customs office “who did you piss off to get this assignment?” and he said “oh, no one sir, we volunteer to come here for 2 months every summer – we love it!”

US Customs at the Yukon-Alaska border

Home for the customs employees

Top of the World

We saw prospectors panning for gold in the river. I asked if I could take their picture and the guy said "sure, as long as you don't send it to Obama!"

The road was actually smooth, new pavement for about 10 miles past customs. But, that was just a tease for the road ahead! It turned into gravel again at the Jack Wade Junction where we got on the Taylor Highway. The worst road was the last 20 miles into Chicken – narrow and bumpy. Would you believe we saw 2 bikers with all their gear making the trip?!

We are spending the night in Chicken (population 23 in the summer and 7 in the winter!)  and heading to Tok, Alaska to meet our group tomorrow. They wanted to call the settlement "Ptarmigan" after an Alaskan bird but nobody knew how to spell it so, they called it "Chicken" instead!

Chicken, Alaska

The music stage

Downtown Chicken

 

We drove through a burn area called the "Taylor Complex Fire" of 2004 on our way to Tok. It burned 1.3 million acres! There are several fires in Alaska this summer so we are being vigilant!

We have seen several signs that say entering or leaving "extended subsistence hunting area." Many locals live off the land.




A sod roofed log cabin with a high cache for food storage