Having gone to bed reasonably early last night, I was awake
and ready for action by 5.30 am, but sat cooling my heels for a while as I
needed gas and groceries before heading off to Chicken, and not much opens in
Tok before 8 am !! But as soon as they
were open, I got what I needed, and headed off up the Chicken road.
I didn’t see another car for maybe 45 minutes ! I was starting to wonder if there was a
problem somewhere !! But eventually a
few appeared, and they were all pretty dirty – Which indicated the road ahead
was going to be all the fun I expected !
This is the Top of the World Highway, with over 100 miles of dirt, and
supposedly stunning scenery, and I have been reading about it and looking forward to it for 3 years.
I was supposed to come up to Alaska on this Klondike Highway, but the Yukon River
was still frozen at that stage, so the ferry, the only way to cross the iver,
was not in the water or operating at that time.
I started from Tok with the roof on because it been raining
most of the night, and was still very overcast when I left. But after maybe 15 minutes driving while I
climbed up out of the valley, the sky cleared a bit so I took the roof
off. The 95 miles to Chicken were very
pleasant, but nothing overly special, and I finalled arrived in the place I had
read and heard so much about over the past 3 years (And it is called Chicken because the locals wanted to call it Ptarmigan, but didn't know how to spell it, so called it Chicken instead !) And, with due apologies to the residents of
Chicken, it really is as bad as they say – Nothing really but chickens ! T-Shirts, stickers, braces, cards, hats,
aprons, tea towels – Even beer – Everything is chicken !! One lady had bought a mechanical chicken
which she set to dancing and clucking on my boot box, at which a local Jack
Russell dog was desperate to climb up and eat it !!
Not being in need of a hat, T Shirt, or anything else Chicken,
I left the town fairly quickly, not least because there were also some very big
and very black rain clouds coming up and I hoped I could get around them. .But within about 10 minutes I saw I was
hemmed in, so I uickly stopped and put the roof up – About 2 minutes befoe the
heavens absolutely opened on me. The
rain was so heavy it soon turned the dirt road (which had started just a couple
of miles before reaching Chicken) into a mud bath, so it was a farly sedate
trip for an hour or so through the heavy
rain. But it was not too bad - Just yucky throwing mud everywhere !! And I
can see why the people talk abut having a lot of flat tyres on these dirt rods –
They drive like maniacs at about 60-80 miles an hour,so it is no wonder their
tyres take a beating . They don’t even
seem to slow down through the bad sections – They just barrel on through – Even
40 ft RV’s towing cars – they just pile on through regardless !!
Anyway, 13 miles after Chicken I came to the US/Canadian
border inspection post, at an altitude of about 1500 metres, so we had been
climbing steadily for a while, and the views were starting to reflect that. As usual, no questions about the car
whatsoever – Just a passport check, and ask whether I had any weapons and that was
it. By the border post we were above the
tree line, and just a few miles after the crossing, we rounded a small hill and
were faced with the most AMAZING view- As far as the eye could see, in every
direction. The photos just do not capture it, I'm afraid.
I have never really been
someone who gets overcome by majestic views, but the ones today were just mind
blowing. The photos as usual will not
even begin to show how stunning they were, because they just cannot pick out
the fine detail and the light. But this
Top of the World Highway has to rate as one of the most stunning drives in the
world – It really should be on everyone’s bucket list. I will say no more, other than to tell you
that these stunning views then continued for most of the next 140 kms (we are
back in Canada now !) into Dawson. Just
absolutely amazing, and made all the
better because shortly after the border crossing, I decided to remove the roof
again, and after that, while it was cold, it just got sunnier and sunnier all
the way !!! One thing that stood out was
that there were blue flowers all along the highway, which I was told by an authority
on the matter are lupins, so I had to take a couple of pics and include them as
my flower of the day because they were so stunning bordering such an amazing
road.
The last 5 or 10 kms into Dawson were a steep drop down from
about 1200 metres to the river level at about 600. You get glimpses of the massive Yukon River
through the trees, but then suddenly you arrive at the river’s edge, and the
road stops !! The ferry is the only way
across ! It is a free ferry, and only takes about 5 minutes to get across, but
right now the river is so swollen with all the snow melt coming down that they
have had to bulldoze new ramps to get the cars off, and the ferry has to crab
its way across the river under full power in order to avoid getting washed away down
stream ! We got on first so were right
up against the ramp, and getting splashed by the waves breaking over the front
!! Certainly was an exciting crossing !!
I saw later on that the walkway out to
a paddle boat that does dinner cruises on the river was completely submerged –
They had had to build a new ramp just to get passengers aboard !!
When queuing for the ferry, some of the people I was talking
to asked if I was in Dawson for the Highland Games ! My friend Lucy had told me something was on,
but I hadn’t realised it was a Highland Games, so the town is full of big burly
caber-tossing Scotsmen in their kilts all saying “Och aye the noo” and so
forth. So as the weather is supposed to
be quite good, I have decided to stay here for a couple of days, and soak up
the atmosphere ! I will see how tomorrow
goes, and leave on either Sunday or Monday to head south to Whitehorse. I am not in a hurry to get to Whitehorse as,
apart from the floods which had cut the Alcan a few days ago, causing back ups
of tourists up and down the road, I
heard tonight that a bridge over the Yukon in Whitehorse either got damaged or
washed away, and this has stranded more people there ! So the longer I can leave
it before venturing into the bedlam, the better, I think.
Anyway, an amazing drive today over the Top of the World
Highway, and a fitting end to a magnificent few weeks in Alaska, as today I
left and entered the Yukon and Canada. But
I know I will be coming back to Alaska again – This is a truly stunning place,
and I can see why so many people who come here, never want to leave, and keep
coming back again and again.
Pics of the day here :-
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/albumMap?uname=117739775480775657932&aid=5754490265312693985&authkey=Gv1sRgCK6N1seGjZjvWw#map
