Red Duck Adventures

Day 92 – June 10 – Top of the World Highway

Today we tackle the Top of the World Highway out of Dawson City. This road is why I had a hard time deciding if I really wanted to go to Dawson City. If there had been an easy way to get back to the Alaska Highway, then there would not be a problem with the decision.

The Alaska Highway runs from Whitehorse, Yukon to Tok, Alaska and then on to the official end at Delta Junction.

The only way to or from Dawson City is the Klondike Highway from Whitehorse if you want to get back on the Alaska Highway. That road is very bad and we took two days to make the trip. I have seen in books where it is said you make the trip in seven hours if you want. That is really pushing it – the pavement is not in good shape so you have to drive slow enough to keep from vibrating everything out of the storage areas, such as dishes, and food in the pantry. Not to mention the damage to the tires and the many screws and bolts that could come loose.

So, from Dawson City you can get to Tok by driving what is known as the Top of the World Highway (TOW). It is mostly a gravel road that runs along the top of mountains for 120 miles or so. I had asked people on a RV forum that I follow if the TOW was worth the drive and really didn’t get a good answer. So my desire to see Dawson City won out. I had talked it over with Rick and he agreed we would give it a try.

Snow along the road, note the gravel "highway"

The clouds looked bad at times

All I can say is we drove it and if I came back to Alaska in the next twenty years, I would never drive it again. The Canadian side of the road was smooth for the most part. The U.S. side was pure hell.

A single smooth spot of more than the length of the motorhome would have been a blessing. At one point Dorrie asked me how fast I was going – I looked at the GPS and it was 17 MPH. I would have checked the speedometer but my eyes were bouncing out of rhythm with it but seemed to be in sync with the GPS. I think my neck and head may have bounced for 30 minutes after we finally stopped for lunch.

We FINALLY made it to Chicken, Alaska about noon after the time change to the Alaska Time Zone. Yes, Alaska is so large it has its own time zone. So now we are 3 hours behind the folks back home in St. Louis.

Chicken is an interesting town. I think they have 7 permanent residents.

Main business district of Chicken

Chicken US Postal Office

The miners that founded the town wanted to name it after a native bird, the Ptarmigan. The problem was, none of them knew how to spell the name. So they decided it was basically a prairie chicken, so they settled on Chicken. This appears to be a true story.

We stopped at the Chicken Creek Café for reindeer brats for lunch. They were pretty good.

After lunch we turned on the Taylor Highway towards Tok, Alaska. Rick had asked a lady in Chicken how the road was to Tok and her answer was, “Better than last year”. Then she added that the frost heaves are well marked and the road was good.

Someone stole the red flags they use to mark the frost heaves! I didn’t see a single one marked. Most of the road was paved, which was nice. I knew when to slow down, because every time Rick hit a rough spot, dust would fly off the car.

We finally made it to Tok and checked in at the Sourdough Campground for the night. The first stop was the dump station to purge the gray tank. Then we stopped at the RV washing station to get some of the crud off of Ethel (our motorhome). The poor old girl has had a bad trip. Around the first or second day on the Alaska Highway she suffered a broken headlight lens. The light still works so far. Then we got a rock into the windshield on the Klondike Highway from a passing van. It made a chip that I need to get fixed before it cracks. Yesterday we had some hail on the TOW Highway and now the awning is torn near the front – I guess the hail went through the awning. I hadn’t seen the rip before. So Ethel got a bath. Then we went to our site and hooked up.

This is really a fun place to stay. At seven each night they have a pancake toss for everyone staying in the campground. You get two attempts to throw a sourdough pancake into a bucket. If you do, then you get a free breakfast the following morning. We all tried, but none of us got it in the “buckit”. A young girl was the only one in the crowd to win and she was really happy.