Travels to Tok - Delta Junction, Alaska

Leaving Chicken, AK and stopping at Delta Junction then onto Tok, Alaska

Traffic on the Taylor Highway

With Chicken, AK behind us, we are travelling on the fairly isolated Taylor Highway, the stretch of road from where we crossed into Alaska until we arrive back on the Alaska Highway.  There were several miles of dirt roads and many locals were motoring on quads on this road, we saw several of these.

Peaceful drive through the countryside

The weather was great and we had some beautiful scenery with very little traffic to share the road with. This is Highway 5 and it is closed in the winter due to no road maintenance being done then.

Tanana River

This calm water looks more like a lake and not the normal river water we see but a nice change from the many rivers we cross on our travels.  We travel alongside the Tanana River for several miles as we complete our journey on the Alaska Highway, also called the Alcan.

Tok RV Village

We arrive in the small town of Tok, AK to spend the night at the Tok RV Village.  The spaces are large and they have several amenities available.  We arrived early afternoon so there were not many in there but more RV’ers arrived as the day went on.  We enjoyed warm summer weather and some local entertainment that evening.

Tok Visitor's Center and gift store

Tok meaning “peaceful crossing” considers itself the goodwill ambassador of Alaska. When highway travelling to and from Canada, you pass through Tok which is called the “Gateway to Alaska”.  We visited the Visitor’s Center and a local gift store full of Alaska souvenirs.  We see a display of animals of Alaska at most stops we make.  We’d prefer to see live animals but those viewings are rather limited in this big country.

Crossing the bridge over the Gerstle River

We cross the Johnson River then the Gerstle River on our last miles of the Alcan Highway.  There are so many rivers that we cross but the Gerstle was another great example of the rivers we saw during our travels.  There was very little water but small rivulets running down the braided riverbed on this July day.

Very BIG mosquito in Delta Jumction, Alaska

We are now at Delta Junction, AK and see these huge mosquito sculptures at the tourist centre.  We had been warned by everyone who has travelled Alaska in the past that we were to expect to see lots of bugs, mosquitoes being one of them.  We only saw a troublesome swarm once on our travels and we were able to avoid them by moving on.

Termperature records

We were travelling in the summer months and enjoying sunshine and warm temperatures on most days but this photo shows what kinds of temperatures the other months have brought in the past.  We’ve definitely chosen the right time of year to visit.

End of the Alaska Highway

We have now reached the end of the Alcan Highway that began in Dawson Creek, BC at Mile 0 and was built to connect Alaska to BC by road.  This project employed 15,000 men and 11,000 pieces of equipment.  The price at completion in 1942 was 115 million dollars but in today’s money would be almost 1.7 billion dollars.  The highway has been altered over the years with improvements etc. so the mileage can vary from this original number.

We are onto Fairbanks from here to spend a couple of days to enjoy what the area has to offer.  The adventure continues, click here.

Dawson City, Yukon - Top of the World Highway - Chicken, Alaska

We travelled Top of the World Hwy from Dawson City, Yukon to Chicken, Alaska

We had driven 1550 km, which is almost a thousand miles on dirt roads for our return trip from Dawson City, Yukon to Inuvik, NWT.  We had covered the Dempster Highway and we are now on the road to Alaska.  There are four border crossings into Alaska but two highways which will take you to Alaska from the Yukon, the Alaska Highway and the Top of the World Highway.  We are going to follow the latter one, the road less travelled and visit Chicken, Alaska.

Ferry on Yukon River

We depart from Dawson City, Yukon by ferry crossing the Yukon River.  It is a free and short crossing but takes time due to the size of the ferry, there are not many on here with us when we have our trucks pulling RV’s so it took two crossings to get our group across.

Top of the World Highway view

The Top of the World Highway runs from Dawson City, Yukon to the Alaska border, elevation about 1100 meters (3600 ft.).  It began as an old gold mining pack trail from Dawson City until the 1930’s when it was extended to Alaska and the Taylor Highway.   Top of the World Highway name fits and offers views that go on for miles across the countryside.  The road is a mostly gravel road but once we crossed into Alaska, we drove on a newly paved road for about 10 miles.  What a treat that was!

Caribou of Alaska

At this point of our travels, we had not seen the wildlife we’d expected to see and had not seen any caribou, at all but thanks to a great ‘spotter’ in the group, we finally got our chance.  We watched a herd of them, way up on the mountainside, which made photo taking a challenge but at least we saw some caribou!  It was great to add them to our short list of wildlife sightings!

Prospecting for gold

These incredible views were distracting but if we looked closely, we would see some activity down on the river in the valley.  We saw several small gold prospecting operations on our travels.  They are still digging for gold in Alaska.  The rivers would often have some equipment set up and a small camp nearby.  I doubt these are personal claims with this size of equipment being used but they were nothing very large. 

Chicken, Alaska

The large majority of visitors to Alaska come by air or cruise ships.  A very small amount come by vehicle and even less than that would take the Top of the World Highway but it is well worth the views and experience to take this route.  We were nearing Chicken and there was no lack of signs on this section of road to tell us that.  

Chicken  mascot

We have arrived!  There are a couple of parks for RV’ing but the first one we saw had a welcome look to it and we made our overnight stop there.  We are here at the height of their tourist season, which means there could be a population of more than 30 people.  Winter population is about 15, according to local records.

Downtown Chicken

This is downtown Chicken!  The name Chicken was actually an alternative to Ptarmigan, as that was the chicken-like bird that most of the gold mining original settlers ate and they referred to as ‘chickens’.  They weren’t sure how to spell ptarmigan, so chose to name it Chicken instead.

Chicken Creek Cafe

As one often finds in pubs of small communities, there can be hats or ties or money that is left behind as a marker for one’s visit.  In this pub, although I did not take a real close look, there are several pieces of personal underwear left to hang, as well.  I do believe this might be an idea that Chicken can claim as their own.  It definitely can be a topic of conversation while visiting the pub.

Chicken Liquor Store

This is the smallest liquor store we’ve ever seen but it did have the right supplies.  Chicken closes down in winter as there are no ploughs till April so no road access.  The mail is delivered by plane twice a week, weather permitting.  There is no telephone service, no cell service and no flushing toilets in Chicken.  This Chicken experience will take some people back in time.  It worked perfectly for us, we were here for a good time, not a long time.

We were now moving on, click here for the next adventure.