Alaskan Adventure: Day 75. We only traveled 110 miles from Chicken, Alaska to Dawson City, Yukon but what a day.

The Taylor Highway; which we traveled from Tok to Chicken, turns north shortly after passing through Chicken and goes to Eagle (another historic gold rush town). The “Top of the World Highway” is the road from Chicken to Dawson City. Everyone had told us this would be the worst road we traveled. They were right. Except for two spur roads running north to Arctic settlements (the Alaskan Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay and the Yukon Dempster Highway from Dawson City to Inuvik) the Top of the World is the northernmost Highway in North America and in most of the World.

The “Top of the World” name is due to the road following the ridges of mountains instead of following the river valleys which is far more common. Much of the road, especially from the border of Yukon/Canada is above the tree line. We were glad it was not a windy day. Not for the faint of heart, there are virtually no guardrails or centerlines anywhere, the road is mostly dirt, and narrow. Some of the drop-offs on the edges are quite scary. For our own memory, lest we forget, we have included lots of video of driving this road. If you bother watching any of these, you may hear the dashcam system say “Video Protected” and several beeps. The systems thinks we’ve been in an accident… I have hundreds of protected videos from this trip.

This dashcam video is from about 9:35am Alaska time.

This is from 11:42am Yukon Time (10:42 Alaska Time). Shortly after passing through Canadian Customs. The name of the border crossing is “Poker Creek-Little Gold Creek”. It is only open during daylight hours in the summer. The entire road is closed for winter on September 15. Nobody travels this road in the winter, even in a snow machine because of the treeless exposure, high winds, and extreme cold.

Random: We stopped at a pull-over soon after crossing the border into Yukon and saw this brilliant red bird. This is a male White Winged Crossbill. They use their specialized “crossed-bill” beaks to pry open spruce and tamarack cones of the boreal forest.

This is from 12:03pm Yukon Time. This “Top of the World Highway” was originally a route used by indigenous peoples because it offered easier travel than hacking through dense valley brush. In late 1890’s gold miners used parts of the path to become pack mule trails. in early 1900’s it was upgraded into a wagon road. Continued upgrades and extensions in 1930’s led to the current “gravel highway” opening in 1955.

This is from 12:07pm. Beautiful scenery, scary road.

This is from 1:57pm. “Top of the World”

This is from 2:13pm.

This is from 2:44pm.

Another good example of why it’s called “Top of the World” Highway. Following the ridges instead of the valleys.

Driving in the dirt.

Quick video of us and our cloud of dust driving “Top of the World” Highway. Video by our group tail gunners who were following us near the end of the trip. We didn’t leave last from Chicken this morning but by the end of the day everyone else had passed us.

Finally, at the end of the 110 mile road there was a big waiting line. Dawson City is on the other side of the Yukon River. The ONLY way to cross the river is by ferry. Called the “George Black Ferry”, there is no charge. The ferry operates as an extension of the Yukon Highway System. There are no reservations. It runs 24hrs, every day, on a first come, first served basis. Stopping and waiting (for several hours) gave us a chance to check out how dusty we had gotten. The next photos cover that.

A look under the hood of our tow car. What a mess. We had mesh screen between the RV and the tow car that did a good job of keeping rocks off the windshield of the car but didn’t do anything about all the dust billowing out from the RV getting up into the engine compartment of the tow car. The car started fine but looked like a Charlie Brown – Pigpen scene with dust blowing everywhere. We kept wondering what our mechanic friend back home would think of what we were doing (and wishing he were here). One of the members of our RV group had a leaf blower which helped immensely with cleaning this up.

There is not much on the west side of the Yukon River but there are a few things. West Dawson was settled in 1899 by people wanting to avoid the overcrowding and typhoid outbreaks from all the gold seekers crowding into Dawson City.

We took some pics while waiting our turn. This trip had 5 vehicles and 2 RV’s on it. The black RV with the blue sticker on the back is one of our group.

The first part of leaving shore is crazy. The Yukon River is already a big powerful river at Dawson City.

This is our friends Mike and Amy driving their big beautiful rig onto the ferry.

Finally, it was our turn to cross. This dashcam video is from 7:08pm when we finally drove onto the ferry to cross the Yukon River to Dawson City. This was about 10 hours after leaving Chicken this morning (6 hrs to drive 110 miles and 4hrs waiting for the ferry).

Video from my phone as we crossed the Yukon.

Photo by Lori of us crossing the Yukon.

Sitting in our RV while on the ferry crossing the Yukon River was a unique experience. This video (and the next one) was taken by Lori. Joe and Lori were our tour group “tail gunners”. They were trying to be the last ones to cross on the ferry but they got called up before us. We were glad they went next-to-last and we were last and that they took videos! Thanks Lori.

Driving off of the ferry was rough but we made it. Nothing here is paved, just gravel with big ruts. The same gravel ramps are used to access the frozen Yukon River in winter.

Some Yukon River Trivia: The Yukon River is 2,000 miles long and is the longest free-flowing river on the North American continent (two others are longer but are composites of several rivers; Jefferson-Missouri-Mississippi). The Yukon has only one dam (at Whitehorse). There is only one bridge over the Yukon River in the entire State of Alaska. The entire (huge) State of Alaska and parts of Canada drain into the Yukon River Basin.

We have arrived in Dawson City. Against all odds and probably against all common sense. A driving and ferry experience we will long remember. We will stay in Dawson City for 4 nights at “Bonanza Gold Motel & RV Park”.

Favorite Bible reading verse for today: 1 Timothy 1:15-17

Apostle Paul:
It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.