Top of the World and Dawson City

We decided to take the "short cut" to Dawson City. This took us through a town called "Chicken, Alaska". Now, Chicken is very small, but everyone has a "rooster" sense of humor. There are rubber chickens, roast chicken meals (with any other meat in it), and photo spots that capitalize on the name.

Obviously, all the men wanted their picture taken here.





After Chicken, the road went over and along mountains. This road wasn't nearly as bad as the Denali Park experience because the big bus traffic wasn't there and it really was a two lane road, even if the shoulders were nonexistant. It was still high, however, and it was all dirt and gravel. Except when it rained, and then it became all mud. Which, of course, it did sporadically while we were driving. So we ended up with dirt, covered in mud, coated in more dirt just to make it hard, all layered on our truck and trailer. Oh! and then, just before the Alaska/Canada border crossing at 4,000' elevation, we drove through fresh snow! About two inches had fallen just before we got there. The customs house was in a beautiful spot on the mountain, almost right at the top, and you could see mountain tops around you for miles.

Before we got to Dawson City, we had to cross the Yukon River. It is a fast, and muddy river, and quite wide. There is one ferry going back and forth constantly.

You can see how small it is - we are the first car and the fellow is standing beside the last one. It only holds about 8 cars, and does not have a dock on either side of the river, so just rams itself up on the gravel and lowers the ramp to anchor itself to the ground. They get the cars to start rolling off the ramp even if the ferry is still moving! Probably helps to lodge it more firmly on shore.

Dawson City has been left mostly the way it was in the early 1900's. The streets are still just dirt, and the sidewalks are boardwalks. There are very few new houses here, most of them are very old and wooden.

Our second night in Dawson, we went to Diamond Tooth Gertie's - an old style gambling hall and saloon. They had nightly entertainment: cancan girls and singers. We stayed late, and had a great time. And even though the sun was down when we got out at 11pm, it was still light out.

The next stretch for us will be the Dempter Highway heading north. Arctic Cirle, here we come!

W