Dawson City, YT to Fairbanks, Alaska

7/4/17

We left Dawson City at 9:30 p.m. in order to avoid the line up at the Ferry. We fueled up and made it to the Ferry crossing at 10:00 p.m. Our RV was third line, but I was in the line for cars and I got to cross first at about 10:45. Tom made the crossing in the RV on the next trip at about 11:05. The Ferry took about 20 minutes to load, cross the Yukon River, unload, reload from the west bank, cross again, and unload. The men who work the Ferry do this 24 hours every day and believe me...... they know what they are doing. The current in the Yukon is very strong and most of the crossing is done sideways to allow for the current. Here are some pictures of the Ferry (which is only 65 feet long, including all its equipment). The first RV on the ferry is one of our tour travelers, Tom Young, in a 45 ft. Prevost Bus. Notice how light it is outside, and it is around 11:00 p.m.!

Ferry across the Yukon River

Tom Young's Prevost loading

Tom Young's RV
(Look how much room it took on the ferry)

Our RV Waiting for the ferry

Getting off the ferry

Our RV landing on the other side

I waited on the west bank for Tom to cross the river. We hooked up the car to the RV and drove about 14 miles to the first large turnout, then parked for the night with 5 other rigs (one of them was our Wagonmaster). It was about midnight when we got to bed.

The midnight sun on the road

We slept lightly and got up at 6:30 a.m. to head out.

7/5/17

Today we are headed to Chicken, Alaska, over the "Top of the World Highway". From our overnight turnout to Chicken is about 90 miles. The Wagonmaster told us to expect a drive of about 4-5 hours from the Dawson City campground. We had already done about 16 miles and crossed the Yukon River, so we guessed we should have about 3-4 more hours to go 90 miles.....The roads couldn't be that bad, could they???

We were on the road around 8:00 a.m. The next 90 miles of road were about the worst I have ever seen. In fact, if you were to tell me that we were taking a brand new motorhome over 90 miles of dirt roads with washboards most of the way, and out in the wilderness where there was no civilization, I would have told you it was impossible. At times there were no shoulders, no guard rails, no white lines, and a 3000 to 4000 ft. dropoff on the right. The signs kept saying, "Rough Road ahead"----- no kidding.

Ice on the dirt road in July

Top of the World Highway Sign

Lucky Riding on my lap

We crossed the Canadian Yukon/Alaska border at about 50 miles out of Dawson City. No problems - even got cookies for the two dogs. Here are a few pictures of the Northernmost US border crossing.

Border Crossing

Most Northerly Land Border Port in the USA

The scenery was beautiful. We were driving on the "Top of the World" Highway, and it was properly named, as we literally drove over the tops of all the mountains. Here is a picture of the highway, but the picture really doesn't do the view justice.

"Top of the World" literally

The scope was enormous, with the tops of all these 'mountains' at about 4000 - 5000 ft. high, and we were driving from one mountain to another.

The road crew must pass water trucks through here to keep the dust down, but it creates mud. It took all of the 5 hours to drive 90 miles to Chicken. When we got to the campground, every RV and tow car was covered with dust and layers of mud. I really think the tow cars took the worst of it. Our tailgunners actually had their tow dolly crack from the ride.

Tom Young (in the Prevost) told me that his coach registered an average speed of 21 mpg from the border to Chicken, and he was in the biggest and heaviest RV, with air ride suspension (which should have been the easiest drive). There were times I just wished we could stop and avoid any more bumps, but we would never get there, so we kept going. Here is what our tow car looked like.

The front of the Jeep

A close-up picture

When we arrived at Chicken, Tom went on a walking tour of Old Chicken with a tour guide that the RV Tour had hired. I could not go as the walk was too far for me. When Tom got back, he told me that I could not have made it, so I am glad I stayed back. Then the tour people fed us chicken tacos for dinner (I thought that was apropos). It turns out Chicken was a mining town and a lot of gold was mined (and still is) from the stream running through Chicken. It has absolutely no other attraction, except it is a break in the road, and the only campground available. The campground was a dirt parking lot with promised electric hookups, but they failed, and most of us had to run generators for our own power. What a lovely place to NEVER visit again.

7/6/17

Some of the rigs left very early this morning to drive to Tok (pronounced 'Toke'). The drive was to be much shorter than we had come off of, and roads were promised to be better after the first 17 miles. We left at 8:30 a.m. and arrived in Tok at noon - 3 1/2 hours of driving to go 78 miles. The first 17 miles were under construction (like they couldn't make the road any worse, so they might as well dig it up completely, and run large trucks over it all day). We waited in line about 20 minutes twice for pilot cars to take us through two different stretches of construction. Here is a peek at what the road looked like.

And this is what the road looked like

When we got to Tok, the campground offered free car and RV washes, so we lined up and all chipped in to wash 23 rigs and tow vehicles. We only got a rinse off of the dirt and mud, not a detail job, but it felt so much better when we got to our parking spots. Everyone was exhausted. Hooray, we have electricity and water at this campground. Actually, it is really pretty. We cleaned up and walked about 1/4 miles to Fast Eddie's for pizza and sandwiches with 4 other campers. The food was good, and so was the walk, but by the time we got back to the RV, we were pooped. To unwind, we played more cards and Tom increased his debt to me (I wonder if I will ever collect?).

7/7/17

Slept like a baby last night, and left Tok campground at 9:00 a.m. Today, we are heading to the North Pole, Alaska, a little town on the outskirts of Fairbanks. The drive today is about 202 miles on paved roads. We are DONE with dirt and gravel roads. At about 100 miles out, we stopped to shop at Delta Meats an Alaska meat packer just before we got to Delta Junction.

Delta Meats

We got to sample elk, yak, reindeer, bison, and regular meats of beef and pork, make into pepper sticks and/or sausages. They were great. Tom and I both really liked the reindeer pepper sticks, but all of it was really good. We bought a couple of packages for snacking, and hit the road again.

The next stop was downtown Delta Junction. Here is a sign about Delta Junction, and a very historic marker, the "End of the Alaska Highway" marker. From Delta Junction on, the Alaska Highway joined with the Old Richardson Highway (built in 1910 - before the Alaska Highway) to complete the road all the way to Fairbanks.

Delta Junction, the end of the "Alcan" Highway

End of the Alaska Highway Marker

The next stop was a turnout on the left side, next to the Tanaka River. We stopped behind Greg and Betty, and couple from Indiana that were part of our tour group. Both rigs stopped to take a picture of 3 mountain peaks, all of which were 12,000 to 13,000 ft. high, but the clouds obscured the view and we couldn't see them. We all decided to stay there and have lunch beside the river. The river was really moving fast, as was evidenced by a large log floating by at about 15-20 mph. What a beautiful spot to have lunch. After that, Greg suggested that we stop for ice cream at the Knotty Shop, about another 50 miles up the road, and we agreed.

Here we are at The Knotty Shop - what a cute name. Out front are animals made out of burls and put together to look like animals and bugs.

Tom, Betty, and Greg in front of the Knotty Shop

The Knotty Shop

A Caribou- maybe

a Moose -Maybe

the "Knot" sign

A Mosquito -maybe

A Bison -maybe

Inside are gifts, tourist stuff, and of course, ice cream. Tom and I both had a single scoop cone and it was really delicious.

Two signs that seem to make sense together

On to the campground in North Pole, called Riverview RV Park. The park is large, has trees and grass, and full hookups - love it. It was really hot yesterday and today. Even so, we were both outside trying to clean up more of the dirt on the Jeep and on the motorhome windshield. We quit in time to get quick showers and head out for a bus trip to a Salmon Bake and dinner show at 5:30.

The tour company put all of us on a bus to Fairbanks at The Salmon Bake at Pioneer Park. The bank building we passed said it was 5:45 p.m. and 80 degrees. I wonder how hot it really got today?

The Salmon Bake
Chris and Trish

We had dinner (all you can eat) at The Salmon Bake, then a walk to the gift shop and a cart ride to Pioneer Park where we were treated to the Palace Theatre show called the "Golden Heart Revue". What a great show!! There were 4 players, who retold the founding of Fairbanks with song and skits, including costumes and clever and funny writing. At one point they even did a 'who's on first' skit about dog sledding that was every bit as good as the original Abbott and Costello baseball skit. The singing was really good and the humor made you laugh out loud. All in all, a thoroughly entertaining evening. Thank you Fantasy RV Tours! Here are a couple of pictures I took. I was in the front row, so a little too close to get too much.