Sunday June 29, 2014 Chicken, Alaska

I was up at five and made the coffee.  I got Gerri up at 5:30.  We drank our coffee while we made the coach ready for travel.  By 6:15 we were at the fuel station to top off the tank.  Today’s travel was only 107 miles but it was reported to be bad road.  I had a little more than a half tank.  I felt more comfortable with more fuel because the last leg of our journey was 330 miles and took nearly half a tank because of the speed I drove to avoid the worst of the bumps.

The view out the coach windshield crossing the Yukon

We arrived at the Yukon River ferry about seven and it took about 45 minutes before we drove onto the ferry and off the other side of the river.  Since the coach and the Jeep top 64’ we were the only vehicle on the ferry.  The ferry makes an arc down river because of the swift current and noses into the dirt bank to load and off load vehicles.

The road was paved only part of the way and  mostly was dirt.

There are two cabins like this at the border crossing, the other must be Canadian

Welcome to Alaska and the US of A

  There were a lot of uphill grades as we approached the section called the top of the world highway.  Many people in our party choose to leave Dawson City the afternoon or evening before today.  They spent the night in a turnout along the way.  The border crossing didn't open until 9 AM.

Probably the last time we stand here

Castle Rock near the Top of the World Highway

We had been led to believe that the road got worse when we crossed into the USA.  It was all dirt and gravel so we took it very slow.  There were occasional vehicles going the other way but not many.  We were passed by cars, trucks, motorcyles and some members of our group.

At the only marked intersection I saw, a turn off to go to Eagle, Alaska, I stopped and found a cache.  The cache was appropriately named Cross Between a Chicken and An Eagle.  This was my first cache in Alaska.  I now have found at least one cache in every state in the union, including Washington, DC.  I didn’t understand why the owner put the container 290’ out in the woods instead of behind one of the many trees I passed walking to the cache.

We stopped at a pull out overlooking Oxbow Lake and had lunch.  Gerri had fixed tuna salad and we had it over lettuce.  The lake was very pretty but the view was partially blocked by new growth trees and bushes.  It was hard to see in a picture that it was an oxbow.

An Oxbow lake 

Now it's a dirt barge, not a coach

Our part of the Chicken Camp RV Park

We got to the Chicken Gold Camp RV Park at about 1 PM, Alaska Time.  The sites our group was assigned had 20 amp power but no sewer or water hookups.

The Chicken at Chicken, AK

After we arrived we went on a tour of a gold dredge that had been used up into the seventies.  http://www.chickengold.com/  
We also panned for gold.  Almost everyone found some.  I was surprised how warm the days have been, most people were in shorts.  It was the same yesterday afternoon in Dawson City.  I read a sign about the weather in Dawson City and it said it sometimes reaches 95 in the summer.  That is quite a contrast with 70 below in the winter.

Our Fantasy Tours ambassadors furnished hot dogs, with chili and other trimmings for dinner at 6.  After dinner our hosts at the RV Park served blueberry crumble with ice cream.  The owner of the RV Park and restaurant gave us a short history of the Chicken area and it’s part in the gold rushes to Alaska.  He also owns the dredge we toured and was our guide on that tour.
http://www.chickenalaska.com/

Combined with the early rising and the grueling drive we were in bed by 9:45, Alaska time.  This is an interesting place, but I don’t think I would ever do this drive again.

A gold dredge used in Chicken, now a museum

Ore buckets for the dredge.