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It’s the little things in life that are the best. Having the laundry all caught up is a good thing. After a couple of nights in the Tok RV park we have clean clothes, some banking chores caught up, and we are ready to tackle the Top of the World Highway. Today is August 2.

I have been mulling this idea around in my head ever since we arrived in Whitehorse back in June. We could have traveled north out of Whitehorse to Dawson and then across the Top of the World Highway to Tok or stayed on the Alaska Highway directly into Tok. At that time the advice we got was not to try the Top of the World Highway because of the recent rains.

The Top of the World is supposed to be dirt/gravel, narrow, steep drop-offs with no guard rails, and slick when muddy. We opted to stay on the Alaska Highway out of Dawson. Talking with the lady in the Tok Visitor’s Center, leads us to believe that we can safely give it a go on our way back. Her advice is that we will be fine as long as we take it slow. We have also been talking with people along our way who have been on the highway. We are going to do it.

Out of Tok we drive the twelve miles east to Tetlin Junction where we head north on Alaska 5 toward Chicken, Alaska. One of the first things we encounter after turning onto 5 is the roadwork. Roadwork is a good thing. It may slow us down for a few minutes, but these roads need all the help they can get. We just hope this nice blacktop road stays with us for a while.

There are two reasons for taking this route: the views are supposed to be spectacular and it is by far the shortest route to Dawson City, Yukon Territory, from Tok. Dawson City was the heart of the 1898 gold rush. It would be a shame to miss it.

This beautiful roadside meadow with the mountains in the background certainly bears witness to the spectacular scenery.

So far so good on the road. It is truly over hill and dale with the roller coaster ups and downs, but it is a good surface and not too many frost heaves and dips.

Chicken, Alaska, is here primarily for the tourists. There is active gold mining going on as well. The Chicken Facts below is the best explanation of this unusual spot.

There are a lot of hats in the bar!

We have lucked out with a good day for weather so far. Everyone we have talked to has let us know that the weather up here is capable of changing very quickly. We are above 64 degrees latitude and above 3,000 feet elevation. While that 3,000 feet may not mean much in the Lower 48, it means everything up here. We are starting to see some weather developing ahead of us.

We still have beautiful weather off to the north. This is really pretty.

The highway is still pretty nice. It is either blacktop or hard-packed gravel. We are pleased with it so far.

The road has been rolling hills and meandering curves. Apparently we haven’t gotten to the tricky part yet.

We have continued to watch this storm develop. It is looking very dark. I think we are going to be wet before this is over.

We did, in fact, drive through some pretty serious rainfall for a short distance, but it certainly wasn’t anything we haven’t seen a lot of before while in Alaska. The road on the U.S. side was gravel with a few frost heaves and dips, but overall, not bad. The road on the Canadian side was about the same with good stretches of blacktop mixed with gravel and a few frost heaves and dips. There have been some long, steep grades to go down. The road was narrow in spots, but fortunately we were able to sort out a wider spot when necessary for an approaching vehicle to pass by.

Ed got a bit distracted as he was changing back to his sunglasses after the rain. He managed to drift closer to the side of the road than we have ever been before or ever want to be again. Driving this rig takes 100 percent attention 100 percent of the time. A magnificent job of getting us back where we needed to be and not oversteering which is all too easy to do, makes him the man of the hour.

This road is very doable in a large RV if you take it nice and slow.

We are approaching Dawson City. This is our first view of civilization for a while.

The road ends at the Yukon River. There is a ferry that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week that will carry us across the river.

We have just missed the ferry; so we have time to look around and contemplate the gravel loading ramp. With a rig this size and weight, we have a tendency to give things a pretty good once over to determine if this is going to work. Of course, the option would be to turn around and drive back to Tok. This is going to work just fine!

We meet the acceptable criteria!

That is the ferry turning back upriver to dock on the far side of the river. It has a small camper on it. That’s a good sign.

The town of Dawson from the far side of the Yukon River looks very interesting.

The ferry is picking up the passengers on the other side and will be heading back our way.

The Jeep is a bit dirty again. The cover for the front end and hood is really helping with the rock dings of these bad roads. I think it will be time for a car wash in Dawson. We have decided that the RV has gotten as dirty as it is going to get. Apparently we have arrived at the point where the dirt falls off as fast as the new dirt sticks on.

Here we go.

No big deal. We are loaded up and on the move across the river.

Approaching the landing, we will be off in a flash. This is a very efficient ferry system that is free and convenient.

The Top of the World Highway was a beautiful way to get to Dawson. I am very happy that we were not spooked away from doing it. Life is good.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 14th, 2011 at 15:37 and is filed under North by Northwest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.