Top of the World

There are two roads between Alaska and the rest of the world, both of which to through Tok Alaska. The first is the Alcan, and the second is the Top of the World Highway. The Top of the World Highway heads north out of the Tok area, through the town of Chicken Alaska and ends at Dawson City in the Yukon. Most of the road follows along the tops of ridges hence the name. It is gorgeous country, a lot like North Idaho. For much of the way you can see literally forever.

Along the way you pass through the town of Chicken Alaska, a small mining town. There is a couple of business trying to cater to tourists, but they are not really connected being several blocks from each other. This one calls itself “Downtown Chicken”.

If you live in Chicken Alaska, you have to have a sense of humor.

Chicken is named after this bird, the Ptarmigan. The story goes that in order to become registered as a town, you have to have a name. They wanted to name the town “Ptarmigan”, but couldn't agree on how it was spelled, but they could agree on how to spell Chicken.

One afternoon I was parked on this ridge trying to decide whether or not to spend the night there when this small herd of caribou walk across the ridge in front of the motor home. I figured it was a sign and stayed.

The views from the road as it follows along the ridges is pretty spectacular.

At the end of the road is Dawson City. But first you must cross the Yukon River on this free ferry.

Dawson City is famous of course because it is where the Klondike River terminates into the Yukon and because of the Klondike Gold Rush. The rush only lasted about a year, then came the dredges. That must have been an interesting year. Since then however, it's claim to fame was kept alive by two famous residents. One was Robert Service, This is his cabin.

The other was Jack London