Fantasy Caravan Day 23 - part 1 - Dawson City, Yukon Territory to Chicken, Alaska

On Sunday, the plan was for us to traverse the Top of the World Highway, from Dawson City to the Alaska Border (finally entering Alaska!!!), and continuing on to Chicken, Alaska. We had boondocked outside of Dawson City Saturday night,

... we enjoyed a propane firepit and sharing stories with our fellow travelers with a gorgeous view.

A few of the rigs in the boondocking spot -- I think a total of 16 rigs came to the "gravel pit" for the night.

This was taken at 1:25am...

... and this at 5:19am. The sun is not up all night but it is never completely gone either.

At 8:28am, clouds covering the valley where the river is located.

Heading out on the Top of the World Highway - so you can experience some of the noise we hear as we are driving on these gravel roads...

The views..

... were pretty spectacular.

Along the way, we saw a rainbow -- one end marked here...

... and the other end marked.

River valleys

View from Top of the World Highway pullout

Way down there where it appears the road ends is the border crossing

As we approached the border, we were given information that we were entering a new time zone.

Inconspicuous sign announcing that we were at the border!

Log cabins where the border patrol live.

Back on US soil!

We were on our way to Chicken, Alaska, just 43 miles away. Initially, after we crossed the border, we had about 7 miles of hard surface road, and we thought, "Wow! This is great!"

Welcome to Alaska sign

After the 7 miles of hard surface road, the remainder of the trip was on some of the worst roads we've ever encountered. Washboard, pot holes, narrow road surface, soft shoulders with steep drop offs. Thankfully, we did not meet many vehicles, but when we did, we carefully maneuvered as far as we were willing to move to the right and then stopped to let them pass. It was a bone jarring and brain scrambling ride!

One of the views out the side window

We eventually got to Chicken, Alaska and got settled into Chicken Gold Camp RV Park for the night.

We had RV friends who did not think it was a good idea for us to travel the Top of the World Highway. The actual Top of the World Highway wasn't so bad, but Taylor Highway (after the border) was pretty awful!

More about Chicken in another post!