Ever since we left Rochester back in May 2017 our motto has been “It’s not the destination – It’s the journey”. Today more than any day, this motto would ring true. Today would finally be the day that we would cross over into main land Alaska. We had come up with the idea to drive to Alaska back in July 2018, had left Tampa, April 2019 and now July 2, 2019 we would finally be making it a reality. I know we technically ventured into the Alaskan panhandle days prior however as you cannot drive into the main part of Alaska from the Alaskan panhandle it really felt like today our Alaskan adventure was truly going to start.
There are two options when driving from the Yukon into main land Alaska. The first is the obvious. The 2 lane, paved and open all year long Alaska Highway. As Julie and I were really trying to live by our “Its not the destination….” Motto we chose the 2nd option…The Top of the World Highway. This highway is lightly traveled, only open in the summer and to top it all off, it is not paved. The highway does have its perks though. The road follows an old gold mine path that for the most part stays on mountain ridges so needless to say the views are spectacular. It is also the 3rd most northern road in North America. So it has all of that going for it!
Top of the World Highway – Yukon to Alaska
Julie and I woke up around 6am the day of our departure from Dawson City. The only way to get to the Top of the World Highway was to take a small car ferry from Dawson, across the Yukon River to the even smaller town of West Dawson. As the RV Park was full and we had heard stories about waiting hours for the ferry if there were a lot of cars waiting to cross, we figured we would get up early and beat the line. We packed up Bubbles, took one last spin around Dawson and drove over to the ferry. Much to our surprise there was no line; no one was there at all actually. We were the only ones there. The ferry was on the other side of the river when we pulled in and about 30 seconds later we saw them start to head over to pick us up. As the ferry is part of the road system in the Yukon it’s free, which was nice.
Once on the ferry we really felt like we were heading off into the unknown. We had done prior research into the Top of the World Highway. Normally we stayed away from dirt roads or any road or surface where there was a possibility of getting stuck (as we did early on in a campground in Vermont). From what we had read though the road was in good condition this year and as it had not rained in over a week the chance of it being muddy was just about zero. The ferry let us off after about a 5-minute ride and we were off towards Alaska!
We drove through the small settlement of West Dawson first. These people were truly off the grid. They had no electricity and no in ground plumbing. They had only received phone service starting in 2004. We had even heard that in the winter they get supplies flown in by helicopter. That’s pretty nuts. The Dawson City Golf Club was on their side of the river though so even though they had to use an outhouse to do their business they didn’t have to cross the river to play some golf. The world is a funny place sometimes.
After passing West Dawson the pavement ended and the road continued up in elevation into the mountains. Once we reached the edge of town we pulled over to have some breakfast. This stop was for two reasons. Yes we did need to eat breakfast but we also could not arrive at the border too early. The border didn’t open until 9am and it was currently 7:30. After a leisurely breakfast and a short hike outside we thought it was about time to head off.
We soon figured out that driving a vehicle long distance on a dirt road takes time. The maximum speed that we could go without all of the dishes rattling out of the cupboard was about 35mph. This was by no means a bad thing though. We felt like true adventurers. Here we were in the middle of the northern woods on a dirt road heading towards the state with the most wilderness in the USA. It was awesome! The drive took us over too many mountain ridges to count, through high valleys; much of it northern tundra.
The most northern border crossing in North America
Mile by mile slowly passed and before we knew it we had crawled to the border. This border crossing at Poker Creek, Alaska was unique in terms of land border crossings in the USA. For one the customs building was shared by both the USA & Canada. As we were literal miles from a town on either side of the border the people who manned this crossing (for both countries) lived in cabins right next to each other. Lastly it is pretty unusual to get your passport stamped when crossing the USA/Canada border by land but at this crossing we received a stamp in the shape of a caribou. This was a pretty great start to our journey through the state.
From the border we continued (slowly) through the American side of the Top of the World Highway going now back towards the Alaska Highway. While this road has very few towns on it, it does have one very unique town; the town of Chicken.
Chicken, Alaska
Chicken was (and still is) a gold mining town. It has a summer population of around 20 and much like West Dawson, most buildings do not have in ground plumbing. Besides the quirky name the town does have numerous chicken statues as well as the largest gold dredge in Alaska. You know you’re in a pretty unique place when you can see a gold dredge and a 20-foot chicken statue all in one property. After checking out the gold dredge and taking a few photos with the huge chicken statue we headed over to the Chicken Saloon.
The saloon is located in Chicken’s downtown. The “downtown” consists of three businesses; a gift shop, bar and small café in a tiny strip mall type space. We walked into the saloon where the ceiling was covered in hats and women’s underwear. All had some message from their original owner then stapled to the ceiling. We didn’t feel the need to leave either behind so we just opted for a beer then went outside and sat on a picnic table. It was here that we saw our first bit of Alaskan wildlife. Julie was looking back towards the road when she spotted a moose hanging out in the woods. We cheers’d each other watching the moose thinking that there was nowhere else in the world that we would rather be right now.
Tok, Alaska & The Sourdough Campground
From Chicken we hopped back into Bubbles and drove south connecting back to the Alaska Highway and headed west. Tonight we would be staying in the first town that you come to on the Alaska Highway when driving west, the town of Tok. Tok started off as a distribution and materials camp during the building of the Alaska Highway and today has a population of around 1200 people. Compared to Chicken, Tok was a metropolis.
We would be spending the night at the Sourdough Campground just outside of Tok. I had stayed here back in 2007 with my buddy Matt and had remembered it being a great spot. To my relief it looked exactly the same as I had remembered when Julie & I pulled in. After getting set up and having a bit to eat we took a walk around the campground. The Sourdough Campground is famous in Tok for their pancake toss. Every night the owner of the campground gathers any camper who wishes to participate into his small amphitheater. After giving your name and telling where you’re from you are invited to try your luck at the pancake toss. For this you toss a pancake about 20 feet into a hardware store bucket. If you can get a pancake into the bucket you win a free breakfast at the café located on the premises. You get two chances to throw the pancake. Out of 30 people that tried it, only 2 were lucky enough to get a pancake into the bucket. One of them was Julie :), proud husband moment!
Driving Alaska – Tok to Anchorage
The next day after a delicious free breakfast at the café we were off heading towards Anchorage. The road between Tok and Anchorage is absolutely breathtaking. When people think about what it would be like to drive in Alaska with snow-capped mountains, green valleys and moose and mountain goats alongside the road, this is the road that they are talking about.
For the first few hours the road follows the boundary for the largest national park in the USA – Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve. This park is beyond huge at over 13 million acres. This is bigger than 6 Yellowstone National Parks combined. Like Denali, Wrangell – St. Elias is famous for tall mountains with Mt. St. Elias being the second tallest in the USA. Because of all of this, as you can imagine a roadway near this would make for a beautiful drive.
Matanuska Glacier
After pulling over for lunch and driving a few more hours towards Anchorage we made our one stop for the day at Matanuska Glacier. This glacier is pretty special as far as glaciers go, as it is so close to the roadway and so low in terms of elevation that you can actually walk on it without any special equipment. I was super pumped to be here. I had come here year’s prior and thought it was one of the neatest things in the world. This coupled with the fact that weeks prior when we had seen other glaciers in Jasper National Park but as the weather there was so poor and it was so crowded we were not able to do any glacier related activities…..put all this together and today would be awesome.
While the glacier is close to the road, it is not on the road (its about a mile back) and it is not free either, $30 per person for self guided tour or $100 for a guided tour with ice walking/climbing equipment. As I had been before and didn’t think the guided tour and equipment was necessary we opted to just pay the $30 each and be on our way. Once you pay you drive across the Matanuska River to a small parking area. From there it is about a half-mile hike to where the glacier starts.
At first you don’t even realize that you are walking on the glacier itself. The first few hundred feet of the glacier is covered in rock and dirt. Your only indication that you are in fact on the glacier is that you hear a crunch under your feet similar to if you were walking on snow. As we kept on walking the dirt and rock started to diminish and in its place clear and blue colored ice with a bit of snow on top. It really is one of the neatest feelings in the world. Here we were in tee shirts walking on a glacier!
Climbing and walking around on a glacier isn’t the easiest thing in the world. As Julie and I (as well as most people) were just in tennis shoes it was quite slippery…we are walking on ice after all, it was still super awesome! We climbed up to one of the higher points on the portion of the glacier that we were near and looked around. The glacier seemed to go on forever behind us. The glacier in total is 27 miles long by 4 miles wide…so forever for us.
We hiked on and around the glacier for a few hours before finally making our way back to the van and getting back on the highway. About two hours later we pulled into the outskirts of Anchorage and then into the city itself.
Next up…July 4th and a tour of Alaska’s largest city – Anchorage!
