Top of the World Highway – Taylor Highway

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 – Day 54 

I got laid in Chicken…so says the sign as you enter Chicken.   Chicken is not on the electrical grid…as a matter of fact there are no power lines leading into the town at all and the only highway into the town is not maintained in the winter; meaning no snow plows.  I can see why the population is only six.  We sort of “roughed it” last night as well.  We had a campsite with no facilities.  No sewer, No water and No electric.  We were boondocking for the first time since we started trailering more than twenty years ago.  We did cheat a little; we ran our generator so I could have some toast before I went to bed and again this morning to make my coffee.

Yesterdays post made note of the poor roads for the last 20 miles into Chicken.  Well that was nothing compared to the 40 miles that they call the Taylor Highway going up to the border crossing at  Poker Creek.  Twisting, turning, up and down, on a gravel track with pot holes that could swallow a small car. Large rocks barfed out by the last grader that came through added to the obstacle course.   No guard rails anywhere, with shoulders that were non-existent and not quite two lanes wide in most places.  Just my kind of road.  The section of road from Chicken to the border crossing took us over 2 1/2 hours to complete at an average speed of 20 km/hr.

Surprisingly, probably 75% of the traffic on this road was recreational vehicles with a handful of motor cycles. Also most of the traffic was coming from the Canadian side (the opposite direction).  We seem to be seeing more Canadian licence plates on the road as well, most of those are from BC.

We managed to make it to the border crossing and made it through without a strip search. (Lucky for the border guard!)  This section of the road is called the “Top of the World Highway”. This was a phenomenal drive with gorgeous mountain scenery. The remainder of the road to Dawson City was mostly asphalt with some major frost heaves.  Long gravel sections were quite frequent, but these were well marked.  As you descend the mountain into Dawson City, you see the Yukon River in the distance.  The Yukon river flows over 3200 miles from the Yukon Territory, through Alaska and finally emptying into the Bering Sea on Alaska’s west coast.  The only way into Dawson City from the west is by a Yukon Government Ferry.  The crossing takes only a few minutes and is quite amazing to watch as the ferry fights the current of the Yukon River before reaching the opposite shore.

Dawson City is considered an historical site by Parks Canada and almost all the structures in the city must match with the gold rush period.  This was particularly evident as we drove down the main street, Front Street to our campground.  We are looking forward to spending the next three days here.  There certainly seems to be a lot to see and do.