Pics for post #6 Dawson City, YT to Homer

The Top of the World highway is a pretty barren place. Miles of gravel road

Stunning simple beauty

Bustling downtown Chicken, Alaska. Winter pop 15.

CG owners dog

Stuck to the truck grill

One Way construction machinery, Chicken

Alaska pipeline. Mother moose with two newbournes.

Glacier on the way to Valdez

Near the top of Thompson Pass headed to Valdez.

Horsetail Falls near Valdez

Valdez

Got an itch?

Prince William Sound. The front of the glacier is 15 miles away

Sea otters coolin out

Glacier ice

Getting ready for salmon fishing

Valdez

Prince William Sound tour

Like many Alaskan towns, it has a fishing problem

A small part of the boat harbour at the end of Homer Spit

The afternoons catch. Two each limit

Low tide on Homer Spit

Homer Spit: Three miles long

Post #6: Alaska

From Dawson City it was a three day trip along the feared by some Top of the World Highway (TOW). Most of the TOW is not paved. It can be anything from freshly graded smooth gravel a comfortable two lanes wide to a single lane twisting turning rough washboard gravel road which can keep the speed down to well under 20mph. When wet it is a muddy mess no matter where you are on it. We had three days of dry but dusty driving.



First overnight was at a state park about 30 miles inside Alaska. We stopped here in 2008. Again the park was virtually empty.

Next day was a 12 or 15 mile bumpy run to Chicken. This time we stopped in Chicken for the night rather than blasting through like last time. The CG was the site of a gold camp & was interesting mainly because of the old gold dredging equipment scattered around the property.
Chicken has about 50 residents in the summer & only about 15 very hardy souls in the winter. The TOW is closed in the winter so the Alaskan DOT does not even plough the road as far as Chicken.

From Chicken it was on to Tok (pronounced toke) for a good vehicle wash & resupply before the next leg of the trip through settlements barely big enough to support a gas station & a convenience store.

Next stop from Chicken was Delta Junction, the official end of the Alaska Highway & where we leave the main road to Fairbanks & head south for Valdez.

Ron and Sally have been having troubles with their Ford all along. Twenty minutes out of Delta Junction their truck died. They were not in sight when it happened and when they did not catch us when we stopped for some pictures we  knew something had happened. We turned around. Went back and sure enough their truck was Found On the Road, Dead (FORD). No cellphone coverage where it died so we unhitched our trailer, pulled Ronnie's truck out from under their trailer, hitched up our reliable Chevy to their trailer and took it and Sally back to Delta Junction where she arranged for a tow (Cable Guy Towing) to go get Ronnie and the Ford. I then dropped Sally and the trailer at a CG and headed south again to pick up Carolyn and our trailer to continue south. Got back just in time to see the Ford get towed away. All  of this caused us to not get as far as hoped for that day but we did wind up in a lovely state park overlooking a lake.

The next day for us was onward to Valdez on our own. We have been here before but Valdez is well worth a second visit. We staued at the same CG as before overlooking the harbour.

From Valdez the next major area was the Kenai Penninsular, a three day drive at our schedule. One day for most of those with a rental RV tight on time. The weather had another go at us. This time we were holed up in what otherwise is an extremely beautiful CG with a glacier overlooking it. Our weather delay allowed Ronnie and Sally with the yet again repaired Ford to catch up with us.

From Williwaw CG to Homer, a fairly long day to what marked the furthest point from home and near the halfway point milagewise. Homer is a small town of about 4000 with a fishing problem. It is also a very scenic town with most of the activity out on the 3 mile long spit We spent 3 nights here doing some local sightseeing & a fishing trip.  

Post #5 lots of pictures

I had trouble adding more pics to the last post so here goes with a new post

First bear seen next to the road

Signpost forest, Watson Lake

Our addition to the forest

This is only a tiny portion of it

The Onion Cart somewhere on the Alaska Highway

One of many

Near Teslin Lake, BC

Typical Yukon Provincial Park setting

Where is the birdie? This one came very close as we sat at the CG pictured above

A bit easier to see in these

Touchdown! A grey jay coming in for leftovers.

Wild flowers on the road to Dawson City, YK

Found this coyote jogging along the road near Whitehorse, YK. Offered him a ride. Declined.

Streamside camping in another YK Provincial Park: $10 per night & free firewood provided.

How's this for a table with a view?

A year old cub

Got right in front of the truck eating dead bugs off the front

Then came around to the side & left his mark

Retreating ice on a lake

Pigs may not fly but trucks can

Dawson City, Yukon from the top of the Dome

This red fox was right outside of the trailer in Dawson City CG looking for handouts. Got close enough to almost touch.

Dawson City architecture.

Yukon river vehicular  ferry at Dawson City. Free. Runs 24/7

Dawson City from west bank of the Yukon river

Dawson City above the west bank of the Yukon. The Dome above town.