Top-of-the-World Highway and Dawson City, Yukon

It is 47 degrees this morning in Chicken.....we are taking a truck trip to Dawson City via Taylor Highway and Top-of-the-World Highway.....This is 108 miles of paved and gravel and that's one-way......We had rain over-night....the sun is not shinning....well let's hope for the best.....

Lots of mining in the area of Chicken

Will I find the gold before it snows?

We have 42 miles to the Canadian border

At mile 28 is the only fork in the road....left takes you to Eagle

and right takes us to Dawson City

13.6 miles of paved road takes us to the Alaska-Yukon border

We are climbing and the view is great

Boundary Roadhouse dates to 1926, one of the first in Alaska

Mining camps were first established in the 1890's in this area

A post office served the area from 1940 to 1956

Someones treasurers

You see why its named the Top-of-the-World Highway

Time to check into Canada

They let us in

Fog sets in....

For the next 66 miles of driving adventure

on winding

unpaved

with rugged rocks

1000 foot drop-offs

no guard rails

and beautiful views road

we stop at a rest area near Dawson City

Saddi is ready

 Dawson City

Our ferry will take us across the Yukon River

George Black Ferry

The ferry across the Yukon river is a free ride 24/7

In 1897,when the news of a great gold discovery in the Klondike reached the outside world more than 100,000 people resolved to pack up and head north....But after the gold strike was over.......

Dawson City was nearly falling down for several decades when, in a drive to save historic buildings, city leaders began to open their eyes....Today, Dawson is an imaginative slice out of times.

About 2,000 people live here year-round but during the summer months another 60,000 visitors join the ranks.....

Gold is still KING.

Starboard Captain

Yukon II on a cruise

Where is my life jacket

Tour Bus headed to Chicken

Downtown on 1st Street

SS Keno National Historic Site

Farmer's Market tomorrow

Wonder if its open

Palace Grand Theatre

Fine dining

School Complex

Jack London, famous author, lived in a cabin on the North Fork of Henderson Creek in 1897,when he first made his way to the Yukon.....He abandoned mining and the cabin, and it stood empty for decades until it was recovered in 1965 by Yukon author, Dick North.  Captain remembers reading "White Fang" and "Call of the Wild".......

Museum

Diamond Tooth Gertie's Casino.....open 7 PM to 2 AM

Fiddling for Loonies

Lunch at Sourdough Joe's.....Yes, Salmon Burger and Halibut Burger

Waiting for the Ferry

Time to head back across the Yukon River

 You are telling me you forgot my life jacket

Late February and early March over the course of three weekends, more than 600 snowmobiles dominate the Taylor and Top of the World Highway....Trekkers travel 200 miles one way in a day, stopping to refuel in Chicken....

 Scenic views going back to Chicken

The Forty mile Caribou herd migrates across Taylor Highway twice a year; from east to west during March and April and from west to east during October and November.

 US Border

 Declare what you bought in Dawson

 Sun was out.....beautiful drive

222 miles logged on the truck

In Chicken they say "Paving is expected in the same year that pigs begin to fly"