July 4

Top of the World Highway from Dawson City, YT to Chicken AK. To leave Dawson City we had to take a ferry- a free ferry, but a small one- and we were told that there could be an hour wait during busy times. Well, we had a three hour wait! They only load one camper each trip and about 4 cars. We got there at 8:45am and waited three hours! Those behind us would have over a 4 hour wait. All this to cross the Yukon River and then have the privilege of driving 120 km on a gravel road up, over and through the mountains!

 
The Canada side of the road was in decent shape, but once we hit the border crossing- the most northernmost in the US- the road became steep long down and curvy, rough gravel and a bit of paving. The topography on this side was steeper and harsher, partially explaining the worsening road conditions.

And then we arrived in Chicken, Alaska. A tiny little town, and I mean tiny! A couple of RV Parks, gold panning places and a “strip mall” LOL One woman owns 4 attached businesses, not more than 100 ft wide which included the live “attack” chicken pen! A gift shop with lots of chicken stuff, a liqour store, a saloon and a cafe where we bought reindeer bratwurst. We could have parked out back for the night for free and listened to the generator run ’til they closed- but since it was July 4 and they expected everyone from the town bbq to show up to drink and party later, we moved on to a BLM campground.
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