About the Top of the World Highway in the Yukon

09/08/2014

In socks and in the starry sky and freezing temperatures, I started a second attempt to discover the Northern Lights on the balcony of our accommodation in Tok - once again without success.

At 7:30 am, I get up, grab a coffee downstairs, and find a yogurt in the fridge. After we packed, we need to scrape the car a bit. According to the weather report, we have -3°C. Gloves and scarf are now a must.

We drive to the Beaver Fever Café, where our landlady works, and instead of a homemade breakfast at the B&B, we get a usual breakfast sandwich: Some sort of bread with scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese. That's it. With a coffee, of course. I've had much better things as a "full breakfast" in a B&B and find this rather shabby.

Car wash station in Tok/Alaska

I fill our windshield washer tank with water and washer fluid. Before breakfast, we already refueled for $4.21/gallon and could wash the car for free. To do that, you simply drove to a free spot on the gas station premises where a water hose was hanging and you could spray the car with it. So no foam, shampoo, let alone a car wash. Just clear water from a garden hose. But that doesn't remove the dried mud. Or only superficially. Once it dries, the dirt is visible again.

At 10:45 am, with the increasing bright sunshine, we drive eastward onto the Alaska Highway and miss the almost non-existent turnoff to the Taylor Highway towards Chicken and Dawson. After 5 miles, that seems strange to us, so we turn around and then turn off in the right direction.

The road is paved, but the condition is not really good. We bump towards Chicken at a maximum speed of 50mph, the only place before the border to Canada. We drive about 70 miles (110km) to Chicken and have some fairly drivable gravel sections and also poorly drivable paved sections behind us. Chicken boasts sensational buildings and interesting historical sights, but it is a collection of about 4 houses, a gas station with expensive fuel, and a souvenir shop. All built on a dusty area next to a small river. Much to our horror, there is a bus from Polster & Pohl in front of the souvenir shop and we know that half of Saxony is now shopping in that store.

Chicken - a dream of nothing

Chicken - the shopping experience

Short before Chicken

So we continue driving and now a really bad stretch begins without asphalt and with deep potholes, so we often navigate in a zigzag course. On slippery oil surfaces, especially where there are many holes, it feels like driving on aquaplaning and the steering doesn't respond for fractions of a second. Fortunately, there is really little traffic and the trucks mentioned in travel guides that throw many stones practically stay away.

If it weren't for the fantastic view of the mountains on the left and the surrounding landscape with raspberry-colored slopes of the autumny-colored fireweeds, green fir trees, yellow birches, and aspen against a bright blue sky, the drive would be much more annoying. In the preparation of the trip, we had thought intensively about what to do if the weather would prevent the passage of the Top of the World Highway and we are all the more delighted that we can drive this route in perfect weather.

Top of the World Highway

About 9 miles before the border at Boundary, the bad stretch of road ends and we drive on a brand new paved road. The temperature up here has settled at 44-47°F (6-8°C). The drive to the border is a pleasure for the ears and muscles, as there are no more unexpected bumps and holes to be expected, which previously caused me to hold the steering wheel extremely tight all the time.

Border crossing to Canada - the Yukon is near!

The border is located on a hilltop, and with the entry into Canada, into the Yukon, we have now "lost" an hour and are now only 9 hours away from Germany instead of 10. So it's already 4:30 pm. The Canadian border guard is grumpy, asks us about weapons, pepper spray, and tear gas, he wants to know where we are going today, how long we will stay in Canada, and if we have any merchandise with us. No question about food, which we had already dutifully consumed beforehand.

The journey remains beautiful with glowing red mountain slopes, vast forests, colorful birches. Snowy peaks in the distance and sunshine from above. Once again, the road is not paved here, but it can be driven at speeds of up to 80 km/h. If a car is driving in front of you, you can already recognize possible bumps in advance from its driving style. Between Tok, our departure point this morning, and Dawson, our destination tonight, there was neither a store, nor a coffee shop, nor a restroom, except in Chicken. However, escaping unnoticed into the bushes is not a problem here, as there are hardly any cars.

One hour later, we stand on the banks of the wide, fast-flowing Yukon River. Dawson is on the opposite side in the evening sun. A free ferry takes us to the other side.

Ferry across the Yukon River near Dawson

From the ferry right onto the 'beach' :-)

The streets in Dawson are all sandy tracks, and the houses and shops are located on wooden walkways that can be reached from street level with small stairs. It's good that it's dry now. When it's raining, it must be extremely muddy here. The visitor center is open from 8 am to 8 pm here. A nice Canadian with decent German knowledge provides us with information.

Dawson

Dawson

The Westmark Inn in Dawson is a hotel with several buildings that look like a small western town. Colorful painted wooden houses along a dusty street. 

We take a walk through the town. Small, nicely painted wooden houses from the time of the gold rush in 1899/1900 with - now closed - shops. Some are also already "closed for the season", others simply closed for the end of the workday. They left an impressive example of what happens to the old wooden houses that stand on the changing permafrost ground for more than 100 years. They sink into the ground and eventually stand crooked.

Opposite our hotel is the Aurora Inn, which has a cozy restaurant. Meatloaf with mashed potatoes! What a treat! The waitress is from Saxony, the restaurant owner is Swiss. At the end of October, they also close here, but the hotel already closes at the end of September. In the hotel, we order a wake-up call in case the northern lights appear. The call never comes.

Distance traveled: approximately 190 miles/306 km