Dream Trip To Yukon and Alaska By Road, To Anywhere Else By Any Means At All

August 19-22, 2006...four days
further into the Yukon...

(there are three sets of photos on this page, covering the route I followed August 19 to 22 from Dawson Creek north to Dawson City in the Yukon, and then west and south to Tok, Alaska)

August 22, 2006

Hi All!

Well, I left Dawson City (Yukon Territories-Canada) and am back in the US, Tok Alaska (that’s “toke”, by the way).

The drive from there to here was on the “Top of the World” Highway, which passes through, among other places, the northernmost US Port of Entry in the world, and Chicken, Alaska (see photos).

From Dawson to the US border, it’s paved, from the border it’s packed dirt and/or gravel, and from Chicken to Tok, it’s paved.

I would say that the unpaved stretches today were the worst road surfaces I’ve encountered, but frankly they weren’t that bad.

You need only to go slow enuf, around 40 MPH to allow enough time to swerve around any big stones (or rocks) in the road.

Those who don’t follow this rule pay the price - a for-sure flat tire in the middle of nowhere.

Today, that included an Alaska-registered Rav4, whose driver snickered as he sped past me, all the while ignoring the protocol of staying in the passing lane until you’re far enough ahead not to kick up stones that can crack windshields.

No wonder he then refused my offer of help to change his flat tire when I passed him 10 miles later.

I think the road north from Fairbanks to the Arctic Circle (two days from now) is actually better than many of the dirt surface stretches I traveled today.

From Dawson to Tok, you realize that you’re really in the frontier, and that gold mining is still quite the attraction for a lot of people.

It was nice, however, to get back into cell-phone range late this afternoon, and my motel (the Tok Hilton, otherwise known as Young’s Motel / Fast Eddy’s Restaurant).

I have no complaints, the price is right ($78), and the gas is back down to reality ($3.35 / gal versus the $4.45 I have been paying in Canada.

What happened to all those Canadian oil sands?

Hope you like the pictures…more later…I’ll try to call…

Cliff