Top Of The World Highway

TOP OF THE WORLD HIGHWAY

DAWSON CITY, YUKON TERRITORY T0 TOK, ALASKA

Dawson City, Yukon Territory July 5th. 

As we left Dawson City on the start of the Top of the World Highway we had to take a ferry across the Yukon River. After the ferry ride we had sixty six miles of partical asphalt and mostly gravel roads to the border crossing into Alaska. Then we had about thirteen miles of very nice paved road, then we had about thirty miles of very rough, muddy, washboard, and construction inorder to get too Chicken Alaska.

 

Chicken Alaska, July 5th & July 6th

Chicken Alaska is an old gold mining town that is off the grid, (no phone, electricity, internet). Water has to be hauled in, and because of perm a-frost there is no septic, all sewer is in holding tanks and pumped then trucked out. Electricity is provided by generators, the campground had a large generator to run the store and provide power to the RV sites (20 amp service).

The outhouses in Chicken were labeled "Hens" or "Roosters" 

 This one was also called the "Poop Coop".

After one night in Chicken we headed to Tok, Alaska and the end of the Top of the World Highway.

Yukon Territory, Canada

Yukon Territory, Canada,  June 29th - July 5th

Watson Lake, Yukon Territory

 Watson Lake is home to the "Sign Post Forest" a few people placed signs in the visitors center and after a few years the City took over the sign posts and made the forest and keep adding post and people leave signs on the posts. If I have time I will make a sign and leave it on our return trip through Watson Lake.

Whitehorse Yukon Territory,  June 30th-July 3rd

We spent three nights in Whitehorse and on July 1st Canada was celebrating its 150th Birthday as an independent country. They had a large parade down town with lots of fun floats.

We also toured a old river boat used to bring cargo up and down the Yukon River. Before trains were extended to western Canada, and the Alaska Highway during World War II this area was very remote. The early trains came up Whitehorse Pass from Skagway Alaska during the gold rush in this area. The river boats were used to get good down river to Dawson City. We will learn more about Whitehorse Pass on our return trip through Skagway when we will take the train ride up the pass.

Dawson City, Yukon Territory,  July 3rd - July 5th

We had a walking tour of the old mining town of Dawson the entire town is a historic site and they maintain the old wood sidewalks with gravel roads and only the main highway is paved.

Family's were living in the one story building behind the car parked on the street.

British Columbia, Canada

British Columbia, Canada June 25th - June 29th

Dawson Creek, British Columbia

Dawson Creek is the beginning of the official "Alaska Highway" this is marked with mile post zero.

We made two other stops over night in Fort Nelson and Liard River where we visited some natural hot springs. Because it is now summer it almost gets dark between Midnight and 2:00 am in the early morning.

Alberta Canada

Alberta, Canada June 15th - June 25th

In Hill Springs we camped at the Great Canadian Barn Dance and Family Campground.

We had to stop on the road to the Campground for a cattle drive.

We had a tour to the Remington Carriage Museum, they have a very large collection of old carriages, work wagons, stage coaches, and covered wagons.

They have a workshop with old and new tools they use to restore carriages.

We also visited the "Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump" in the Blackfeet Indian area.

The story behind the name was that young indian boy wanted to see the fallen buffalo at the bottom of the jump. So he was below the cliff and after the jump the adult Indian women came in to field dress the buffalo.  They discovered the little boy with a smashed head and dead. There was no evidence that this happened at this location but they thought it was a good name for the site.

 In Calgary we stayed a Riversedge Campground

We toured Heritage Park which included a Gasoline Alley. Which have a collection of old cars, tool shop, vintage travel trailer, and gas pumps.

In Banff we stayed at Thunder Mountain Campground

We toured Lake Louise this included a ride up a ski chair lift with a great view of the lake.

                                         We also had a free day to Geocache in downtown, one cache was near a farmers market another cache was inside a hotel atrium.

After Banff we stayed one night dry camping at the Columbia Ice Fields.

We toured one of the glaciers and sampled the water. The tour was in a special bus designed for driving across the ice fields, and gravel roads. One gravel road went up and down a 32% grade that is 32 feet of fall in 100 feet.

We also visited the sky walk over a canyon with mountain goats on the side of the canyon walls under the sky walk.