47 - July 13,14, 15 & 16th, Tok, AK; Chicken, AK; Top of the World Highway; Canada; Dawson City, Yukon

We left Tok, AK, and headed toward Dawson City, Cananda, via the "Top of the World" highway. More gravel roads. More incredible scenery. More wildlife sightings. These roads are not heavily traveled, however, quite a few adventurous tourists in their motorcycles and rv's. It may seem like we're zig-zagging a lot, but there aren't that many roads out here and we're in and out of mountain ranges.

From Delta Junction to Dawson City

We'll likely be out of reach of wifi and phone services for the next few days. Don't forget, you can always see our real-time location via our Garmin In-Reach tracker page.

Tok, AK, we stopped here for fuel and a few groceries. This is a real cross-roads town. Everyone driving into or out of Alaska has to pass through Tok (rhymes with poke). The visitors center was very nice and the wifi at the visitors center was even nicer.

There were lots of travelers taking advantage of the free wifi. 

Of course, we chose the most difficult way into Canada. To Dawson City via the "Top of the World Highway."

We saw a lot of evidence of a wildfire years ago. I believe over 100,000 acres were burned, back in 2004 (?)

Our first fuel stop was Chicken, AK, yes, it's really called Chicken. 

Back on the gravel road

Stunning scenery, photos don't do it justice.

The road goes above the tree line

We aren't sure what sort of animal this little guy was, something in the weasel family.

Ah, pavement

On top of a mountain, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, on the "Top of the World Highway." The US/Canadian Customs. We just made it, they closed for the night 15 mins after we arrived.

You can't tell very well from this photo, but the satellite dish at the border crossing looked like it was pointed down to the ground. Yeah, that's how far north we are!

And just like that, we're in Canada, still on top of the world.

This is a porcupine, by the time I took a photo, he had mostly hidden himself in the roadside brush. He's a big fellow, maybe 20 or 30 lbs?

We arrive at the free ferry that takes us across the Yukon River and into Dawson City. The Yukon River is very fast moving here. Our ferry was sideways most of the trip across.

We were at the front of the ferry, as you can see, we are not facing the opposite shore, we are facing up river as the ferry fights the current.

And across to the other side.

We finally found a spot for the night in a Yukon Provincial Government Campground, $12 for the night, no hookups.

Downtown Dawson City

Kinda pricey. You have to take into account the remote location and the fact that the whole town is off "the grid", they have a diesel generating plant in town for all of their electricity.

We met these lovely people at the coffee shop. She's from the Netherlands, he's from Montreal. He wants to get into sailing! I tried to point him in the right direction to get into sailing. Hope he likes it ;-)  She's here for the summer working at a local hotel.

The little grocery was well stocked, but pretty pricey.

The town of Klondike merged with Dawson City, and now it's just Dawson City.

A gold rush town initially.

Ah, the tour buses... We're a long way from the cruise ships, but I guess that doesnt stop them.

In Dawson City, we washed our RV as it was caked in mud and dirt from the gravel roads. We gassed up, checked oil, power steering fluid (perfect, no issues), cleaned the air filter as best we could, stocked up on a few groceries and basically got ready for the leg to Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk.

Northwest Territories, the home of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, had a visitor's center in town where they were very friendly and helpful and gave us lots of useful info on traversing the Dempster Highway to Tuktoyaktuk. The Dempster Highway is another gravel road, but apparently it's well maintained as it's the only way for freight and other commerce to these 2 towns. 

And we're off!

A re-cap, our route so far on Google Maps: