Day 52: Valdez to Chicken

Today Dan did more driving than usual, covering more than 300 miles.   Leaving Valdez, we did a second pass through the Keystone Canyon, a beautiful stretch of road with rock walls, waterfalls, and tunnels carved through the rock in which, in the past, horse-drawn carts brought supplies to Valdez.  Then up and up, more than seven miles of road, to Thompson Pass, where the average winter snowfall is 600 to 900 inches of snow!  Then the road followed the path of the pipeline for miles.  We went through Glenallen again, then took the Tok Cutoff, taking us back to where we started in Alaska: Tok.  Tok’s claim to fame is that anyone driving through Alaska must go through Tok twice, coming and going.  Back on the Alaska Highway for twelve miles, we then went north along the Taylor Highway which leads to Chicken.

And Chicken is where we are spending the night.  Chicken: population 23 in summer, 7 in winter.  It also has two RV parks, one of which is where we have set up for the night, in a parking lot without water or table---just a place to park.  We are, however, within easy walking distance of anything notable in Chicken, including the famous chicken statue which we can see from our side windows.  Actually the RV park has a café, espresso bar, gift shop, showers, and so forth---anything the traveler might want. This was a gold mining area, and one has the option of panning for gold here, but it looked like an awful lot of work for a few specks of gold.

The RV park has, supposedly, free Wifi, but judging from its performance so far, it may be a few days before this is posted.

Tomorrow we head out on the 108 miles to Dawson City, Yukon, following the Top of the World Highway.  The road is unpaved, just dirt and gravel, no guardrails or painted lines to distinguish lanes (of which there are barely two).  The guide book refers to many curves and drop-offs on the side.  The woman at the front desk said to estimate four hours to cover the 108 miles, though we talked to others who took the entire day of travel, going very, very slowly.  Another Alaskan adventure to come!

Very weak internet, so the photos will come on some future day.