“Back in the USA”

Notes for Wednesday June 22:

Tuesday was a lot of miles, and today was planned to be much shorter so we slept in and had a larger than normal breakfast. Outside of town the last dredge (machine used for mining gold) in the area has been turned into a park with guided tours

Dawson has a lot of touristy things for some people, but we are not shoppers so we packed up and headed for the ferry which we needed to take to get to our next highway.

Across the river the road is known as “Top of the World” since it climbs above the tree line and has a lot of scenic views. Here are a couple of views from the Canadian side

The guidebooks have lots of comments about Top of the World, and the road and views aren’t bad (on the Canadian side). We crossed the border about 2 hours after we got off the ferry

We have met a lot of interesting travelers so far; some from Germany and France as well as Canadians and others from the lower 48. This is a very international trip. The road down from the border to Chicken AK is an abomination. The State of Alaska should be ashamed, as an American I was embarrassed for the European visitors. This is the same area, climate, and conditions but the Canadians provide us with a usable road. The US side is worse than a typical truck stop!! The 42 miles from the border to Chicken AK took 3 hours.  Typically it is narrow, soft if rainy (like this week), no shoulders, and heavily potholed.

Many recommend the combination of Klondike/Top of the World Highways as an alternative to the Alaska Highway, but we both agree the scenery wasn’t worth it.

I just had to get this rant off.