Six Weeks in Alaska & the Yukon

Terry & Ann got in touch with a brief to explore beautiful Alaska on an extended trip. Having visited briefly on a cruise, they were excited to return to explore more of this beautiful part of the world & I couldn't be more delighted to help them. Terry has put pen to paper to record the details of their amazing adventure. If Alaska is on your list, read on to find out more about their trip in their own words. 

The plan

The emptiness of Alaska appealed to us. The remoteness of some of this enormous territory was an attraction, to see it, to experience the people that live there—it all required a closer look.

With the outline plan appearing to work we approached Tiger Eye Travel of Epsom to dot the I’s and cross the t’s. What a very wise choice that was. Jenny there took our outline plans on board and over the next few months proposed a detailed itinerary. Using her own experience and drawing on others, we were finally presented the following autumn with a day-by-day “package” of places to stay, flights, sights to see and excursions to enjoy. Reassured and our enthusiasm not diminishing we committed ourselves to the most amazing and awe-inspiring holiday in a part of the world that we had barely touched two years previously. 

The adventure

On our departure day, we took our four suitcases to London’s Heathrow airport for a daytime flight to Vancouver. A few days in Victoria, Vancouver & Anchorage were to follow. 

Next stop, Talkeetna.

• The Lodge was straight out of a movie set. Everything about it was large. Timber framed buildings, a roaring log fire in reception (in spite of the outside temperatures in the 70’s (F) greeted us. We were in a modern large and well-equipped room on this very attractive site over an enormous plain bisected by the Chulitna river with Mount Denali in the distance. We were incredibly lucky with our views of the peak as all too frequently it is masked in cloud. The sun would shine from a clear blue sky for another two weeks. 

We set off for the 163 miles drive through the Denali National Park and Preserve.

• By this time, we were used to the mile-upon-mile of good road fringed by conifers. The wide fire-break cut-backs devoid of trees on both sides of the road were covered in still-green grass and the national flower of Alaska—Forget-me-not and the ubiquitous pink Fireweed that is known in the United Kingdom as Rosebay-Willow Herb. Pale yellow and small mauve flowers and wild lupins were also much in evidence at the roadside.

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Fairbanks

• Reading the local guides we had discovered that Fairbanks was home to the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum, of some international renown. We planned to go there on the Monday morning and rather than drive decided to take a cab. Having arrived before opening time we stood around and spoke with other visitors—all American. When our nationality was revealed, some surprise was obvious as few Brits appear to go there. Assuming we were on a Cruise we were asked where our ship was moored up. Revealing that we were on a six-week road trip and driving from Anchorage to the Yukon and back via Haines, caused even more surprise. The further revelation that we were in our mid-eighties caused further wonder. 

Tok

• Tok is best described as a small township built around a road intersection of the Alaska Highway and the Tok Cutoff toward Anchorage, well over 300 miles away. A gas station or two, a General Store, a builders’ merchant, a repairing garage or two, a museum, farms offering horse-riding vacations and dog-sledding experience and a number of motels. 494m elevation with mountains in the distance and with a population of about 1400.
• The next day was to be one of the most interesting of the trip. From Tok to Chicken (80 miles) and then over the border to Dawson City in Canada along the initially metalled Taylor Highway and the dirt-surface Highway 9 to Dawson City in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Known colloquially as the Top of the World Highway it lives up to its name—106 miles of surprisingly good dirt surface most of the time but interrupted with short stretches where permafrost upheaval has caused enormous cracks and holes.
• Turning north on the Taylor Highway to Chicken, a short distance from Tok, the metalled surface deteriorated and short stretches were under repair where the surface had broken up when the frost melted in Spring. We climbed slightly to an altitude of just over 500 metres. Luckily the dry weather continued so we were not held up by slippery mud on this stretch or the later one. We were to climb later to 1376 metres. In places the road disappeared over the horizon three or more miles away, with no signs of humanity. 

Chicken. Why Chicken?

• In the gold mining era of the late 19th century the miners sought to provide a name for this tiny community due to the postal services insistence. The prevalence, locally, of the ptarmigan (Alaska’s national bird) seemed a good choice. Ptarmigan is originally a Russian word and no wonder the poorly-educated (for the most part) miners were unable to agree on the correct spelling. The bird’s body shape resemblance to a chicken provided a way out of this dilemma and Chicken was chosen. As it happened, they couldn’t spell chicken either but that shortcoming was later addressed and Chicken it became. 

Crossing the border

• After lunch we drove on, admiring the mountainscapes with far-reaching view of the road stretching some five or six miles ahead as it would its way over the peaks and troughs of the landscape. A few miles out of Chicken brought s to the Poker Creek-Little Gold Creek Border Crossing that would see us enter Canada. In a green-painted cluster of huts, the Canadian Royal Mounted Police Border Control occupied it. A few friendly words with the officer who, again, was surprised to see Brits, we spoke of our King and Downton Abbey!

Dawson City

• Disembarking up the sandy riverbank from the ferry, we drove down Front Street gaping at the buildings on our left and right with the river beyond. Straight out of an MGM movie set. Wooden for the most part and a few leaning at crazy angles where the permafrost upheavals every year had done their worst. These days new buildings are built on hydraulic jacks or ramps that can raise or lower the buildings above them when movement commences in the spring thaw. Finding The Downtown Hotel was easy in this small town with nearly all roads laid out in neat 90- degree fashion except near the rivers. The famous Klondike River joins the Yukon to the southern end of the town. Straight from a movie set this brown and white hotel approached from a set of roadside steps and then up further to the raised wooden sidewalk, it exuded frontier town. 

Our second bear

• On to Whitehorse, heading south-west back into Canada at the Alcan Border with mountains rearing up on the right. It was on this road that we had our second sighting of a bear, eating little yellow flowers 15 metres or so off the road. An earlier sighting was a bear at some distance but this brown bear was close. So close that I wasn’t going to get out of the car with my camera.

White Pass & Yukon Route Railway 

• A scenic railway indeed as we started off travelling the single rail track between many little water courses and small lakes. Not many trees and the bare rocks and water reflected the sun. The track twisted and turned and gradually climbed through narrow gorges and over small bridges to a height of just under 900 m. Soon we were in high country with a sheer wall on one side and a precipitous sheer drop of 100 metres or more to a rushing river on the other. The narrow-gauge track, the tight curves and gradient, seemed to make the coaches rock violently and there were many worried glances. The views were magnificent, the peaks and the raging torrents below combining to emphasise the savagery of this area.

Wildlife cruise

• A three-hour Wildlife cruise on one of the large, well-equipped boats run by Major Marine Tours was a big success. Sailing away from the harbor we saw white tailed eagles and a solitary sea otter floating belly-up to catch the sun’s rays. Heading out to see porpoises sped the boat and almost out into the Pacific we saw a whale at a distance. With some sharp manoeuvring we were brought closer and soon several of them were breaching only a few yards away. Heading back into the sheltered waters of the harbor inlet we saw another, very close, swimming alongside rocks at the land edge.

Would we do it (and more) again? You bet! 

We are so delighted they had such an amazing adventure & can't wait to help them with their next adventure. Thanks to Terry & Ann for sharing their story. 

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