Road Trip USA: Onto Fairbanks, Alaska

Well, I left Dawson City (had to cross the Yukon River on a verrrry small ferry). The highway between Dawson City and (ultimately) Tok, Alaska, is Hwy 5, otherwise known as the "Top of the World" highway. It called that because the road rides along the spine of a mountain range, and has sweeping views on both sides. The Alaskan border lie 60 miles from Dawson, about half of it unpaved - a now-dreaded road condition that has been occurring more frequently and without forewarning from maps or other sources of information. It was a pretty rough ride for those 30, unpaved miles, but I finally reached the border!

The border guard told me that the road would stay unpaved for the next 43 miles, and that it would get worse. He was right. I crawled along very slowly (about 15 mph) for the first 3 miles, and then came upon a little "gift shop":

It was manned by a middle-aged guy who actually lived there year-round. There's nothing around for miles.

Anyway, I continued crawling along in the RV, things rattling, bouncing...I lost my coffee pot from its perch with some coffee in it from that morning...got all over the couch, the carpet, etc. A real mess! The road continued its violent assault for only the next 20 miles or so, then it mellowed out a bit, allowing me to make up some lost time. I passed the town of Chicken (population 25), then it was onto Tok, Alaska.

Not too much to see in Tok. I got some fuel and continued on to Fairbanks, which was about 230 miles away. It wasn't going to be dark until midnight, so I had plenty of daylight to drive by. It turned out to be a very nice drive:

I also saw a momma and baby moose (my second pair since arriving in Alaska):

A little while later, I guy driving the other way started flashing his lights at me. I immediately slowed down, thinking that there might be an animal on the road or something. I was right: