Top of the World

We survived the drive to the Top of the World.  The road from Tok to Dawson City is called the Top of the World.  The road follows the top of the mountain range not unlike the Blue Ridge Parkway back home.  At many points it is narrow; almost one lane and we needed to slow way down to get by other large vehicles.  The road sort of follows an arch from Tok, through Chicken, and over to Dawson City.  Most of the road is unpaved and hadn't seen a grader in quite awhile.  I guess we were lucky it wasn't raining as much of the surface appeared to be clay and would have been very slippery.  Anyway it reaches its highest point just after we entered into Canada (The northern most international border crossing in North America).  We stopped at a rest area and said our goodbyes to Alaska.  It is hard to believe that we are on our way back home.

Just before we got to Dawson City Dave wanted to stop and get some pictures at Foreplay Mountain.  Turns out he misread the name it was Mount Fairplay.  Oh well, on we went.

 The only way to get across the Yukon River to Dawson City is by ferry.  The ferry has no dock; they just run it in close to shore and drop down the ramp while the captain holds the boat on shore with the prop.  You drive on and he backs away into the fast flowing river.  He does a slipstream across the river and repeats the landing on the other side.  Later on that evening we walked over to Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall for some drinks, gambling, and the 10:30 show.

Dave went back for more pictures.

Back to Tok

Hard to believe but we are on the way back.  We had a bit of a scare as we dropped the RV down off the leveling jacks.  One of the tires was low on air.  Luckily another traveler had a air compressor we could borrow and we got it pumped back up.  Took it to a tire repair shop and they replaced a valve stem.  Whew, it could have been a lot worse.  Then we drove back to Tok from Fairbanks.  We stopped one last time to see the pipeline bridge over the Tanana River.  Along the way of course we spotted another moose alongside the road.  Even though we have seen many, you just have to stop and snap a couple of shots.  Supper at Fast Eddy’s and then back to the RV to rest.  We have a big day of driving tomorrow.

Gold Fever

Sunday we ventured off to see a historic gold mining operation.  We got to the site just as the guide was telling us all about the new gold being piped through the Alyeska Pipeline that was also on the property.  Then we boarded a train that took us on a tour of the mining operation.  We got a firsthand view of what a gold dredging operation was like.  The machine was huge, over three stories high.  It was capable of processing tons of gold bearing ore.  Before it was shut down in the early 70’s it had produced over 10 billion $ (at today’s prices) worth of gold.  Unfortunately it was environmentally a huge problem for it used millions of gallons of water and no good place to put it.  Eventually that type of mining became too expensive and the price of gold at the time was fixed by the government so it became a thing of the past.  Of course no trip to a gold mine is complete without doing a little gold panning.  After sloshing the dirt and gravel around we even had some flakes of gold in the bottom of our pans. (surprise, surprise)  Linda and Tammy had the gold flakes put into small glass pendants to wear around their necks.

Dave's $75K nugget

From the Gold Mine we went looking for lunch at the Howling Dog Saloon in Fox.  Unfortunately when we got there it didn't open until 4:00 pm, too late for lunch so we went across the street to the northern most brewery in the US.  The Silver Gulch Brewery also had a very good lunch pizza thankfully.  From there it was off to see Don and Jody Johnson one more time at the Chena Hot Springs Resort.  This place has the extremes, a 135 degree sulfur hot spring and an Ice Museum.  First a tour of the Ice Museum and an appletinni made in a carved ice glass and served at the ice bar.  The Ice Museum is kept at a constant 20 degrees and thankfully they have parkas to borrow.  The museum has some very good ice carvings (though hard to photograph).  It even has a room to rent so you can sleep there.  Why anyone would want to I don't know.

Now that is what I call hanging planters

That is a gas grill on the other side.
Smoke comes out his nostril.

Room that you can book for $600/night

Even an ice fireplace

After the ice museum, Don & Jody, and Dave & Tammy dipped into the 135 degree hot springs.  They said it was quite relaxing.

On the way back we stopped at a favorite overlook of Don’s son Dan.  He drives his dirt bike up to it.  I put the Dodge in 4 wheel drive lo and crawled up the steep slope.  We made it to the top and enjoyed the vast view.  Said our goodbye’s to Don, Jody, and Dan and made it back down the hill and on to the RV.

Museums of Fairbanks

With rain drumming on the roof of the RV we slept in today.  After a leisurely breakfast we set out to visit a couple of museums.  First on the list was the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  The very modern building of unusual design housed exhibits of Alaska history and culture.  One of the most interesting was a display on climbing Denali.  There were wildlife exhibits from dinosaurs that roamed Alaska years ago to present day mammals and birds.

We learned about Alaska’s history early settlement days, it’s involvement in WWII  and of course modern day events such as the oil pipeline.

After lunch we followed the signs to the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum.  What an amazing collection of automobiles from the 1890’s to the 1930’s.  Many of them were still in original condition and most of them were very rare.  What was most amazing was that almost all of the cars are driven (or as they said "exercised") regularly.  Linda and Tammy were also impressed with all the women’s attire from the same period.

After supper it was time to go grocery shopping.  Fairbanks will be the last big town until we get to Edmonton.