Alaska Part 1

We left Dawson late in the afternoon taking Top of the World Highway over towards the Canadian/US boarder. About halfway there we found an out of the way camp spot for the night. Next morning, we set off toward Fairbanks, Alaska passing through the most remoted boarder crossing either of us have ever been too.
On the way we called at Chicken, AK. Chicken is a very unique gold mining town. It was named Chicken by the miners who worked there who wanted to name it after Alaska’s state bird the Ptarmigan but were concerned about the spelling so ended up with the easier to spell Chicken instead. We walked around and took in the sights and called in at the tiny saloon for a beer.

From Chicken, we continued and saw our first Moose of the trip on the way to the Alcan highway and up to TOK where we had dinner.
From here we drove a few more miles before finding our camp spot for the night. Again, next morning we continued on calling in at Delta Junction. This is where mile/km 1422/2288 or the NE end of the Alcan Highway is located. The Alaska Pipeline also runs through here from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. We visited the local Information center and also the Sullivan Roadhouse Historic Museum.

Continuing to Fairbanks where we found a state park next to the river which was walking distance to the places we wanted to visit. Next day we visited the Alaska State Museum in Fairbanks which was approximately a 10km/6mile round trip.
We had heard about Potlatch’s while in Haida Gwaii.

Our first view of Mount McKinley from the Alaska State Museum/University, Fairbanks, AK.

While in the museum we ran into Charlie, Laura and Nate. On there way to Valdez after leaving Dawson they had a breakdown with their VW Syncro Westfalia and had it towed to Anchorage. They rented a car in Anchorage while they waited for the prognosis and parts and decided to do a trip to Fairbanks for a couple of days. They mentioned they were attending a Beer and Music festival in town that night from 5pm to 8pm and invited us to join them. Lucky for us it was a five-minute walk from our campsite. The festival cost $35pp to enter but that included a 4oz beer glass where you could sample as many and as much beer as you wanted from 10 Alaskan breweries that were present, also there were Nacho’s and wood fired Pizza available for purchase. Catherine was quite partial to the Denali Abaddon Chardonnay, while Stewart enjoyed the Baranof Island Redoubt Red Ale and Klassik’s Whalers Wheat.

Note: This festival was the first annual, look for future events!!!

Next day Charlie and family were on there way back to Anchorage, we also headed that way stopping in at Denali National Park on the way. You are only allowed to drive about 15/19 miles/km into the park, from there you need to book park transportation to go further. While there we managed to see a couple of Elk.

From here continued south towards Anchorage to find a camp spot for the evening.

We continued on the next morning, arriving in Anchorage late afternoon after stopping at a scenic viewpoint where Mount McKinley could be seen clearly.

Next: Alaska Part 2

3 thoughts on “Alaska Part 1”

  1. Steven Schaafsma

    How’s the camper holding up and the systems working on it. If you could do a blog post on the truck and camper with how you set up your storage and shower and cooking.

    I very interested buying one these units.

    1. Steven,
      I have started a blog on the truck and camper but have not completed it to post as yet. We are having some upgrades done at this time before we head south to Mexico and Central America, once these are complete I will finish the blog and post it.
      We drove over 22,000kms/13,700miles with no real issues and never plugging into shore power for the 4 month we were gone.
      Stewart

      1. I am retiring In 3 years. I am planning on living full time in my unit traveling all North America for ten years. I met them at the Calgary auto show I loved the quality of the sprinter and your unit.

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