June 2nd, 2024 - Travel to Chicken Alaska

We woke to another beautiful day, dumped our tanks, filled with water and headed to Chicken Alaska on the Taylor Highway.

"The Taylor Highway (Hwy #5) is open seasonally from April to mid-October. Conditions of the road can range anywhere between good to poor and depend heavily on weather and maintenance. Keep in mind that there are very limited services or facilities available along the road on the way to Eagle.

Taylor Highway is a route through gold mining history. Gold was discovered here as early as 1881, and discoveries in 1887 and 1888 lead to interior Alaska's first gold rush. Mining settlements like Jack Wade, Chicken, and Franklin were established practically overnight. Walking trails were quickly forged by men traveling between nearby Eagle and the new mining settlements. These paths eventually became wagon roads, and then Taylor Highway in 1951. Originally called the Fortymile Road, the name was later changed to the Taylor Highway in honor of Ike Taylor, Alaska Road Commission (ARC) president from 1932 to 1948.

The Taylor Highway was built to provide access to Eagle, Chicken, and the historic Fortymile Mining District. It connects to the Top of the World Highway 96 miles (154 km) from Tetlin, at Jack Wade Junction, allowing road access to Dawson City, Yukon during the summer months. Most of the original cabins and buildings along the highway are gone, however there are still quite a few active mines proving that the dream of gold is still alive in Alaska."

And away we go:

The road went up and down the mountains - sometimes clinging to the sides:

The scenery was just beautiful!

We passed thru many burned areas.

"The Taylor Complex Fire in Alaska was considered the biggest wildfire in the history of the United States from 2004, when it first conflagrated, all the way through 2007. It burned over 1.3 million acres, although no deaths were reported."

About 20 miles from the start of AK-5, the road went from sort of good to terrible - Oh My!

We climbed up and then around these mountains:

It truly was an ADVENTURE!

When we saw this sign we just laughed and said "what about the other 40 miles?"  LOL!

If you look closely, you can see the road at the top of the next mountain:

A good portion of this area was perma-frost:

And then we saw movement - two caribou just munching away:

Interesting tidbit on the Fortymile caribou herd:

• HERD SIZE (2022) 40,000

The Fortymile herd migrates between Alaska and Yukon. It was once estimated at about 600,000, and its range stretched from Whitehorse to Anchorage. By 1974, the herd was estimated at about 4,000, and it stopped migrating to Yukon. Conservation actions, including hunting restrictions and the sterilization of wolf packs were taken and the herd grew, although recent research suggests that wolf control was not a significant factor in the herd’s increase. By 2002 it was once again migrating into Yukon. In 2017 the estimated herd size was 71,000. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says "The herd began to show signs of declining nutritional status after it exceeded 50,000 caribou in 2010." In summer 2022, the Department estimated the herd size at 40,000. Increased hunting quotas had been set by the Alaskan government in the previous two years to take the strain off perceived overpopulation. After it's new (2022) population estimate, the Department said, "department staff continued to observe low productivity in the herd this spring and above average mortality of newborn calves this summer, indicating continuing nutritional stress and low potential for herd growth."

Check out this road - it was like a roller coaster:

Coming into Chicken - their airport:

The road beyond is the start of the Top of the World Highway that goes to Dawson City Yukon.  We have talked about leaving the RV in Chicken, taking the truck to Dawson City, staying overnight, and then coming back the next day.  Since most of the road is gravel and hard packed dirt, I do not want to do that in the rain so we will see.

Our site at Chicken Gold Camp Outpost:

Our friends, Penny and Mike are here also so once we set up, we stopped by and we all headed to the Chicken Creek Saloon to check it out and have a Happy Hour Drink.

This is the inside of the Saloon:

On the ceiling are hats, cards, bras, and panties - LOL!  Yes, the Chicken Creek Saloon is home to the panty canon.  The story goes that if you want to have your panties or bra shot from the canon, you need to be wearing them first - then they are cut off and blown thru the canon.  (No, have not seen it but we did hear it go off that evening.)

Here we are: Andy, Penny, Diane and Mike:

We had a great time!

I took a little walk around the area and found some interesting things:

We are camped right behind the building:

This is the Historic Pedro Gold Dredge - hoping to get a tour tomorrow:

What a nice treat to see!  This is the resident moose who just had two babies.  We did not see the babies - Bummer.  Notice her markings:

In 2009, two brown and white moose crossed the road in front of us in Tok.  Their markings looked like cows.  We reported it to Fish and Game and were told that there were some albino moose spotted on the Denali Highway and that maybe they are now mixing.  I thought any albino creature could not reproduce but the ranger said "apparently there are."

This was mama's two year old.  She pushed him away when she had the babies but he has been hanging around.  I was told later this night, she really chased him away..  (Awww!  But that is nature.)

Penny and Mike invited us down to a little concert at their rig.

Here is Mike, Randy (resident of Chicken in the summer) and Penny:

What a great time we had:

Another great day!

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 73 (Very Bumpy) Miles

Routes Traveled:

Alaska: AK-1 (Alaskan Highway); AK-5 (Taylor Highway)