The Alaska Highway connects Dawson Creek (British Columbia, Canada) with Delta Junction in Alaska. Of it’s 1,390 mile length, only about 200 are actually in Al,aska – we went on a short road trip!

The Alaska Highway was a WWll project which officially began on March 9th, 1942, when America suddenly realised how vulnerable yet inaccessible Alaska actually was. In military jargon, the “Alcan” roughly followed a line of existing airfields from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) to Fairbanks (Alaska) and became even more imperative when Japan invaded the Aleutian Islands in June 1942.

It was officially opened on November 20th, 1942 thanks to the ceaseless efforts of the troops who worked 16 hour shifts in summer and winter. Of the seven regiments involved, three were classified as “Negro regiments” and also faced racial abuse; in fact, the Alaskan section of the highway was built by the 97th Regiment composed entirely of African Americans but under the command of white officers.

In 1948 the highway was opened to public traffic and these days it has become one of the great road trips of the world, particularly when twinned with the 498 miles of the Klondike, the Top of the World and Taylor highways to form the Klondike Loop, which joins the Alaska Highway roughly at Whitehorse, Canada, and Toke, Alaska.

To add some confusion, the distances quoted are all wrong. In Alaska the historical milepost distances are followed so it officially ends at Delta Junction after 1,422 miles – these days it is actually 35 miles shorter due to road rebuilding. In Canada, kilometres are now used.

Delta Junction

It’s unofficial end is at Historical Mile 1,523 in Fairbanks. However the 96 mile section from Delta Junction to Fairbanks is on the Richardson Highway which predates the Alaska Highway by 50 years, hence it officially finishing in Delta Junction.

We did it in a totally topsy turvey style. Driving down from Fairbanks, we joined the Alaska Highway at Delta Junction, which started life as a construction camp for the Richardson Highway. It was then known as Buffalo Center as some American bison were moved there in the 1920’s. A herd still roams the area today but is quite elusive.

We checked out the Visitor Centre which has various souvenirs and stickers. Outside, a post marks the end of the Alaska Highway after 1,422 miles and a wooden sign commemorates the workers and the achievement. 

To add some light relief, there are a couple of giant mosquito figures – the popular photo involves lying under their bloodied proboscis on the floor!

The other point of interest is the Sullivan Roadhouse Historical Museum, an original log roadhouse from 1905 and one of the few surviving from the Valdes to Fairbanks trail.

It has nice historical displays inside and old photographs and furniture. Run by enthusiastic volunteers, it is free to visit. The nearby Buffalo Centre Drive-In is a popular stop for lunch but we actually crossed the road on an insider tip to the Fire food truck where we had excellent burgers and fries at their picnic tables.

To Tok

The Alaskan Highway to Tok is fairly uneventful with just the Delta Meat & Sausage Inc shop where there are free samples and the chance to buy various meats and sausages ranging from yak to reindeer or their own smoked bacon.

We rattled over the Gerstle River Black Veterans Memorial Bridge, renamed in 1993 but one of the original steel truss style bridges from 1944. There was a nice picnic area and one can drive out on the gravel bars.

The endless lakes and forest hide ancient Athabascan archeological sites dating back 12,000 years when grasslands covered the valley and the early Alaskans hunted buffalo, caribou, mammoth and elk. Tools and weapons made from mammoth ivory, antler and bone have been recovered although their hide covered shelters have long gone.

Tok (Milepost 1314.2) is actually pronounced toke – no-one seems to know how it came by the name but it may have been a WWll derivation of Tokyo Camp. It began as a construction camp on the Alcan in 1942 but these days is principally a service and trade stop for highway travellers. A piece of useless information: as it is the only town in Alaska that a highway traveller has to pass through twice if going to or from Canada, the governor pronounced it ‘Main Street, Alaska’ in 1991! There is a solid log cabin style Visitors Centre and Fast Eddy’s restaurant is the go-to place for food. It also has accomodation. 

Leaving Toke, the highway starts to get a bit more interesting, more undulating, and mountains appear on the horizon. The Tanana River valley lowlands have large lakes scattered amidst the trees, so many that nearly all are unnamed.  There are various scenic pull outs with interpretive panels as one enters the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge which runs for 65 miles south east of the Highway to the Canadian border. It’s southern edge abuts the Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Part of the Tanana River valley it is an important nesting and migration habitat for birds.

The refuge also has two free campgrounds: Lakeview on Yarger Lake (Mile 1,256.7) and Deadmans Campsite on Deadmans Lake (Mile.1,249.3). We checked out Lakeview which has some nice lakeside camping spots but it was totally full so went on to Deadman’ Campsite which was equally full, so we ended up camping on the hill above it. 

Deadmans Lake Campground

The following day we got up early and dropped down to the campsite where we were lucky enough to get one of the coveted lakeside spots!

It was a fine sunny morning so we immediately grabbed one of the free canoes lined up by the lake and set off. It took us about 2 hours to make a leisurely circuit of its edges which were a mixture of thick spruce and marshy stretches.

There were a couple of large beaver lodges where the animals had slapped mud and twigs together, leaving imprints of their flat tails. We saw a nesting yellowleg and lots of ducks and it was all very peaceful with the snow capped Wrangell mountains visible to one end.

To Canada

After lunch, we drove to the Canadian border, just because we could. It was a scenic way of boreal forest, a myriad of lakes and sand dunes – the latter blown from the volcanic mountains to the south and now seemingly a popular spot for rock graffiti.

The Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Centre, at Milepost 1229, is only 8 miles from the Canadian border and a worthwhile stop. It has the most solidly built log cabin that I had ever seen, with enormous logs, and they had erected a cache in a similar style next to it. These mini houses on legs were built to store essential provisions, although I’m sure none were built with the care of this super size version. 

There is a viewing deck with binoculars where one can get a wide view of a billion spruce trees and numerous lakes. The Highway is surrounded by nearly totally wilderness to all sides.

Inside there were various displays about the Athabascan people and their use of the resources in the area, as well as a trumpeter swan success story. A bird which was almost hunted to extinction, they are now protected and have made a good comeback in the reserve. There is a short film about the reserve and help-yourself coffee (donation).

There are two log trapper cabins in the trees a short walk down the hill below the centre, via a zig zag path lined with berries and mushrooms. Both cabins look as if they have just been abandoned with lots of old stuff still scattered around – a chest of drawers still had odds and ended in it, including unused bullets.

The last stretch of highway to Port Alcan on the Canadian border (Milepost 1221.8) is in excellent shape and fairly quiet. There are scattered lakes, a couple of old R.V. camps which look fairly derelict and a fallen down log cabin.

We swung around at the border and headed back, spotting a black bear browsing along the roadside. When we stopped, he rapidly faded into the taiga.

The Seaton Roadhouse Interpretive Site and Trails at Milepost 1,234 was an interesting stop. Initially used as a highway construction site, a roadhouse then opened which existed for some twenty years.

They have since had a major clean up effort and there is a pretty trail that circles the small Seaton Lake. We saw some busy beavers, swans and nesting ducks. The vegetation felt very wild and bear friendly.

Back at Deadman’s we did the little ¼ mile Taiga trail which wends through the forest around the campsite with informative panels, ending in a little lookout over the lake.

Hidden Lake

We floated in the middle of the lake, the glossy black water alive with rippling reflections. Lily pads and vivid high green grasses fringed the edges, full of mysterious tracks and tramplings, giving way to the inevitable spiky spruce trees. It was utterly still, totally silent, incredibly beautiful.

We were at Hidden Lake, an easy mile walk in from the trailhead (Milepost 1240) on the Alaska Highway. The Tetlin Refuge had provided two boats and oars (and lifejackets) for anyone’s use so we took one out to explore the lake, which was only about a kilometre long. Other than a pair of Trumpeter swans and a few ducks, we were totally alone.

Simon had bought an Alaskan fishing licence for $45 for a week (residents only pay $20 a year) and as the lake is stocked with trout he had a go from the boat – he even caught a few although we put them back.

Eventually we had completed a circuit so returned to Deadman’s for a late lunch, followed by some more kayaking in the afternoon which revealed a foraging beaver and a variety of  birdlife. With lovely sunsets from the jetty, accompanied by swimming muskrats, this stop had turned out to be rather idyllic.

Playing Chicken

Heading back towards Tok, I was reminded of the old adage that there are two seasons in Alaska: winter and construction! We had 16 miles of wet, dirty gravel roadworks and there can be quite long waits before one is shepherded through behind a pilot car.

An abandoned roadhouse marks the junction of the Alaska Highway and the Taylor Highway, just before Tok. The Taylor takes another rougher 104 mile route to the Canadian border which would have been a bit much for our Ford Fiesta, but it is paved (with a few gravel breaks and frost heaves) for the first 66 miles to Chicken – and with a name like that we just had to visit!

We had lunch at 4 Mile lake, an easy 0.7 mile hike in from the road. A beaten up boat was pulled up to the shore line with a home made oar and a pole, but it was quite breezy and Simon had no confidence in getting back in if he took it out, so no fishing was done.

The road undulated on and around Mile 30 we came to higher mountains and tundra – it looked almost Scottish. The highpoint was the pass under Mount Fairplay (5,541 feet) which was popular with berry pickers. Fortymile Mining District starts to the north: it is the second oldest mining district in Alaska, dating back to 1886.

We stopped for afternoon tea at the West Fork BLM Campground and liked it so much that we decided to stay – the advantage of having no fixed itinerary. We even paid for this one: $12! The elevated sites had a superb sweeping view over the river and forest below and a pleasant evening was spent watching swimming beavers who emerged on an occasional foray to chomp the grasses on the bank. 

Chicken

The early gold miners wanted to call it Ptarmigan but no-one could spell it, so they settled for Chicken which these days has allowed them a nice line in souvenir kitsch of the anything-related-to-a-chicken variety. 

The small untidy town is still in an active gold mining area but is a popular stop on the Klondike loop and provides all sorts of chicken photo opportunities – although I could not persuade Simon to pose with the giant egg proclaiming I got laid in Chicken!

The popular spot seems to be Downtown Chicken, a short strip of wooden buildings consisting of a gift shop, a bar and a cafe. Free camping is allowed in the parking lot which obviously helps but we had a genuine tasty lunch at the cafe of hot pot chicken chowder with a pastry lid followed by the most enormous squidgy chocolate brownies with coffee.

The Chicken Creek Saloon is tiny, a dark one room affair with an enormous wood burner and a million caps and underpants festooning the walls and ceilings – it certainly has character!

The German tour group had been taken to the Chicken Gold Camp and Outpost for lunch in their cafe, which was otherwise deserted. It is worth popping in to check out the gift shop though – I particularly liked the silver bangles set with fine Russian glass beads – these were originally used to trade with the native Alaskans and were the origin of all the fine beadwork you see on their souvenirs today (although now they are plastic).

The Gold Camp has one other ace up its sleeve: Eggee, a giant metal chicken made from recycled school lockers, who stands on a hill nearby. Gaily painted, it has a plethora of chicken related sign posts above it. Poulet Island Las Mulvinas was not only grating to an English person but misspelt – but then I guess they had a history of it (and I’m not sure it even exists, the closest I could find was Bird Island!)

There are also tours of the giant Pedro Dredge No. 4, looking for all the world like a washed up ship next to the R.V. park – but then it was designed to float in water and be towed to the next spot when they had exhausted the gold. This one was used in Fairbanks from 1938 but finally ended up in Chicken.

It was of the bucket-line variety, where a continuous line of buckets scooped up the mud and rock and carried it to a screening area where the heavier metal particles were separated. The digging ladder is on the ground nearby and you can walk around the outside of the Dredge -the $15 tours take you inside.

Three families apparently run Chicken and the third stop was the Gold Panner Gift Shop with a vast array of chicken-y clothing and giant animal hides on the walls. You can buy the complete gold panning kit too and there is quite a neat area outside where a big pile of tailings from a gold mine have been dumped. Help yourself to a bucket load and try your hand at a sluice box. 

We watched one chap in action and he showed us the minute flecks of gold that were appearing in the silt; at $3,350 an ounce it might be worth it. There are also streams around where gold panning is allowed – I was told it is one of the top 10 things people want to do when they visit Alaska!

One mile out of town at 68.1, we found the trailhead for the Mosquito Fork Dredge, an easy .7 mile walk through a mossy spruce forest, with lots of mushrooms, to an overlook above an old dredger, forgotten beside a large creek like some prehistoric metal dinosaur.

It was a scenic spot and gave a good overview of the area, but unfortunately we had exhausted the delights of Chicken. 

And Eagle?

They obviously aspired to better things when they named Eagle and I was sorely tempted to visit. It is another old gold mining settlement some 105 miles to the north on the Yukon River. A trading post was built there in 1880, and the town was founded in 1897. It became the administrative, military and judicial centre for the Upper Yukon region, with Fort Egbert built in 1899.

WAMCATS, the 1,506 mile long Washington-Alaska Cable and Telegraph System, one of whose outposts we had seen in Big Delta, also ended in Eagle. 

It just goes to show it is all in a name but alas, our Ford Fiesta was not authorised for rough gravel roads. As they say in Chicken, it was time to cluck off!

NOTES

If you chose to do the entire highway it’s long, but any or all of it is doable in a normal 2WD car with care although some rental agencies may not allow their cars on gravel roads (or through the US/Canada border) – Go North is one that does. The road to Chicken is closed in winter.

There is petrol in Delta Junction, Tok and Chicken and plenty of accomodation in all of them if you are not camping.