7/3 Rain on and off all night so we left the campground early to give extra time to deal with muddy roads. The Alaskan part of the Top Of The World Hwy is much narrower, has many more hairpin turns with sharp drop-offs (some several hundred feet) none of which have guardrails, and the road is in much worse repair. At least the rain has stopped and the sun is beginning to peak through the clouds.
Entering Chicken, AK
Yep, Chicken
Stopped at Chicken (population 23 in summer, 7 in winter) to get a coffee mug – one just has to have a Chicken coffee mug. Chicken got it’s name from the local birds, ptarmigans, which the miners used for food. The problem was that no one could spell ptarmigan so they just called them chickens instead.
Given the road conditions and the many stops for pictures we took close to 4 hours to cover the 78 miles from Chicken to Tok (pronounced “toke”), AK. We camped in Tok at the Tok RV Village; not a super place but they had wifi and a reasonably good do-it-yourself RV wash, and boy did our rig need it.
Think It Needs A Wash?
If you drive to Alaska you have no choice but to go through Tok: it is where Rt 2, to Fairbanks and Rt 1, to Anchorage, intersect. One would think that this major crossroads would give rise to a bustling metropolis, but no, Tok is a couple of gas stations, two gift shops, 4 campgrounds, an impressively large and pretty Visitors Center and, Fast Eddy’s Restaurant – and that’s it.. Fast Eddy’s does, however, make the best pizza in Alaska.