Today I drove 57.7 miles from the pullout on the Top of the World Highway to Chicken, AK. This took 2 hours and 10 minutes. The roads were not great condition so slow and steady is the way to go! Don’t forget the amazing views too!
About 15 or so miles into the journey we passed through border/ U.S. Customs, and we also lost an hour. We are now 4 hours behind east coast time.
We are finally in Alaska!!
Right after exiting the border, we were greeted with a great paved road, but that did not last long, and the road turned to a rough dirt road which lasted until we arrived in Chicken.
Chicken, AK has a population of 12. At least that is what the 2020 census states.
The story is that years ago when the stampeders settled there for the gold mines, they wanted to name the town after a local bird called a Ptarmigan. Because they could not agree on the proper spelling of Ptarmigan, they settled on calling the town “Chicken”.
There are still active gold mines in the area and the owner of our campground also owns a local active gold mine.
The campground also has on location a historical landmark the Pedro Dredge which is fully intact with all the original equipment and tools, etc. from when it was an active dredge.
We were able to tour the dredge and also pan for gold. I ended up with a few flakes of gold.
Next up in the journey is Tok, Alaska.