The road from white horse (3 days ago) to Dawson city, is rumored to be boring.
PWe disagree, there is nothing there but gorgeous scenery. The road is long though, the drive took hours. Our book suggests that in the way in a small town of ‘Pelly crossing’ stands the best ice cream in Canada and even in the Yukon so we had no choice but to stop. The book is not updated, the ice cream lady left this bear forgotten place a couple of years ago and move to a place where the cones flow like sugar. We had to settle for standard fridge ice cream. We kept going north and took a little detour on a road famous for moose. We saw no moose, but took some magnificent shots of the mountains.
We drove till we reached the intersection with Dempster highway. Dempster highway is a gravel road that passes through tundra, crosses the arctic circle (the line where the sun has at least one day on never setting in a year) and ends on the shores of the Bearing sea. We drove a part of the way till the tombstone park which offers incredible view points of the tundra which I can’t say enough on the variety of colors in the middle of the fall.
Before heading up the road we stopped for a Musk Ox burger, unfortunately it takes 50 minutes to makes so we had soup and banana cream pie.
The road is said to be in bad condition and many rental companies disallow driving there, we took the short and relatively drivable area. And got lovely shots.
Bear chased and I wanted to remain here, and Amit and Eran preferred Dawson city. So, we drove them there to a very unique hostel on the river, owned by a Dautche dude name dieter (who rode 240,000 K on his bike – that’s 6 times around the world!!!) and helps write or translate books like ‘how to shit in the wild’ and ‘how to have Sex in the wild’. Interesting guy. In this hostel, you have to shower by dumping water buckets on you head…
After checking in, we took the ferry back across the Yukon river and went to the happening town of Dawson. With 2 places left open, a Chinese place and the local gambling parlor, the choice was obvious. We went for Chinese.
Of course not Chinese, this is a western style city and we went to Greties. This is a small casino, with live shows by singers and dancers dressed like the early 1900 in the Gold rush era. The quality of the songs was ok, dancing was better and the Hawaiian pizza better still, but it was a fun evening. The main entertainer was Gretie herself, dressed in 1900 dress and went around the crowd singing to the men, pinching, flirting etc including touching my noise. We left them in town and drove back to the lodge on the entrance to Dempster highway and spent the night in a meat locker.
It’s actually a caravan, dorm style, but the doors resemble a meat locker and the lock was an actual pad lock! Not what you expect to find in a motel.
We drove up the Dempster highway away and hiked the grizzly bear lake which I already wrote on and drove back to Dawson city.
We went to the Gold mine which are still active and let you pan for gold, but we were short on time (needing to pick up Amit) and didn’t pan, but managed to drive up the Dome of Dawson for city and Yukon views. On top stood the ’top of the world’ bench, which was quite huge. We drove down while Racer was using the break too much, leaving a burning smell from the tires (it’s a rental, so who cares….except the guy who buy a “good as new ” car from there)
We took photos of the town which still looks like the 1900, ate ice cream and went to the ‘top of the world highway’ which leads west of Dawson city towards the Alaska/Canada border.
The top of the world highway, goes up the mountains again with amazing tundra views till the border that has a population of 2 (no kidding, there is a sign). The officer asked a few questions and did some inquires and finally let Alla in (no passport), the was the most northern US land border. We drove few miles till the town of Border, the town was closed! I guess the mayor (who is also the tavern owner, tier repair guy and street sweeper went to the border itself to keep the population of 2 entertained, so after few shots of the ancient gas station and cute cabin we drove on, passed the intersection that goes north towards Eagle and drove alongside a river who was glowing an incredible glow in the sunlight, and there on the outskirt of the town of Chicken stood 3 Moose.
Chocolate, hair, and parfait moose. A mother and 2 moose cubs (it’s a pattern here, mom+2) eating the plants on the edges of a small pond. We watched them for a long while. A mom moose is the most dangerous animal in Alaska (more than Sara Palin Even), if she senses a danger to her moose babies she will attack and ram you, be careful around the willow trees, they may be hiding!
I took a video of them but something went wrong, shame, one of the cubs was playing, so cute.
And then there was Chicken. The main street has 3 huts, a souvenir shop, a bar with lots of hats on the ceiling and a diner serving….chicken. this place has a poster with facts on the place, which was super funny (I have a shot of that). We ate chicken soup and chilly , I bought a “I was laid in chicken, and let me tell you, it’s not that cracked up to be” T-shirt. And we got a cute chicken key chain (free after buying something at Tok, 10 days before), the key chain is lost by now, it was eaten at Denali by a snow shoe hare.
Chicken is a tiny tiny town that took its name to the cute extreme but we kep going and spent the night in Tok (there were no other road, we had to go there) and ate soup at Buds.
On the morning we passed by Delta junction on the way to the north pole.
Yes, we were at the north pole!
North pole, Alaska that is. This place did not take advantage of its name, we struggled to find welcome to the north pole sign, but the place has the house of Santa Clause and the streetlight are shaped like candy canes (striped red and white).
20 minutes later we reached Fairbanks, which is an actual city. We walked on the down town banks and took a necessary ice-cream, stocked up on camping food and headed south towards Denali.
After a quick Stop at ‘Nenane’ for pizza lunch (we don’t just eat, there are lots of driving hours with amazing views in this trip), we finally arrived at Denali park and went for a short hike in which no animals showed their faces other then swans, but we did see some beaver dams. We went for Denali center ( a cute but very touristic area) and got some souvenirs and sea food chowder and drove to our hostel. This place was a cabin with 4 funks on the 1st floor and a tiny loft on the 2nd floor where you have to climb on a ladder to get to. But it has a double bunk.
We left early morning, packed our packs (tents, sleeping bags, air matters(it’s a necessity) and two days worth of food) and took the camper bus to the park. Dick was our bus driver and he started with a hilarious ten minutes monologue of the regulations of the park, the way he drives, for what animals he will stop and when- quality, not quantity’, we were cracked up. And then we hit the road (after taking egg salad sandwich and banana to go). On the way we passed a herd of Caribou, our first caribou site of more to come on this road, they were approaching the road in a cautious way. We reach tektalina camp site and set up camp and placed all the thing with odor (food, soap etc) in the bear lockers and took another bus further into the park.
The park does not allow private cars, the only traffic is dedicated tour busses, some for tourists and the camper bus for hikers, so you can get on and off at any point.
On the way west we passed by 4 more bears in 3 different sightings. One of them was running along the water banks chasing a ground squirrel, it is quite remarkable seeing a bear run (especially if he is running after something other than you). We got off the bus at polychrome pass known for its many colors and took a small trail to the tundra.
At Denali there are no real trails, it is meant to be “man was not here”, kind of thing. But you can walk by yourself, it’s not a problem in the tundra with the low brush. But there are more toured areas which created trails for both man and other more advanced mammals.
We followed the path up a small hill and down the other side till I spotted movement. A brilliant red fox, reddish in color with a white tip at the edge of a long furry tail. We watched the fox(named Jamie), attempt (and succeed) in catching its prey, we are unsure of what that prey was, a snow shoe hare or ground squirrel most likely but it was awesome seeing it jump up and down in attempts to get the meat out. Magpies were landing around it waiting for Jamie to finish the meal and rummage for leftovers. We approached the fox and have great footage and video. We kept going to a small swamp with willow trees and kept a close watch for moose. On the swampy ground were many tracks and hoof marks of Moose, bear and fox and on the other side of the fox stood Samantha the fox. We watched the fox for a couple of minutes till it disappeared in the brush. I could actually the wily face on the first of the fox, so smart looking. My favorite souvenir from Switzerland 11 years ago was a wily fox, I finally know how real it is.
We got back on the bus and went on seeing more Caribou, mountains, glaciers and the Ptarmigan, the Alaska state bird, which is a kind of chicken but with cuter colors. at the next rest stop we split, Amit and Eron-il went on the bus forward to wonder lake and foggy views, and we headed back and stopped at sable pass…where we saw the 3 bears up close and personal.
After the bears , we hopped on the bus and exchanged Fox vs Wolf tails (unfortunately we did not see the wolf) and disembarked at another stop and followed the river back to camp. This hike was less interesting with no wild life sightings.
And there we met fire- starter… to be continued
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