Chicken…

 































8/30/25: We left Tok after doing some laundry, cleaning the rig and dumping tanks.  There was fresh snow on the mountains outside Tok.  We made the drive up to Chicken on the Taylor Hwy which was on our summer list.  Chicken is a small mining town that gets busier in the summer, but only has two winter residents.  Story has it that the miners were going to name the town Ptarmigan, but no one could agree on how to spell it…so they decided to call it chicken.  


The drive up wasn’t as bad as we expected, still pretty rough though.  We did hit a frost heave/pothole that neither of us saw coming.  It opened cabinets and shot our basket of extra spices, etc all over the trailer.  This particular cabinet only opened once before…on the I-20 in Shreveport Louisiana.  After cleaning up our mess, we went to the Chicken Cafe and ordered a burger to split and took a cinnamon roll to go.  We then moseyed over to the Saloon and had a drink while waiting for our food.  It has Salty Dawg vibes, except the dollar bills have been swapped out for bras, panties and hats.  We had some nice conversations with other travelers, had a second beer and then continued on.  After we took a few photos anyway.  


The road is pretty much gravel and dirt up to the Eagle turnoff.  After that there is about 13 miles of nice pavement (maybe the smoothest in AK) up to the border.  We crossed back into pacific time just before the border which closes as 6pm this time of year and were worried they may be closed.  We beat the closure by about 35 minutes and had the easiest border crossing ever.  


We camped at a nice flat spot just up the road from the border on a high spot with 360* views.  If you are close to the border when it closes, you will hear a cannon fire and then they close the gates.  Late season hours are 8am - 6pm and the border closes for the winter on September 15th.  The Yukon River Ferry also shuts down then.  We walked the dogs off leash for a while, enjoyed the view and sunset and watched some movies.  Oh, and the cinnamon roll rivals Tetsa River Lodge.  

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