Dan and Vicki Coyote Travels: Hello From Alaska

4,500 miles – Days 21 thru 26 - Part 1

To get out of Dawson City in the Yukon we took a ferry across the Yukon River. Coyote was hitching a ride here.

Entered Alaska on Monday, June 15 on day 20, via the ‘Top of the World Road’

For those who know our 1-mile gravel, twisty road with switchbacks to our home in Colorado … multiply that by 175 miles and run it along the top of the mountain ridges from Dawson City to Tok, Alaska. (Yea!… no flat tires, no cracked windows). About half way along that road we crossed the international border and dug out our passports. Then closer to the end, we lunched at Chicken, Alaska (they couldn’t pronounce or spell Ptarmigan) .. Good chicken soup there also.

Raffi (baby coyote’s new name … short for Rafael) and Vicki enter Alaska … finally!

FAIRBANKS

Now Fairbanks was supposed to be a couple days … but a medical mishap needed to be dealt with, so we booked an RV Park for 6 days and decided to see as much of Fairbanks as we could. Well, there is certainly much to see! So pictures … that do better justice than paragraphs.

Dogs … Mush dogs, sled dogs.

We had an image of fluffy Alaskan huskies … but our notion was quashed when we saw this demonstration. These are lean mean machines, these puppies. And they really do love, I mean LOVE to run. We listened to Jack London’s ‘Call of the Wild’ driving here and it was a perfect set up to see this.

Sea Planes

… everywhere… mostly on the water. Although just behind this one in the picture is a short landing strip above the beach if they had their wheels on.

Weather

Everyone is asking how cold it is here. This dispels that impression also. We have not worn jackets or turned on a heater for over two weeks. Wish we'd brought shorts.

And the sun

ALWAYS. Dan’s new joke is “Let’s hurry up and get there before it gets dark.” Dark sets the next morning at quarter to 1:00 a.m. and morning is at 3:00 a.m. Even the two hours after sunset till dawn is not dark … just dusk.

However, we figured out the trick for making it dark … close your eyes.