Top of the World Highway

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Posted by whalerho | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 01-09-2009

Since the very beginning of our Alaskan adventure, people have been telling us about the “Top of the World Highway”. It is touted as being very beautiful but also apparently very weather dependent.   If it’s foggy or raining hard, you had better put it off for a better day or even consider traveling an alternate route. When we checked the weather on the internet, RAIN was in the forecast for every day of the week! Knowing these weather stations can be oh so wrong, we decided to take fate into our hands and just plan a day and go for it. We were so pleased to have a beautiful morning for our departure from Chicken and our big trek across this famous highway.

We knew the highway would be gravel and I imagined hairpin turns with sheer drop-offs, at least that’s what we were told to expect. Compared to Highway 200 in Mexico and the Million Dollar Highway in Colorado, this highway was a piece of cake!! The Top of the World Highway is, without a doubt, our favorite route in all of Alaska. While it is indeed mostly gravel and narrow in spots, the vast views of rolling mountains and autumn colors with views of meandering rivers more than made up for the lack of a paved road. There weren’t many turnouts to take pictures but since there was so little traffic, we could simply stop in middle of the road as needed for a photo. There was one time, however, that I was being a total tourist with camera in hand, looking for the perfect angle only to finally look behind me to see a huge tour bus. Oops!!

During one of our stops, we were all gazing outward in silence and heard the flapping of a raven’s wings in the distance. THAT’S how quiet and peaceful this special place on earth is and we can’t wait to go back again. When we were about half way through our 100 mile trek on the highway, we again entered Canada. This time our goodbye to Alaska was for good (at least for this RV trip) and it was really hard to bid farewell to a state which really is the last frontier. We have no doubt we will return to this amazing state but next time, we want to come in the winter!

Comments (1)

Hi guys! I spent HOURS trying to catch up since it had been a while. I enjoyed your stories so much Sallie! the pictures are wonderful. I didn’t imagine the Artic Circle so green! Keep having fun!
much love,
Veronica

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