Travels to Tok - Delta Junction, Alaska

Leaving Chicken, AK and stopping at Delta Junction then onto Tok, Alaska

Traffic on the Taylor Highway

With Chicken, AK behind us, we are travelling on the fairly isolated Taylor Highway, the stretch of road from where we crossed into Alaska until we arrive back on the Alaska Highway.  There were several miles of dirt roads and many locals were motoring on quads on this road, we saw several of these.

Peaceful drive through the countryside

The weather was great and we had some beautiful scenery with very little traffic to share the road with. This is Highway 5 and it is closed in the winter due to no road maintenance being done then.

Tanana River

This calm water looks more like a lake and not the normal river water we see but a nice change from the many rivers we cross on our travels.  We travel alongside the Tanana River for several miles as we complete our journey on the Alaska Highway, also called the Alcan.

Tok RV Village

We arrive in the small town of Tok, AK to spend the night at the Tok RV Village.  The spaces are large and they have several amenities available.  We arrived early afternoon so there were not many in there but more RV’ers arrived as the day went on.  We enjoyed warm summer weather and some local entertainment that evening.

Tok Visitor's Center and gift store

Tok meaning “peaceful crossing” considers itself the goodwill ambassador of Alaska. When highway travelling to and from Canada, you pass through Tok which is called the “Gateway to Alaska”.  We visited the Visitor’s Center and a local gift store full of Alaska souvenirs.  We see a display of animals of Alaska at most stops we make.  We’d prefer to see live animals but those viewings are rather limited in this big country.

Crossing the bridge over the Gerstle River

We cross the Johnson River then the Gerstle River on our last miles of the Alcan Highway.  There are so many rivers that we cross but the Gerstle was another great example of the rivers we saw during our travels.  There was very little water but small rivulets running down the braided riverbed on this July day.

Very BIG mosquito in Delta Jumction, Alaska

We are now at Delta Junction, AK and see these huge mosquito sculptures at the tourist centre.  We had been warned by everyone who has travelled Alaska in the past that we were to expect to see lots of bugs, mosquitoes being one of them.  We only saw a troublesome swarm once on our travels and we were able to avoid them by moving on.

Termperature records

We were travelling in the summer months and enjoying sunshine and warm temperatures on most days but this photo shows what kinds of temperatures the other months have brought in the past.  We’ve definitely chosen the right time of year to visit.

End of the Alaska Highway

We have now reached the end of the Alcan Highway that began in Dawson Creek, BC at Mile 0 and was built to connect Alaska to BC by road.  This project employed 15,000 men and 11,000 pieces of equipment.  The price at completion in 1942 was 115 million dollars but in today’s money would be almost 1.7 billion dollars.  The highway has been altered over the years with improvements etc. so the mileage can vary from this original number.

We are onto Fairbanks from here to spend a couple of days to enjoy what the area has to offer.  The adventure continues, click here.