Far far up north feels like a different world. It is magical, scary at times, stunningly beautiful and so underpopulated. Those who decided to live there showed us lots of care, kindness and great hospitality, we will miss them.
4000 km in 8 days, empty unpaved roads, moose and bears wandering around, never ending daylight, warm, and no tourists. Sounds like a paradise except for the occasional need for the rifle on the back. More bears than people live in Alaska.
We started from Whitehorse all the way to Alaska, half way up the Golden Loop. Valdez welcomed us with icebergs, bears and rain. Definitely one of the favorite parts of the trip. The big Alaska loop was at our feet through Denali, where we saw the Magic Bus, Fairbanks and finally long awaited Chicken, population 40 and 8 in the winter. That was part of the trip mom remembered very well from her hitch hiking trip 18 years ago. From Chicken we drove on top of the world highway to Dawson City.
Dawson City hasn’t changed since the Klondike days in 1896. We did try some luck looking for gold. I got a little flake, grandpa had to put glasses on to see it and mom was worried trying not to sneeze. Since we didn’t get a fortune we drove back along the Golden Loop to Whitehorse.
Grandpa was a great chef and mom a good driver, I was good at collecting firewood.
After arriving in Whitehorse we soaked our bodies in the hot springs. We were sad to leave the north behind, but we will be back …
