Top Of The World Highway – an epic adventure through Alaska and the Yukon

Top Of The World Highway – an epic adventure through Alaska and the Yukon

[Music] the Top of the World Highway. This week we’re taking this iconic road back to Canada after a couple of weeks in Alaska. It’s a great drive with stunning scenery and fascinating history. So stay tuned for this fabulous journey. We’re Sarah and Ben. Welcome back to Diamonds on Tour. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Right, we’ve just had a quick visit to Nappa Auto Parts. Ben’s second favorite uh shop in these parts. So, first is Canadian Tire. Second is Nappa that seems to cross both um of the countries. Yes, they’re in Canada and in America, US and Canada. So, that’s good. Um, so we just popped in there because I noticed a little bit of an oil weep, not as much as a leak, but a weep from our front differential oil seal. And, um, obviously if your differential hasn’t got any oil in it, that will quite badly spoil your day. So, um, I just got a bottle of oil to check the level and it was only a tiny smidge down. So, I’ve topped it up and, um, we’re good to go. So that’s a bit of peace of mind from that. And today we’re leaving Tok and we are heading back towards Canada. So we will be crossing the border later. But before that we’ve got some other stuff to go and see. Right. And this is where we leave the Alaska Highway and we turn north up the Taylor Highway because we’re aiming for the northern crossing between Alaska and Canada at the top of the road highway. A sign here tells us that customs is open until 6:00 p.m. So if you get there after 6:00, you have to wait, I presume. Yeah, you have to wait until 8:00 the next morning. Yeah. So, let’s hope we’re doing okay. It’s 10 to 12 and it’s not that far. So, we’ve got no problem at all. [Music] Now, this town has a strange name, chicken. It is odd. Um, but there’s a great story behind that. When the settlers first came here, they actually wanted to name it after the national bird of Alaska, which is a tmigan. But they didn’t know how to spell tarmaggan. There was a big debate about how to spell tomagan. You know that PT. Yeah. So they called it chicken instead. Makes sense. [Applause] [Music] We just stopped in the town of chicken on the road up to the border um with the top of the world highway. And this is one of those old dredging machines. Um there was quite a big gold rush in this area, the Klondike gold rush. And this was one of these machines which basically goes along the river with massive scoops at the front. It scoops up tons and tons of gravel and then inside are huge machines which do basically the same as panning for gold but on an industrial scale. And then when they’ve sifted out any gold that was there, it’ll be deposited up this huge great chute and left in massive great piles of gravel along the riverbed. And that’s what you can see when you look on, you know, satellite map images. You can see these crazy lines of gravel alongside the rivers in this region. Now, these are the buckets which would have been on the arm at the front of the dredging machine. And these would go down into the river and scoop up tons and tons of this gravel. And here you can see the great big kind of slot in the front of the the machine. So that arm could go down and underneath the water in deep into the gravel to scoop it up from really deep down. Of course, with the name chicken, they’ve got to have a chicken statue. So this rather marvelous looking piece of artwork has actually been created by this local students. And the bits of me in metal and all those bits of metal are just used lockers. I think that’s really good. It’s really nice. This sign’s a bit unique. All the s all the places listed are the names of real places in different parts of the world with the name of chicken with chicken in their name or rooster or anything related to chicken in their name. So that’s great. So for example, lizard lick in NC where NC is. We’ve egum farer in Austria, Rooster Berg in Belgium, and Chicken Gizard in KY. Uh Chicken Creek Outpost, which also has an RV park. We’re not staying here tonight because we’re heading on and crossing the border. [Music] Bit more to show you in chicken. [Music] And chicken have got this cute little suspension bridge just for foot bridge. You enjoy that? Yeah. I’m I’m a little bit concerned about this. What? Really bad. Oh, this geeky thing. Oh, it’s not even geeky. Look. So, here’s an example of a poor bit of design. We’ve got an aluminum cable which has basically been eaten through by the steel washer that it’s put through. Yeah. So, it’s not going to last much longer. Doesn’t really inspire confidence, to be honest. Another [Music] big chicken. [Music] Right, we filled up with the most expensive diesel in America. $4.99 a one of those little American gallons. Thankfully, you only needed $22 worth just to top up, didn’t Yeah, we just we were we were over 3/4 of a tank, so we didn’t need much. We like to keep it topped up on these remote roads, particularly. Yeah. You never know, do you? That’s right. Some jeep people out for a out for a spin. Wow. So, that was chicken. Yeah. Really, really interesting. The woman who works behind the bar said she’s actually been tipped with a piece of gold which she weighed and was worth about $30. Um she had also been out with a friend up to the river with somebody um doing a bit of the old panning and got a little bit of gold that way. but also um that somebody who works up here doing that work came in and needed to refuel their their truck and had a couple of hundred worth of fuel and you know lunch and drinks and paid for that with gold. So really interesting. The guy there gives them a lower rate because he’s then got to take the gold into Fairbanks to get it changed um at the official seller. So he obviously needs to get his margin on there. Yeah. And she talked about it not being completely clean. Yeah, that’s right. He has to refine it further and stuff. So really fascinating that there are still people up here who go up in these mountains and find gold. Yeah. Astonishing. She said some people will will actually make $300,000 a year. Yeah. Make a decent income. Fascinating. Yeah. Fascinating. It’s a nice little town. Uh definitely a touristy spot, but uh with very few tourists in it. Certainly when we went there were very few. Guess not that many will make the trek up there, but the pub was absolutely fantastic. Yeah. And you know the story about the um about all those pants hanging from the seat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So in that in this pub, you I’m sure you’ve seen this online. They’ve got what they call the panty cannon and it’s this big lump of metal um little cannon basically like a little mortar and uh women are encouraged to take their panties off and then they get loaded into the cannon with gunpowder and blasted out in the car park. So throughout that place are shredded remains of underwear nailed to the ceiling. I’d have to take clean pants in. I suppose I suppose the action of the explosion about cutting them off, didn’t you? Yeah. Yeah. I’d have to take clean ones in. We didn’t do it. No. No. We That’s one tourist thing we chose to avoid. Well, I never did. Um Chicken has two year round inhabitants, the um postmaster and his wife. Um because apparently post offices have to be staffed year round. So although this road’s closed and there’s absolutely no access for six months of the year, those two are still there. It sounds like very much the starting of the script of um The Shining. Oh, but um yeah, fascinating. And they said that they they have access to the post plane which has skids on it so it can take off and land on the snow. So if they need to go out and do anything, then they can jump in the plane and get off. And she is the um she’s responsible for all the emergency medical care in this area. Yeah. They must love it when that the winter season ends and people start coming back. Yeah. They either love it or they hate it. Yeah. Must be incredible. Yeah. And as you can see, the road now, I think, all the way from Chicken to the border is this gravel road. It’s actually a really good gravel road. Um, we’re able to maintain an easy 30 mph and we’ve got 64 km to go to the border. [Music] Well, the last 20k or so before the exit of the US is a beautiful tarmac road. I think it might be the US saying, “See, we do know how to make a nice road.” Just to leave you with that thought, but what a stunning spot this is. We’re at this is called the top of the top of the world highway now. This is Yeah. Yeah. Can you see why? So, we’re at 1,50 m elevation and it’s absolutely beautiful still. What a stunning place. top of the world highway. And it really does feel like the top of the world, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it? Wow. It does. It’s amazing all the different um ranges of of the hills. Yeah. Mountains. It’s incredible. Yeah. Well, with these absolutely incredible views across the mountains up here, we are just about to approach the customs for our crossing back into Canada. So, I’m going to turn the camera off and I guess we’ll see you on the other side. I don’t think they like being filmed, do they? No, I wouldn’t think so. No. [Music] Here we are then, back into the Yukon. Fantastic. Super easy border crossing again, wasn’t it? Yes. Very good. And there was there were no American people there. That was just Canada. Yeah. Yeah. No US. Nothing to talk us out of American US. It would just come back into Oh, I was hoping that was a patch of bear poo on the road. It’s [Music] fantastic. So, welcome back to Canada. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh, good morning. Hello. This is our first morning back in Canada. Yes, having driven up the top of the world highway to the border yesterday. There’s where we parked the van last night. And just look at this view. Miles and miles and miles. That is absolutely fantastic, isn’t it? [Music] What an amazing spot. It really feels like we’re a long way from anything, doesn’t it? Yeah, we are. The truth is we are. Yeah. Right. Then we’re on our way back to the van now and down the road to Dawson City and we’re going to spend a couple of days there and that will be really interesting. And then after that we’re going to start on the Dempster Highway. So, we’re heading north from Dawson and today is the 15th of July. It is. And what happened on that day? 13 years ago. We got married. So, we Happy wedding anniversary. Fantastic. And this year, for a change, we both remembered. We did. Which is we have forgotten it two years. Doesn’t always happen like that, does it? Yeah. We both remembered, but we were testing each other though. Neither of us said anything about it. That’s right. To see if the other one had forgotten. Yes. A bit of that naughty behavior. [Music] Well, this top of the world highway really is an incredible place. It’s a gravel road taking us from the border with the United States down to Dawson City um through the Yukon and it’s just utterly stunning scenery. We’re up in mountains. It climbs to 1,300 m above sea level. But you can see as far as you can see to the horizons in all directions is just mountains, wilderness, forest, and that’s it. You know, I’ve often said that um my favorite place is anywhere where you can’t see anything that’s made of concrete. And this is definitely a place like that. Um, what really comes home is when the the start of this road is over in Alaska, you could fit the United Kingdom in Alaska over seven times and yet Alaska’s population is only 740,000. That’s just a decentsized city in the UK. So there are it’s really really sparsely populated. And the population of the Yukon is what was it? 43,000 people. So here I’m just I mean it’s just astonishing how few people there are up here and how um empty the land is. It’s absolutely stunning. Proper untouched land. Just the occasional truck flying past. 47,000. Oh 47,000. Yeah. In sorry5 missed out those 4,000 of you. Yeah. is they’re special. Yes, they need them. Yeah, but this I mean it’s what a drive. Absolutely fantastic. This gravel road is in really really good condition. They maintain it really well. And um yeah, this road is only open for a few months of the year during the the season. Um was it May till September? September, I think. Yeah, closes in the middle of September or something. And um yeah, you can see why it’s Yeah, let’s just enjoy the scenery. Well, since we’re back in Canada, I can now fly the drone again. I didn’t do the necessary registration and tests and things to be able to fly in in the United States for just those two weeks that we were there. So, back in Canada, can get back up in the air and show you some pictures like this. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] You’re probably quite tired of hearing me say what an incredible place. I just won’t say it anymore and let you look at the pictures. [Music] [Music] [Music] This then is the Yukon River and that is the city of Dorson just down there. But we’ve stopped just a couple of minutes before the ferry because we believe that if you walk down the side of the river here, there’s something quite exciting to see down here. Oh wow, look at that. [Music] Well, that’s incredible, isn’t it? [Music] Oh dear. Well, quite a sorry sight. It is, isn’t it? So, this is the remains of a paddle steamer. those enormous ships that uh transported people up and down this river. And I guess what was kind of like the 1930s, wasn’t it? Yeah. Well, I think so. This is fascinating. You see in there, that’s the boiler. It looks like a steam train, doesn’t it? And the huge chimney stacks that are falling over, occupied by a few crows now. Yes, very noisy crows. I think we might be attacked. Now, the apparently there are I’ll have to walk around the back cuz apparently there’s about at least three of these ships that were just pulled up onto the floated down the river and pulled up at high water onto the side of the river when they were no longer used and just left here. I’m guessing that was probably in the 1930s. I don’t know, Darling. maybe getting on for a 100 years ago. And here’s the remains of the paddle wheel at the back. Wow. That’s incredible. A sorry sight, but what a thing to see. There’s another one here with a more intact paddle wheel. Wait for me. Sorry. [Music] Look at that. [Music] I don’t know what you can see from up there. A lot more than I can see from down here. Well, there you go. The remains of what? Certainly two, maybe three huge great paddle steamers. Well, you can just imagine these operating in their heyday, the kind of parties and the the people traveling on them. [Music] That was an interesting few minutes interlude, wasn’t it? Yes. Break up our journey to Dawson. fascinating little sort of uh peak into history or what’s left of it. That particular thing. Well, we can see the ferry down there. You probably can’t on this camera, but we’ve got about just 5 minutes drive and we’ll be in the queue for the ferry. [Music] Right. Thank you. Now, those boats are about a 300 m walk up the river from this little spot here. I’m not sure why this van’s kind of abandoned here. It’s a shame, isn’t it? A bit. [Music] This is the very end of the municipal campground. um the other side of the river from Dawson City. So you just drive all the way to the end of there where there’s this little turn around and walk down there up the river and you’ll find them. [Music] Oh, it’s only tiny. Yeah, it’s a really small ferry, but you can see it’s only a Yeah, it only takes about 7 minutes to get across there. And it’s free of charge because this ferry is part of the road network. [Music] [Music] [Music] Sorry. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] Oh, bloody hell. Massive queue. Wow. Over that side, the right. Good job we joined when we did. Hi. It’s a lady. [Music] Here’s us saying stop and go, man. And it wasn’t. It was a lady. Yeah. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Well, what an amazing drive that was. The top of the World Highway was a very special place. Thanks for watching and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Please come back next week when we’re starting the infamous Dempster Highway driving deep into the Arctic. [Music]

🌍 We’ve been exploring Canada and Alaska for four months since shipping our van from the UK. This road was epic.

👉🏻 See this adventure here; https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-ARg4dsXeo6U9xaGoK1v7sfb406lOkU9

This week, we are travelling back into Canada from Alaska and we’re taking the magnificent Top of the World Highway, the most northerly border crossing in the USA and Canada. It’s only open for a few months each year when the weather permits. The road winds its way through the most incredible scenery and landscapes that are truly unspoilt by humans.
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We’re Sarah and Ben, a couple from the UK who’ve been on the road for years. Back in 2020, when the world went bonkers, we decided to take matters into our own hands. We bought an empty Mercedes Sprinter van and started transforming it into our dream home on wheels. And guess what? We’ve been on an incredible adventure, exploring every corner of Europe! From the sunny southern tip of Portugal to the eastern shores of Bulgaria, and even the icy northernmost tip of Norway, over 300 miles into the Arctic. It’s been an unforgettable journey, and we wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world!

To explore even more of this fabulous world, we have shipped our van over to Canada and we are embarking on an epic adventure around North America.

Follow us as we explore the World and check back at our videos to see our van build and all our other travels in Europe.

Visit our website at https://www.sarahandben.uk
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00:00 Intro
01:36 The top of the world highway
02:29 Chicken
07:03 Back to the highway
13:15 The Canadian border
21:28 The Paddlewheel Graveyard
27:04 Yukon River ferry
28:44 Outro
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Our camera gear (Affiliate links) – may only work for the UK Amazon store;
Sony A7 iv https://amzn.to/3ZrmKLd
Sigma 24-70 f2.8 https://amzn.to/40qdjgg
Sigma 14-24 f2.8 https://amzn.to/3pvg5DF
Sony 200-600 https://amzn.to/3lQt1Cd
Insta 360 X4 https://amzn.to/3RPjyaD
DJI mic https://amzn.to/40gRGPn
Drone DJI Mavic 2 pro. Not available any more as it’s 6 years old. I would get this one now as it’s very good and under 250 grammes so you don’t need a license to fly it. https://amzn.to/4drwQUM
Tripod https://amzn.to/40EvbU8
Osmo Pocket 3 https://amzn.to/45mmIsJ
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We use Epidemic Sound for the music in our videos;
The river’s gonna cry when you’re gone https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/tracks/9762af42-063f-39c7-ad3c-f32f8e6faa6f/
Chicken beat https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/tracks/504b550b-453a-41ae-8ee2-ac24b418f89e/
Country girl https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/tracks/ff81ee17-1c50-474f-bca2-c100761324ed/
Never thought https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/tracks/9fc9a9fe-9c4c-3869-82d7-e6ba8bfa1969/
For far too long https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/tracks/530af26c-99d9-472e-9443-99e09a5fa03c/
Seasons change https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/tracks/e8851f76-fb1c-4d77-bcc0-ed595a3d9ca0/

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