The Chicken Dance

Welcome to downtown Chicken, Alaska, population 21 in summer and 6 in winter. A regular metropolis. Chicken is on the way to Eagle and then the US/Canada border. It is a beautiful area of rolling hills in the Tanana Valley State Forest.

The drive up here was only 70 miles from Tok, but took a while because of poor road conditions. Seven of the 17 rigs in our group decided not to stay here and drove up in their cars for the day. The road had some good bumps, frost heaves and unpaved areas, but not as rough as other roads we have travelled. The bad news at the end of the road is we are dry camping. That means no electric, water or sewer. You do use your own water, battery and store up the sewer to dump at the next camp.

We didn't see any critters all day, but lots of chicken merchandise in the gift shop. Our first stop was the log cabin post office decorated with chicken stuff. The post mistress actually came outside to take our picture holding her rubber chicken. Mail is delivered here by plane twice a week. There are three commercial areas in Chicken, each has a cafe and gift shop and one gas station for the town. We proceeded to our lodgings at the Chicken Gold Camp & Outpost. They have a cute cafe and gift shop and we ate and shopped. Then we went outside to pan for gold. It is as addictive as a slot machine, you always imagine a huge nugget in the next pile of dirt.

I ventured out for the dredge tour which was quite informative. That is how much mining was done in Alaska years ago. The big machine is now sitting in a ditch and dirty, rusty and greasy. But, walking through its innards was interesting and a new experience. Later we had a dessert party with blueberry cobbler and vanilla ice cream. Then we played a round of hillbilly golf, another unsuccessful wildlife drive and we were off to bed.