Chicken, Alaska

June 15th, and we're on the road to Chicken, Alaska! This is the Taylor Highway, which degrades from asphalt to dirt, gravel, and potholes. You're seeing the results of the "Taylor Complex Fires," which burned 1.3 million acres during the summer of 2004.










Our spot in the Chicken Creek RV Park. Notice that the rig has acquired another - even more persistent - layer of grime.


The four-business complex in Chicken, all owned by one person. We enjoyed a fantastic lunch in the cafe, although it was a bit disappointing for Bill because they were out of chicken!


Awaiting his master at the Chicken Creek Saloon:


The Pedro Dredge, a gold dredge, is a National Historic Site located at the Chicken Gold Camp RV Park (Chicken's only other RV park). It was sort of a mechanized form of gold panning, with a conveyor belt of three-cubic-foot buckets that scooped the creek bottom and then separated the gold flakes from the tailings. It was used from 1938 through 1967, first in Pedro Creek, north of Fairbanks, and then in lower Chicken Creek.








The stage used for the Chickenstock Music Festival each summer at the Chicken Gold Camp RV Park:


A male Yellow Warbler and various wildflowers in Chicken Creek RV Park:






Possibly Sheep Sorrel:


Paintbrush:


Fireweed:


Dwarf Fireweed:


A coooold night in Chicken:


Chicken's Post Master (in the gray sweatshirt) and Post Office, where mail is dropped off just twice a week: