World United States Alaska Eagle

SHTravel

Eagle Jun 6, 2007

It rained all night, but sunrise was at 3:40 so it must have rained all morning before we got up, or some such thing. We headed on up the Taylor Hwy to Chicken, a wide spot in the road with a couple of restaurants, a gas station and some gift shops. It was an old mining town and there was a dilapidated dredge sitting beside the creek.

Just before Chicken the pavement ended and the rest of the trip to Eagle was a dirt road, graveled in some places. It is 94 miles from Chicken to Eagle and took us 4 hours. Most of the time you follow streams through low, rounded hills. Some of the hills are named Dome, like Fortymile Dome. Some of the time we were above tree line, which was about 3,500 ft, where we could see in all directions for miles. Much of this area was burned in 2004 and we went for miles through dead trees. The farther we drove the more isolated we felt. Saw only one or two vehicles coming or going.

Eagle is on the Yukon river, which is wide, slow moving and muddy at this point. Eagle is peaceful and quiet. It is home to the Yukon-Charley River Preserve. Like so many of the Preserves and National Parks in Alaska, spectacular but so remote and rugged few can enjoy it. We camped for the night in the BLM campground just outside of town. It was warm so we cooked and ate outside with a few mosquitoes and a lot of no-see-ums.