Taylor Highway – Chicken – Eagle

We continued heading north from Tok on the Taylor Highway towards the communities of Chicken and Eagle. This area was severely affected by several large fires in 2004 and 2005. We saw evidence of them along much of the route. Unfortunately, we were too late to witness any of the spectacular fireweed displays we had seen in other fire impacted areas of the state. But we were lucky enough to catch the fall colors beginning to emerge.

Notice the fireline in the background of this shot. Dave worked on a helicopter on this particular fire.

When we finally made it to the small community of Chicken we were bombarded with chicken paraphernalia. The town got its name when the miners staying there tried to name it ptarmigan but realized they didn’t know how to spell it. They settled for Chicken, the slang name for ptarmigan. Chicken doesn’t have much going for it, other than its name.

The Outhouses in Chicken

The Chicken Saloon

A Redmond Hotshots t-shirt tacked up in the bar. This was the fire crew Dave worked for in 2001. The Redmond Hotshots came up in 2004 to help with the fires. Not too surprising, they ended up in the Chicken Saloon!

We came across this huge dredge on a riverbank.

At the end of the Taylor Highway sits the historic community of Eagle. Approximately 125 people live in Eagle today. They are lucky enough to live on the banks of the Yukon River. Unlike Circle, the village further downstream, Eagle overlooks riverside cliffs and cutbanks perfect for nesting falcons. We spent a couple days in Eagle just taking it easy and seeing the sights. We even rotated the van tires, which almost sabotaged the trip!! We will now remember to put the board we have been carrying the entire trip under the jack before we raise the van up!!

Downtown Eagle

The Yukon River