RV Camping – Chicken, Alaska

A motorhome is a very good option of transportation in which a disabled person can travel.  The seating is large and comfortable.  There is ample room in which to maneuver inside the motorhome. The luxury of having bathroom and bedroom facilities “on-board” proves to come in very handy, too.  Everything is within easy reach, including food, clothing, and toiletries.  It is because of these comforts that we are able to travel extensively in our motorhome.

Although all of our road trips are memorable, some are more so than others.  One such trip includes our motorhome trip to Alaska.  We entered Alaska via “Top of the World” Highway, where we truly had a bird’s eye view.  The sights were not only amazing, but experiencing it in a motorhome gave us a new respect for paved roadways.

After crossing customs into Alaska, we traveled another 43 miles via a dirt, “wash-board” road to the first town:  Chicken.  Chicken, Alaska was established in 1903 as a mining camp and post office.  It got its name from the chicken-like Ptarmigan bird, which is plentiful in that area.   Miners wanted to name their camp “Ptarmigan”, but were unable to spell it and settled for “Chicken”…so the story goes.

Chicken, Alaska is actually quite an interesting and unique place.  It has a population of 21 in the summer; six in the winter.  It consists of a gas station, a saloon, a liquor store, a gift shop/mercantile/emporium, a cafe, a gold mining dredge, and a post office.  Dry camping is available in a flat, dirt parking lot.

Chicken, Alaska has no electricity…it runs on generators.  There is also no running water; water is hand-pumped from a well.  There are no bathrooms…outhouses are used.  There is also no telephone service.  Amazingly, Chicken does have Wi-Fi.  We were able to sit comfortably at a table in the cafe, enjoying our espresso, and go online; the generator motors humming noisily behind us.

We were encouraged to drive our motorhome on a narrow, pine tree-lined dirt lane to see the Post Office, which consists of a one-room log structure.  The Post Office is open Monday through Friday, but the mail plane only stops on Tuesday and Friday for delivery and pick-up services.  Talk about having to “plan ahead”.

Upon approaching the driveway which goes up a mountainside, we came eye-to-eye with a moose sculpture directly in front of us.  I think to myself, “How appropriate that the first Alaska Post Office that we see has a statue of a moose.”  As we try to maneuver our motorhome around this sculpture, which we notice also consists of two baby moose on each side, it m-o-v-e-s!  It isn’t a sculpture at afterall…it’s real.  Mommy moose and twins make their way back into the thick woods.  What a thrill for us to have seen this sight.

Traveling in a motorhome is a wonderful way for disabled persons to easily see the sights.  We didn’t see that darn “Ptarmigan” in Chicken, but we did see a moose and her two babies.  What a memory!

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