U.S. Customs and Border Protection opened the Poker Creek Port of Entry Sunday. It’s the agency’s farthest-north border-crossing that connects the Taylor Highway in the eastern Interior to the Top of the world Highway in the Yukon, which leads to Dawson City.
The Poker Creek Port of Entry is located about 40 miles east of Chicken, on a short stretch of the Taylor Highway up to the turnoff to Boundary Spur Road, which leads to the Yukon border.
The port of entry opens every year at around this time after the Alaska Department of Transportation snowplows the Taylor Highway and opens the overland route to Canada. The port of entry is scheduled to remain open until mid-September. But a Customs and Border Protection news release issued Friday advises travelers that the agency may adjust the closing date on short notice in case of adverse weather conditions.
Agency officials also remind travelers that passports are required to travel between Alaska and the Yukon. And they say firewood from Canada can’t be brought into Alaska.
More information is available on the Customs and Border Protection homepage on the Department of Homeland Security website, dhs.gov.