Roll Call Alaska 2015

Ernest wrote:
I've been part of the "2014" group but posting this here as it may help more for those in the future.

Top of the World(TOW)Highway review.
We drove the TOW on Wednesday July 23, 2014 from Dawson City to Chicken. The weather had been dry for 3 day; no rain.

The TOW is really a good road from Dawson City to the Border (Poker Creek) and the vista's where fantastic. I'm sure it can be difficult in the rain as most of the surface is hard packed clay with stone. While it was a little dusty it was no worse that the chip/seal roads we/you will come across.

From the Border towards Chicken ,really the Taylor Highway,the first 13 miles was brand new asphalt this year. The remaining 28 miles or so from there to Chicken is nothing less than a dangerous road. This year so far 2 Class A's and 1 5th wheel have gone over the edge. According to those in Chicken this is not an unusual year. At least 50% of that stretch is single lane. No matter which direction your taking at times you'll have the passenger side looking over the "side". I don't know how one would decide who would do the backing up. In the rain OMG!

I had two situations where I was lucky to see 5th wheels coming our way so I stopped where I though we could try to pass. The most room we had was 6"!

It took 2.5 hours to go that 28 miles. There where no scenic overlooks or vista's. This is a gold miners back road which isn't safe for any RV'er.

IMHO if you want to see the Top of the World go to Dawson City (its a great town) and drive the TOW towards the border and return back to Dawson City.

Almost everyone we've met has spent a year researching the "Trip of a Life Time" and nowhere is the description or consequences of this section of the Taylor Highway/TOW is reported.

Please take this seriously.

The flip side is this. I drove the TOW from Chicken to Dawson City and I recommend this route for one big reason--the wait for the ferry at DC is a lot shorter than if you leave DC to Chicken. Granted, it rained the night before we left Chicken and the first 28 miles or so was wet but we only saw 5 vehicle on the road and they were all construction related and they gave us the road. The worst part, in my opinion, was the last mile or so to the customs building which was all rough gravel that was not rolled down and I only did 5 MPH because I wanted to spare my tires as much as I could. Other than that, the road was in good shape despite the horror stories we had heard before driving it. In many ways, the TOW was in better shape than the last 120 miles of the Alaska Highway from Beaver Creek to the border.