Top of World Highway

Thank you Sue T. I had this feeling you would know.

The American side is lowland with much moisture in the ground. It is subject to freezing and thawing, and some of it would have had permafrost before the road construction. End result is many frost heaves and potholes, similar to the Alaska Highway around Beaver Creek.

The Canadian side is higher elevation, less moisture in the ground, lots of rock. There's much snow there in winter, but the ground doesn't hold moisture so it doesn't freeze/thaw & heave in the same way because it is rock, rock and more rock.

Made it over Top of the World Highway just fine in a car and a pickup camper. It was dusty,bumpy, rough, a little rain but still very beautiful. Glad we did it. My question is, why is the Canadian side so much better to drive on then the U.S. side. Except for the 12 miles of very nice new black top on the U.S. side.

Hi from AZ. . . we did TOW twice with 28 ft tt, and loved it. . From Dawson to Tok was very dusty, going back we encountered quite a bit of rain. a lot more traffic in July than a month earlier. Chicken was way overrated. Dawson is fun. . . regards, Craig

the road is fine, don't let the milepost fool you. just drive it. it was no different then many roads I've driven on that are gravel and paved. you'll love the 10 miles of Obama road, beautiful asphalt, it took them 2 years to build because no one realized that there was no water there. I took my 40 foot 5th wheel there last month and it takes about 4 hours NOT the 7 hours that the milepost states.
but, do stay at chicken and go to see the bar and restaurant and say hi to susan. you can stay free at her place too (this is not the campground with the gas pumps)

Stop campground at 49 mile is quiet and was well maintained, (Chicken camping is a basily a parking lot). 49 mile on the left just before the bridge is a BLM camp ground, facilities: out houses, water is hauled in. There are two separate camping areas; one is pull thru sites for larger rigs the other is back in, you could park a lage rig in some o the back in sites.
From there you can take your time leaving at 10 a.m. and be in Dawson by 4 p.m. Or you could camp one more night along the way several places to pull off just past the border in Canada.
The road is in good shape by Alaska standards, just take your time it is gravel from 49 mile to Dawson except foe 10 miles just before the border, I don't get the pavement up there but that's government for you.

Dawson
Stay in either provincial camp ground much better than the commercial camp grounds.
First one is just before the Ferry, you can ride across as foot traffic no cost walk Dawson to Gerties and shops. The second is about 10 miles past Dawson by the airport. The Airport shuts down around 9 so it will be reasonably quiet.

Enjoy your stay.

We drove it a couple of weeks ago. The entire two days (we stopped overnight) threatened rain and/or drizzled. We were in our 34' class A towing a jeep. We had absolutely no problems - in a car and truck camper, you will have less.

There is only about 13 miles that are 'bad;' the miles right after Chicken. The rest of it is simple. There are a couple of tight spaces, a couple of really bumpy roads, quite a bit of dusty gravel.

Our first day, we drove from North Pole to 10 miles outside of Chicken. The second day we drove from there to Dawson City and arrived around 2PM after stopping quite a bit. We passed 2 class As larger than us just past Chicken who were going the other way. They had no problems either.