The Klondike Highway, also known as Highway 2, in it’s entirety runs from Skagway, Alaska to Dawson City, Yukon Territory. We travelled the North Klondike Road from it’s junction with the Alaska Highway, just west of Whitehorse to Dawson City which covers 323 miles. The drive is listed as taking about 6 hours. That timing was pretty accurate for us if we subtract out time for our stops. The highway is listed in the Milepost as paved asphalt surface in fair to good condition. We would have to agree with that assessment. All mileages listed below are from the junction with the Alaska Highway.
Stopping for photos at one of the paved pullouts along the Klondike Hwy
While the road is in fair to good condition, there were the occasional rough spots. It was clear that crews have been working hard to fix the problem areas. We saw many sections that were freshly patched. We have read that the permafrost causes sinking under the road, aka a frost heave. We have learned to watch for posted signals of a problem area. They are usually marked with any of: a sign with uneven surface, orange flags or cones or orange & black striped signs that indicate gravel section or a break in the surface.
Uneven road surface sign
Orange flags indicates rough areas
Orange cones also indicate rough areas
This orange and black striped signs indicates a gravel section
While the road condition was pretty good, it is important to know that there are many sections of windy road, some steep up and down grades, areas with very narrow or even no shoulder, narrow lanes and long stretches with no services. The towns along the North Klondike include Carmacks (population 444), Pelly Crossing (pop. 296) and Stewart Crossing (pop. not even listed, but it was small). We had filled up with fuel in Whitehorse, and again at the junction with the Dempster Highway, mile 298. The fuel at the Dempster Corner is an AFD cardlock, which is an unmanned fuel station. This one had a diesel pump and a gasoline pump. There is a small building which you go into with your credit card. You insert it similar to the pay-at-the-pumps in the US, put in the pump nozzle number and then your transaction gets authorized. After this, you can pump your fuel.
Getting fuel with the rig
AFD Cardlock payment building
Typical view along the Klondike Highway
During the drive, we saw spectacular scenery including mountains, lakes, forests and rivers. There are several stretches along the scenic Yukon River. We saw one black bear on the Tatchun Creek Bridge at mile 117. Unfortunately, at the sight of our rig heading down the hill toward him, the bear ducked under a guard rail and split for the woods. There were numerous lakes along our route: Lake Faberge, Fox Lake, and Gravel Lake were the largest. Meadow Lake is unusual in that it is athalassic, meaning an inland salt water lake. All of the lakes had waterfowl, including a pair of swans we spotted at mile 86. We saw several ground squirrels.
Bridge on the Klondike Hwy. We are about 4 M, so we fit
