Alaska Highway Fun

[skiman]

We have been at Valdez for a few days after driving from Jasper up the Alcan. Repair on the Alcan was pretty rough the last bit of the Canada section. Washboard and some crazy frost heaves. When we arrived in Tok we found the oven door hanging from one hinge, one burner vibrated off on the burner deck. Put burner back together, Straitened the hinge on the door. Added a coupe of screw eyes and bungee to give the oven door some help. Also mirror we added to bathroom door had vibrated loose. So slow down some more. Gotta do this section again on way home.

[akmacs]

We drove that portion last week. It is pretty rough Destruction Bay to Tok and we were under 50 mph for most of it. We had some open cabinet doors open and one oven mount screw worked itself out.

You can avoid that area on the return trip if you take the Taylor highway to Dawson City and then the Klondike highway to Whitehorse. There is about 100 miles of gravel on the way to Dawson but it was in decent shape a couple weeks ago.

[brroberts]

I’ve never driven Destruction Bay to Tok without construction and frost heaves. I don’t know how many times I’ve driven it, but it’s been many over the last 44 years.

[skiman]

Originally Posted by akmacs

We drove that portion last week. It is pretty rough Destruction Bay to Tok and we were under 50 mph for most of it. We had some open cabinet doors open and one oven mount screw worked itself out.

You can avoid that area on the return trip if you take the Taylor highway to Dawson City and then the Klondike highway to Whitehorse. There is about 100 miles of gravel on the way to Dawson but it was in decent shape a couple weeks ago.

So you think Dawson City would be easier on the equipment? Would be August.

[akmacs]

I think the route is better overall, however there are rough patches on the paved portion of the Taylor and you would have 100 miles of gravel after that with mud/dust and some washboard. It is probably worth going that way if you are interested in seeing Dawson City. We have done the trip twice with our 5.0 and usually overnight in Chicken and then push to Dawson City.

[EscapeBoulder]

I think we averaged maybe 25 mph in some of the sections of the Alaska Highway south of Tok last month. Why drive fast? Isn’t Escaping all about slowing down and enjoying the countryside?

We also really enjoyed the Taylor Highway and Top of the World. In my opinion the Canadian side has the best 60 miles of gravel road in the north!

We dispersed camped about 3 miles east of the border on the Top of the World. And really liked the Yukon CG on the west side of the Yukon at Dawson City.

PM me if you’d like the URL to our Alaskan adventure blog describing my comments about some of the sections.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by EscapeBoulder

We also really enjoyed the Taylor Highway and Top of the World. In my opinion the Canadian side has the best 60 miles of gravel road in the north!

.

I tend to agree with you because just after we started on the US side I got a cut in my truck tire.

Ron

[akmacs]

I agree the Canadian side gravel is always kept up pretty well. The gravel is pretty sharp on the US side and we ended up with 2 flat truck tires on one trip. That said, I should have had better tires and proper tread depth would have likely prevented the flats.

If the weather cooperates the views are outstanding.