Driving Above the Clouds: A Guide to the Top of the World Highway
A ridge-running gravel road from Dawson City to Alaska, high above the tree line.
There are scenic drives, and then there’s the Top of the World Highway. Running along high mountain ridges above the tree line, it gives you the dizzying sense of driving along the roof of the world. Connecting Dawson City with Alaska, it offers panoramic vistas of endless alpine tundra — if you can handle the gravel and the switchbacks. Here’s how to plan a smooth trip on this remote northern route.
The drive
From Dawson City you first cross the Yukon River by the free George Black ferry (summer only), then climb onto a ridge road that stays high, with tundra falling away on both sides and views that seem to run forever. It’s roughly 100+ kilometres of mostly gravel to the Alaska border, continuing as the Taylor Highway on the US side toward Chicken and Tok.
The border crossing
The Poker Creek–Little Gold Creek crossing is the northernmost land border between Canada and the US, and it keeps limited seasonal hours — typically daytime only, in summer. Time your drive to arrive within those hours, carry your passport, and remember the ferry and border both close outside the season, stranding the route entirely.
When it’s open
This is a summer-only road, generally passable from late spring to early autumn and closed and unmaintained in winter. Even in summer, weather at elevation can turn fast, and fog or rain makes the gravel slick and the views vanish, so pick a clear day if you can.
Preparation
Treat it like any remote gravel route: full tank, good tires and a spare, food, water, and warm layers. There are essentially no services along the way. Drive to the conditions, watch for washboard and soft shoulders, and don’t rush the switchbacks.
Why do it
The payoff is a driving experience unlike almost any other — hours spent literally on top of the landscape, with tundra and sky in every direction. Paired with Dawson City on one end and the quirky Alaskan hamlet of Chicken on the other, it makes an unforgettable leg of a far-north road trip.