(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Route Description
Yukon Highway 2 is 438 miles (705 km) long
and runs from Skagway, Alaska to Dawson City, Yukon.
The original 33-mile southern section of the highway, known locally as the
Carcross Road, was made into a part of the Alaska Highway in 1942, until the
Marsh Lake route was opened the next year. As Yukon Highway 5, it formed a loop
road with Highway 6, the Tagish Road (now numbered as 8). It was renumbered
Yukon Highway 2 in 1978. The road underwent alignment improvements during the
1980s. Residents living as far south as 15 miles from the Alaska Highway still
give their residential addresses as historic mile measurements that start at
zero at the Alaska Highway, even though the distances are no longer accurate,
and kilometer posts count distance from Skagway's ferry terminal.
The Carcross-Skagway Road portion of the highway underwent substantial
rerouting, widening and paving in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although
mining product does not currently traverse the highway, fuel tankers continue to
travel the highway, which remains a popular tourist route (cars, RVs, buses),
and provides an economic means for the White Pass railway to offer train
excursions connecting at Fraser to buses from or toward points north.
In the north, Yukon's original Highway 3, the Dawson-Mayo Road, was opened in
September 1955 between Stewart Crossing and Dawson City. The Dawson-Mayo Road
became part of Yukon Highway 2 in 1978 and was named the Klondike Highway, while
the road northeast from Stewart Crossing became Highway 11, and was later named
the Silver Trail.
The first 20-odd miles of the North Klondike Highway are still often known as
the Mayo Road to the residents of Whitehorse. Although kilometric distance
markers have been in place since the early 1980s, residents in this section
still identify their residential address as a mile measurement along the Mayo
Road.
