Checking Out the Alaska Highway

Because the current forest fires in New Mexico shut down most of the local hiking trails, my dog Sparky and I decided that this would be a perfect time to drive on the Alaska Highway. The Alaska Highway is something that I have been wanting to do for decades, and, for one reason or another, I never got around to it. So with my personal runway getting shorter, this was the time.

If the Alaska Highway is on your personal radar scope, be prepared for a long drive. Just getting to the official starting point of the Highway in Dawson Creek in the far north of British Columbia took us four full days of very scenic driving.

I was hoping that Dawson Creek would be an edge-of-the-wilderness community of log cabins with very few services in the vein of the old TV show Northern Exposure. Instead it is a contemporary community of over 10,000 people with a local community college, fast food outlets, chain stores, and cannabis dispensaries.

Because the local economy primarily consists of logging, energy exploration, and hay fields, Dawson Creek definitely has an up north feel of work boots and heavy duty bib overalls. Most of the stores have signs saying not to enter with muddy boots.

The Alaska Highway itself was built during World War II to provide a land connection to Alaska. For many years it remained unpaved and required that you mount screens on the front of your car to protect it from the gravel, carry an extra spare tire and, also carry extra gasoline. Today’s Highway is paved the entire distance, but, like any other road, there are many places where there are slowdowns due to road repairs.

The up north economic activity of logging, energy, and hay fields continues sporadically for the first 280 miles of the Alaska Highway as you pass through Fort St. John and reach Fort Nelson. But once you pass Fort Nelson, you are now in wild country and scenery that is beyond gorgeous. The next community of significant size will be Whitehorse, 600 miles away in Yukon Territory!

Now is when you have to keep an eye on your gasoline. If you are not sure that you can make it to your intended goal, get gas when you see a place to get it! Many gas stations along the way are associated with fishing and hunting lodges and not all of them will be open. In my case, I pulled into a single-pump gas station at 7:15am and waited until 8:00am for it to open to make sure I didn’t run out.

Now is also when you’ll start seeing real wildlife! You’ll see wildlife every day that you’re in the wild country. We saw several moose, perhaps close to 100 caribou, over 100 bison, at least 20 bears, four wolves, two foxes, and quite a few porcupines! Bears are so common that one of the campgrounds where we stayed had an electrified fence to keep the bears out. If for no other reason, the wildlife made the trip worthwhile. I only wish I had the presence of mind to photograph all of them.

And the scenery is amazing. Snow covered mountains. Unending forests. Rushing rivers. Ice covered lakes in late May and early June. Waterfalls. And glaciers. The forests are impenetrable and much of the ground is too muddy or boggy for easy walking.

And best yet, except for a handful of hotspots, you’ll be out of cell phone range. And if you go when we went in late May and early June, expect very long days. It didn’t get dark dark until midnight, and it was already full daylight with birds singing before 4:00am.

When we reached Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, we decided that this would be a good turnaround point. We could have driven further on the Alaska Highway to cross into Alaska but decided head back for two reasons. The first was that with COVID still in play there are many steps you have to take to cross back into Canada, and if you do something wrong you could end up in quarantine. The other was that we wanted enough time to drive on the Cassiar Highway for a different route home.

The Cassiar Highway turned out to be every bit as gorgeous and wild as the Alaska Highway. And maybe even more remote.

Branching off from the Cassiar Highway is a 40-mile road to Stewart, British Columbia and Hyder, Alaska. We decided to make a side trip to Hyder, Alaska. Hyder is a very tiny community that is one of the few places in the United States that can only be reached by land from Canada. Hyder is also known as the place to see bears wading in the water to catch salmon when the salmon are running later in the summer.

Again, like the Alaska and Cassiar Highways, the road to Hyder was spectacular and full of wildlife. When we reached Stewart and the border, we checked with Canadian customs officials to see if we could park our car in Canada and just step across into Alaska without going through the normal crossing procedures. The border agent gave us the go ahead, and Sparky and I got to spend a few minutes in Alaska.

Both Stewart and Hyder are seaports.

After our brief foray into Alaska, we backtracked to the Cassiar Highway and continued our journey south. Before reaching the end of the Cassiar Highway, we managed to check out two native communities with dozens of actual totem poles. Needless to say, they were wonderful, and along with the wildlife, one of the highlights of the trip!

With that we were on our way towards home and very glad we took the time to check out some of the most gorgeous and wild country imaginable.