The Alaska Highway

Finally after two and a half weeks on the road, we reach the beginning of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek.  Of course, we haven't been moving too fast over that time period, only driving around 4 hours a day, but still it's a lot of driving. As we soon learn, this stretch of road carries the same kind of mystic as the fabled US Route 66.

Me at Mile 0

Commemorating the Alaska Hwy

That night at Lake Charlie, we enjoy the results of the wonderful towering thunderheads we watched build the previous afternoon in an amazing thunderstorm and night light show. Thunderstorms are rare events in Corralitos, we enjoy the show.  The next morning the excitement has died down, but the rain lingers on for a drippy day.

We stop at Wal-Mart to pick up some needed supplies and discover what we had read about in the blogs is true, for a free place to camp, Wal-Mart stores allow over-nighters in their parking lots. Also, as the population thins out, the locals pretty much ignore free campers parked alongside the road and in turnouts along the highway, after all this ain't southern California.

Campers taking advantage of a free night

Come on - that's a $500K+ RV and you're too cheap to pay for a campsite?

We tend to stay in government sponsored camp sites as much as possible as they tend to be in beautiful locations and offer roomy and more private camp sites.  Since Peter installed our solar electric system we can dry camp for up to around 3 or 4 days, that is, until our water supply runs out and/or we fill our septic tanks. The one exception to the public camp grounds was at Lake Chelan, which was in a high demand resort area.  Morale of the story - beware of camping in resort areas.

After that we'll stay in a commercial RV Park with a dump station, water, electricity, and WiFi (hot showers are always a welcome bonus), of course usually the more amenities a park offers, generally the more expensive it is.  We've come to like the Good Sam parks as they offer good amenities for reasonable rates.

US National Forest campground - $10/night w senior discount

BC Provincial Park ~ $20/night

City of Chelan Park $50+ ouch!

But I digress... back to the road on a drippy day. Fortunately for us, it's a day with long stretches of miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. Since we are both craving a hot lunch we stop at a road house for some hot soup.  Seated next to us is a man and a woman who have been riding motorcycles. They are very cold and want hot food to warm up.  We again give thanks to be traveling in comfort.

AlCan on a rainy day

Yawn - where's the excitement?

Oh - we need the rain for the wonderful wildflowers

That night we stop in Fort Nelson (home of pricey fuel). Fortunately there's room at the only RV Park in town and we get assigned a nice spot. By evening the sky has started to clear and we enjoy walking around the town.

Fort Nelson's flags along the AlCan

A bit sketchy on the trailer leveling, Eh?

Hey David - here's a "cargo tent" for your truck

The Fort Nelson Heritage Museum dedicated to the "Veterans and Builders of the World Famous Alaska Highway" is next door to the Triple G Hideaway RV Park, so we decide to check it out. We discover 2012 is the 70th Birthday of the AlCan.
The museum has a collection of all kinds of vehicles that at one time drove or worked on the highway.

This old truck could have modeled for the Cars movies

Fancy old cars

and of course Army trucks

Vince, a recent high school graduate looking forward to university in the fall, works for the museum and shows us a reconstructed trapper's cabin. We are surprised to learn how warm the cabin is inside. Those thick logs are wonderful insulation, which the early folks in the region needed to get through the long cold (we're talking -50 degrees F and more) winters.

Entering the trapper's cabin

Peter check out the furnishings and tools stored inside

The next morning we're back on the highway and are soon stopped for road construction and repair work. It truly is amazing how good the road surface is and the amount of work that goes into keeping it open through all kinds of extreme weather conditions.

Waiting for the pilot car

These hardly working guys must have been trained by CalTrans

After about 20 minutes the pilot car comes through and signals us to follow through the construction zone.

The dusty construction zone

dustier

dustiest

Soon we are back on the open road and are happy to be clear of the construction zone.

Whew - clean air and open road again

We stop at Testa River Services for their scrumptious cinnamon buns

Indian Head mountain

Both the Milepost guide and road signs tell us to drive carefully because of the abundant wildlife along the road. We go on heightened critter watch, but don't see anything at all.

Up Stone Mountain - no critters

Over the top at Summit Lake - nothing

Surely through this canyon we'll see some sheep - nope, nada

We pass streams, and rivers with wide alluvial fans and still no wildlife.

Stream with glacial milt coloring the waters a light blue

Our lunch stop by the Toad River

Large alluvial fan along the Toad River

Then as if by magic we start spotting creatures on either side of the road.

Mother Moose with two calves

Stone Sheep at a mineral lick

We pull off on to the side of the road to snap photos of Wood Buffaloes, the smaller more northern cousins to our Plains Buffalo. It isn't until several days later do we find out in Whitehorse that these buffaloes are quite endangered as a species and we were lucky to have seen so many of them at once.

Mother and calve

Mommy wait for me!

Oh Mommy - I love you

I get out of the Navion to get better shots as they are mostly on Peter's driver's side of the road. Then I see the sharp horns and decide maybe it's smarter to stay in the IQ.

Young male with sharp horns

BIG male enjoying a dust bed

By the time we pass the beautiful Muncho Lake we're giving each other high fives for our high critter count in photos. Yup - there's the ones that got away too - Peter sees several coyotes and a red fox. I see a mother grizzly bear with two young cubs.... but all are too quick running back into the bush before we can snap photos.

Muncho Lake with waters colored from copper in the soils