After Driving 3200 Miles...We are at Mile 0!

After being on the road for three weeks and putting over 3,000 miles on the van, we finally arrived at Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway on Sunday!

Dawson Creek is the official start of the Alaska Highway.  I think everyone who travels down the Alaska highway for the first time makes a stop at this location.  I talked to a Canadian fellow and he said that it seems the Americans treat this as a pilgrimage of sorts.  I think he is right.  I know I got emotional looking at the Mile 0 marker.  I have dreamed of taking this trip since my early 20s (and that is a while ago.) And we talked to another couple who were out taking pictures and I got the same sense of excitement about the upcoming drive from them.

Thankfully, it was a warm and sunny day so the drive from Grande Prairie through Dawson Creek and on up to Fort St. John was very pleasant.  This contrasted with the drive from Edmonton to Grande Prairie where it pretty much rained the whole time.  The campground at Grande Prairie was half way flooded and there really wasn’t any way to not get muddy.  I just keep thinking of the poor tent campers and am grateful for our warm, dry trailer.

The view headed into Grande Prairie

Today we drove through the northernmost section of British Columbia; from Fort St. John up past Fort Nelson and along the Rockies.  Tonight we are camping at a place next to Toad River where we were entertained by a family of beavers out playing in their own little pond.  It was cloudy and a little sprinkly over the passes, but actually very pleasant weather for traveling. Besides the beavers, we have only seen the local stone sheep.  No moose, bears or deer although there were copious signs warning drivers to look out for them.



Drove over the last remaining all wood bridge

A view from Summit Pass which is one of the highest passes on the Alaska Highway. Hazy, but on a clear day you can see  100 miles to the Canadian Rockies

The Stone Sheep seem to like eating the roads

Generally the road is smooth with good shoulders

Sasquatch laughing at a joke our little stowaway (dubbed Corrigan) just told

The days are very long.  As I write this, it is almost 11 pm and the sky is still quite light.  Mornings come early too.  I wake up thinking it must be 7 am and it is only 5 am.  It is taking some time to adjust.

The road is pretty good.  You have to watch out for potholes and, sometimes, there isn’t much of a shoulder, but overall not bad.  A lot of the original highway has been rerouted and smoothed out.  Today we were on a 132 kilometer section of road that was built in 1992, eliminating 132 curves.

It is mind boggling to see the immensity of the country and to know that there is little civilization in these parts.  Most of the areas around towns weren’t homesteaded until the early 1900’s and the towns didn’t become incorporated until the 1950’s. And the towns are few and far between.

Tomorrow we go to Watson Lake where we will stay a couple of days to see the sights.  So far we have traveled 405 miles of the Alaska Highway.  Only 1100 miles to go!

The beavers in the pond near our campsite

The view from our campsite