Just months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States, in collaboration with Canadian authorities, began building a highway from British Columbia to Alaska. At the time, Alaska was considered a vulnerable territory to Japanese attack. It took more than 10,000 soldiers to complete the original 1,685-mile road in less than nine months.
An upgraded version was released in 1948 and has been continuously resurfaced and rerouted. Today, the distance from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Delta Junction, Alaska is just 1,400 miles, according to the driving guidebook “The Milepost.”
This highway was the centerpiece of my family’s trip through the Yukon, British Columbia, and Alberta in Canada last September as I made my way from Alaska to Idaho.
On this drive where cell service is sparse, relying on Google Maps won’t get you very far. In preparation, my son discovered a 1972 road map of western Canada and eastern Alaska that remains fairly accurate.
This route takes drivers through some of the most beautiful scenery in North America and is perfect for budget travel. We spent about $300 on fuel for the entire trip in a mid-size SUV. Starting off the coast of Valdez, Alaska, we often camped and had picnic meals. Great blue herons and harbor seals are our neighbors.
The beginning and end of peak traffic season along this route, May and September, are also good times to see wildlife that is often pushed to lower elevations by snow.
a lesson in patience
From Valdez we headed to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve (free), the nation’s largest national park, joins the Alaska Highway at Tok, a small town about 90 miles from the Canadian border. Tok plays a big role in serving grocery stores in sparsely populated eastern Alaska. Gas stations and restaurants.
We had planned to drive deep into the Yukon on our first day, but it took us two hours to reach our lone agent at the border checkpoint, even with only 10 cars ahead of us. The agent emailed us with a few questions, mostly about guns and hunting. On the way.
This was the first slowdown caused by unpaved roads, construction detours and points where asphalt sticks out above the frozen ground.
yukon wilderness
Nearly 600 miles of the Alaska Highway cross the Yukon River.
From the border, the road travels southeast through the Yawning Valley, with its meandering streams and long glacier-filled lakes, to Kluane National Park and Reserve, home to Canada’s tallest mountain, 19,551-foot Mount Logan, and more than 2,000 glaciers. . Nearby Wrangell-St. Elias and other parks are UNESCO World Heritage Sites protecting the largest ice field outside the polar regions.
“The Rockies will be like they were years ago,” said Fitz McGoey, the park’s director of visitor experience product development. About 80% of the park is covered in snow and ice.
With the sunlight out of the way, we chose the first campsite we could find on the north side of the park. Quiet Lake Creek ($20 CAD, or about $15 per night) offers riverside camping, where you can make quesadillas over a fire, listen to owls, and fall asleep clutching a can of bear spray.
city break
After a few days of driving, camping, and eating a great reindeer hot dog at a gas station in Haines Junction, we stopped in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon and the highway’s only major city. The city was selected among the 52 places for 2024. It is registered as an Aurora tourism destination.
A three-mile trail through 350 acres of forest in the nearby Yukon Wildlife Preserve connected tundra habitats for a dozen species, including thinhorn sheep, arctic fox and Canada lynx (admission $19).
We checked into the Raven Inn ($284), explored Whitehorse’s walkable downtown, and indulged in dinner at Belly of the Bison (bison bologna, $34). Afterwards, the waitress took us to the ’98 Hotel Lounge for a “true taste of Whitehorse.”
It was open mic night at a bar decorated with animal skins and antique rifles, and a free Molson beer mug arrived every time someone rang the bell above the bar to buy a house.
The MC encouraged passive talent by reminding the crowd, “If you don’t live today, there is no tomorrow.”
yukon kitsch
For the most part, the Alaska Highway is free of roadside kitsch, with one very charming exception: Sign Forest (free) at Watson Lake, Yukon.
Pole Forest, about 270 miles southeast of Whitehorse, has been posted by motorists since 1942, when a homesick American soldier named Carl K. Lindley put up a sign listing his mileage to his hometown of Danville, Illinois. It is marked with numerous road signs.
Now license plates and tributes made of everything from flip-flops to toilets compete with the signs.
“We call it North America’s largest public display of stolen property,” Watson Lake Mayor Chris Irvin said in a phone interview, estimating there are about 1 million signs in the forest.
Hot Springs and Safaris in British Columbia
In Alaska and the Yukon we spotted bears and moose. However, the wild animals of northern British Columbia that arrived immediately after passing Sign Post Forest felt like a safari.
We saw a black bear come out of the woods and often stopped to watch caribou grazing or a herd of bison on the shoulder of the highway. A family of thin horned sheep licking salt from the road almost collided with our vehicle, their hooves creaking on the pavement.
Luckily, our next stop, Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park, allowed us to camp behind an electric bear fence ($26 per night). Campers will learn about the boreal forest, which is very unusual for growing species such as orchids, and the spring, which can be reached via a trail (the original was built in 1942 by the U.S. military) above the boreal forest, originally named Tropical Valley. You have unlimited access to
With mossy banks, rubble bottoms, and temperatures ranging from about 108 to 126 degrees, the park’s natural pools were open 24 hours a day, and we found solitude stargazing at night and in the predawn haze the next morning.
mile zero
The highway flattens out as it nears the start of Dawson Creek, a town of 500 people in British Columbia. The city’s population swelled overnight to about 10,000 when construction of the highway began. Black-and-white photos of soldiers working the roads, sitting on top of trucks stuck in the mud, and bathing in rivers filled the hallways of our hotel, the George Dawson Inn ($174, including breakfast).
The highway’s much-photographed Mile Zero marker is located next to a former grain elevator restored by the Dawson Creek Art Gallery (free).
The back steps of the gallery display a collection of photographs, letters and tributes called “The Road.” It includes the following anecdote: When northern Canadian First Nations questioned the speed of road construction, they heard about Hitler’s plans for world domination, to which one responded: “Why does he want all that land? “He, like everyone else, will die someday.”
Parks in Alberta
The most direct route from Mile Zero to the Lower 48 crosses Alberta and passes two major attractions in the Canadian Rockies: Jasper National Park and nearby Banff National Park. It passes.
Seeing soaring mountains, mighty river valleys and herds of elk, we drove 280 miles mostly on Highway 40 to Jasper National Park ($22 per family or group). The main road follows the glacial blue Athabasca River to the town of Jasper, where we checked into the HI Jasper Hostel ($306 for a four-bed private room).
Waking up early, we took a tour bus to the park’s Maligne Canyon and peered into crevices carved by the river, following the flow of the cliff-top trail as it descends into rapids and pools.
The Icefields Parkway, which connects Jasper and Banff for about 145 miles, offers spectacular views of waterfalls and peaks winking through clouds. We picnicked on Athabasca’s rocky shores and skipped tourist developments like the glass Columbia Icefield Skywalk, where admission starts at $41.
As we entered Banff, Canada’s famous mountain city, a double rainbow appeared across Highway 93. We stayed at the Juniper Hotel ($317) just outside the bustling city center, took advantage of the free shuttle service, enjoyed a round at Three Bears Brewery and Restaurant ($8.95 a pint) in the city center, and stocked up on picnic supplies at Wild Flour. . bakery.
quiet alternative
On a sunny morning, with Banff coming into its own and taking in mountain views from every lane, we headed back about 18 miles to rejoin Highway 93 heading southwest into Kootenay National Park (per family or group) $22).
The Kootenay had Marble Canyon, a 200-foot-high canyon with marble walls polished by rushing rivers. Seven bridges allowed us to cross narrow chasms while ruby-crowned kings sang in the pine trees.
We found the Kootenay crowd at Radium Hot Springs ($17.50). The spacious swimming pool, surrounded by forested slopes, lacked the ambiance of a wild hot springs, but its family-friendly shallows and piercingly cold water were a welcome change of pace.
last call
From Kootenai National Park, the U.S. border lies about 140 miles south along off-the-beaten-path roads along rivers and lakes and surrounds the British Columbia ski town of Kimberley. There we spent our last night at the Larix, a new boutique hotel (rooms starting from $155). breakfast included).
The small town, formerly a lead, silver and zinc mining town, is now an outdoor resort with three golf courses, a downhill ski area and more than 60 miles of bike trails. The pedestrian center’s restaurants and breweries include Hourglass, which serves cocktails, charcuterie and cheese plates (from $22). “We pack a lot into this small town,” said co-owner Breanna Fast.
Just over an hour from the border, the Kimberley was a fitting finale to a trip so packed with sights that I never read the novel I brought with me.
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