Bears, Flight-Seeing And Other Shenanigans Along The Alaska Highway

August 5, 2011

The past week has been a little surreal. I’ve driven 1,645 miles from Spokane to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. I spent one night in each of these places (in order) Spokane, Kalispell, Calgary, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Muncho Lake, Watson Lake, each place had something really fascinating about it. Spokane had a fantastic movie theater in the mall and a P.F. Changs accross the street 🙂 Kalispell was the gateway for my brief visit to Glacier National Park where I drove over “Going to the sun highway” (twice) and had one really beautiful hike. Calgary was a big city, I had a nice dinner and wandered a little bit, I was happy to leave to head up North though.

Once I left Calgary and was heading towards Dawson Creek ,that’s when I felt like I was actually driving to Alaska! I’m currently staying in a cabin at place called Nugget City. It’s about 12 miles outside Watson, Yukon’s first city. When you arrive here you’re greated by the “Sign Post Forest” and I’m happy to say that numbered among the 77,000 or so signs, license plates and stickers is a halcyonhighway sticker now too!

Halcyon Highway Joins The Famous Signpost Forest

Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Muncho Lake, Watson Lake, four places that until not long ago I had no idea exsisted are now places I can’t imagine not having been to. The whole romance of driving up the Alaska Highway makes me feel like Jack London or Ernest Hemingway! There are so few places left that are this untouched it’s such a wilderness frontier. I love everything about it. The link above describes how the highway was built by 11,000 troops in around 10 months, the most ambitious engineering undertaking in U.S. history

I’ve seen more wildlife than I could have imagined and such varied sightings. Today alone I saw 9 bears!! So as usual, time for the photos!