Dawson Creek BC, Mile 0 Alaskan Highway

I have to admit the history of the Alaska Highway was something I knew little about. In the early part of the 1900's and for the next 40 years there were proposals after proposals sent to Ottawa and Washington and each time rejected. The reasons too much money and too few people would benefit from such a massive investment.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1943 both the Canadian and US governments found the national security threat from Japan was too great and a massive effort to build the road from Dawson Creek BC to Fairbanks AK. Canada would supply the land and the US would supply material and manpower.

The museum in Dawson Creek mentioned the completion of the road in nine months had been recognized as one the World Wonders and compared it the the Great Wall of China.

If you are at all interested in WWII history this is little know history of a great achievement.

We have been traveling on the Alaska       

Alaska Highway

Highway (aka AL-Can) for the past three days and have put 888 miles behind us.
The two lane highway is for the most part smooth and easy to drive. The speed limits range from 80 to 100 km/hour. Once we got into the mountain with the twisty, up and down turns speed limits dropped to 50 to 70 km/hour.
In some places the were passing lanes and those really helped reduce congestion.

Alaska Highway

Caribou, cow & calf

 The best part of the last couple days has been the opportunity to see wildlife along the side of the road.
We have seen caribou, bison, a couple of black bears that we were unable to photograph.

Caribou

This guy was walking on the shoulder

We saw this moose as we walked on the path to the Liard Hot Spring in the Provincial park.


Tomorrow Wed. 7/31 we will drive to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory and the get a few days to explore the area.