alaska-highway – johnboystravelblog

Alaska border crossing to Tok, AK

September 13, 2025

This is the last installment documenting my day-long drive from Whitehorse, YT to Tok.

After driving through the worst part of the Alaska Highway I finally reached the border between Canada and Alaska.

There were only two vehicles in line ahead of me, and it didn’t take long to be on my way. The only thing I had to surrender were my mandarin oranges, though my banana and apples were apparently acceptable. The customs agent confiscated a plant from the car ahead of me.

I commented in an earlier post that the first part of the highway once I got into Alaska was pristine, but it didn’t take long for that to change. Roads this far north are a challenge to maintain. The majority of the roads in Alaska were fine, but it is wise to always be alert for changing road conditions. The US didn’t have little roadside signs warning of bad spots, but there were sometimes permanent signs warning of a “Rough Road” ahead, which generally meant those spots were pretty bad. And potholes were definitely a problem in parts of Alaska.

Here are some of the things I saw as I continued on to Tok.

I was still driving northwest, and the highway had changed numbers from Hwy 1 in Canada to Hwy 2 here in Alaska (though I am still on the “Alaska Highway”). I will talk more about other Alaska highways in my next post.

I had driven past the mountains I had seen earlier in the day and now, when I looked left (south), I could see tall mountains way off in the distance (behind lower hills and mountains in the foreground). I don’t really know for a fact but I believe I was seeing the tall mountains in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. If that is true then I estimate they are about 180 air miles away.

It had also become overcast. I still had about 2 hours of driving to get to Tok.

It was starting to look more ominous on the horizon ahead of me.

There was one place where I once again had to stop and wait for a Pilot Car. I was bracing myself for a long construction zone (the sign had stated the distance) but fortunately, once we got moving I learned that they had just completed an area of new construction and were just painting lines – so we had to weave back and forth to avoid fresh paint and the machinery being used.

Even though I had gained an hour at the border (Alaska has it’s own time zone, which is one hour ahead of Pacific Time) I was starting to get nervous about making it to Tok before dark. You can see the headlights of approaching vehicles in the second photo below, and it did start raining shortly after I took these photos.

I finally made it! My Airbnb hosts were out of town but had given me instructions for getting to my room which was separate from their living quarters. There isn’t much in Tok but I grabbed something to eat and unpacked my stuff for the night. I will have another long drive (with numerous stops for photos) getting to Anchorage tomorrow.

Sheep Mountain to Alaska border

September 13, 2025

This is part three of my drive from Whitehorse, YT to Tok, AK.

After driving around the base of Sheep Mountain I would continue about 30 miles alongside Kluane Lake. Large mountains would dominate the area left of the roadway, some of which had snow cover and/or glaciers so there were clouds hugging the tops of them. I also suspected there might be more mountains on the other side.

This is also the stretch where the condition of the Alaska Highway would go downhill in places. I had been warned when I was in Watson Lake that this portion of the highway would be slow going. In addition to the aforementioned dips, humps and places where the surface of the road was patched, there would also be stretches which were gravel, in some cases where the highway department had ripped up the pavement completely and was laying down a foundation for new pavement. There were also many spots where the road would alternate between paved and gravel in rapid succession (why I don’t know). For the most part, this stretch of road had little or no warning about bad spots. I had to drive extremely slow in many places, and if a vehicle came up behind me I generally pulled over and let it go on ahead.

Here are some of the things I saw on this stretch of road:

This was one of the places where I had to stop and wait for a “Pilot Car” to follow through a long construction zone. Up ahead you can see that the road changes from paved to gravel, and in some places would be mainly dirt. I had commented earlier in the blog that Canadian roads by and large didn’t have potholes, but after driving this road back east about a month later I take that back. These unpaved stretches did, in fact, have potholes and some places it was very slow going, even without an escort.

That is me following the Pilot Car (truck). While in these gravel zones large tandem construction trucks would occasionally whiz by at full speed, kicking up rocks. Sometimes they were overtaking us and sometimes they were going in the opposite direction.

I had had been warned not to follow other vehicles too closely but there was nothing I could do about vehicles going the other way other than hope they would slow down. I also tried to pull as far right as I safely could, but if I was stopped waiting for an escort vehicle I was a sitting duck. I did end up getting a crack on my windshield on the way back to Canada.

The sky looking west was getting more ominous, and I suspected that there might be bad weather on the other side.

To my right it was still sunny and mostly clear.

But there were places where I was getting close enough to the mountains on the left to be in the shadow of the clouds.

I would soon reach the border and will finish my report on the trek to Tok, AK in my next post.

Haines Junction to Sheep Mountain, YT

September 13, 2025

This post documents the second segment of today’s drive.

My destination for this segment is the “You Are Here” spot on the left side of the map.

I was seeing lots of BIG mountains ahead of me (in Kluane National Park and Reserve) but after Haines Junction the road turns towards the northwest so I would drive along side, or around, the mountains rather than over them. You can’t always tell from a map, but I have learned that as I approach a sizeable mountain which I will go over (often through a named “pass”) there will be signs for a “Chain Up” area just off the road where vehicles may stop to put chains on their tires. Modern chains may not be chains at all, but other grip- providing equipment which wraps around your tires. When you reach the top of the “pass” there is a “Brake Check” area where big trucks are required to stop to check the condition of their brakes before driving downhill. The required chains may also be removed there, or at the bottom of the hill (I would personally prefer the latter of those two choices).

Now, here are the mountains I saw as I drove this section of the Alaska Highway. Once again in this segment of my drive, the road was basically fine, with only a few isolated bad spots.

Most of the clouds in the photos above were directly above the mountains to my left. Directly above me, and to my right, it was sunny and clear, and there were breaks in clouds over the mountains in some spots.

The lake shown above is the southernmost tip of Kluane Lake. The mountain on the other side is Sheep Mountain (where I would encounter warning signs for bighorn sheep, of which I saw none). The road I was on would continue to the left from this spot but then make a turn right to head straight towards the mountain.

And this was the view from a bridge I drove over where the lake drains into a small river (or vice versa).

I will make the next two posts in this 4-post sequence tomorrow, which will take me to Tok, Alaska.

Whitehorse to Haines Junction, YT

September 13, 2025

This is the first of four posts documenting my entry into Alaska! From Whitehorse it will be a 386 mile, 7 1/4 hour drive (without stops!) west across the southern part of the Yukon, eventually turning northwest before reaching the border with Alaska, and ultimately the town of Tok (pronounced toke). There are lots of photos and my goal is to show what it is like to drive this part of the Alaska Highway. The four posts will be:

1 – Whitehorse to Haines Junction, 2 – Haines Junction to Sheep Mountain

3 – Sheep Mountain to the Canada/Alaska border, 4 – The border to Tok, Alaska

Here we go!

It was a nice, clear morning when I left Whitehorse. It is the capital of the Yukon Territory province and has a population of about 35,000 people. According to Wikipedia it is the largest city in northern Canada, which covers quite a bit of land. I would guess what they mean is north of the northern borders of the provinces which border the northern US states in the lower 48.

That is looking towards Whitehorse from a pullout area along the Yukon River.

The ship shown above is the SS Klondike. It is now a Canadian National Historic Site and is undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation (hence the fences and shipping containers). It is drydocked here along the river. It was on the right side of the first photograph in this post.

That is part of the downtown area. The town is rather spread out so it is hard to get it in one photo. Suffice it to say that it is a nice, modern town. I will be coming back here on the return trip in a few weeks and plan to spend more time here.

The rest of the photos in this post are from the drive west to Haines Junction.

I have posted the next four photos previously but am repeating them here in the proper sequence in my trip.

As I explained in the real-time post back in September, these were small signs set up temporarily along “bad” sections of the Alaska Highway. A “bad” section is generally an undulation (bump or dip in the road caused by the temperatures this far north), or potholes or parts of the road which have a rough surface as opposed to the normal pavement. Most of the road is fine, but these signs warn drivers to be especially alert to the condition of the road, especially if there is snow present.

During the day these areas are generally visible to the naked eye, but at night or on a snowy road, these signs should not be ignored.

This second sign indicates that there is a fluctuation in the road surface (up or down) which is what warrants caution. You can see the dip in the road just past these signs. Not too bad at this particular spot but sometimes they are doozies!

While I was stopped here taking these photos, two bison meandered across the highway further up the road.

You can see the second one climbing the bank on the right.

You can also see the two signs warning drivers coming the other way for a repaved (dark) area on the other side of the dip in the road. These were the only bison I saw during my entire trip, and I would have already been past this spot if I hadn’t stopped to take photos of the two small signs.

There were LOTS of these signs between here and the border and as the road deteriorated the further west I drove, they evidently ran out of signs warning of the bad spots and drivers just needed to be prepared at all times. In addition to the two signs there was sometimes an orange flag attached to the Reduce Speed sign, which meant they were really serious about it. Later in my drive there may only be a flag warning of a bad spot.

As I stated back in my real-time post, I would not want to drive this road at night, not only because of the increased animal-in-the-road risk, but also because I couldn’t see the bad spots before driving over them. I kind of got used to the rhythm needed to pass these areas. If the hazard was on my side and there was no one coming the other way I would sometimes move over to the other lane.

What I have shown in this post is getting as far west as Haines Junction.

The road on this stretch was pretty good in almost all places, as it will be in the next segment of today’s drive. Thus far it was a nice, clear day and it was a very pleasant drive.

I stopped in Haines Junction at the Kluane National Park and Reserve Visitor Centre, which also housed a Cultural Centre for the Da Ku indigenous First Nations tribes (Champagne and Aishihik ), whose territory I have been driving through. They had lots of displays, and I spent a good bit of time there.

The Kluane National Park and Reserve was dead ahead of where I was driving as I approached Haines Junction. I could see more and more big mountains ahead of me, many with low clouds at the top which I have learned often signifies snow and/or glaciers at their peaks. You will see lots of them in the next two posts. One of the mountains due west of Haines Junction is Mount Logan which, at 19,551 feet, is the highest mountain in Canada (and second tallest in North America, after Denali). It is about 100 air miles away and I could not see it because of other tall mountains blocking the view.

My next post covers Haines Junction to Sheep Mountain, at the southern tip of Kluane Lake on the map shown above (where there is a blue question mark).

Nugget City to Whitehorse, YT

September 12, 2025

Today I will drive part way to Alaska along the Alaska Highway. Years ago it was called the Alcan Highway but these days most people, including mapmakers, appear to just call it the Alaska Highway. The road starts in Dawson Creek, British Columbia and ends in Delta Junction, Alaska, a total distance of 1,422 miles when it was originally built. I drove through Dawson Creek on my way to Grande Prairie just a few days ago but didn’t know at that time that it was where the Alaska Highway starts. I will be driving through Delta Junction during my stay in Alaska.

Before I got started, I drove back in to Watson Lake (about 20 miles east of my Airbnb) to top off my gas tank. I saw something there when I drove in for dinner last night that I think you’ll agree is blogworthy. Sign Post Forest.

This attraction was started in 1942 by a person in the US military who was convalescing in Watson Lake. He was from Danville, Illinois and erected a wooden stake with a sign from his hometown. It has been added to over the years and according to a sign in the Visitor Centre here there were over 120,000 signs here in September 2024!

I’m sure that number has increased since then (I don’t know how they can keep track), and I’ve also learned that a sister site has been started in Danville, IL.

Also in the Visitor Centre was the original Danville, IL sign which had been erected in 1942.

If you look closely at the photo above you will see two license plates from the Northwest Territories province. Rather than being rectangular they are shaped like a polar bear! I have only seen one on a vehicle in person and wasn’t prepared to take a photo of it. I was hoping to see another but never did. I didn’t realize there were some in the photo until I just now posted it, or I would have taken a closer photo of them.

The Northern Lights Centre is also here in Watson Lake, and inside is where I found the local Visitor Centre. The people there were very helpful in giving me more maps and information about my drive across the province.

I had remarked to some friends after I had driven into town for dinner last night that if all of the Alaska Highway was like this 20-mile portion, then I had nothing to worry about. Well, I will say that the majority of what I would end up driving on today was actually in very good shape. With all the cold weather this far north, there were places where the highway department had to fill potholes or patch places where the road had heaved due to frost, but it wouldn’t start going downhill in quality until after I got past Whitehorse.

Here are some of the things I saw as I drove the 258 miles to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory province. Google maps indicated it should take about 4 1/2 hours.

As you might expect – highway, mountains and bodies of water. Not too many towns along the way, but it was wide open road and didn’t feel quite as isolated as Highway 37 was driving north through British Columbia. I didn’t see a single animal in or near the road.

And I meant to include this photo as the final item in my previous post about yesterday’s drive. I had started the day seeing the sun rise in the morning and as I drove back to my Airbnb from dinner I also saw the sun set.

I will only be spending one night in Whitehorse tonight but will stop there again for two nights on by way back to British Columbia. I still have two more weeks to spend in Canada before returning to the lower 48 but I interrupted my original plan to head to Alaska because people kept telling me I’d better get up there so I could get out before the snow started in earnest.

It was a good idea.

Getting to the Alaska Highway – Part 1 of 2

September 11, 2025

Today is the day I start my trek towards Alaska! I would drive about a half hour west to the small town of Kitwanga and get on Hwy 37, also known as the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, for the 450 mile drive north. Total drive time for the day will be 9 hours.

I saw this when I got out to the main highway after leaving my Airbnb.

That was looking west towards the coast, although the ocean is pretty far away. I don’t know what caused that effect (other than the rising sun), but it really caught my eye. I was driving into town to fill my gas tank before heading north.

When I reached Hwy 37 about a half hour later I turned right and immediately drove over a bridge. This time the dramatic view was to my right – looking east towards the rising sun.

After crossing the bridge I stopped to take pictures of two signs.

The distance sign shows 724 kilometers (450 miles) to get to the Alaska Highway.

Good thing I had just filled my tank! Various people I had spoken with, including the RCMP, had advised me to fill my gas tank at every opportunity along the way. They said there would be a few opportunities (I counted about 6). I did plan to stop about halfway north. I was driving during the day, and the weather and temperature were ok (though it would rain later). The road, however, was a complete unknown and I didn’t really know what to expect. The RCMP told me it is paved most of the way and, of course, to watch out for animals.

Here are some of the things I saw during my drive north:

Right off the bat, a sign warning of animals.

The cloud ceiling had been pretty high when I started out but I could tell that it was starting to lower. It had already started to rain lightly.

I stopped in a pullout area after crossing the Bell 1 bridge. This map shows the route I am taking – from Kitwanga at the bottom to the red arrow in the upper right hand corner (just west of Watson Lake). My destination for the day is a place called Nugget City, less than 2 miles west of the intersection with the Alaska Highway, and it is, barely, in the Yukon Territory province. Also note the bright white area on the left side of the map. That is the southernmost part of the Alaska panhandle. Earlier on my drive I went past the turnoff for Stewart, Alaska. As you can see, a highway does go there but stops just after the border

That is a relatively small sign warning me not to stop as I was in a mud slide area. Terrific…

(continued next post)

SLOW means SLOW

I should have posted this earlier after I had driven across the southern edge of British Columbia the second week I was in Canada. During that leg of my trip I had to drive across a few small mountains (fortunately I drive around most of the big ones) and in lots of places the speed limit would drop as I approached turns, not uncommon on mountain roads. Now I will admit I sometimes channel my inner Shane van Gisbergen (* see footnote at end of post) and take some of these turns at speed, going wide on entry, hitting the apex, and going wide on exit. I am an experienced driver (though not on the proverbial closed course, so don’t start emulating me – I will plead the fifth) and only do this when I am well aware of the lack of traffic around me. In fact, when I was on Vancouver Island and drove north to Port Hardy my Airbnb host told me – “You will enjoy the road going up there. It is in good shape and you may not even need to slow down, just hold onto the wheel with both hands”. He was right!

I have learned, however, that when you see this sign:

that you need to SLOW DOWN. In Canada, when they say slow down they mean it! This also rang true in the Canadian Rockies. In the Canadian National Parks their roads are wide, sometimes multi-lane affairs (with passing lanes in some areas) and with a 90/kph speed limit in most places, but on tight turns you still need to slow down.

Even further evidence of this is when I crossed the southern edge of the Yukon Territory on my way west to Alaska. I was traveling on the Alaska Highway, what would be known as the Trans Canada Highway in other parts of Canada, is still referred to by its former name once one gets close to the US state. Because of the extreme cold this far north, parts of the Alaska Highway deteriorate rather quickly as potholes develop and/or the roadway “heaves,” creating undulations which, if repeated over a short distance, cause your vehicle to “porpoise” as if you were a dolphin swimming in front of a cruise ship. At full speed the result of these, usually unexpected, undulations can become catastrophic, hence the need to SLOW DOWN. These conditions can develop very quickly and randomly so instead of permanent signs, as was shown above, the Canadian Department of Transportation (probably called Transportation Canada) puts out temporary signs at each bad spot in the road.

And there are many.

Sometimes you only get the second sign, indicating a bump or dip in the road (which you can also see in the photo above. This one didn’t require any patches but can still catch the driver off guard), but the two signs generally travel in pairs. And God forbid you see an orange flag next to the Slow Down sign, as it means a severe undulation or road heave, which is sometimes like driving over a speed bump (or as Peter Sellers called it in the Inspector Clouseau movies, a “bimp”). Remember it – Orange Flag means SLOW DOWN, and big yellow sign saying SLOW means SLOW DOWN.

Now in addition to the signs, during the day the driver can often see major patches made on the road in advance, as they are all black of an otherwise gray roadway, and with black tire marks from the heavy equipment used to make the repairs. And often, if the repairs were major, they result in a very uneven surface, again necessitating a reduction in speed. I wouldn’t want to drive these roads at night – not only because of the risk of animals in the road, but also the inability to see the defects before arriving at them.

When I got in the extreme western part of the Yukon, “Transportation Canada” evidently ran out of small signs as there were NUMEROUS, major patches which were not marked (except an occasional orange flag). So in addition to worrying about animals in the road I also had to be on my toes for road conditions. I would sometimes cross to the opposite lane if the damage was confined to my side, again, well aware of other traffic around me.

And speaking of animals in the road – as I was taking the two orange sign photos above I saw two bison casually cross the road well ahead of me:

If I hadn’t stopped to take my pictures I would have missed it. One of the FEW wildlife sightings I have had during this entire trip.

And I will also note that the car which had stopped to let the bison cross the road also stopped when she got up to my car to ask if I had broken down. I assured her, no, I was just out of the car taking pictures but thanked her for her concern and for stopping to inquire. Before she drove off, she observed “They’re not tame” and I said “No ma’am, they’re not.”

Shane van Gisbergen is race car driver from New Zealand. He used to race in the Australian “Supercar” series but came to America to compete in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series street race in Chicago three years ago. He won. His first ever race in a Cup car, which some full time NASCAR drivers can’t even drive, AND he is used to steering from the right side of the car! Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks, himself a very successful road course driver, had provided a car for him to use in the race and immediately signed him to a full-time contract. He now competes full time in the Cup Series and wins most of the road course and street races he participates in, including the Xfinity “minor league” Series. Experienced NASCAR drivers openly marvel at his ability. He still struggles on the ovals, but he’s a damn good driver and loves his NASCAR!