As I travel between Tok upstate and Anchorage near the water, the road would take me on a long open stretch between Glennallen and Palmer. A little short of halfway the road rises to an elevation of about 3,000′ (Tok and Glennallen are at around 1,500′). There was a constant string of mountains to the south and I started to see snow on some of them, and the telltale cloud cover which seems to occur if there is snow or a glacier at high elevation.
Some of the mountains shown above have a solid coating of snow. And before I had a chance to stop and get to a place to take those photos, I could tell that the clouds on the right hand side were obscuring an even taller peak covered in snow. I believe that tallest mountain is either Mount Witherspoon (12,012 feet elevation) or Mount Marcus Baker (13,176 feet elevation). And each of the peaks in the photo, snow covered or not, are separate mountains in that “small” area. When I got to Anchorage I asked if there was a map showing the locations of all the glaciers along the coast and was shocked to learn that there are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska and there are no maps to make identification easy.
Here are a few shots I took with the digital camera and a zoom lens.
And back to my smartphone for the rest of this group as I continue driving towards Anchorage.
That mountain ahead of me had rain falling from the clouds above it. The next ones are what I call the “brown mountains” which appeared to be shorter and without snow on them.
With clouds behind them, that group appeared to be closer to the highway I was on, and were perhaps obscuring the view of other mountains closer to the coast.
Once I got past Eureka Roadhouse the mountains would start to play hide and seek (in Part 3).
My first full day in Alaska would involve a 318 mile drive on Alaska State Hwy 1, which Google Maps said would take 5 1/2 hours without stops (although I made many stops to take photos). My route would take me southwest to Glennallen, and then west-southwest to Anchorage.
Before I left town I drove from my Airbnb back to the closest gas station to fill my tank. When I went inside to get a cup of coffee I embarrassed myself by trying to pay with a Canadian 5 dollar bill. The clerk asked “Do you have any American money?” and I sheepishly replied “Oh yeah, I’m back in the Unted States now…”. The young man behind me offered to pay for my coffee and I thanked him profusely. I also thanked him for his service, for when he learned I was from North Carolina he informed me he had done some military training in my home state.
It had rained overnight and there were some low clouds when I started out but they soon lifted and it was a nice day to drive. Traffic was light and this stretch of road was in very good shape.
Most of the mountains were on my left, but the photo below was off to the right.
I realize the photo above is quite small but it shows the horizon far to the south to be lined with tall mountains. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park covers a large part of southeast Alaska, and backs up to Kluane National Park across the border in Canada, and between the two of them there are lots and lots of VERY big mountains. I believe the mountains you see above are in Wrangell-St. Elias NP. It is the largest National Park in the United States. Once I reach Glennallen and start driving more to the west towards Anchorage the large mountains you will see are mostly in the Chugach (pronounced CHEW-gatch) Range, which also have some very high peaks.
The gap in the mountains in the two photos above really piqued my interest. I think they may be down at the coast where Valdez is located. I will be going to Valdez later in my trip, but that seems to be the only spot on the map that would have a gap like that.
So while I started the day seeing mainly lower, tree covered mountains, the further I drive I will slowly get closer to the coast and have a slightly better view of those larger mountains. The next part of this post will cover the section of road near a place called Eureka Roadhouse and the types of mountains I was seeing would change slightly.
I’ve referenced THE Alaska Highway quite a bit the past few days, but this is a discussion about the highways within the state. They are technically intrastate and not interstate highways because they do not connect to another US state.
I made a post in real-time shortly after arriving in Anchorage about the highway system. I will repeat part of it again and add a photo of my AAA map on which I’ve highlighted all I roads I actually drove on.
(Photo credit: AAA.com Alaska Map)
There are 4 major highways in Alaska, not surprisingly numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4. Yes, there are other, smaller ones I’ll talk about in a minute.
1 – Runs from Tok, southwest through Glennallen, west through Anchorage and south to Homer. 538 miles, 9 hrs 38 min (per Google).
2 – Runs from the Canadian border with Yukon, northwest through Tok, Delta Junction, and Fairbanks plus a few more miles to Livengood. 624 miles, 7 hrs 34 min. The part that runs from the border to Delta Junction is the westernmost part of THE Alaska Highway.
3 – Runs from Palmer north to Fairbanks. 327 miles, 5 hrs 36 min.
4 – Runs from Delta Junction, south through Glennallen to Valdez. 268 miles, 4 hrs 37 min.
I have driven on almost all parts of the those four, and several of the others (to Homer, Seward and Valdez). The picture I posted above does not include the two short roads I drove on in the Alaska panhandle – going south to Haines and then north from Skagway. I took a ferry between the two towns which saved quite a bit of driving by not having to go back up to the Alaska Highway to get to Skagway.
Yes, there are some shorter stretches of highway with different numbers:
11 – The “Dalton Highway” north from Livengood to Prudhoe Bay, a dangerous stretch of road not for the faint of heart and not considered a major highway. I did NOT drive on it.
9 – Which branches off from 1 to run south to Seward.
5 – Which branches off from 2 to run northeast to Chicken. I did NOT drive on it as I was told by one of my Airbnb hosts in Tok that it is either unpaved or not in good shape.
8 – I had not listed this one previously. It runs west to east in the center of the map above between Cantwell and Paxson. The reason I didn’t include it (or drive on it) is that it is a seasonal road and is closed in the winter. It may or may not have even been open while I was there in mid to late September, but I had read numerous places that if you rent a vehicle in Alaska the rental company will likely forbid you to drive on it. I heard stories that it is very rough, and that flat tires are common.
After studying various maps more closely I have discovered a few other very short roads, but my trip focused solely on the 4 primary highways plus ones that would get me to the coastal towns I wanted to visit.
I also mentioned in my original highway post that these primary roads are located in the southeast part of what I call the “mainland” – excluding the Aleutian Islands and the panhandle. Here is another photo of the AAA map illustrating that point.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Here are more of the things I saw as I drove through northern British Columbia on my way to the Alaska Highway.
I had seen two handmade signs warning of caribou earlier in my trip, but this was an official one.
It finally occurred to me that one of the reasons I hadn’t seen any animals on this highway was that in most places the edges of the highway are not trimmed back like on most roads, and animals have plenty of places to remain hidden. I did have to remain vigilant, though, as if any did dart out I wouldn’t have had much time to react.
The photo above was the view I had in my direction of travel. I had turned around to come back and take a photo, as I often do.
Once I got away from the mountains I had open road as I approached the Yukon Territory. When I got close to the border I drove through a large area which had burned in a wildfire in 2023. The only new or unaffected growth was right along the highway.
I finally reached the Yukon. Fortunately the wildfire had not made it this far north.
It was only a little further to get to the Alaska Highway, and my Airbnb was less than two miles to the left once I got there.
I was in a new cabin in a complex called Nugget City. It had (expensive) gas, a large (expensive) restaurant, and a campground for people with RV’s. The Airbnb rate was pretty steep, too, but that is what happens when you get to a spot where there aren’t many choices. I had seen a few “cheap” Airbnb’s listed along Highway 37, but I backed away when I learned they didn’t have indoor plumbing but only outhouses! I didn’t want my last act to be taken by a bear on my way to or from an outhouse in the middle of the night…
After I unpacked my stuff for the night (clothes, computer and CPAP machine) and rested a bit I drove in to Watson Lake and found a nice little Chinese restaurant which was much more affordable. I will make a post about something I saw there when I start my journey west tomorrow.
And as you can see, I had stopped for gas along Hwy 37 so I had plenty when I arrived in Nugget City. I will be retracing my route south when I leave Alaska in a few weeks. Unfortunately the complex here in Nugget City will be closed for the season and I will have to book a place in Watson Lake for the return trip.
It was a long, but uneventful drive getting here. It was well paved in most spots, with only a few short dirt or gravel patches. The map I showed earlier appeared to show lots of towns along the way, but that wasn’t the case at all. It is quite a desolate road, and those “towns” were usually just a crossroads with only a few buildings and occasionally a gas station. I didn’t see any animals. Not one. But that’s ok, because once I learned that the there wasn’t much of a barrier on either side of the road I was happy the animals and I can continue to peacefully coexist.
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…
After I left Chetwynd I drove between some smaller mountains in the Rockies chain and was then in open land for quite a while until I reached Prince George. I don’t have any photos to post of Prince George. I can tell you it is a much bigger city that some of the small towns I have been in lately (76,000 people) and I spent my time there preparing for my drive to Alaska.
I bought some more bear spray (I had one older can from 2021, and 2 new ones that I bought before I left Durham, but I bought two more cans). It occurred to me that as soon as you use one you will need another, and from what I had been told, once I got on the road to the Alaska Highway I would likely see lots of bears.
I also went to the Visitor Centre as this was the last big town on the route I was going to take. I asked them for maps and any other information I might need about driving up Hwy 37. I also went to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) station in town. They are the national Canadian police force. I spoke with someone there about my plan to drive the isolated highway north, and who to try and reach in the event of a breakdown or emergency. They assured me that there would be a few places to get gas, though they advised me to have cash on hand because they may not have internet access to process my credit card.
Finally, although I had tried to clean and organize my car while I was in Grande Prairie, I put away my warm weather clothes and got all of my cold weather gear out. I made sure I had layers and a warm blanket in the passenger compartment. I had already stocked up on water and bought some fresh fruit and munchies to have for the ride.
It was a nice morning when I left Prince George to head west to my final overnight stop in British Columbia. It would be about a 5 hour drive.
I drove through lots of open land and went through many small towns:
That sign told me that as much of British Columbia as I had seen between the US border and here, I was only half way north!
I stopped in the small town of Houston for lunch. Right across the highway was the world’s largest fly fishing rod:
This area has lots of waterways which provide copious amounts of trout and salmon.
After driving most of the day in open land I started to see mountains in the distance. Those are coastal mountains which, as that description implies, stretch all the way up the coast and are one of the reasons it is difficult to drive from here to Alaska. You will see tomorrow that I am actually not that far from part of Alaska but there are no roads that go that way.
Those tall mountains are just on the other side of the town of Smithers.
And the mountain on the far right is home to the Hudson Bay glacier:
My Airbnb was in the small town of South Hazelton. They had chickens and goats behind their house and I could watch them from my living room.
And they had a big dog to keep any predators at bay.
I would try and get a full night’s sleep as I will have a 9+ hour drive tomorrow.
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