Part 4: The AlCan Highway — Dawson Creek, BC to Tok, AK

July 13 – 24: We kicked off our trip on the AlCan (Alaska Highway) on July 13 in Dawson City at Mile 0, took a diversion to Haines on July 17th and returned to the AlCan on July 22. From Tok, Ak, we took the Top of the World Highway over to Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. The AlCan Highway actually goes past Tok and ends in Delta Junction, which we will hit on our journey home starting in mid-August.

I mentioned in a previous blog that I traveled the AlCan Highway as a toddler in 1964. My mom said it was a dirt road and we did the trip in one week. I am not sure where she considered the start and end point…did it take us one week to travel from Missoula to Anchorage? That would have been pretty impressive in 1964 with two babies!

The AlCan highway construction started March 8, 1942 in response to the concern of the USA to defend Alaska after Pearl Harbor. The War Department wanted to create a road that connected airfields from Edmonton, AB to Fairbanks, AK and started construction in two opposite points, Dawson Creek, BC and Delta Junction, AK. The basic AlCan higway was completed in record time with two bull dozers touching shovels on November 20, 1942. Over the next few years, improvements were made and the highway was opened to the public in 1948.

There is quite a bit of advertisements of various towns along the AlCan, which are mostly 120 to 150 miles apart, as they were created or built up to support the AlCan Highway. We saw a variety of wildlife such as caribou, bison, mountain goats, a few bears and a dead moose on the side of the road. It was very warm when we made the trip and I expect most of the wildlife was hiding up in the mountains.

There seems to a contest on who can produce the best cinnamon buns along the AlCan. Each stop is about 300 miles apart, so there is little competition, but it is fun taste testing these amazing cinnamon buns that are created in the middle of nowhere along the AlCan!

We’d heard and read a lot about the stretch of the AlCan between Destruction Bay and Tok being really rough roads. That indeed was the truth. We only suffered one major casualty with the microwave door popping open and the pyrex turn table falling out. We found it shattered on the floor of the RV on one of our stops.

AlCan (Alaska Canada or just Alaska) Highway from Dawson Creek, BC to Delta Junction, AK – 1387 Miles
Starting point, Mile “0”, of the AlCan Highway
The AlCan starts off in prararie land and agriculutural fields.
The AlCan gentley starts increasing with more spruce and lodgepole pine trees as well as elevation change.
The AlCan switches between rocky outcroppings and mountains full of spruce and pines trees stacked next to each other.
A stop at Liard Hot Springs Mile 497 is great for a relaxing soak in the natural hot springs. The area is aggressively protected from bears!
Liard Hot Springs hosts a few “pool” areas-the one on the right be quite hot and the one of the left cooler, especially as you move up the stream.
Watson Lake at Mile 635 host the Sign Post Forest, where passersby are welcome to add their own sign. This started in 1942 with a couple of soldiers working on the AlCan Highway.
One of a small heard of bison on the roadway
Historic bridge coming into Teslin
Caribou walking across the road. Apparently, they can be plentiful, but this is all we’ve seen on the AlCan.
Tetsa River Services & Campground had the best Cinnamon Buns of the trip so far!
Johnsons Crossing boasted “the world’s best cinnamon rolls”, but they did not beat Tetsa River Campground
Destruction Bay to Tok is the WORST 200 mile stretch of road along the AlCan. It is exhausting slowing down, speeding up and bumping along trying to avoid or mitigate the beat up highyway.
Road construction was definitely present, but not as bad I expected. But the 200 miles between Destruction Bay and Tok needed a lot more road construction to make it more passable.