Hello my friends:
Here is another report from Canada. We have been traveling north/north-west since we left Jasper in the Canadian Rockies, going from Alberta into British Columbia and through the Yukon Territory which borders on Alaska. Since yesterday afternoon, we are in the Northwest Territory, the northernmost province of western Canada. We crossed the Arctic Circle. The days have been getting longer and longer as we are getting farther north. And for the first time, last night we experienced the midnight sun because….. we successfully negotiated the Dempster Highway, 736km of gravel/clay road to get to Inuvik at the delta of the MacKenzie River which runs into the Arctic Sea. Our adventures here, will be the topic for another blog.
In this blog some pictures of our trip along the Alaska Highway. This famous road was built in 1942, shortly after the Japanese destroyed the US Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor. The US and Canada feared a possible invasion from Japan through Alaska and Canada. Together, they decided that a road needed to be built to be able to transport military personnel and materiel to Alaska quickly. They mobilized more than 10,000 soldiers (mostly US) and in 8 months constructed a road of 2,288km long from Fort Nelson, BC to Delta Junction, Alaska! It was a heroic effort, bulldozering through very rough terrain, building bridges across many rivers and streams and dealing with the severe winter weather you have up here. A huge amount of equipment was brought into the area. Some of which is still to be found in museums along the way…..
The modern Alaska Highway or Alcan as it is also called is a far cry from the unpaved road during the war years as you will see from the pictures below……
This is undoubtedly the largest beaver statue in the world in the town of Beaver Lodge on our way to Dawson Creek where the Alcan starts.
Dawson Creek; the Visitor Center/museum housed in an former grain silo (our camper in front).
The beginning of the Alaska Highway
This is actually a mural, showing Dawson Creek as it was in the olden days. The town has a number of murals on the same theme.
After leaving Dawson Creek, we detoured to the town of Chetwynd. It is famous for its chain saw wood carvings. Yes, wooden statues made with chain saws. Below, some examples….
Quite remarkable what some people can do with chain saws……
Fort Nelson is another town along the Alaska Highway. The Heritage museum has some war time equipment as wel as a nice collection of vintage cars. Three pictures below…..
Above, a Ford Model A. My father’s cabin cruiser in Holland in the 1940s had a “Ford A” engine.
This car is from 1908; didn’t write down the brand
Cars and trucks used during the Alaska Highway construction in 1942
On our way from Fort Nelson to Watson Lake, we were lucky to see a bunch of wild animals. They don’t look so wild when you can observe them from your car…..
Mountain sheep licking the road for salt
More mountain sheep
Our first moose
Betsie took this shot when the moose was lifting its head after grazing under water for at least one minute
A solitary black bear
And below, woodland bisons right by the road
And further down, a mother black bear with two cubs
Watson Lake is famous for its “Sign Post Forest.” Apparently, this was started already during WWII. By now more than 50,000 signs and license plates have been posted by visitors from all over the world; it’s a literal forest of poles. Below some photos to give you an impression and, especially for the Dutch, several photos of signs obviously left by countrymen of ours…..
Farther along the Alaska highway on our way to Whitehorse, you pass by this lake with an ancient volcano in the background .
We stopped briefly in the little town of Teslin to photograph the bridge across the Teslin Lake/river and to visit a small museum with memorabilia as well as historical photographs by George Johnston and a film of the Tlingit indians. Their story is a sad one, as it is for so many native people. The Canadian government in the 1930s decided to take indian elementary school-age children away from their families and educate them in boarding schools, thereby destroying the whole fabric of that native society (similar to what Australia did to its Aboriginals)
After stocking up on groceries and gas in Whitehorse, a larger, well-known town along the Alaska highway, we turned north on the Klondike Highway and camped along Fox Lake. Mosquitos are becoming more and more numerous and pesky. Here is Betsie in her mosquito screen suit and me with my head screen which provide some protection
Below, eating our meal in a lovely setting right on the lake. We are outside despite the mosquitos, thanks to the screen suit
And some photos taken at 10:00pm; the red sun is still far from setting at this hour
Now it’s close to 11pm
We were driving direction Dawson City on the Klondike highway on 7/7 and saw this grizzly bear munching on some greens by the roadside, a Kodak moment of course. The Dawson City area is famous for the Gold Rush of the end of the 19th century
Rather than a grizzly, however cuddly they may look, we picked up a hitch-hiker from Latvia; Diana is an intrepid young lady; she travels by herselfs and sleeps out in the open, despite being in bear country
And here we are at the start of our next adventure: we are driving more than 700km on the Demster Highway, as far north as we can, to the Inuit village of Inuvik, 200km above the Arctic Circle. The Demster highway is a gravel road! By the time, you read this, we will either have succeeded or we will have returned because the camper (and us) could not handle the bumpy road (as you know from my Intro, we made it…..).
Here we are crossing the Arctic Circle and entering the Northwest Territory.
We had to take two ferries; this is the one across the MacKenzie River. In winter, it freezes completely and the river is used as an ice road for regular traffic.
Entering Inuvik, our northernmost destination on this journey, where we will be spending a couple of days and attend the Arts Festival that’s taking place this week (art by the natives of this area).
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