A few months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States, in collaboration with the Canadian authorities, decided to build a highway from British Columbia to Alaska, a territory then considered vulnerable to attack by Japan. The original 1,685 mile road It took more than 10,000 soldiers less than nine months to complete.
An updated version opened in 1948 and has continually been resurfaced and redirected; It now measures just under 1,400 miles from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Delta Junction in Alaska, according to “The goal”, a travel guide.
The highway formed the heart of a family road trip I took last September from Alaska to Idaho, passing through the Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, along the way.
Relying on Google Maps won't get you far on this trip, where cell phone service is poor. While preparing, my son found a 1972 road map of western Canada and eastern Alaska that remained fairly accurate.
The route, which takes drivers through some of the most beautiful scenery in North America, makes for an economical trip. We spent about $300 on gas for the entire trip in a mid-size SUV. We often camped and ate picnic meals, starting in the coastal area of Valdez, Alaska, where we stayed overnight on a 32-footer. motorboat listed on Airbnb ($68 per night) with a great blue heron and a seal as neighbors.
May and September, the beginning and end of the peak months for traffic along this route, are also good times to observe wildlife that is often pushed to lower elevations by snow.
Lessons in patience
From Valdez we headed towards Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Reserve (free), the largest national park in the United States, and then joined the Alaska Highway Toka small town about 90 miles from the Canadian border that plays an important role in serving sparsely populated eastern Alaska with its grocery stores, gas stations and restaurants.
We had planned to go deep into the Yukon on the first day, but even with only 10 vehicles at the border checkpoint, it took us two hours to reach the lone agent, who asked us a few questions – mostly regarding firearms and hunting – and sent us on our way.
It was the first of many slowdowns caused by stretches of unpaved road, construction detours and places where the asphalt had tilted above the frozen ground.
The Yukon wilderness
Nearly 600 miles of the Alaska Highway cross the Yukon.
From the border, the road heads southeast, crossing endless valleys with meandering streams and long glacier-fed lakes along the way to Kluane National Park and Reserve, home to 19,551-foot Mount Logan, Canada's tallest mountain, and more than 2,000 glaciers. Along with nearby Wrangell-St. Elias and other parks, form a UNESCO World Heritage Site which contains the largest ice fields outside the polar ice caps.
“This is what the Rocky Mountains would have looked like years and years ago,” said Fitz McGoey, product development manager for the park's visitor experience, about 80% of which is covered in snow and ice.
Losing daylight, we opted for the first campsite we found north of the park. Calm Creek Lake ($20 Canadian, or about $15 a night) offered us a riverside campsite where we made quesadillas over a fire and fell asleep to the sound of an owl while clutching cans of bear spray.
City breaks
After days of driving and camping and a great reindeer hot dog from a gas station Haines Junctionwe stopped White horsethe capital of the Yukon and the only major city along the highway, included in the list of 52 places to visit in 2024 as a Northern Lights tourism destination.
Through the 350 wooded acres nearby Yukon Nature Reservea three-mile trail connected the habitats of 12 tundra species, including slender-horned sheep, Arctic fox and Canada lynx ($19 admission).
Check in Crow Inn ($284), we explored Whitehorse's pedestrian-friendly downtown and ducked in for dinner Bison belly (bison Bolognese, $34). Next, our waitress directed us the Hotel of '98 lounge for “a real taste of Whitehorse.”
It was open mic night in the bar, decorated with animal skins and antique rifles, and free steins of Molson beer arrived whenever someone rang the bell above the bar to buy a round at the house.
The MC encouraged reluctant talent by reminding the audience, “There is no tomorrow if you don't live today.”
Yukon kitsch
For the most part, the Alaska Highway is free of roadside kitsch, with one extremely interesting exception: Forest of directions in Watson Lake, Yukon (free).
About 270 miles southeast of Whitehorse, a forest of poles displays countless road signs posted by motorists since 1942, when a homesick American soldier named Carl K. Lindley erected a mileage sign to his hometown, Danville, Illinois.
Now plaques and tributes made up of everything from flip-flops to toilet seats compete with signage.
“We call it the largest public display of stolen property in North America,” said Chris Irvin, the mayor of Watson Lake, in a telephone interview, who estimated there are about a million signs in the forest.
In British Columbia, springs and safaris
In Alaska and the Yukon we had spotted bears and moose. But the wildlife of northern British Columbia, which we entered shortly after the Sign Post Forest, felt like a safari.
We saw black bears emerge from the woods and often stopped to see the grazing caribou or herds wood bison on the shoulder of the highway. A family of thin-horned sheep licking salt from the road nearly collided with our vehicle, their hooves hopping on the pavement.
Safely, our next stop, Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park, offered camping behind an electric bear fence ($26 per night). Campers have unlimited access to the springs, reached via a boardwalk (the original was built in 1942 by American forces) over a warm-water marsh and a boreal forest so unusual in growing species like orchids that it was originally called Tropical Valley.
With mossy banks, stony bottoms, and temperatures that ranged from about 108 to 126 degrees, the park's rock pools remained open 24 hours a day, and we found solitude both at night while stargazing and the next morning in the fog of Sunrise.
Mile Zero
The highway flattens out as it approaches its origin Dawson Creek, a town of 500 people in British Columbia that grew practically overnight to about 10,000 when construction of the highway began. Black and white photos of soldiers working on the road, sitting on a truck stuck in mud and bathing in a river filled the corridors of our hotel, the no-frills atmosphere George Dawson Inn ($174, breakfast included).
The highway is very photographed Zero Mile Indicator nearby a former grain elevator which has been restored as the Dawson Creek Art Gallery (free).
The staircase at the back of the gallery displays a collection of photos, letters and tributes called “The Road”. It included this anecdote: When indigenous people in northern Canada questioned the speed of road construction, they were told of Hitler's plan for world domination, to which one replied, “What does he want all that land for? Surely one day he will die like everyone else.
Alberta parks
From Mile Zero, the most direct route to the Lower 48 runs through Alberta and passes two major attractions in the Canadian Rockies: Jasper National Park and neighbors Banff National Park.
With a view of ever-higher mountains, immense river valleys and herds of elk, we drove 280 miles, mostly on Highway 40, to Jasper National Park ($22 per family or group). Its main road follows the glacial blue Athabasca River to the town of Jasper, where we checked in Hi Jasper hostel ($306 for a private room with four beds).
Rising early, we beat the tour buses to the park Evil Canyon to peer into a chasm carved by the river, following the flow from a clifftop path that descended with the river to rapids and pools.
Connecting Jasper and Banff for approximately 145 miles, the Icefields Parkway it offered spectacular views of waterfalls and peaks winking in and out of the clouds. We picnicked on the rocky shores of Athabasca and skipped the glass-like tourist developments Columbia Icefield Skywalkwhere admission starts at $41.
A double rainbow arched over Highway 93 as we entered Banff, the famous Canadian mountain town. We stayed just outside the bustling city centre The Hotel del Ginepro ($317) and used its free shuttle service to get downtown for a game Three Bears Brewery and Restaurant (pints $8.95) and stock up on picnic supplies at Bakery With Wild Flour.
A quiet alternative
On a sunny morning, as Banff displayed its magnetism, framing mountain views along seemingly every lane, we backtracked about 18 miles to rejoin Highway 93 as it takes a southwest turn into Kootenay National Park ($22 per family or group).
In Kootenay we had Marble Canyon, a 200-foot gorge with marble walls smoothed by a roaring river, all to ourselves. Seven bridges allowed us to cross the narrow gap kings crowned with rubies blood from the pines.
We found the Kootenay crowd at Radium hot springs ($17.50). Surrounded by forested slopes, the large pool didn't have the aura of a wild hot spring, but with family-friendly shallow waters and a biting cold plunge, it was a great diversion.
The tiny former lead, silver and zinc mining town is now an outdoor destination with three golf courses, an alpine skiing area and more than 60 miles of bike paths. Restaurants and pubs in the pedestrian center included Hourglass, which serves cocktails, charcuterie and cheese plates (from $22). “We pack a lot in this little town,” said Breanna Fast, a co-owner.
Just over an hour from the border, Kimberley provided a fitting finale to a trip so full of attractions that I never opened the novel I'd brought.
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