Alaska in the Rearview - British Columbia

Before we left Alaska, I told my son that this road trip was important to show him just how far Alaska was from the rest of the United States.  It was a lesson I learned when I was eleven and took an epic road trip with my family all the way to New Mexico and back.  He tried to tell me that he got it already, Alaska was a far away, but I assured him he didn't know until he'd experienced it.

Look at where we came from!

We left the expansive, but beautiful, wilderness of the Yukon Territory on our fourth day of driving and entered British Columbia with some giddy anticipation at being more than halfway to California.  We soon arrived at one of the best sites of the whole trip: Liard Hot Springs.  I carved out a couple hours of our day to share this hidden gem with my son.  The excursion only cost $8 for parking and the springs were not very crowded.  We donned shorts and tank tops (because our swimsuits were packed away) and walked the long boardwalk through a steaming bog to its source.  Pretty little orange fritillary butterflies flitted about on buttercups and the sun filtered through the boreal forest leaves.  The changing rooms and decks surrounding the hot spring were surprisingly clean and modern, just as I remembered from 16 years ago when my husband and I drove through.  We waded into the sulfurous creek and my son's eyes lit up with wonder.  A hot creek!  We waded toward the cooler end and followed the water through a narrow passageway of undercut banks and overhanging roots that reminded me of a mythical swamp from a movie.  The water became cold and clear, but downed trees blocked us from going further.  Back at the steaming pool, we let ourselves just float and drift around while the heat penetrated deep in our muscles.  The whole experience felt very European.  I managed to dip myself into the upper hot pool nearer the source and let the scalding water reach into the core of my bones.  It felt euphoric!

Reluctantly, we pulled ourselves out of the water, put on dry clothes, and walked back to the car to press onward.  Our bodies felt all squooshy inside, like softened butter, so we didn't really mind smelling like rotten eggs.  My son exclaimed in a theatrical and breathy voice, "That was awe-some," and that's all I needed to feel like mom of the year.

By late afternoon, we'd reached Dawson Creek at Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.  It felt like the first modern civilization we'd seen since leaving Alaska.  Imagine driving 1,543 miles while encountering only a couple towns big enough for a stoplight.  Suddenly, I had to pay attention to traffic and use my map to navigate streets.  But it also meant the convenient reappearance of recognizable stores like Safeway, Shell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken.  I indulged my son in a hamburger, root beer float, and sweet potato fries from an A&W restaurant, which totally topped off his good day.

As we traveled on through BC, I also noticed the warmer sunshine.  We'd left behind the drizzly rain and cool air of the northern territory and Alaska, replacing it with wide open blue skies and the warm penetrating rays of lower latitudes.  It was hard to imagine my grandparents starting up the newly built Alaska Highway from this point almost 70 years ago.  Things were so different then, so much more rugged.  I think traveling in a northerly direction as far as Alaska, was like going through a worm hole that transported one back in time.  The further North you went, the older the technology got, the rustier the cars, the less sophisticated the architecture, the fewer the amenities.  Anchorage, of course, was the anomaly to this trend, but it it didn't totally avoid the characterization (especially 70 years ago).  Likewise, driving south was like taking the worm hole toward the future.  I had a sense that as I drove further south, I moved forward in time. Mile by mile I entered the modern world. 

That's a good pack job!

Having reached the beginning of the Alaska Hwy., I offered a silent thanks and pat on the back to my ancestors for being such intrepid adventures.  Then we found the closest modern hotel with room service and a pool and I gave another silent thanks for progress!

Where did my coffee go?  Last you saw it was on the roof?

On our last morning in BC, we made a hasty retreat from the somewhat seedy metropolis of Prince George.  Thanks to my son, who left my complimentary coffee from the hotel's continental breakfast on the roof of the car, I began to ween myself from the caffeine I'd come to rely on for our long days in the car.  The more frequent towns, increased traffic, and signs of civilization broke up the scenery sufficiently to keep me awake.  We aimed to stop anywhere interesting along the road, but pretty much kept to our goal of 500 miles per day.

At long last, the Canadian border came into view.  We lingered a bit at the duty-free shop to buy some Canadian maple syrup and playing cards to commemorate our trip through a foreign country.  And then we got in line to re-enter our own nation.

It's a little funny to think that America shares this continent with another country.  I think we forget sometimes.  While Canada isn't really very different from America in language or customs, it is still a foreign place right outside our back door that's worth exploring.  I had a good time visiting it again.  I feel accomplished to have driven through it by myself.  Give street cred to this mom!  We went 2,283 miles without a single major problem.  But, if I'm honest, which I usually am, I'm pretty darn excited to get back into my own country.  I want miles back.  I want smooth paved roads.  I want Taco Bell and Target.  I want tourist traps and kitschy shopping.  I want to feel like I'm with my people again, like I belong.  Washington state, here we come!

Alaska in the Rearview - Yukon Territory

 We crossed the Canadian Border without a hitch, and were promptly stopped by road construction.  There was some kind of agreement when the Alaska Highway was built, that Alaska would foot the bill for constructing the road, but Canada had to do the maintenance forever afterward.  Guess who got the better deal?  It seems that some large portion(s) of the highway are ALWAYS under construction.  People ask, "Isn't that road finished?"  Well, yes, but the moment the tar dries on one part of the road, another part starts to disintegrate.  Most of the highway is nothing more than rocks and dirt pressed into something hot and sticky and left to dry.  It makes for quite a rough tarmac.  That being said, rough texture taken at 50mph is a pleasure compared to being at a standstill, waiting in the middle of nowhere for a pilot car to lead you across miles of un-tarmac'd road under re-construction.

Two other things...why are there two systems of measurement on the same continent?  Kilometers per hour vs. Miles per hour.  I just can't adjust my thinking!  Thank goodness for the little Kph numbers on my car's speedometer.  And secondly, have you ever seen a milepost with so many numbers!  I admit to being a bit daunted knowing that when I reached Mile 0, I was only about half way to my destination.  Dang.  That's a long way.



Our drive through the Yukon was quite devoid of human comforts and the good ol' American abundance of everything, but that was kinda nice.  My boy and I devised games to play in the car to keep us awake and entertained.  The best were Twenty Questions, Would you Rather..., I spy, and a few we made up ourselves.  We took turns starting a string of words that rhymed until someone got stumped.  We tried to say words really fast or loosely to make the other one guess what we were saying (this idea came from the movie John Doe).  Or there was this game I thought up:

Mom: "I'll say a word like 'tree' and you have to make a real sentence of words that starts with each letter of the word I said, in order.  For instance, 'Theresa rakes every evening.' Okay, so try 'road.'"
Izak: "Randy often ate deer."

And so on...you should try it on your next road trip.

What the Yukon Territory did have was a lot of animals.  I've never seen so many bears in my whole life!  Our first one was just meandering along the highway in all his shaggy animal-ness, barely (pun) noticing that we had pulled up to capture his existence on our digital devices.  We saw six bears in one day!  Eight in total.  There were also moose, bison, porcupine, and lots of adorable little hares eating gravel along the roadsides.  We even saw a wolf!  The elusive wild canid was contemplating crossing the road when we zoomed by and, as sightings of elusive things go, he was gone by the time we managed to turn around and go back for a picture.

Between road trip games and taking potty breaks to stretch our legs, we snacked on peanut m'ms, horribly tough salmon jerky, cookies, fruit chews, and other unhealthy things.  In the afternoon, when my eyelids started to feel heavy, my son put a movie in the laptop and we shared a pair of earphones.  I was super surprised how well this kept me awake.  I'd rather not mention how often I found myself watching the movie - which wasn't much, I promise.  But I did find that listening to the action and the storyline kept my brain engaged enough that I wasn't fatigued. This was a good thing, since we decided on the first day that we wanted to put as many miles behind us each day as possible.  We put in about 12 hours driving each day to cover over 500 miles between decent lodgings.  This part of the highway is definitely more suited to motorhomes that can stop and sleep anywhere, than folks like us who depended on lodging with clean beds and food.

I was hoping that Whitehorse would hold some interesting sites and treasures for humans...a good restaurant at least.  This capital of the Yukon Territory was the first real city we'd seen in a thousand miles.  Alas, it was smaller than I'd imagined (or remembered) and not exactly rife with obvious touristy sites.  We parked in the downtown area, which is where I always go to scope out a new place, walked up and down a couple blocks that were mostly closed, and got back in the car. The day was waning, our bellies were growling, and we still had 100 miles to put under our wheels.  In a desperately hungry state, we gravitated toward the only business that seemed to have signs of life.  We entered what felt like the back door of a tiny, dimly lit, Mexican restaurant with patrons sitting inside and out.  I figured that was a good sign, so I ordered a couple things from the menu and then waited awkwardly between the cash register and the kitchen for our meals to-go.  As we drove out of Whitehorse, 25 minutes after we arrived, my only wish was that I'd ordered more food.

Whitehorse is a one horse town.

The only truly interesting sight in the Yukon was the sign city in Watson Lake.  I remember wandering the forest of signs as a kid twenty-five years ago on a family trip.  It has definitely grown!  There are also a lot more homemade signs and things people have simply written their names on to contribute to the menagerie.  Official street and town signs are still my favorite, like "Defiance, Corporation Limit" and "Niederwallmenach."  We spent a good half hour walking through the circular rows and reading the signs.  I loved finding names of places I recognized.  I think my son was just grateful to stretch his legs and have something other than me to look at. Watson Lake had a gas and a grocery store in town, but not a lot else.  Next stop...British Columbia and hopefully some civilization!

**Updated Oct 7, 2014**