Day 24 - Jasper, AB to Fort St. John, BC

The Alaska Highway At Last

We got an early start as it seemed that it would be a long driving day. The road out of Jasper, AB 16, ran along the river for about 45 miles to Hinton, where we took a left at the sign that said "Scenic Route to Alaska", AB 40. This wound through the hills for about 85 miles to Grande Cache, where we had our morning coffee break. Then it all changed.

At Grande Cache we entered natural resource extraction land. As we left the town, we passed a coal mine...or more accurately, a coal quarry, since they were carving it out of a hillside and conveying the coal directly downhill to a power plant. After Grand Cache the hills eventually gave out and we were back on rolling, mostly open land. It could have been Kansas or Minnesota with more trees. Then we started seeing the gas and oil wells and processing facilities. This went on through Grande Prairie, a big oil service city, and through Dawson Creek, a town that sounds like it ought to be a small place with a main street and a saloon, but was another big oil town with two Starbucks, four Tim Hortons, a Walmart, a Costco and every other chain store you could imagine, all interspersed with industrial firms servicing trucks and oil exploration.

The traffic from Grand Cache to Grande Prairie was mostly big trucks. They would come out of the unpaved gravel roads to the well sites and tear down the road spewing gravel. One rock found Harry and Sally's windshield...a crack and we haven't even seen our first gravel highway.

At Dawson Creek, we reached the start of the real road to Alaska, the Alaska Highway. We stopped for the obligatory photos. There were a couple of guys on BMW 1200RTs in front of the monument when we arrived and two BMW 1200GS riders pulled in as we were leaving. All heading for Alaska.

We once again joined the line of trucks north...so much for the scenic route. It was our turn to take a rock from a passing truck. Fortunately, we only got a quarter-sized dent in the hood. We finally stopped for the day at the Rotary Club RV Park in Fort St. John, about 50 miles further.  It is right on the road, but overlooks Charlie Lake and a wetland...and there is a good pub next door.

There were a few highlights along the way. We saw a huge bull moose right next to the road. It was standing facing the road right at the top of a hill. As we came up on it, was so imposing and still that we entertained that it might be a sculpture, but we slowed down anyway. Just as we reached it, it turned and trotted off into the woods...before we could pick up a camera. I also saw a black bear coming out of the woods and lumbering towards the road, but we were by it so quickly that it escaped Ellen's view.

Tomorrow it is more of the Alaska Highway. Supposedly, we escape this oil patch frenzy in about three more hours of driving.

Here are a few photos:

Caribou Warning

We Reach The Start of the Alaska Highway

The Rotary Club RV Park