2005/07 Alaska and Back Again - Dawson Creek |
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Tuesday August 9th
It was dark and raining steadily as we left, splashing through the puddles. It stayed grey and wet for the rest of the Alaska Highway. We saw some more deer and a red fox in the last couple of hundred miles, but mainly the view was of trees. The last few miles of the highway pass through the Peace River farming country, and at Dawson Creek there are rows of grain elevators, ready to load wheat onto the railroad cars.
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John Hart Highway (Dawson Creek and Chetwynd) |
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awson Creek is the official start of the Alaska Highway, and we’d done all 1423 miles of it, though not as a straight-through drive. We’d done Watson Lake to Delta Junction on the way out and Watson Lake to Dawson Creek on the way back. As well as that, we’d also driven the Cassiar, Glenn, Parks, Seward, Sterling, and Top of the World Highways and parts of the Dalton, McCarthy, Taylor, Denali, and Klondike. Even so, I’m glad to say that there are still plenty of remote places in Alaska to visit on a future trip.
We took some celebratory pictures at Mile 0 and then adjourned to the Alaska Pub for a celebratory 
lunch. We were headed south again, this time through Chetwynd, “chainsaw carving capital of the world”, where Bob and Pat used to teach in the local school. The campground in town looked too crowded so we moved on a few miles to Caryn Creek, a nicely laid-out campground. We opted for a site midway between the highway and the railroad, getting the Evanses ready for the trains back in Chilliwack. The owners had a good collection of local rocks, and their house had deck railings made from welded up old guns, shells, and mortars. As the wife said, it’s the only time any of that stuff has been useful!
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