Alaska Highway - Part 1

The Alaska Highway is pretty much just a highway that runs from Dawson Creek B.C. to Alaska that was built during WW2. But, it's also an incredible drive that everyone should try to experience at least once. We started out at Mile 0 this morning and are now at Mile 300 in Fort Nelson, B.C. Today's drive took us through flat sections, steep climbs and descents and many twists and turns. The highway so far, has been two lanes only with not a lot of safe passing places. There are also numerous trucks hauling logs, oil, and giant pieces of machinery. Here, we're approaching the bridge over the Peace River. 

This shows one of the rare parts of the highway where it was safe and fun to pass the trucks.

There aren't a lot of gas stations between the small towns on the highway. So, you pay the price that they want to charge. We paid $1.16/litre in southern Alberta, $1.25 in mid Alberta and this on the Alaska Highway. Ouch!

And this is how you know you're in the north. The gas stations have giant squeegees so you can clean your giant truck windows! And they usually have real washer fluid in the buckets unlike at home where we are lucky to get dirty water!

There are a lot of oil and lumber workers doing their jobs around the highway. We saw a number of these camps where they live and park their trucks. They reminded us of school portables. 

We stopped for a break at a place near Pink Mountain that said it was a designated Sasquatch Crossing! Well, this was another definite photo op for me. Not as exciting as the other day but pretty good. 

The next part of our adventure was Suicide Hill. It's a very steep 10% grade that curves a lot. It was named that because there were a number of deaths there while they were building the highway. I enjoyed the ride but could imagine it wouldn't be fun in winter or if you had bad brakes! The pictures don't give the full sense of how steep it really was.

We arrived at our destination of Fort Nelson at around 1:30. Not sure exactly what our expectations were but Fort Nelson didn't meet them! The Alaska Highway is the main street and the "downtown" is a group of small shops that are on a side street that runs parallel to the highway. We thought about going to a pub for lunch but the group of bikers in the parking lot kind of nixed that. Instead, we went to a quilt store that we had noticed on the way in and Marilyn did some browsing. 
Then we went to what was touted as the best attraction in Fort Nelson. It was a heritage museum of sorts. Some old guy has collected tons of old artifacts and vehicles from the past. I was intrigued by the fields full of old cars, trucks and tractors. Here are a few examples.

On our way back, we found an IGA store and picked up cheese and crackers for lunch. We already had some wine. It's actually been quite a relaxing afternoon because I think there are only about 8 people in this 4 floor hotel. Dinner tonight is going to be the safe bet choice of Boston Pizza which, as you can see from the photo out of our window, is a short walk away. I think we're doing take out!