Driving....

The drive back would not be as leisurely as the drive up – some long days of driving would be necessary for the overland return along the Alaskan highway (in contrast to the four days of effortless ferry travel up the inside passage). Over the next ten days we would drive 2000 miles (3-6 hours per day). We tried to find interesting things along the way, but it wasn't always easy – there are some very long stretches of nothingness. I guess that's part of what makes it unique – not like driving across the US. I had imagined the Alaskan highway to be a vast and beautiful drive, but to be completely honest, it doesn't hold a candle to the terrain in and around Alaska. Most of the road is just rolling hills of stunted pine forest. Fortunately we did see some interesting things along the way.

A trip to Alaska wouldn't be complete without mentioning The Pipeline. Outside Fairbanks there was a viewing area where you could get right up to it and touch it. The oil flows very fast inside (30,000 gallons per minute), partly because it is kept hot (140 degrees ). Of course the pipeline is not hot to the touch because it is well insulated to preserve it's heat. It was an amazing engineering feat to learn about.

Leaving Fairbanks, the highway is actually a highway – two lanes in each direction with exit and entry ramps. As we entered North Pole (a real town just south east of Fairbanks), there was a temporary sign announcing drag racing and directing spectators to use the next exit. Odd that they would have drag racing in this small town, but as we continued past, all traffic was directed off the highway at the next exit thru a long detour of several miles of surface streets because the drag racing was happening ON the highway itself. No other place for it I guess, but I can't imagine that happening back home.

Another observation along the road: There are lots of hunters here – it seems to be the primary recreation activity up here. They usually ride around on ATVs, although more than a few times we encountered slow moving pickup trucks puttering along the road – watching from their vehicle for animals to shoot – doesn't seem very sporting to drive along until you encounter a moose and then kill it.

Heading East from Chicken (yes, that's the name of a town in Alaska), there is a long dirt road called the Top of the World Highway (they like to use the word “highway” for everything up here). It was unlike anything we'd ever seen – the road travels along the tops of the rounded treeless mountains, and gives the sensation of being above all. The surface is all tundra and it was very windy – perhaps since there were no trees to slow the air currents.

From there, we had to cross the Yukon river on a tiny ferry - just us and another car filled up the deck. It was a very strange sensation to be behind the wheel of the van and all around I could see water – the current of the fast river speeding by. I felt like I needed to steer the car as we traveled across. The other end of the Ferry was Dawson City – a living ghost town. By that I mean that the town buildings have been restored to their gold rush days when there were 30,000 people living there. One thousand people live there now, and they inhabit and work in the restored buildings. So walking down the street you see the old bank, but inside is someone's private office, not a bank – very neat to walk around, but kind of confusing – fortunately, the old general store is still a general store inside.

I should mention the highway is usually deserted – vast stretches without seeing another car. Once it gets dark there is virtually no one driving. This makes for easy free camping – just pull off the road at any pullout. I'm sure the nights we spent this way were more remote than any backpacking trip – probably not another person within fifty miles of us.

In the small and remote town of Watson Lake, we visited the famous signpost forest. Apparently one of the road building crew back in the 40's built a signpost pointing back to his hometown of in Illinois with the distance listed. The idea caught on and today there are over 50,000 signs from around the world. You can post your own hometown if you want, and some people come back and mark there own signs each time they repeat the drive – remarkable.

Eventually the terrain changed – quite remarkably. We reached the northern end of the Rocky Mountains. It was beautiful to drive through – great stone peaks devoid of vegetation. We even found a mountain bike ride to do up above tree line. A couple more days of driving and we reached Jasper, a beautiful little town and the Canadian National Park that surrounds it.