Favorite Places is a time when I can share with you some of the places we’ve been in our travels.
This week I want to share another of our Alaska chapters.
There are several ways to get to Alaska: airplane, ferry, cruise ship or the Alaska Highway. If you have unlimited time and you crave adventure, driving the Alaska Highway is the best way to get there.
As you can see on the map above, the highway starts in Dawson Creek. That is way up there in Northern British Columbia. We were coming from Portland, Oregon so we went on up through British Columbia. That area alone is worthy of several weeks of discovery.
The term “highway” is to be used cautiously. For the most part the road is covered with asphalt. The wise traveler prepares for the parts that are only gravel.
There are long distances between “settlements.” There’s great camaraderie among the travelers because it’s often rare to see another one. Some travelers carry along signs advertising their hometowns. Their purpose is to post their sign here in Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. We saw tens of thousands posted on these walls.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that as we traveled we saw incredible mountain ranges around every turn in the road. The scenery is just spectacular.
We took our time wandering the highway between British Columbia, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. It took us a month but we finally crossed the border and drove on into Alaska. The city of Tok was our first stop. There we visited the Alaska Highway Museum and learned about the history of building the highway we’d just spent so much time on.
A trip to Alaska is strongly recommended for all retirees. Many areas reminded us of the lower forty-eight back in the 1950s and 1960s. Great nostalgia in addition to the adventure of it all.
I hope you’ll join me again in a couple of weeks when I’ll show you another Favorite Place. Feel free to join in and share some of your Favorite Places. Leave a link in the comments and we’ll come visit you.
Really interesting and really beautiful, Margot. Thanks for sharing.
Now that is something I’ve *always* wanted to do — drive along the Alaskan Highway. What an adventure.
What a great trip! I’m just not sure I could survive a month of traveling.
I hope that Geoff and I have this opportunity when we retire. It has been a dream of mine for quite some time.
What month would you advise? I would be afraid of hitting snow any time of year
I always enjoy this feature. Thanks for sharing your travels with us!!
Dave has wanted to do this as long as I’ve known him. Personally, I had rather go on a cruise ship and then take a train into an inland resort like a friend did, but if we go, Dave will win out I’ll bet. We had heard you need to take along a lot of gasoline because there are so few places to get it. Is that true?
Someday — we hope… In the meantime, thanks for sharing your trip! So many places……
I really hope to make it to Alaska one day. It looks so beautiful!
Now that looks like an adventure. My husband and I have wanted to visit Alaska for a long time. It is one trip that I’m sure we’ll do when we retire!!
What a cool trip. I could spend all day looking at all of those sign alone!
Barbara: It’s not necessary to take extra fuel. We had no trouble at all. This highway is RV Heaven so there are plenty of RVs looking for fuel stations along the way.
Molly: We traveled May through the end of August but we could easily have traveled back in September. This is probably why we had no trouble finding fuel.
What a great trip-I have been there once about 17 years ago and enjoyed my time a lot. The scenery is spectacular. Thank you for this trip.
I am loving the travel posts. I love seeing the fun you had and wishing it was me traveling!
This is on our “someday” schedule. Since we’ll be empty-nesters in a month, I’m hoping that day comes soon. Thanks for sharing your adventures.
My husband and I would love to visit Alaska someday. In the last couple years we have visited both the east and west US coasts. This summer we’ve not hopped far from home(KS), but have made a lot of midwest trips. You can view posts about those trips on my blog at http://windowontheprairie.com/category/thecountryside/
someday, I hope to get back to Alaska. so big, so beautiful.
We took the Alaska Highway from Fairbanks to Tok..and then took the Taylor Highway to Chicken…and the Top of the World Highway over the mountains to Dawson City. You think the Alaska Highway is bad in places…you drive on a dirt and gravel road ..sorry highway…over those mountains. eeeek!
Enjoyed reading your blog. Become a fan on Facebook at Mile 0 Alaska Highway, and share these great highway stories with other travellers. Safe travels
Hi there, I am from Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway, its always great to hear everyones great stories about there trip of a life time that goes right through my backyard. There are so many stories about the Alaska Highway, some of those are posted on this new facebook site.
Check it out and become a fan, http://www.facebook.com/alaskahighway
Safe travels, see you on the highway
I’m planning a bucket list spur of the moment trip to Alaska.
A true dream spend time at Denali while health permits.
Was a passport a mandatory item for the drive?
If you could get a minute, a hand in the plan would be greatly
appreciated.
I’m in central Az outside Sedona so it will br a big trip.
This was great to check out and very much appreciate the info, my father and I are looking to go to Alaska (via vehicle) so this was helpful. Thank you very much.
Tonya