Wildlife and Dawson Creek, BC- We Arrive at Alaskan Highway Milepost 0

We were going to have a long day driving some “scenic” routes (which really are about the only way to get from place to place in these parts), so we got up early, checked out of our really great motel, and hit the road.

A great place to stay in Jasper

It was a cold 33° when we started, but the skies were clear and it looked like it was going to be another great day when the temperature eventually warmed.

We leave the mountains

Driving early in the morning gave us a chance to watch the sun come up over the mountains to the east and to see some wildlife foraging along the roadside. We turned onto a “scenic” road that would take us north to Grand Prairie and immediately saw a sign that warned of no gas or services for the next 95 miles.

These trailers are really long

It was going to be a lonely ride. It is times like these that we are glad that we have satellite radio and can listen to U.S. newscasts or stations to pass the time and keep abreast of what is going on in the states. We went through a pretty long stretch where caribou cross the road as well has heavily loaded logging trucks. Signs are posted that warn that when these trucks turn the logs may come into your lane! We came to the town of Grand Cache and stopped at the visitor’s center to take a break.

At the visitor's center

A coal mining company is based there and operates a huge coal burning electric generating plant. Grand Cache is a quaint little town that seems to sit in the middle of nowhere. We pressed on toward Grand Prairie and thrilled to see 8 deer, 3 dead deer, and our first moose. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of the moose, because our first impression was that it was just another deer.

And we complain there are no road signs!

It wasn’t until we got close that we realized what it was. We started to slow down to go back and get the picture, but the really steep shoulders at the side of the road kept us from easily turning around, and we were below the crest of a hill and blind to any car approaching us from the rear. But the real wildlife highlight of the day was when we spotted a wolf. We both saw it bouncing through some high grass right at the edge of where the woods meets the mowed roadside. At first we both thought it was a fox, but as we got close we saw that it was as big as a full grown German shepherd or Lab, and foxes don’t grow that large. We stopped the car, but the animal had slipped into the woods.

We arrived at Dawson Creek, BC, the starting point and mile 0 of the Alaskan Highway. The original 1,422 mile highway from Dawson Creek to Delta Junction, AK, is regarded as an engineering marvel.

Mile 0

Where the highway starts

It was built and funded by the U.S. as a defensive move to any threat of invasion by the Japanese after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, even though most of the road passes through Canada.

Dawson Creek Mile 0 Intersection

The engineering and construction was performed by the U.S. Army. There are a lot of interesting facts about the highway that you can read by following this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Highway or Googling the highway for other pages.

Railway museum- guy doesn't say much

We went to the Dawson Creek visitor’s center and took pictures at the Mile 0 marker, toured an art, railway, and natural history museums, and watched a video with original footage about the construction of the highway. All of these brought us up to speed on the Dawson Creek area and the highway in a short time. After leaving the visitor’s center, we drove through the historic downtown area of Dawson Creek and then found a park with a walking path that we could use for some exercise, before returning to our room to get ready for tomorrow’s next leg of our trek to Alaska.

Sign on our motel lobby door

 

It gets results!