Roadtripping the Alaska-Canada Highway
​If You're in the Mood for a Few Thousand Miles

Day 1: Anchorage-Tok-Border Crossing-Destruction Bay, Yukon

Matanuska Glacier

Our first photo op was the glacier about 2 hours north of Anchorage. It was the first week of September, and fall colors were abundant.
Posing for a photo on the international boundary that marks where Alaska and Canada meet.
After posing with the Welcome to Alaska sign, I walked a few steps over to the Yukon sign!

View of Destruction Bay

We were only able to access the internet for about 20 minutes at the Talbot Arm Motel, because that's all the bandwidth the motel could spare. It was $10. 

Crossing the Border

After driving through Tok and Northway, we cross the border into Canada near Beaver Creek into the Yukon Territory.
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The boundary looked the same in 2017 as it did in the early 70s when my dad crossed.
Home for the night- Talbot Arm Motel. It was the only choice for hours, and was nicer than it looks. 

Mile 1083, The Alaska Highway

We had some drizzle the first day, but temperatures were comfy. Overnight lows in the low 30s, with highs in the 40s.

Day 2: Destruction Bay-Haines Junction-Watson Lake, Yukon

Haines Junction

We arrived in Haines Junction Monday morning. Here the Alaska Highway meets the Haines Highway. If you take the Haines Highway you'll end up in Haines, Alaska.
The Sign Post Forest has more than 83,000 signs as of September 2017, according to the visitor's center.
We saw signs from every state and city, and many countries around the world. Some were very old. It's so crazy to think about how many people have made the same journey, especially since we often drove for hours without seeing any other cars!

Watson Lake Sign Post Forest

Easily one of the quirkiest and most interesting places I've ever been. The Sign Post Forest is in Watson Lake. Travelers have been leaving signs here since 1942.
License plates, road signs, city signs, homemade signs, you name it! They covered every inch of tree and post.
We walked to the hardware store and bought a board to make our own signs. Not sure if I'll be able to spot it if I'm ever in the neighborhood again!

Day 3: Watson Lake-Muncho Lake-Fort Nelson-Fort St. John, B.C.

The drive between Watson Lake and Fort St. John was the most remote stretch of the trip. 
There were animals at every twist and turn on this day. Here, we had to stop to let a black bear cross the road. It was okay to stop, because we were the only ones around!
We saw several herds of elk and caribou along the way.
A cabin along the way advertising giant cinnamon rolls. We stopped. This was a BIG deal. We rarely saw anywhere to stop.
We drove for hours at a time on this day with nothing but trees and the single stretch of roadway in view.
The black bear loudly munched on wildflowers and ignored us, as we snapped photos.
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The beautiful turquoise waters of Muncho Lake.
You'll never see so many trees in your life as you do on this trip.

Day 4: Fort St. John-Dawson Creek-Grand Prairie-Jasper National Park

Dawson Creek- hard to believe that a teen drama series was named after this random Canadian town. There must be another Dawson Creek somewhere. 
We finally ran into some snow on this day...somewhere in the wilderness.
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The road through Jasper National Park was gorgeous. The Canadian Rockies run through this park, so there were mountain views everywhere.
It started getting dark and foggy in the evening and we didn't want to drive through the pitch black wilderness.

We had a spectacular view of the Athabasca Glacier (part of the Columbia Icefield) from our hotel room window!
We finally made it to "Mile 0" of the Alaska Highway after 3.5 days of driving. That was just the most legendary highway though...we had many more to drive.

​Many people suggested we drive through Jasper and Banff, part of Jasper National Park. So, we took a detour.
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We tried to get a hotel room in Jasper for the night, but with beautiful weather, it was full of tourists. There was nowhere else to stop, so we had to keep driving.
We were very relieved to come across The Glacier View Inn about halfway through the park. We thought it would be booked, but luckily we were able to get a room.
After a few days of cooler sandwiches and gas station snacks we had a delicious meal and local craft beer at the "Altitude" restaurant.

Day 4: Jasper National Park-Banff National Park-Calgary-Great Falls, MT

After dealing with fog the previous night, we were greeted with sunshine the next morning as we left Jasper National Park.
The calm, turquoise water did not disappoint. 
We soon arrived in Banff National Park to visit the famous Lake Louise and Victoria Glacier.
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The overcast skies around the lake enhanced the hue of the water.

The Rest of the Journey

We entered the U.S. in Great Falls, Montana and spent the night after driving through Alaska and Canada for four days. We spent the next night in Denver, Colorado before heading to our first real stop- Texas. After seven days of driving 10-15 hours a day we finally made it to my sister's house in Ft. Worth. We spent a well deserved two nights there enjoying the Texas heat. From there we made stops in Alexandria, Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama to visit family before heading to Columbus a few days later. The journey spanned more than 5,500 miles and 10 days worth of driving and shockingly- not one flat tire or car problem.