Leaving Dawson Creek, Alberta, we were excited! We were actually finally on the Alcan Highway that we had planned and talked about for over a year – and Larry had wanted to do since he was a kid. The highway itself is quite nice! There is not lots of traffic on it, and there are wide shoulders that have been cleared of vegetation so that you can see wildlife, reducing the risk of something jumping out in front of a car. There are not many towns along the way and it is beautiful and feels remote.

For those of you wondering, because I was wondering, there are pullouts that have restrooms. They are primitive, but hey, if you gotta go, and the next gas station is over 200 kilometers away… you’re pretty happy to see one! Enough said.

Our first stop was Fort Nelson, British Columbia. A funky but very friendly town that had a heritage museum where we saw more old cars! Actually there was a lot of old stuff there, and lots of cool artifacts from building the highway.

We have a book called Milepost which literally has every mile on the Alaska Highway mapped out with viewpoints and stops that might be of interest. It was in this book that we learned about the most amazing cinnamon rolls that are on the way from Fort Nelson to our next stop, Watson Lake, Yukon. It was a very tasty cinnamon roll, warm and gooey, and it was a very fun stop.

Watson Lake was our stop for the night. Again, small town but very friendly people. The famous attraction in this town was a sign post forest. What is this you ask? When the Alaska Highway was being built in 1942 the US Army of Engineers put up a directional post at their camps giving directions and mileage to surrounding communities and various parts of the world. A GI that was working on the Alaska Highway got hurt, and was given the light weight duty of repairing and repainting the directional sign post while he recovered from his injuries. He was feeling homesick and added his hometown of Danville, IL 2835 miles to the sign. Since then people have brought signs and mileage signs from everywhere, and now there are over 80,000 signs. It’s really an amazing collection. The closest sign we saw was Poulsbo, we did not ever find one from Bainbridge Island, but I did find a couple from some small towns in Oregon that a few of you will find interesting! 🙂

Another fun thing about Watson Lake is we met Bonni and Irv Alpert there! They are also traveling to Alaska. We met for dinner and the next morning, Irv whipped us up a delicious breakfast served inside their Airstream. What a treat!