The Drive to Alaska

The Totals:

4 days
4 States
3 Provinces
2,877.3 Miles
14 Gas Stations
150+ Buffalo
Dozens of Elk, Deer, and Prong Horn Antelope
40 or so Caribou
5 Moose
5 Bald Eagles
and 1 very unlucky Coyote..

(the Moose and Bald Eagle count are on a rapid rise since arriving in Haines though... Just this morning I saw 3 more Moose and 4 more Bald Eagles..)

All in all the drive went really smoothely. The first day I managed to make it somewhat into Montana but I pulled over about 3 hours past Billings since it was starting to rain pretty heavily and the wind was really blowing the van around. I parked in the middle of nowhere at an old abandoned weigh station next to a big rig who decided he had enough for the day as well.

Day two Made it most of the way through Alberta Canada.. and besides a 2 hour delay while they searched my whole van at the Border and getting lost in Edmonton for about 45 minutes, it was by far the easiest day of driving. It took me a little bit to get used to reading signs in Kilometers and gas prices per Liter but I think I finally started to get the hang of it by day 4. Just in time to get back into the US...

Most of Alberta and parts of British Columbia really reminded me of being in th U.P. Lots of really tall pine trees, 2 way roads, snow mobiles driving up and down the sides of the roads and it was all pretty remote. The one thing the U.P. doesn't have a lot of are Oil Rigs and Oil Refineries...

On day 3 I made it pretty far into Britich Columbia and thats when the scenery really started to get good. Finally some mountains and rivers and wildlife to look at. I had hoped to make it to a campground on the Liard River where there are also a couple of hot springs but a few close encounters of the Caribou kind forced me to pull over for the evening a little earlier then I had wanted to. I spent the night near an Oil Refinery in the absolute middle of nowhere. I guess it got pretty cold that night since when I woke up the water I had prepared in my tea pot to be ready for the morning had frozen solid...

Caribou... It's hard to take a picture while driving and dodging the wildlife...

The last day I got on the road really early and was planning to make in all the way to Haines. This was the most remote day of driving and also the day I saw the most wildlife. I definalely saw more Buffalo then peoples and could go over 2 hours without seeing another car. The scenery in this part of British Columbia, TheYukon, and Alaska is intense. The mountains here remind me somewhat of the Himalaya's beings really jagged and steep.

Buffalo don't move for cars...

The one suprise of this day was how Many people actually live in the Yukon. When I made i t to Whitehorse, Yukon's Capital, it was a decent size town of about 25,000. I made a quick drive through the downtown area, which is right on the Yukon River, and contemplated staying there for the night. Since it was only 3:00 I decided to make the final 5 hours drive into Alaska.

The drive from Haines Junction in the Yukon to the town of Haines in Alaska was probably my favorite part of the drive. It was the final 2.5 hr stretch and was surrounded by huge jagged peaks and there was still tons and tons of snow everywhere.

Crossing into Alaska!

The main harbor in Haines.